It's hard to place a value on a masters of business degree.
With an MBA, professionals can increase their likelihood of being promoted into senior leadership in corporate America, says the Princeton Review. That means a higher salary and a decent hedge and resume item to have whenever there's an economic downturn.
With that in mind, U.S. News and World Report has compiled a list of schools it deems as the best to springboard MBA graduates into a fruitful career.
U.S. News evaluated 131 MBA programs, looking at criteria including the quality of faculty and staff; students’ ability to find placement after graduating from the program and incoming students’ GMAT and GRE scores and undergraduate grade point averages.
Most of the nation's Ivy leagues made the list along with other top universities.
Here are the 10 best MBA programs in ascending order, including figures on the percentage of graduates employed with a few months of graduation:
10. Dartmouth College (Tuck School of Business)
Location: Hanover, N.H.
Full-Time Student Enrollment: 582
Tuition: $68,910 per year
Employed graduates: 87 percent
Dartmouth students have around 40 student organizations and a campus, with its own ski slope, equestrian center and golf course.
9. Columbia University
Location: New York, N.Y.
Full-time Enrollment: 1,326
Annual Tuition: $68,792
Employed graduates: 77 percent
The school nurtures a sense of community among students by putting groups of about 65 students in first-year core classes together, according to U.S. News.
7. (Tie) University of Michigan (Ross)
Location: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Full-Time Enrollment: 824
Annual Tuition: $62,300 (in-state); $67,300 (out-of-state)
Employed graduates: 89.7 percent
Students must complete the school’s leadership development program and satisfy a global studies requirement, which typically involves studying abroad, according to U.S. News.
7. (Tie) University of California (Haas School of Business)
Location: Berkeley, Calif.
Full-Time Student Enrollment: 543
Tuition: $58,794 per year (in-state); $59,811 per year (out-of-state)
Employed graduates: 67 percent
U.S. News says students can benefit from the school’s proximity to San Francisco, a center for tech giants such as Google.
6. Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Business)
Location: Evanston, Ill.
Full-Time Enrollment: 1,296
Tuition: $68,955 per year
Employed graduates: 81.6 percent
Kellogg offers a variety of graduate degree programs, including a full-time program and a part-time program with evening and weekend classes.
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan School of Management)
Location: Cambridge, Mass.
Full-Time Enrollment: 813 students
Tuition: $71,000 per year
Employed graduates: 81 percent
The school also has labs for students to tackle real problems for companies in the U,S., China and India, says U.S. News and World Report.
4. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, Calif.
Full-Time Enrollment: 853
Tuition: $68,868 per year
Employed graduates: 63.9 percent
Students can choose from over 70 organizations to get involved with and make use of a free campus shuttle service that goes to downtown Palo Alto, Calif.
3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School)
Location: Philadelphia
Full-Time Enrollment: 1,737
Tuition: $70,200
Employed graduates: 82.3 percent
According to U.S. News, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania was the U.S.’s first business school and now has the largest alumni network in the country.
1. (Tie) Harvard University
Location: Boston
Full-Time Enrollment: 1,857
Tuition: $72,000
Employed graduates: 78.9 percent
“Graduate students at Harvard Business School get a hands-on education through the case method, which poses true-to-life problems students must tackle in teams,” says U.S. News and World Report.
1. (Tie) University of Chicago (Booth School of Business)
Location: Chicago
Full-Time Enrollment: 1,176
Tuition: $69,200 per year
Employed graduates: 88 percent
According to U.S. News, students can opt in to joint degrees in conjunction with the University of Chicago Law School, Pritzker School of Medicine, the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and the School of Social Service Administration.
The full report can be found here.
