Top MBA Programs: Editor’s Choice for the Best Online & Campus-Based MBAs at California Business Schools

Students, professors, educational consultants, and schools themselves absolutely obsess over who is on top—and who is gaining—in rankings of American and global business schools. There are nicknames for the groupings at various levels of eliteness… the Magnificent 7, the Tier 20, the Top 50… right on down the line.

It’s an obsession with a scorecard, and the scoring metrics are clear, even if not always easily quantifiable: top schools come with top outcomes for salary, hiring, and advancement.

So when the time comes for you to consider the MBA programs you want to apply to, it’s natural to want to know which ones come with an elite level of reputational value built in.

Narrowing Down the Top Picks Among Nearly 100 Amazing California Business Schools

Yet the obsession with those rankings leaves money on the table for many students. Groupthink is pervasive and perceptions can fuel misconceptions. And in some cases, top programs get overlooked when they aren’t the biggest names in the business.

If you’ve landed here on this page, there’s a good chance you are already aware of the California schools that crack the T-20… USC Marshall, UCLA’s Anderson, Haas at UC Berkeley, and the perpetual contender for the numero uno slot in the nation, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Even Wharton, commonly considered a Pennsylvania school, has a foothold in the Golden State, offering a prestigious EMBA based in San Francisco.

These schools are where they are on those lists for good reason. But there are plenty of other good reasons for a close look at some of the other contenders we have come up with—excellent business schools at highly respected universities that play a big game in California and even on the world stage, but without some of the fanfare.

The Points We Considered When Selecting Our Top MBA Picks for California

So how do we select MBA programs to include on our list of top picks in California? In essence, we go back to the same essentials that the market considers.

Digging a little deeper than the T-20 you’re already expecting to see here means getting back to the basics of great graduate business education.

These factors won’t come as any surprise to you, but what they reveal about the schools we felt were deserving of inclusion just might.

A Strong Reputation in the Business and Academic Community

Reputation is a factor that feeds on itself. It might seem counterintuitive, but even though it’s largely reputation that lands schools on top lists, simply being on those lists has an impact on the quality and outcomes the school can deliver. It attracts superior professors and the cream of the crop of applicants. The most successful businesses with the deepest pockets begin to actively recruit from them, which means higher average starting salaries, and a deeper web of useful alumni contacts.

So although reputation isn’t everything in business education, it’s still a big thing. It’s part of what weighs in favor of each of these schools. Some have that high rep far and wide on the global scale; others are quieter but equally well-known regionally or in specific industries.

Top-Notch Instructors in Business Education With Matchless Experience

High tuition costs and strong academic reputation attracts the best professors. Each of these schools can afford elite business educators. These are the thought leaders who are moving global business strategy down the field and whose published articles and research are required reading in boardrooms at Fortune 500 companies.

If you want to learn how to be a successful leader and manager, you need to learn it from people who have both been there and done that, and who have the knack for passing along their knowledge. Top schools rise to the top because their instructors have that combination, and that is what you’ll find at all these programs.

Alumni You Can Learn From and Lean On

It’s often observed that business can be as much about who you know as what you know. Who you get to know in these top MBA programs are fellow students who are going to go on to become elite consultants at MBB firms, senior corporate leaders in California’s biggest industries, and entrepreneurs you’ll soon be reading about in Wired.

That has enormous value as you’re building your own successful career, and it’s often recognized as one of the biggest reasons to attend a top MBA program. Whether the class sizes at each of these schools are small or large, you know the people you are forging connections with are going to be important in your own business future.

Industry Connections To Tap Into Any of California’s Thriving Business Sectors

Similarly, strong ties to California’s thriving business communities are important to top schools. Business schools feed on ties that keep them in touch with the latest challenges, the coming trends, in industries that move commerce in California and around the globe.

All these schools have those ties in spades. They get questions and consulting projects from major Silicon Valley players, and trade professors and guest lecturers with big banks, investment funds, and the thriving regional startup community. They send their best students out to internships at the same companies, cross-pollinating curriculum and real-world experience.

Plenty of graduates from these top MBAs will wind up working for someone they have met along the way thanks to these industry connections.

Diversity in Thought, Experience, and Instruction To Strengthen Your Knowledge

A strength of the California ethos that can’t be fully duplicated anywhere else in the country is the diversity of the student body. It’s the most diverse state in the country, and its top business schools are among the most progressive in building class cohorts that have the strength of that diversity at their core.

A variety of experiences, perspectives, and ideas is the American magic that powers innovation and industry.

There’s huge value in having your preconceptions shaken and beliefs shifted by encounters with people outside your usual frame of reference. Top business schools offering MBAs in California recognize that value, and deliver it.

Editor’s Choice: Our Top Picks for the Very Best MBA Programs in California

Of course, at the end of the day, the factors that create value and excellence in business education can be deeply personal. Your top program will align with your priorities and goals. No single choice is the best choice for every student. Finding alignment in terms of cost, personality, specialty area, and interest is always going to be part of the decision-making process.

But we’re confident that if you are looking for the best that California can offer, no matter your personal goals, strengths, or weaknesses, you’ll find it somewhere on this list.