Rankings / MBA
Best MBA Programs in California
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This ranking scores 43 institutions on graduation rates, graduate earnings, debt burdens, and social mobility data from Opportunity Insights. Every data point comes from federal sources. No surveys, no opinions.
Social mobility carries the heaviest weight in our algorithm. We use Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card — built on 30 million anonymized tax records — to measure whether a college changes a family's economic trajectory across generations. Schools that take low-income students and launch them into higher earnings rank higher than schools that admit wealthy students and take credit for their success.
The transparency penalty matters here. Schools that don't report their data get scored lower than schools that do. If an institution won't show you its numbers, we think you should know that before you write them a tuition check.
Quick Numbers
How We Ranked
MBA programs in California ranked by graduate outcomes and value
Read our full methodology →Earnings vs. Cost
Each dot is a ranked school. Up = higher earnings. Right = higher cost. Top-left is the best value.
Graduation Rates
Longer bars = higher graduation rate.
Top 3
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA
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University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
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Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, CA
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Full Rankings
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA · 27,601 students · Public
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA · 20,443 students · Private nonprofit
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, CA · 6,552 students · Private nonprofit
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA · 35,377 students · Public
University of San Diego
San Diego, CA · 5,671 students · Private nonprofit
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA · 18,639 students · Public
Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park, CA · 5,166 students · Public
University of the Pacific
Stockton, CA · 3,204 students · Private nonprofit
University of California-Berkeley
Berkeley, CA · 33,068 students · Public
University of Redlands
Redlands, CA · 2,049 students · Private nonprofit
Saint Mary's College of California
Moraga, CA · 1,947 students · Private nonprofit
University of California-Irvine
Irvine, CA · 30,197 students · Public
California Lutheran University
Thousand Oaks, CA · 2,296 students · Private nonprofit
University of California-San Diego
La Jolla, CA · 34,948 students · Public
Azusa Pacific University
Azusa, CA · 2,759 students · Private nonprofit
Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA · 7,094 students · Private nonprofit
Fresno Pacific University
Fresno, CA · 1,544 students · Private nonprofit
Chapman University
Orange, CA · 7,478 students · Private nonprofit
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA · 21,996 students · Public
Vanguard University of Southern California
Costa Mesa, CA · 1,933 students · Private nonprofit
California State University-Fullerton
Fullerton, CA · 38,546 students · Public
University of La Verne
La Verne, CA · 3,050 students · Private nonprofit
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
Pomona, CA · 25,042 students · Public
Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA · 3,553 students · Private nonprofit
University of California-Davis
Davis, CA · 32,253 students · Public
University of California-Riverside
Riverside, CA · 22,593 students · Public
California State University-Stanislaus
Turlock, CA · 8,385 students · Public
California State University-Long Beach
Long Beach, CA · 35,924 students · Public
Point Loma Nazarene University
San Diego, CA · 3,188 students · Private nonprofit
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA · 5,287 students · Private nonprofit
University of California-Merced
Merced, CA · 8,372 students · Public
California State University-East Bay
Hayward, CA · 9,809 students · Public
Biola University
La Mirada, CA · 3,474 students · Private nonprofit
Dominican University of California
San Rafael, CA · 1,114 students · Private nonprofit
California State University-Northridge
Northridge, CA · 32,691 students · Public
California State University-San Bernardino
San Bernardino, CA · 15,023 students · Public
California State University-Sacramento
Sacramento, CA · 28,350 students · Public
University of California-Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA · 17,940 students · Public
California State University-Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA · 19,562 students · Public
California State University-Channel Islands
Camarillo, CA · 5,013 students · Public
California State University-Monterey Bay
Seaside, CA · 6,819 students · Public
California State University-Dominguez Hills
Carson, CA · 12,538 students · Public
California State University-San Marcos
San Marcos, CA · 14,877 students · Public
Sources & Citations
Chetty, R., Friedman, J., Saez, E., Turner, N., & Yagan, D. (2017). Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility. NBER Working Paper No. 23618. →
U.S. Department of Education. College Scorecard Data. Federal Student Aid, National Center for Education Statistics. →
National Center for Education Statistics. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). →
U.S. News & World Report. Best Business Schools MBA Rankings. Used for MBA program validation. →
David Krug
Co-Founder, CollegeRanker
David Krug is the co-founder of CollegeRanker and a data systems architect focused on making institutional research accessible to families. He builds the data pipelines and ranking algorithms that power CollegeRanker, drawing from federal datasets and Raj Chetty's Opportunity Insights research to measure what traditional rankings ignore: whether a college actually changes a family's economic trajectory.
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