The Top Master In Management Programs In The United States

The United States is home to dozens of elite master’s in management programs.

You wouldn’t know it from looking at one of the world’s premier MiM rankings.

The Financial Times ranks 100 of the world’s leading MiMs but leaves out U.S. programs (with one notable exception). That might give casual observers the impression that the United States is a wasteland when it comes to the degree many regard as a “mini MBA,” a generally sleeker program that is (again, generally) designed for younger students with less work experience.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

IN THE U.S., 38 ELITE MiM PROGRAMS AT 34 TOP B-SCHOOLS

Kellogg’s Steve Thompson: MiM program “provides an accelerated pathway for non-business undergraduates to enter the business field with an elevated skill set and comprehensive business knowledge”

Whereas the MBA is the top graduate business degree in the U.S., MiMs are Europe’s top choice. In FT’s latest ranking, 77 of the 100 ranked programs are based in Europe; the country outside Europe with the most ranked schools is India, with 14 MiM programs now ranked by the FT, up from 11 last year.

But with the lone exception of Hult International Business School, which is based in Boston but has campuses in San Francisco, London, and Dubai, the FT excludes U.S. programs, and that leaves out many schools with MiMs that rival any in the world for quality and good outcomes. A Poets&Quants analysis compiled 38 programs at 34 top U.S. B-schools, several of which are remote or hybrid but mostly in-person. They range in duration from nine months to three years, and nearly half — 16 — are STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs or STEM eligible, making them especially appealing to international students hoping to stay and work in the U.S. post-graduation. See the next page for the complete list.

A noteworthy fact about master’s in management programs is that they are generally early-career programs, designed for and appealing to recent college graduates with little to no work experience; exceptions on the list in this story are Stanford’s MSx, which requires significant work experience; MIT’s Master of Science in Management Studies; and Yale SOM’s Master’s in Advanced Management. All three share another fact: They are much more expensive than the average MiM (more on that below).

Another noteworthy fact about MiMs is that they tend to appeal especially to women, a fact borne out by the several programs on P&Q‘s list that have achieved gender parity in the last two years. At one program this year — USC Marshall School of Business’s Master of Management Studies, which is designed to provide those who have already completed the equivalent of the first year of an accredited traditional two-year MBA with an opportunity to pursue further study in areas of specialization currently available at the Marshall School — women comprise an astonishing 86% of students.

TUITION FOR AN ELITE U.S. MiM IS GENERALLY BETWEEN $50K AND $70K

Among several reasons MiMs appeal to women: cost. Tuition at the 38 programs listed here ranges from $12,492 at the online Illinois Gies iMSM to $143,144 at Stanford Graduate School of Business’s MSx; however, the latter is nearly unique in that it is designed for mid-career professionals. More common price points are between $50K and $70K, such as $66,300 at Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business’s new Master of Science in Management and $57,960 at Georgetown McDonough School of Business’s MSM.

“We focus on the demographics,” says Evelyn Williams, founding academic director of Georgetown’s program who was also involved in designing MiM courses at Wake Forest. “From day one, we focused on over 50% of women, pre-experience. There is no excuse not to go after a lot of women and under-represented groups. Thirty-nine percent of the latest class is African-American or Latino — 41% if you include Asian-Americans.

“These new programs serve as a bridge program for first-generation students who can’t find a way to bridge into white-collar work. That was intentional. Composition is huge. The old rule that ‘Oh well the women don’t apply’ is old and outdated. Parity is important. We have had to work to get more men in the program.”

TWO M7 SCHOOLS THAT OFFER MiMs: BOOTH & KELLOGG

Two of the top U.S. MiM programs are based in the same city: Chicago. Chicago Booth School of Business launched their new Master in Management program in 2023, one of a pair of new programs that were the M7 school’s first since World War II. The Booth MiM, like its peers’, is for students who “are coming in without substantial work experience,” Stephanie O’Connor, associate dean of Career Services, told P&Q last year, and who the B-school expects to go into a wide range of corporate and consulting roles: corporate finance, sales, marketing, energy, and tech. The Booth MiM is 10 months long, like 10 other programs listed below, and tuition is $65K, which is squarely in the middle of the pack.

Booth’s neighbor and fellow M7 school, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, is a veteran of the MiM scene, having long offered one of the premier degrees in the U.S. But Kellogg’s Master in Management program has recently undergone a couple of big changes. Until last year it was known as the Master of Science in Management Studies, and it was focused only on students with less than a year experience, enrolling mostly those who had just finished their undergraduate studies. In a change last summer made in response to the fast-changing job market, the STEM-designated Kellogg MiM has expanded the reach of the program and is now open to students with up to two years of experience.

“With a one-year duration and no significant work experience requirement, the MiM program provides an accelerated pathway for non-business undergraduates to enter the business field with an elevated skill set and comprehensive business knowledge,” Steve Thompson, senior director of full-time admissions at the Kellogg School, tells P&Q, adding that Kellogg’s one-year MBA program “is a complementary program to our MiM curriculum, and is ideally suited for students looking to deepen their newly-developed general business foundation in a particular area, like private equity, or data analytics, for example.”

See the next page for a complete list of 38 master’s in management programs at top U.S. business schools, including their STEM eligibility, updated tuition rates, duration, and more.