SANTA CLARA PLACED FIRST IN ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE AND CAREER OUTCOMES

Santa Clara’s program is similar in that it allows students to change between MBA programs for elective courses. “It gives students more networking opportunities and a different experience if that’s what they desire,” says Nydia MacGregor, the faculty director of MBA programs at Santa Clara.

MacGregor says the school has also created three specialized master’s programs in marketing, finance and analytics, and business analytics that have opened up more electives for MBA students. Leavey has also bolstered its career staff and resources, allowing each online MBA student to meet with career coaches and gain access to more career development webinars. “We’ve got a little army of career coaches,” MacGregor adds.

The other aspect of Santa Clara’s online MBA program that makes it stand out? “We’re here in Silicon Valley,” MacGregor says. The themes and aspects important to businesses in Silicon Valley are “like a bright red thread” through the curriculum.”

FLEXIBILITY, CAREER SERVICES POPULAR AMONG RECENT GRADS

Both Santa Clara and Carnegie Mellon were buoyed by highly positive alumni satisfaction rates in our survey. As noted, Santa Clara finished first in both alumni survey categories — academic experience and career outcomes. Carnegie Mellon finished fifth in academic experience and second in career outcomes. Meantime, Carnegie Mellon finished ninth in admissions standards and Santa Clara finished 26th.

Finishing high up in both alumni survey categories is even more impressive this year due to the addition of last year’s dataset in the ranking that puts slightly more emphasis on consistency. Simply put: The past two graduating classes at Santa Clara and Carnegie Mellon have been extraordinarily satisfied with their experience.

When it comes to alumni satisfaction, four schools stand out above the rest. Besides Santa Clara, Carnegie Mellon, and USC, The College of William & Mary was the only other school to finish in the top five in both alumni survey portions of the methodology. William & Mary, which rose eight spots to finish just outside of the top ten at No. 11, though it placed No. 50 in admissions standards.

Santa Clara’s MacGregor says interest in their program is “very healthy.” And, where even a couple of years ago, applicants would ask if the transcript or diploma would show the MBA was awarded online, that’s not as much of an issue. “We don’t get those questions anymore,” MacGregor says.

As for looking for an online MBA program, McCauley says to lay out your priorities and then do some research. “Figure out what’s important to you and make sure you’re comparing apples to apples,” she says.

More About Poets&Quants’ 2022 Online MBA Ranking

The Complete Ranking: How each of 52 of the best online MBAs place 

Evaluating Each Online Program: How Online MBA Students Rate Their Programs

What Online MBA Students Get: How Online MBA Students Rate Their Degree’s Career Impact

Gaining Admissions: Acceptance Rates For The Top Online MBA Programs

What It Takes To Get In: Average GMATs, GREs and GPAs At Top Online MBA Programs

 

The 2022 Poets&Quants Best Online MBA Programs

Rank	School	Final Score	YOY Change
1	University of Southern California (Marshall)	100.00	+2
2	Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)	97.83	——–
3	Santa Clara University (Leavey)	96.15	+7
4	University of Washington (Foster)	93.47	+5
5	Indiana University (Kelley)	93.19	-4
6	University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	90.01	-1
7	Rice University (Jones)	88.30	NA
8	Baylor University (Hankamer)	85.18	+8
9	Lehigh University	84.03	-3
10	Jack Welch Management Institute	83.32	+10
11	College of William & Mary (Mason)	83.14	+8
12	University of Denver (Daniels)	82.65	+11
13	North Carolina State University (Poole)	80.64	-2
14	Auburn University (Harbert)	80.33	-6
15	University of Utah (Eccles)	74.95	——–
16	University of Maryland (Smith)	74.50	-3
17	Villanova University	73.99	-10
18	University of Massachusetts (Isenberg)	73.64	+3
19	University of Tennessee-Chattanooga	73.41	+7
20	Arizona State University (W. P. Carey)	73.16	+7
21	University of Florida (Warrington)	71.22	-4
22	Syracuse University (Whitman)	69.32	NA
23	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	68.90	6
24	Louisiana State University (Ourso)	68.51	+13
25	Washington State University (Carson)	67.10	-13
26	University of Kansas	66.53	NA
27	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	66.29	-3
28	Bryant University	65.61	NA
29	Pepperdine University (Graziado)	65.17	NA
30	Drexel University (LeBow)	62.91	-16
31	Hofstra University (Zarb)	62.90	+4
32	University of Wisconsin (Consortium)	62.71	——–
33	SUNY Oswego	62.63	-3
34	University of South Florida (Muma)	62.62	-9
35	University of North Texas (Brint Ryan)	62.42	NA
36	Temple University (Fox)	61.92	NA
37	University of North Dakota (Nistler)	61.39	-6
38	George Washingon University	60.83	-34
39	Ohio University	60.58	-3
40	Creighton University (Heider)	59.95	——–
41	Kennesaw State	59.65	+4
42	American University (Kogod)	58.79	-14
43	University of Arizona (Eller)	57.25	-21
44	Oklahoma State University (Watson)	56.06	——–
45	University of Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	56.00	-27
46	Florida International University	54.60	-8
47	University of Delaware (Lerner)	53.40	-13
48	University of Massachusetts-Lowell (Manning)	45.86	-15
49	University of Michigan-Dearborn	38.89	-7
50	University of Cincinnati (Linder)	32.94	-7
51	Northeastern University (D’Amore-McKim)	13.06	-10
52	Rogers State University	0.00	-5

See the following pages for rankings of each core category of our rankings