Top 10 Executive MBA Programmes in the US

MIT (Sloan) has been ranked the best business school for studying an Executive MBA in the United States this year, overtaking The Wharton School which formerly held the title for four consecutive years, in the QS Executive MBA Rankings.  

The rankings reveal the top Executive MBA programmes around the world, as well as providing a regional breakdown to help you find a top school near you. You can find out more about the methodology used for these rankings on the Top MBA website. 

Read on as we discover the top Executive MBA programmes in the US. 

10) USC (Marshall)

Kicking off our top 10 EMBA programmes in the US is the Marshall School of Business. This school earned its highest score in the career outcomes indicator. 

The programme at USC Marshall School of Business is two years long and uses a hybrid format with one Tuesday evening class online and one in-person class every other Saturday. The cost to study an Executive MBA at USC is $167,000. This includes tuition, textbooks, classroom materials, meals, parking, university fees and lodging. 

The students who enrol on the EMBA programme are mid- to senior-level professionals wishing to expand their business knowledge and advance their careers. In the school’s graduate class of 2023, 46 percent of students were women and 46 percent were ethnic minority students. 

9) Michigan Ross School of Business

Next on our list, ranked ninth, is the Michigan Ross School of Business which scored highly for both employer reputation and thought leadership. 

The Executive MBA programme is 21 months long and organised into five terms. In the 2023-2024 academic year, Michigan residents paid $178,500 in tuition fees whereas non-Michigan residents and international students paid $183,500. All students were also required to pay a non-refundable enrolment deposit of $5,000 which was applied to their tuition. 

The school prides itself on its wide demographic of entrants to the EMBA programme. In the class of 2025, students came from 22 different states across the US and nine different countries. The cohort represented workers from over 30 different industries, with, on average, 15 years of professional work experience. 

8) NYU Stern School of Business

Situated a stone’s throw away from the financial heart of the US, NYC Stern is one of two New York institutions featured in the top 10. Stern’s programme scored very highly for employer reputation. 

At NYU Stern, in the first year of the EMBA programme, students take core courses such as leaderships, statistics, finance and marketing, among others, and have the opportunity to choose elective courses in the second year. In the August 2023–January 2024 intake, the cost of studying an EMBA at Stern was $219,500. 

The average age of an EMBA student at Stern is 37 and, on average, each student has 13 years of work experience and 7 years of management experience. Around 33 percent of the university’s cohort have an international background and around 37 percent of graduates from the programme are women. 

7) Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School is also found in New York. It earned a nearly perfect score in both employer reputation and thought leadership. 

The EMBA course takes two years to complete.  To ensure that students are able to gain practical skills working as part of a team and do not get lost in the large number of students, the cohort is broken into clusters of 30-70 students and then learning teams of five or six students from a range of professional backgrounds. This also creates an environment of multidisciplinary collaboration as students are able to work with others who’ve had a different career path. The cost of tuition for the 2023 intake of students was $239,880. 

In 2023, the Executive MBA class had 214 students. Nine percent of these students have international backgrounds and 41 percent are women, suggesting a diverse cohort. The average age of an EMBA students in this year was 33 and students had around 10 years of work experience with some managerial experience. 

=5) Yale School of Management

Next on our list, in joint fifth place, is Yale School of Management. It earned its highest score in thought leadership, although it ranks the highest in the country for career outcomes. 

The Executive MBA course at Yale takes 22 months to complete. It has both core and elective topics as well as a Global Network Week and events such as professional guest speakers and leadership development activities throughout the programme. As of July 2024, the price of an EMBA at Yale School of Management is $216,840. 

Yale School of Management prioritises a diverse cohort from a range of backgrounds. In the graduating class of 2025, 44 percent of the EMBA class are women and 28 percent have an international background. 10 percent either have an active role in the US Military or are veterans and 47 percent are people of colour. 

=5) UCLA Anderson School of Management

Also in joint fifth is the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. It received an almost perfect score in employer reputation. 

The EMBA is designed to be flexible and gives students three potential schedules to follow. One option is that students go to class every other Friday and Saturday. Another is that students meet on campus on a Friday and Saturday once per month with additional coursework and video instruction.  

Finally, there is a blended learning option with a Friday and Saturday session on campus one week and a session at the same time on zoom the next week. The price of an EMBA at UCLA Anderson includes a $200 application fee, a tuition fee of $183,552 with an enrolment deposit of $2,500 which counts towards tuition fees. 

The average size of each cohort is 150 students who each have, on average, 15 years of professional work experience and nine years of managerial experience. Alumni of the EMBA course come from 31 different industries and 25 different countries. 

=3) Kellogg School of Management

In joint third is the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. It earns a nearly perfect score for employer reputation. It also ranks as the most diverse school offering an EMBA programme in the US.  

Northwestern Kellogg aims to create a global network which allows graduates to travel, network internationally and gain an understanding of different industries across the globe. As of September 2023, the price of tuition is $115,587.  

This price is for both American and international students and includes core and elective modules, books and materials, meals, accommodation, career services and subscription to the school’s lifelong learning programme. 

The 2023 Executive MBA class entrants have an age range of 32 to 47. Their work experience ranges from 10 years to 22 years with the cohort being made up of 32 percent women and 16 percent international students. 

=3) Berkeley Haas School of Business

Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Berkeley Haas’ MBA for Executives programme scored a close to perfect score in employer reputation and thought leadership, for which it ranked second in the US. 

The EMBA programme at Haas School of Business promises a global experience with an immersive course that will send students to Silicon Valley, Washington DC, and global business hubs such as Shanghai or Sao Paulo. The cost for the 22-month programme is $205,897 as of July 2023. 

There are 75 students enrolled in the class of 2025 cohort, of which 37 percent are women and 53 percent were born outside of the US. The median age of students in this cohort is 37 and the median amount of work experience is 16 years with representatives from 71 different companies. 

2) The Wharton School

This year’s runner up for the title of best Executive MBA programme in the US is the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania,which receives an almost-perfect score for employer reputation and thought leadership. It’s ranked best in the US for employer reputation, indicating how highly valued the qualification is by employers. 

The programme features a required Global Business Week. Every year, students choose a location to focus their attention on and an area of business that they wish to learn from that country. Past topics have included finance in China, marketing in Finland and Sweden and healthcare in Cuba. The week includes an intensive schedule of corporate visits, lectures and networking opportunities. The price of tuition at Penn Wharton is $223,500 as of the 2023 intake. 

Wharton’s class of 2025 cohort has 278 students with an average age of 37, an average of 13 years of work experience. There are many international students with 41 countries represented. 

1) MIT Sloan School of Management  

Our winning programme for the best Executive MBA course in the US this year is MIT Sloan School of Management. It received a perfect score in thought leadership and scored very highly in other indicators such as employer reputation and executive profile. 

The MIT Sloan Executive MBA is a 20-month programme, with classes once every three weeks. There are four week-long modules, 26 weekend sessions for iterative development, and a one-week international project trip during the Capstone Global Labs action learning experience. 

The class of 2024 has an average of 17 years of work experience. 63 percent of students have advanced degrees and 86 percent of students have experience at a director level or above. The average age is 41. 53 percent of students have international backgrounds and 33 percent are women.