Search top business school MBA programs in the state of California. Find latest rankings of MBA schools national wide and state wide. For detailed admissions statistics and graduate employment rate, check the following table for each top-ranked business college within California, with acceptance rate, average GPA and GMAT scores, as well as well tuition and starting salary information of all best MBA universities in California.
California is home to some of the most prestigious business schools in the nation. From the renowned Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley to the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, these top-notch institutions offer students a range of educational and professional opportunities. Depending on their desired career paths, students can choose from a variety of degree programs and courses that are designed to help them excel in their chosen fields.
At both schools, students have access to world-renowned faculty and industry experts who provide invaluable guidance and mentorship throughout their studies. In addition to providing quality education, these schools also offer exceptional hands-on learning experiences through internships and other experiential learning activities. Through these activities, students can gain valuable real-world experience while working in various industries related to their field of study. Furthermore, both universities offer career services for graduates who are searching for employment after graduation or seeking promotion within their current positions.
Moreover, each school has an alumni network where students can network with successful professionals from their chosen field or make connections with potential employers. Additionally, many business schools host events such as conferences and seminars which provide a great opportunity for networking with industry professionals as well as learning about new trends in the world of business.
All in all, California boasts some of the best business schools in the country that offer quality education combined with experiential learning opportunities and career services that will help prepare graduates for success in today’s competitive job market.
| National Ranking | Best Business MBA Programs |
| 2 | Stanford University (Stanford, CA) Acceptance rate: 7.0% Average GMAT score: 730 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.70 Tuition: Full-time: $55,200 per year Enrollment (full-time): 803 Average starting salary and bonus: $140,972 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 75.6%  |
| 7 | University of California–Berkeley (Haas) (Berkeley, CA) Acceptance rate: 12.2% Average GMAT score: 715 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.64 Tuition: In-state, full-time: $46,416 per year; Out-of-state, full-time: $53,396 per year Enrollment (full-time): 492 Average starting salary and bonus: $129,776 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 71.7%  |
| 15 | University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson) (Los Angeles, CA) Acceptance rate: 28.6% Average GMAT score: 704 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.50 Tuition: In-state, full-time: $45,386 per year; Out-of-state, full-time: $52,580 per year Enrollment (full-time): 750 Average starting salary and bonus: $119,109 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 70.5%  |
| 21 | University of Southern California (Marshall) (Los Angeles, CA) Acceptance rate: 27.0% Average GMAT score: 687 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.30 Tuition: Full-time: $46,781 per year Enrollment (full-time): 455 Average starting salary and bonus: $109,619 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 66.9%  |
| 36 | University of California–Davis (Davis, CA) Acceptance rate: 24.4% Average GMAT score: 690 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.37 Tuition: In-state, full-time: $33,396 per year; Out-of-state, full-time: $45,641 per year Enrollment (full-time): 109 Average starting salary and bonus: $96,758 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 58.1%  |
| 48 | University of California–Irvine (Merage) (Irvine, CA) Acceptance rate: 32.1% Average GMAT score: 663 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.32 Tuition: In-state, full-time: $36,343 per year; Out-of-state, full-time: $45,918 per year Enrollment (full-time): 195 Average starting salary and bonus: $79,149 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 57.3%  |
| 75 | Claremont Graduate University (Drucker) (Claremont, CA) Acceptance rate: 55.5% Average GMAT score: 633 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.32 Tuition: Full-time: $1,581 per credit Enrollment (full-time): 96 Average starting salary and bonus: $77,000 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 29.0%  |
| 81 | Pepperdine University (Graziadio) (Malibu, CA) Acceptance rate: 55.4% Average GMAT score: 660 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.14 Tuition: Full-time: $40,270 per year Enrollment (full-time): 276 Average starting salary and bonus: $75,360 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 38.1%  |
| 96 | Chapman University (Argyros) (Orange, CA) Acceptance rate: 47.6% Average GMAT score: 610 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.34 Tuition: Full-time: $1,250 per credit Enrollment (full-time): 69 Average starting salary and bonus: $64,253 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 63.6%  |
| 99 | University of California–Riverside (Anderson) (Riverside, CA) Acceptance rate: 59.8% Average GMAT score: 585 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.35 Tuition: In-state, full-time: $11,220 per year; Out-of-state, full-time: $23,466 per year Enrollment (full-time): 155 Average starting salary and bonus: $111,000 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 31.8%  |
| 101 | Santa Clara University (Leavey) (Santa Clara, CA) Acceptance rate: 72.1% Average GMAT score: 614 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.19 Tuition: Full-time: $850 per credit Enrollment (full-time): 155 Average starting salary and bonus: $97,625 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 21.2%  |
| 116 | San Diego State University (San Diego, CA) Acceptance rate: 51.7% Average GMAT score: 602 Average undergraduate GPA: 3.32 Tuition: In-state, full-time: $13,940 per year; Out-of-state, full-time: $22,868 per year Enrollment (full-time): 247 Average starting salary and bonus: $59,771 Full-time graduates employed at graduation: 43.1%  |
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third-largest by area. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and Baja California in Mexico to the south. The capital of California is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles.
California’s climate varies between regions due to its size and topography. The northern part of the state has a Mediterranean climate while much of Southern California has a semi-arid climate with cool winters and hot summers. In general, temperatures range from lows of 25°F (-4°C) in winter months to highs of over 100°F (38°C) in summer months.
California’s economy is one of the largest in the world with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.8 trillion as of 2019. The state’s economy is largely driven by agriculture, technology, entertainment, tourism, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing industries. California also has a thriving film industry with some of Hollywood’s biggest movie studios located in Los Angeles County alone.
The population of California was estimated at 39 million people as of July 2019 making it one of the most populous states in America and one that experiences significant population growth each year. A majority (58%) identify as White Non-Hispanic while 38% identify as Hispanic or Latino origin making it one of only four states with a majority minority population according to US Census data from 2018.
California has a rich history that dates back thousands of years when indigenous tribes first populated parts of what would eventually become California before European settlers arrived in 1769 under Spanish colonial rule which lasted until 1821 when Mexico gained independence from Spain and took control over much of what is now California until 1848 when it became part US territory following war between Mexico and America which ended with an American victory resulting in ceding control over large parts including California to America who then admitted it as one their states on September 9th 1850 making it 31st state admitted into Union becoming known as “The Golden State” due its abundance gold found during early period statehood leading rapid growth population wealth during 19th century until present day where remains one most populous prosperous states United States America.
California Republic
In May 1846, war broke out between the United States of America and Mexico. On June 14 of the same year, several American settlers in the Californian city of Sonoma, who did not know about the outbreak of hostilities, captured the Mexican military garrison, arrested the commandant and announced the creation of a new state independent of Mexico – the Republic of California.
The president of the new republic, William Ead, was elected, but in fact the rebels did not create a full-fledged government, the California Republic was not recognized by any state in the world, and even in California itself, not everyone knew about the uprising. When, twenty-six days later, U.S. Army Major John Fremont took command of the region on behalf of the United States of America with sixty soldiers, the rebel flag of the grizzly bear was replaced with the Stars and Stripes of the United States (later, it was the “bear” flag of the California Republic that served as the basis for creation of the California state flag. On July 7, 1846, three ships of the US Navy captured the port of Monterey, finally confirming California’s ownership by the United States.
California gold rush
On January 24, 1848, James Marshall, who was building a sawmill on the American River (“American River”) in Coloma, California, for John Sutter (the same one who bought Fort Ross in 1841), discovered nuggets. He told his find to Sutter, who tested Marshall’s samples and confirmed that it was almost pure gold.
John Sutter wanted to keep the find a secret, he knew that the discovery of gold would cause a stir and prevent him from developing the agricultural settlement he founded in California, New Helvetia. He did not interfere with his workers to wash gold, but was in no hurry to notify the whole world about the discovered precious metal. But the news soon spread, thanks in large part to San Francisco businessman, journalist, and newspaper publisher Samuel Brennan. When one of Sutter’s employees paid with gold dust at Brennan’s store, the enterprising merchant went to the sawmill and learned about the find. According to legend, Samuel Brennan bought up all the shovels in the city, and on May 12, 1848, he ran through the streets of San Francisco holding a bottle of gold in his hand and shouting “Gold! Gold! Gold on the American River!”
Thus began the gold rush in California. James Marshall lost his job (all the workers left the sawmill in pursuit of gold), he also tried to mine the precious metal, but unsuccessfully and ended his days as a pauper. Because of the gold rush, lost his investments (and later land) and John Sutter. But Samuel Brennan, who opened several shops for prospectors, became the first millionaire of the California gold rush, and later a large landowner and California state senator.
Most of the residents of San Francisco, then a small (several hundred residents) village, abandoned their studies and moved to the American River. Shops, warehouses, hotels were closed, the city was empty. From several ships (and even from warships) moored in the harbor of San Francisco, sailors deserted, “retrained” as gold diggers.
On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald, the largest newspaper on the US East Coast at that time, announced the discovery of gold in California, and in December of the same year, the eleventh President of the United States, James Polk, already officially confirmed this news in his address to the US Congress.
Thousands of gold hunters rushed to California, but at that time it was not at all easy to get here. There were two ways to get to California – sea and land. Those treasure seekers who chose the sea route were called “Argonauts”. They had to either go around South America (the journey lasted from five to eight months), or get to the Isthmus of Panama, cross it and wait for a passing ship to the north. By land, California could be reached via the “California Trail”, from Oregon or through Mexico, but all these roads were difficult and dangerous.
Among the miners who arrived in California in late 1848 – early 1849 (they are called “Forty-Nineers”) were several thousand Americans who came from the northwest of the United States, many Hispanics (including from Mexico, Peru and even Chile), residents of Hawaii (who then called the Sandwich Islands) and the Chinese. Later, gold diggers from all over the world came to California, including from European countries, from Asia, South America and, of course, the Americans. It is believed that by the end of 1849, about ninety thousand prospectors came to California, and by 1855 – more than three hundred thousand people.
Only a few of the people who rushed to California in pursuit of gold actually got rich. Simple and relatively easy gold mining was only at the very beginning of the gold rush, when the precious metal could be mined even with the help of pans and baskets (the so-called sludge method, when the gold-bearing soil is washed with water, can even be done by hand). Back then, most miners were extracting so much gold that its value was ten to fifteen times the average earnings of a worker on the East Coast of the United States during the same time. But very quickly, the income of gold miners dropped sharply, despite the fact that several more “gold fields” were opened in California.
Gradually, mining technologies became more complicated, and expensive equipment was required to crush and wash the rock. By about the mid-1950s, the days of lone miners in California were over. Later, it was here that new methods of industrial gold mining were developed, which were successfully used all over the world (including during the gold rushes in Colorado, Montana and Alaska).
It is believed that many more people in California made their fortunes during the gold rush by trading and supplying miners than directly mining gold. Clothing, inventory, housing were very expensive. Washing and mending services were in great demand, not to mention bars or brothels.
It was in California during the gold rush that jeans appeared, without which it is difficult to imagine the wardrobe of a modern person.
In March 1853, Levi Strauss, a native of Germany, arrived in San Francisco, whose brothers had been successfully selling haberdashery in New York for several years. As gold prospectors poured into California from all over the world, the family decided to expand their business by setting up a branch in the US West.
According to legend, Levi Strauss quickly sold out almost all the goods brought from the east (clothes, bedding, wallets), and sewed trousers from the remaining unclaimed canvas. Unexpectedly coarse and very durable trousers proved to be very popular among the miners. Later, jeans began to be sewn from the fabric produced in the French city of Nimes (hence the name of the material “denim”), rivets appeared on them, and in the twentieth century, jeans ceased to be only “work” clothing, becoming an integral element of youth culture.
In 1848, the son of John Sutter, on whose lands the first California gold was found, John Sutter, Jr., founded Sacramento. A few years later, the new city became one of the economic and transport centers of California, and in 1854 the capital of the state.
Empty at first, San Francisco began to grow very quickly, new residential buildings, hotels, shops, churches were built. Many ships with goods and passengers came to the city. To deliver immigrants arriving in California, a regular steamboat service was opened along the river between San Francisco and Sacramento.
In rapidly developing California, a legislative assembly was convened and a constitution was adopted, and on September 9, 1850, California became the thirty-first state of the United States.
Gold is washed in California today. Of course, now it is more of an entertainment or a hobby, but in the numerous rivers and streams of the state, gold dust or small nuggets are still found today.
In total, during the period of the gold rush in California, more than one hundred and twenty-five million troy ounces of gold (almost four thousand tons) were mined, worth more than $ 50 billion in modern prices. The largest nugget found in California weighed 195 pounds (about 88.5 kilograms).
It was the gold rush that turned California from a remote, hard-to-reach and little-known region into one of the richest states in the US, laying the foundations for its future prosperity.