2025 Best Business Administration & Management Bachelor's Degree Schools in California

Business Administration & Management is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #1 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

College Factual reviewed 63 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of business administration & management. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 26,747 bachelor's degrees in business administration & management during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Business Administration & Management School for Your Bachelor's Degree

Your choice of business administration & management for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality business administration program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to business administration & management students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other business administration & management students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt business administration & management students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized business administration & management related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for business administration & management students working on their bachelor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Business Administration & Management Bachelor's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Business Administration & Management in California

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in business administration & management. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

12 Top California Schools for a Bachelor's in Business Administration

1

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

428 Annual Graduates

$90,008 Median Starting Salary

$25,000 Median Student Debt

University of California - Berkeley is a great choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in business administration & management. Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a very large student population.

Those business administration & management students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Berkeley earn $39,193 more than the average business administration student.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from University of California - Berkeley

2

California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA

689 Annual Graduates

$71,876 Median Starting Salary

$36,633 Median Student Debt

Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in business administration & management needs to check out California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a very large public university located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo.

Business Administration & Management bachelor's degree recipients from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo earn a boost of about $21,061 above the average earnings of business administration & management majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

3

Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA

186 Annual Graduates

$69,751 Median Starting Salary

$67,863 Median Student Debt

Pepperdine University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in business administration & management. Pepperdine is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Malibu.

Business Administration & Management bachelor's degree recipients from Pepperdine University get an earnings boost of approximately $18,936 above the average income of business administration & management majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from Pepperdine University

4

Chapman University
Orange, CA

444 Annual Graduates

$55,657 Median Starting Salary

$47,000 Median Student Debt

Chapman University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in business administration & management. Located in the midsize city of Orange, Chapman is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.

Business Administration & Management bachelor's degree recipients from Chapman University get an earnings boost of about $4,842 over the typical earnings of business administration & management majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from Chapman University

5

University of San Diego
San Diego, CA

162 Annual Graduates

$51,056 Median Starting Salary

$76,048 Median Student Debt

Located in the large city of San Diego, USD is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the business administration program make around $51,056 in the first couple years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from University of San Diego

6

The University of Arizona Global Campus
San Diego, CA

1,783 Annual Graduates

$61,466 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of San Diego, UAGC is a private for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Those business administration & management students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Arizona Global Campus earn $10,651 more than the average business administration graduate.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from The University of Arizona Global Campus

7

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

360 Annual Graduates

$48,786 Median Starting Salary

$30,707 Median Student Debt

Located in the city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the business administration program report average early career earnings of $48,786.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from University of California - Irvine

8

Golden Gate University - San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

138 Annual Graduates

$77,752 Median Starting Salary

Golden Gate University - San Francisco is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of San Francisco.

Bachelor's recipients from the business administration & management program at Golden Gate University - San Francisco earn $26,937 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from Golden Gate University - San Francisco

9

University of Redlands
Redlands, CA

118 Annual Graduates

$60,755 Median Starting Salary

$47,619 Median Student Debt

University of Redlands is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Redlands.

Business Administration & Management bachelor's degree recipients from University of Redlands earn a boost of approximately $9,940 above the average income of business administration & management majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from University of Redlands

10

University of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

75 Annual Graduates

$50,729 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of San Francisco, USFCA is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the business administration program make about $50,729 in their early career salary.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from University of San Francisco

11

University of California - Riverside
Riverside, CA

836 Annual Graduates

$43,213 Median Starting Salary

$13,274 Median Student Debt

UCR is a fairly large public university located in the city of Riverside.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the business administration program state that they receive average early career earnings of $43,213.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from University of California - Riverside

12

California State University - Fullerton
Fullerton, CA

2,134 Annual Graduates

$48,256 Median Starting Salary

$16,201 Median Student Debt

Cal State Fullerton is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Fullerton.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the business administration program report average early career earnings of $48,256.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from California State University - Fullerton

Honorable Mentions

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Business Administration & Management Bachelor's Degree Schools in California award.

Rank	College	Location
13	San Diego State University	San Diego, CA
14	San Francisco State University	San Francisco, CA
15	California State Polytechnic University - Pomona	Pomona, CA
16	California Lutheran University	Thousand Oaks, CA
17	University of the Pacific	Stockton, CA
18	California State University - Sacramento	Sacramento, CA
19	National University	San Diego, CA
20	Sonoma State University	Rohnert Park, CA
21	Brandman University	Irvine, CA

Best Business Administration & Management Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Business Administration & Management Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	226	2,033
Oregon	185	1,363
Nevada	129	373
Hawaii	112	678
Alaska	75	176

View All Rankings >

Business Administration & Management Related Rankings by Major

Business Administration & Management is one of 21 different types of Business, Management & Marketing programs to choose from.

Business Administration Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Business Administration and Management	25,044
Interior Design Management	747
Organizational Leadership	564
Project Management	149
Supply Chain Management	126
Operations Management	106
E-Commerce	5
Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management	3
Customer Service Management	2
Office Administration	1

Majors Similar to Business Administration

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	2,298
Business/Managerial Economics	1,055
Accounting	1,037
Marketing	892
Finance & Financial Management	887
Hospitality Management	464
Human Resource Management	456
International Business	309
General Business/Commerce	283
Management Information Systems	224

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.