If you pursue a master's degree in general business/commerce, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #28 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 80 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best General Business/Commerce Master's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 9,096 master's degrees in general business/commerce during the <nil> academic year.
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Choosing a Great General Business/Commerce School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of general business/commerce for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality general business program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to general business/commerce students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general business/commerce students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt general business/commerce students go into to obtain their master'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 general business/commerce related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general business/commerce students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank General Business/Commerce Schools
The general business school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best General Business/Commerce Master's Degree Schools.
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ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study General Business/Commerce in the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in general business/commerce. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Northwestern University is a great decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in general business/commerce. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.
Those general business/commerce students who get their master's degree from Northwestern University receive $101,857 more than the standard general business grad.
It is difficult to beat Indiana University - Bloomington if you wish to pursue a master's degree in general business/commerce. IU Bloomington is a very large public university located in the small city of Bloomington.
Those general business/commerce students who get their master's degree from Indiana University - Bloomington earn $38,455 more than the average general business student.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in general business/commerce has to take a look at Northeastern University. Northeastern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Boston.
Those general business/commerce students who get their master's degree from Northeastern University earn $28,887 more than the standard general business student.
Located in the city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the general business/commerce degree program at University of Wisconsin - Madison make $40,231 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those general business/commerce students who get their master's degree from Michigan State University make $46,959 more than the average general business graduate.
Located in the city of Denver, DU is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Master's recipients from the general business/commerce program at University of Denver get $45,800 above the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Philadelphia, Drexel is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the general business/commerce program at Drexel University make $25,659 more than the typical college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Indianapolis, IUPUI is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those general business/commerce students who get their master's degree from Indiana University - Purdue University - Indianapolis receive $30,381 more than the standard general business grad.
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Additional Noteworthy Schools
Here are some additional great schools for General Business/Commerce students that almost earned our Best General Business/Commerce Master's Degree Schools award.
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).
Your choice of general business/commerce for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality general business program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
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