2025 Best Business, Management & Marketing Master's Degree Schools in California

If you pursue a master's degree in business, management & marketing, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #1 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 58 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for business, management & marketing students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 18,825 master's degrees in business, management & marketing to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Business, Management & Marketing School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of business, management & marketing for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

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 Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

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 business, management & marketing students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of business, management & marketing students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• 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 easy is it for business, management & marketing to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized business, management & marketing related body.

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

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Business, Management & Marketing Master's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Business, Management & Marketing in California

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

11 Top California Schools for a Master's in Business, Management & Marketing

1

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

2,228 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of Southern California if you wish to pursue a master's degree in business, management & marketing. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from University of Southern California

2

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

1,100 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of California - Los Angeles if you want to pursue a master's degree in business, management & marketing. Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from University of California - Los Angeles

3

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

652 Annual Graduates

University of California - Berkeley is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in business, management & marketing. UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Berkeley.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from University of California - Berkeley

4

Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

943 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in business, management & marketing needs to take a look at Pepperdine University. Located in the suburb of Malibu, Pepperdine is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from Pepperdine University

5

Saint Mary's College of California
Moraga, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

128 Annual Graduates

SMC is a small private not-for-profit college located in the suburb of Moraga.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from Saint Mary’s College of California

6

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

323 Annual Graduates

UCSD is a fairly large public university located in the large city of La Jolla.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from University of California - San Diego

7

Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, CA

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

413 Annual Graduates

Located in the midsize city of Santa Clara, SCU is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from Santa Clara University

8

University of California - Davis
Davis, CA

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

490 Annual Graduates

Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from University of California - Davis

9

University of San Diego
San Diego, CA

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

147 Annual Graduates

USD is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of San Diego.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from University of San Diego

10

University of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

222 Annual Graduates

USFCA is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of San Francisco.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from University of San Francisco

11

University of Redlands
Redlands, CA

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

261 Annual Graduates

Located in the small city of Redlands, University of Redlands is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a master’s in business, management & marketing from University of Redlands

Additional Noteworthy Schools

Here are some additional great schools for Business, Management & Marketing students in the state of California that almost earned our Best Business, Management & Marketing Master's Degree Schools in California award.

Rank	College	Location
12	University of California - Irvine	Irvine, CA
13	Chapman University	Orange, CA
14	Golden Gate University - San Francisco	San Francisco, CA
15	Brandman University	Irvine, CA
16	School Removed
17	FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising - Los Angeles	Los Angeles, CA
18	San Diego State University	San Diego, CA
19	California State University - Sacramento	Sacramento, CA

Best Business, Management & Marketing Colleges in the Far Western US Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	31	2,001
Oregon	29	954
Hawaii	27	238
Nevada	27	396
Alaska	21	119

View All Rankings >

Business, Management & Marketing Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
Business Administration & Management	10,005
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	5,625
Human Resource Management	844
Accounting	742
Other Business, Management & Marketing	333
Finance & Financial Management	224
Entrepreneurial Studies	211
Taxation	203
Management Information Systems	141
Hospitality Management	116

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Amit Savargaonkar. More about our data sources and methodologies.