The Top Master In Management Programs In The United States
The MBA is the top graduate business degree in the United States. In Europe, the preferred degree has long been the Master in Management. But U.S. B-schools are coming around to the appeal of the latter program — a shorter, cheaper alternative with younger cohorts of students.
“It’s just a matter of time and not really knowing what these programs are,” says Evelyn Williams, founding academic director of the Master of Science in Management program and teaching professor of management at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. “I do think that we are still just getting the message out. One is on the supply side, with parents in particular and students not understanding what they are.”
“And then there is awareness on the company side. Companies and organizations have not heard of them in the U.S.”
THE P&Q LIST: 32 MiM PROGRAMS AT 28 U.S. B-SCHOOLS
Georgetown’s Evelyn Williams: The Master in Management “is a multiplier of their trajectory early on in their career. To add value from day one — that is what employers are expecting”
The MBA is and will remain the flagship graduate degree at most business schools in the United States. But as priorities shift and students look for a faster bridge to the world of work, U.S. B-schools are finding that MiMs, rather than competing with MBAs, are filling a needed niche by allowing some students to immediately enhance their qualifications post-undergrad, rather than enter the workforce first and return to school down the road.
U.S. MiMs are still under-appreciated: Data from the Graduate Management Admission Council are inconclusive as to whether the degree is having a moment (see table below), and the only major ranking of MiM programs remains highly Euro-centric. But observers of graduate business education trends agree that MiMs are primed to grow in importance in the U.S. as companies do away with rotational programs for humanities majors and want people who can hit the ground running, contributing quickly in the job. MiMs may well be the least developed specialty master’s market in the U.S. with the most growth potential, if schools can educate employers and prospective students about the value of the degree and the training.
Poets&Quants has compiled a list of 33 Master in Management programs at 29 B-schools in the United States, ranging widely in cost, mode of delivery, admission requirements, and class composition. (See page 3 for a complete list.) Some, like the programs at Florida Warrington College of Business and Fordham Gabelli School of Business, can be done fully online or in-person; some, like the MiMs at Texas-Dallas Jindal School of Management and George Washington School of Business, can be done in blended fashion. A few — like the Illinois Gies College of Business’ iMSM, Michigan State Broad College of Business’ Online MS in Management, Strategy & Leadership, and Northeastern D’Amore-McKim School of Business’ Master of Science in Management, are entirely online. And two — at Chicago Booth School of Business and Emory Goizueta Business School — are brand new, having been announced just this summer.
Program cost ranges widely, with tuition anywhere from $11,520 at Illinois Gies’ online iMSM to $138,640 for Stanford Graduate School of Business’ MSx program. Across the top 32 programs, the average tuition cost is just shy of $56,000.
Source: GMAC
WOMEN FLOCK TO MiM PROGRAMS
For students, a big appeal of MiM programs is in admissions. Even when they have entrance exam requirements, class score averages are much lower than typical MBA programs; for example, the Graduate Management Admission Test average for the most recent MS in Management Science class at Texas-Dallas Jindal is 610. That same school’s MBA class average in 2022 was 689.
MiM admissions teams also look favorably on students with little or no work experience; this, plus the programs’ short duration — most are 9 to 12 months long— also appeals to a sector of the population long targeted by MBA programs (with mixed success): women. Of 21 U.S. programs that have publicly reported their class percentages of women, the average is just under 48%; 11 schools have 50% or more women in their MiMs. Leading all programs is Duke Fuqua’s Master of Management Studies: Duke Kunshan University, with 64% women; small Lehigh University College of Business is close behind at 63%.
Georgetown McDonough’s Master of Science in Management program has 51% women in its latest class; the program is designed to appeal to them, Evelyn Williams says, and to under-represented minorities, as well.
“We focus on the demographics,” says Williams, who has now been involved in designing MiM courses at two universities, including Wake Forest. “From day one, we focused on over 50% of women, pre-experience. There is no excuse not to go after a lot of women and under-represented groups. Thirty-nine percent of the latest class is African-American or Latino — 41% if you include Asian-Americans.
“These new programs serve as a bridge program for first-generation students who can’t find a way to bridge into white-collar work. That was intentional. Composition is huge. The old rule that ‘Oh well the women don’t apply’ is old and outdated. Parity is important. We have had to work to get more men in the program.”
Northwestern Kellogg School of Management offers a Master of Science in Management Studies for recent college graduates with less than to years’ experience. Tuition for the program is $62,349
KELLOGG EXPANDS PROGRAM TO ACCEPT THOSE WITH 2 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE
A huge appeal of the MiM is that students need not spend three or four or five years working before enrolling — they can go right after undergrad. But while MiMs mostly target young college graduates with a year or less work experience, one top program is bucking the trend.
At Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, one of the highest-ranked U.S. B-schools with a MiM program, students with too much experience were until recently disqualified from the recently renamed Master in Management (until very recently known as the Master of Science in Management Studies). But in a big change, the school now allows up to two years of experience to be eligible for the program, up from a year or less.
It’s a move that broadens the field, says Steve Thompson, senior director of full-time admissions at the Kellogg School.
“The Kellogg MSMS is designed for students who have recently completed their undergraduate degree in a STEM or liberal arts field and who have limited full time work experience,” Thompson tells P&Q. “If an applicant has more than two years of full-time work experience (excluding internships and summer jobs) by the enrollment date they are ineligible to apply.
“The curriculum does not assume significant work experience and offers a broad exposure to management topics over one academic year, giving students who did not major in business in undergrad, who may be seeking a head-start, the opportunity to enter into the field with an elevated toolkit to set them up on a fast-track to success.”
Conversely, Thompson adds, “Standard MBA programs require significant work experience (typically, four to six years) and take two years, though at Kellogg our portfolio is broad. An MBA curriculum builds off that work experience, leveraging student expertise and past-challenges, to bring learning opportunities to life; and students have significant opportunities to specialize in different academic areas. The goal of an MBA at Kellogg is to prepare students for management-positions and leadership roles.”
KELLOGG MiM GRADS: 97% OF CLASS OF 2022 RECEIVED JOB OFFERS
Kellogg’s Steve Thompson: “The employment outcomes for our MSMS students highlight that the degree is highly valued across industries, but we agree there is an opportunity to increase awareness of the Masters in Management amongst prospective students and employers”
Kellogg does not report the percentage of women in its MiM but Thompson points to the importance of another kind of diversity: background. Kellogg MiM cohorts consist of diverse groups of recent graduates, welcoming students from a variety of backgrounds and majors, from Mechanical Engineering to Opera Performance, Political Science, and more.
“We are looking for students who have a strong track record of on-campus undergraduate involvement, coupled with relevant internships or research work,” Thompson says. “Overall, our MSMS program is built to provide students with an introduction to business on top of the solid foundation they received as an undergraduate student – so they must also show an interest in pursuing their career in business as well.”
Graduates of Kellogg’s MiM program find roles in a variety of industries and functions, Thompson says, with a large portion traditionally pursuing finance and consulting roles at firms like Goldman Sachs, Deloitte and Boston Consulting Group. In the 2022 MiM class, 97% received a job offer within three months of graduating.
“However, as mentioned, our students boast a variety of backgrounds with a multitude of expertise, which has resulted in unique job searches. In 2019, one of our graduates entered the military, where he leveraged the leadership, strategy and team building skills he learned during the program!”
Does Thompson see MiMs catching on in the U.S.? Yes, and Kellogg is doing its part to make that happen.
“An advanced degree like a master’s in management is a valuable opportunity to fine tune and build an early and initial set of skills that will set you on an early path to success as you’re entering the workforce,” he says. “As some undergraduate students approach the end of their degree, they may recognize that they would benefit from enhancing their business acumen before entering the job market and our MSMS program serves to bridge that gap in a meaningful and impactful way. The employment outcomes for our MSMS students highlight that the degree is highly valued across industries, but we agree there is an opportunity to increase awareness of the Masters in Management amongst prospective students and employers. We are actively working to do that; and have seen great success thus far.”
THE 3-PLUS-1 MODEL
As MiMs in the U.S. expand, a curious thing is happening: International students have taken notice and are coming to the States to enroll, often in greater numbers than their domestic colleagues. One big reason: Many U.S. MiMs, Like Northwestern Kellogg’s, are STEM programs, which gives graduates more time to work in the U.S. while trying for a visa.
At Georgetown McDonough, where the MiM is also STEM-designated, “Demand is growing in the U.S.,” Evelyn Williams says. “I think the domestic numbers have not grown as exponentially as international. We could fill the class with international students.”
Even as U.S. MiMs have their own structure and character, she says, the market is moving toward a European model: three years of undergraduate study followed by one year in a MiM program.
“What we have done right is not gone after Georgetown students who don’t have a clue what they want to do,” Williams says. “Typically universities have gone to their undergrads who are floundering and have not figured out what to do with their lives. We get the explorers, which they should be.
“What we are going after is the three-plus-one. I see the market moving to more of a European model, three years undergraduate and one year master’s, because they are all taking AP classes. Because they have had this wonderful undergraduate experience where they have learned to write and think critically, they are so good when they graduate from a MIM program.”
‘BEING ABLE TO TEACH YOURSELF IS A BIG PART OF MiM’
Like Kellogg, Georgetown is trying to get companies on the MiM train, with considerable success: In its most recent graduating class, 93% received job offers within six months, at an average salary of $84,000. But Evelyn Williams wants companies to delay their recruitment efforts: “Not to come in the fall for a MiM student. We haven’t even pre-heated the oven at that point,” she says. “Instead of coming in the fall, wait until spring for some gems. They will be much more learned in their interviews.”
The MiM, she says, is a “bridge to the world of work” with huge upside. “It is a multiplier of their trajectory early on in their career,” she says. “To add value from day one — that is what employers are expecting. They are less patient with long training times. Being able to teach yourself is a big part of MiM.
“So they have to figure out the answer themselves as opposed to being told, like how to do a pivot table in Excel. And human dynamics — leadership and teamwork — is something that is pretty darn important, too.
“Right now we are at parity with international students because a lot of U.S. students aren’t aware of MiM programs. It’s been a really good diverse class. In my mind the big piece is first-gen. I think MiMs play an incredibly important role in giving them that bridge to the world of work.”
See the next page for a complete list of the top Master in Management programs in the United States.
AND DON’T MISS SPOTLIGHT ON U.S. MiMs: THE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MANAGEMENT AT ILLINOIS GIES COLLEGE OF BUSINESS and SPOTLIGHT ON U.S. MiMs: THE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MANAGEMENT AT GEORGETOWN McDONOUGH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Georgetown McDonough’s Master in Management Class of 2022 reported an average base salary of $84,030 and an average signing bonus of $10,722. According to the school’s MiM employment report, 93% of students received their job offer within six months of graduation and 91% accepted their offer. The top employers included Amazon, Deloitte, EY, Goldman Sachs, and Slalom Consulting.
TESTIMONIALS FROM MiM STUDENTS
NORTHWESTERN KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT: “I attended Northwestern for my undergraduate degree, and like many liberal arts universities, did not have the access to a formal business curriculum (aside from a business minor) despite my interest in the field – most of what I knew was either self-taught or learned through experiences I was lucky to have through internships. However, I knew I wanted to have a more formal understanding of business before I started what I knew would be a long career in finance.
“I was drawn to this program for not only the formal business curriculum it offered, but the distinguished professors that teach within it and also the opportunity the program offered to learn alongside of Kellogg’s part-time MBA students within the classroom, which was a really fruitful experience and added such an elevated learning opportunity hearing from their real-life work experiences and challenges.
“Though I just graduated from the program, I was fortunate enough to apply to Kellogg’s Future Leaders deferred admissions program as well – so I look forward to returning back to Kellogg for my MBA in a five years or so. To me, the chance to work for a few years with the added value of my Masters in management will allow me to gain some fruitful real-life experience to bring back to the classroom and approach an MBA with a completely different lens. I know I’ll be able to really lean into the Kellogg network as I progress in my career.” – Ethan Rosen, MiM ’23
MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT: “MSMS gave me an opportunity to explore different potential career paths through connections with industry experts, action learning labs, lectures, and seminars, which allowed me to discover my passion for analytics, technology, and mission-driven work. I will move on to become a Sr. Product Manager at Amazon post-graduation where I will be able to leverage my passions and skills to improve customers’ lives, and I wish to continue to embrace these values along my career journey to create a positive impact in the world.” – Jacquelyn Li, MSMS ’22
MICHIGAN ROSS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: “I finished up undergrad and felt a bit like a construction worker who went to the job site with his blueprint but left his tools at home. I knew what it was I wanted to do; I just didn’t know exactly how to do that. And I didn’t feel like I had the hard skills to be able to jump into an organization and make things happen.” – Cooper Wrona, MiM ’21
VIRGINIA McINTIRE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE: “What initially piqued my interest in the M.S. in Commerce Program was that it was a 4+1 program, meaning I could have my master’s degree after one year. It became more appealing to me, as it allowed me to be on a track that I was genuinely interested in–Marketing & Management – and had the study-abroad component that I missed out on during my undergrad years.” – Bree Doby, M.S. in Commerce ’23
DUKE FUQUA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: “Prior to completing my undergraduate degree, I felt that I wasn’t ready to work in my preferred career, project management. The MMS program course offerings as well as the potential job outlooks post-graduation definitely aligned with my career goals at the time. I also love to grow my professional network so naturally, Fuqua was also a great fit due to the large alumni network around the globe. At the end of the day, being a part of a prestigious program with people who have similar professional goals as myself is most important to me.” – Muhib Bari, Foundations of Business ’23
SOUTH CAROLINA MOORE: “Upon finishing my undergraduate degree, I knew that I still needed to sharpen my skills and enrich my experiences to be more successful in the international workforce. I wanted to attend a highly ranked program at a prestigious school for international business to help me deepen my understanding and surround myself with many talented, ambitious, like-minded classmates. I was very excited and eager to participate in the Moore School MIB courses that are not usually offered in other graduate programs. The MIB program is designed to improve the interdisciplinary knowledge about the global market, and that was exactly what I needed to advance my career.” – Sunnie Duong, Master of International Business ’20
School | Program Name | Location | Duration | Tuition (2023) | GRE/GMAT Required? | STEM-Designated? | Women (2023) |
Master in Management | Chicago, Illinois | 10 Months | $65,000-$67,000 | Yes | Not yet | NA | |
Master in Management | Evanston & Chicago, Illinois | 10 Months | $62,349 | Yes | Yes | NA | |
Master of Science in Management Studies | Boston | 9 Months | $84,200 | Yes | Yes | 29% | |
MSx Program | Palo Alto, California | 1 Year | $138,640 | Yes | Yes | 37% | |
Master’s in Advanced Management | New Haven, Connecticut | 1 Year | $82,200 | Yes | Yes | 38% | |
Master of Management | Ann Arbor, Michigan | 10 Months | $51,360 for Michigan residents; $54,985 for others | Yes, unless applicant has an undergraduate GPA of 3.3 or higher | No | 53% | |
Master of Science in Commerce | Charlottesville, Virginia | 10 Months | $44,239 in-state; $50,621 out-of-state & international | No | Yes | NA | |
Master of Management Studies: Foundations of Business | Durham, North Carolina | 10 Months | $62,200 | Yes | Yes | 45% | |
Master of Management Studies: Duke Kunshan University | Durham, North Carolina and Kunshan, China | 10 Months | $62,200 for non-Chinese students and 200,000 RMB for citizens of China, Hong Kong, Macau & Taiwan | Yes | No | 64% | |
Master of Science in Organization Management and Strategy | New York & Shanghai, China | 12-20 Months | $68,400 | Yes | No | 38% | |
Master of Professional Studies in Management | Ithaca, New York | 10 Months | $62,456 | Yes, but Cornell undergrads with a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher may get waiver | Yes | NA | |
Master of Management Studies | Los Angeles | 1-2 Years | $57,122 | Yes | No | NA | |
Master in Management | Atlanta, Georgia | 10 Months | $62,800 | No | No | NA | |
Master of Science in Management | Washington, DC | 10 Months | $56,840 | Yes, unless applicant has an undergraduate GPA of 3.2 or higher | Yes | 51% | |
MS in Management | South Bend, Indiana | 11 Months | $50,880 | Yes, unless applicant has Notre Dame degree or 3.3 undergrad GPA or higher | Yes | 40% | |
Master’s in Management Studies | Boston | 9 Months | $63,798 | No | No | 52% | |
Master’s in Management Studies | College Park, Maryland | 9 Months | $48,919 for Maryland residents; $62,160 for others | No | No | NA | |
Master of Science in Management (MS x) | Boston, Oakland, Remote | 1-2 Years | $50,900 | No | No | NA | |
Master of Science in International Management | Boston | 12-20 Months | $48,000 | No | No | 52% | |
Master of International Business | Columbia, South Carolina | 1 Year | $21,000 for South Carolina residents; $24,900 for others | Yes, but waivers available for “high-achieving students” | No | 50% | |
Master of International Business Double Degree | Columbia, South Carolina and one of seven campuses of partner university | 2 Years | $36,300 for South Carolina residents; $43,260 for others | Yes, but waivers available for “high-achieving students” | No | 50% | |
Master’s in Business | College Station, Texas | 11 Months | $35,900 (including fees) | Yes | No | 41% | |
MS in Management | Washington, D.C. | 1 Year | $64,845 | No | No | NA | |
MS in Management | Gainesville, Florida | 1 Year | $16,983 for Florida residents; $40,174 for others | No | No | NA | |
Online MS in Management, Strategy & Leadership | East Lansing, Michigan | 20-24 Months | $33,900 | Yes, unless applicants have 3 or more years’ full-time managerial experience in a supervisory role and a cumulative undergrad GPA of 3.0 or higher | No | NA | |
Master of Science in Management | Denver, Colorado | 10 Months | $72,540 | No | No | NA | |
Lehigh | MS in Management | Bethlehem, Pennsylvania | 9 Months | $52,570 | No | No | 63% |
MS in Management & Entrepreneurial Leadership | Wellesley, Massachusetts | 9 Months | $54,600 | No | No | 40% | |
Master of Science in Management | Urbana-Champaign, Illinois | 9 Months | $33,772 | No | Yes | 56% | |
iMSM | Remote | 12-60 Months | $11,520 | No | No | 43% | |
Master of International Business | Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai | 1 Year | $55,000 Boston or San Francisco, 44,000 GBP London, 179,000 AED Dubai | No | Upgrade to STEM degree available for a fee | 44% | |
MS in Management Science | Dallas, Texas | 18-24 Months | $20,428 for Texas residents; $38,508 for others | Yes, unless they have an undergrad GPA of 3.6 or higher from an AACSB-accredited B-school | Yes | 59% | |
MS in Management | New York | 12-15 Months | $60,960 | No | No | NA | |
Master of Science in Management | Winston-Salem, North Carolina | 10 Months | $49,928 | Yes, unless applicant has an undergrad GPA of 3.2 or higher and at least two grades of B or better in quantitative or other rigorous coursework from a U.S.-based college/university | No | 57% |
DON’T MISS SPOTLIGHT ON U.S. MiMs: THE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MANAGEMENT AT ILLINOIS GIES COLLEGE OF BUSINESS and SPOTLIGHT ON U.S. MiMs: THE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MANAGEMENT AT GEORGETOWN McDONOUGH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
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