The 20 Best U.S. Colleges for Business Students
Interested in business school for an undergraduate education but don’t know which one to choose? Niche.com has made the search process a little easier. It’s ranked 2019’s Best Colleges for Business, based on an analysis of academic, admissions, financial and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as student and alumni online reviews.
For all of the schools on the list you’ll need top SAT and ACT scores, as well as stellar grades.
That being said, it’s a common saying in business that what matters is who you know, not what you know. So, regardless of where you go to school, studying for a business degree may be as much about the relationships you make while studying as it is about what you learn in a business studies program.
20. Brown University
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Acceptance rate: 8 percent
Net price per year: $25,651
The details: The first school on our list is the third hardest to get into, with an acceptance rate of only eight percent. Instead of a stand-alone business school, Brown houses programs within different schools on campus to meet the needs of business students, from undergraduate to graduate-level curriculum.
Brown’s C.V. Starr Program in business, entrepreneurship and organizations is the Ivy League school’s undergraduate business offering and is designed, like other liberal arts schools on our list, to give students a flexible and well-rounded approach to becoming leaders in business.
19. Emory University
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Acceptance rate: 22 percent
Net price per year: $26,867
The details: This private, Christian school is one of the best schools in the country and one of the best in the South. It is highly competitive with an acceptance rate of just 22 percent.
Emory’s Goizueta School of Business has a variety of programs and has the only globally-ranked executive education program in Georgia.
Goizueta also offers the Executive Women’s Leadership Forum, which brings together women for a five-day intensive course with other women executives who have fifteen or more years of experience; the course focuses on developing critical leadership and business skills. Another offering: an LGBTQ leaders forum.
18. Babson College
Location: Wellesley, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 24 percent
Net price per year: $29,847
The details: A lesser-known school on the list, it’s still a competitive one with only a 24 percent acceptance rate. The school is renowned for its entrepreneurship program and entrepreneur graduates including Arthur Blank, the co-founder of Home Depot.
The F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business has locations in Boston, Miami, Dubai and San Francisco. The Olin School’s Boston and Miami WIN Program (Women Innovating Now) is an award-winning venture accelerator that promotes women entrepreneurs through one-on-one coaching and access to experts across a range of industries and subjects.
17. University of Virginia
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia
Acceptance rate: 27 percent
Net price per year: $16,594
The details: One of the top public universities in the nation, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville has a 27 percent acceptance rate.
The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business recently received the largest gift in the university’s history with $68 million from Frank Sands, Jr., the founder of Sands Capital Management. The gift established the Sands Institute for Lifelong Learning, which helped expand the Darden School to help reach more degree, non-degree and online learning students.
Darden also emphasizes leadership lessons for new graduates and enrolled students, understanding that good leadership is fundamental to success in business, or any other area for that matter. This also reflects the university’s emphasis on overall well-being, and its class designed to help students attain and maintain happiness in the workplace is a unique offering for a generation of young people who want more than just a paycheck and ascending job titles.
16. Boston College
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 32 percent
Net price per year: $27,299
The details: One of the top Catholic colleges in the nation, Boston College has a higher acceptance rate than many of its elite northeastern peers.
The private Jesuit research institution is one of the oldest in the country, founded in 1852 by the second Bishop of Boston. The Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, or Carroll School as it’s locally known, has been around since 1938. Like other top business schools, the undergraduate curriculum focuses on a heavy liberal-arts education to produce well-rounded leaders in business. The school requires new undergraduates to learn about business ethics through its Portico Program, via readings of Plato, Kant and Ayn Rand.
Its location in the Boston area has major perks for business students who have access to leaders in the field of international relations, business and government. Recently the school had conversations with Ambassador Susan E. Rice as well as Tyler Shultz, the Theranos whistleblower.
The school also boasts faculty that ranks No. 20 in the world for research productivity and quality, according to the Financial Times.
15. University of Wisconsin
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Acceptance rate: 54 percent
Net price per year: $15,910
The details: Another top public university on our list, the University of Wisconsin is less competitive than some of the other schools listed here. The university is also consistently ranked one of the top public universities in the nation.
The UW Business school in Madison has everything from undergraduate degrees, specialized masters programs and doctoral degrees. Among the specialized master’s programs UW-Madison offers are the Master’s in Global Real Estate, a unique degree for students looking to break into the global luxury real estate market.
UW-Madison has an impressive list of alumni including the Chairman and CEO of Kimberly-Clark, Thomas Falk, to the President and CEO of Toshiba, Tadashi Okamura. But unlike many of its competitors, University of Wisconsin’s School of Business hasn’t been renamed in honor of wealthy donors. Even in 2017, when a group of wealthy donors gave $85 million to the school, it still wasn’t renamed.
14. Columbia University
Location: New York, New York
Acceptance rate: 28 percent
Net price per year: $36,256
The details: One of the most competitive schools on the list, this Ivy League institution in Upper Manhattan has a 7 percent admissions rate. The school is the oldest university in New York and the fifth oldest in the U.S.
Being the only Ivy League business school located in the heart of New York City, Columbia Business School students have access to the best and the brightest in the New York business scene.
13. Northeastern University
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 27 percent
Net price per year: $30,784
The details: Northeastern University is a top private college with an acceptance rate of 27 percent. Northeastern also ranks among top 45 research universities in the nation.
Northeastern’s D’amore-McKim School of Business has a superior international business program, a top undergraduate entrepreneurship program and one of the world’s best MBA programs. Encouraging entrepreneurship, D’amore-Kim students have raised over $133 million in IDEA, the school’s student-run venture accelerator.
12. Carnegie Mellon University
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Acceptance rate: 22 percent
Net price per year: $29,817
The details: The private research university was founded at the turn of the 19th century by the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. The school now has campuses in Qatar and Silicon Valley.
Carnegie Mellon is highly competitive, with just a 22 percent acceptance rate. Founded by a businessman and entrepreneur, Carnegie’s Tepper School of Business houses one of the nation’s top health care and health tech research initiatives.
Tepper also hosts one of the top business sustainability initiatives in the nation, where students learn, research and work in the rapidly growing field of sustainability.
11. New York University
Location: New York, New York
Acceptance rate: 28 percent
Net price per year: $36,256
The details: This well-known private university in Manhattan is one of the top schools in the country all around and is quite competitive, with just a 28 percent acceptance rate.
The Stern School of Business takes advantage of its New York City location, where students have access to the largest business hub in the country.
Stern is also one of the top business research institutions in the nation and includes not one, but four Nobel laureates on its faculty: Robert Engle, Paul Romer, Tomas Sargent and Michael Spence. With a heavy emphasis on cross-disciplinary education, the school has a long list of centers and initiatives for students to choose from, including the Center for Sustainable Business, the Volatility Institute and the NYU Pollack Center for Law and Business.
10. University of Richmond
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Acceptance rate: 33 percent
Net price per year: $24,575
The details: Perhaps one of the relatively lesser-known schools on our list, the private school has a 33 percent acceptance rate. The University of Richmond is also the only U.S. university with a spider for its mascot.
The Robins School of Business hosts the Robins Executive Speaker Series, where national and international business leaders have direct conversations with faculty and students. They also have another distinguished speaker series called C-Suite Conversations, where a professor helps guide an unscripted interview with top business professionals.
The location of the school also makes it a top choice for young professionals. With Washington, D.C. less than two hours away by train or car, students have easy access to the D.C. area for job interviews and internships. The university also awards $4,000 grants for summer academic research or internships.
9. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 7 percent
Net price per year: $22,230
The details: One of the hardest schools to get into on our list, this elite private school in Boston has only a 7 percent admissions rate and there are less than 5,000 undergraduate students.
The MIT Sloan School of Management has a unique focus on technology and management and is home to some of the world’s top researchers, academics and business people. From the Initiative for Health Systems Innovation to the Behavioral Research Lab, and the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Sloan offers some of the top learning centers and research initiatives in the country. The school’s Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship is also one of the best entrepreneurship programs in the nation and has a particular focus on sustainable entrepreneurship initiatives in developing countries.
8. University of Texas, Austin
Location: Austin, Texas
Acceptance rate: 36 percent
Net price per year: $14,356
The details: A bit easier to get into than some of the other schools on our list, UT Austin has a 36 percent acceptance rate and is one of the top-rated public universities in the nation. The University of Texas at Austin campus is different from the rest of its statewide campuses simply because of its location. Some Texans call Austin “the People’s Republic of Austin,” because the city differs from the rest of the Lone Star State in terms of culture and values.
The McCombs School of Business is at the heart of a booming startup scene in Austin. As part of its heavy focus on entrepreneurship, the Texas Venture Lab has raised half a billion dollars in funding for 178 startups with students. McCombs also offers many social innovation initiatives with top programs in social entrepreneurship, impact investing and public and social sector innovation.
7. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, New York
Acceptance rate: 13 percent
Net price per year: $31,449
The details: Founded in 1865, the Ivy League school with an admissions rate of 13 percent among the hardest universities to get into in the nation. Like many top schools, Cornell’s Samuel Curtis Johnson School of Business (SC Johnson for short) is an interdisciplinary program that looks to graduate well-rounded business students capable of tackling challenges from a variety of angles.
The business school houses three separate top-notch programs. First, the hotel management school is one of the top hospitality management schools in the world. The Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management ranks as one of the world’s most competitive business programs, and the Johnson Graduate School of Management is among the best graduate business schools, globally.
6. Georgetown University
Location: Washington, D.C.
Acceptance rate: 16 percent
Net price per year: $27,420
The details: The private Catholic university, founded in 1789 in Washington, D.C., has just under 7,000 undergraduate students. Georgetown says it emphasizes collaboration over competition, thanks to its Jesuit heritage, which helps students access the university’s over 190,000 alumni around the world. An excellent example of the “who you know” part of doing business.
The McDonough School of Business, locally known as “MSB,” was founded in 1957 as a separate branch of the School of Foreign Service. The school houses the Georgetown Institute for Consumer Research, one of the country’s top academic research centers on consumer goods, law and rights.
Because it’s located in the nation’s capital, alumni have immediate access to national and international businesses and political institutions. Washington, D.C. is also consistently ranked one of the top cities for young professionals.
5. University of Notre Dame
Location: South Bend, Indiana
Acceptance rate: 19 percent
Net price per year: $27,453
The details: Notre Dame is one of the top Catholic schools in the world. A highly competitive university with top-notch athletics teams, the acceptance rate is just 19 percent. In 1917, Notre Dame was the first university to create a business program in “foreign commerce.”
The Economist magazine ranked the Mendoza College of Business No. 5 in terms of alumni effectiveness in 2018, and in 2016 the undergraduate business program was ranked No. 2 in the nation by Bloomberg Businessweek.
The school has Chicago based-facilities, where MBA students studying at the Motorola Building on Michigan Avenue have access to top businesses and business leaders in the Windy City.
4. Washington University, St. Louis
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Acceptance rate: 16 percent
Net price per year: $27,777
The details: Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, includes the Olin Business School, one of seven academic schools that WashU offers.
In 2009, the Olin Business School took over the executive management program of the famous U.S. research institution the Brookings Institute. Forty percent of undergraduate classes must be taken outside of the business school, which helps produce well-rounded graduates. And students report that the nearly 400 student-led clubs and organizations make campus life interesting.
Every year the Olin Business School holds the Olin Cup, which awards up to $50,000 for students to start their own business. WashU is also one of an increasing number of schools that meets 100 percent of tuition assistance for students who can demonstrate their need.
3. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Acceptance rate: 27 percent
Net price per year: $16,408
The details: This public university has nearly 20,000 undergraduate students.
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business is consistently ranked as one of the top business schools in the nation. Among the institutes the university has to offer:
the Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise and the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, which includes access to venture and investment funds.
Recognizing the need for gender-based support in business, the Ross School also has a women’s initiative that supports women in business and female business students. There’s also the Center for Positive Organizations, which supports part of the Ross School’s mission to do business that brings out the best in people. And finally, the Ross School is home to the undergraduate-level business academic journal, the Michigan Journal of Business.
2. University of Southern California
Location: Los Angeles, California
Acceptance rate: 17 percent
Net price per year: $32,892
The details: USC is a private college in Los Angeles with nearly 20,000 undergraduate students. The university is difficult to get into, with only 17 percent of applicants accepted. It is also the oldest accredited business school in the state of California.
The Marshall School of Business was the first business school in the country to require students to study abroad — more than 1,400 Marshall undergraduate and graduate students study out of the country every year. The school boasts deep ties to the Southern California business community, making it a top pick for students who want to stay in the Golden State after graduation.
For students looking to become entrepreneurs, the university has 85 entrepreneurship classes and also hosts venture capitalist summits. Students can learn from potential investors and present their ideas to venture capital firms in the area. USC is also known locally for being a party school and students report having great social lives in addition to facing a rigorous curriculum.
1. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Acceptance rate: 9 percent
Net price per year: $24,539
The details: UPenn is one of the nation’s eight Ivy League schools and the world’s first college-level business school. Since its founding by Benjamin Franklin in the mid-eighteenth century, it has continued to be an elite, private school with an acceptance rate of only nine percent.
For those who think going to an Ivy League private school costs too much, UPenn practices need-blind admissions; it pays 100 percent of tuition for students who meet certain financial conditions. Wharton also follows a liberal arts methodology: Undergraduate business students take thirty percent of their classes at other UPenn schools.
Because of its Ivy League designation, Wharton students have access to some of the world’s most renowned professors throughout the university, despite being business students.