Best Executive MBA Programs Overview: One alternative to the traditional full-time MBA program is the Executive MBA (EMBA). Executive MBA participants typically attend classes on every second, sometimes third, weekend (which may include Fridays) over the course of about two years. Participants normally are seasoned managers, typically with at least a decade of work experience.
Executive MBA Costs: According to the Financial Times ("Trains, planes and EMBAs," 4/11/2011) the average EMBA program costs around $65,000 and elite schools charge about $120,000. While EMBA participants traditionally are chosen and sponsored by their employers, corporate support is declining. As of 2010, surveys indicate that only 30% of EMBA students were fully sponsored by their employers, whereas 35% received no tuition reimbursement at all. There also are growing travel costs, in terms of both time and money. Almost 18% of EMBA students in 2010 traveled over 250 miles from home (including 6.5% who cross international boundaries), way up from only 6% in 2008.
The Wall Street Journal 2010 Executive MBA Program Rankings: These were published in the 9/30/2010 issue.
- Pennsylvania (Wharton)
- Washington U. St. Louis (Olin)
- Thunderbird
- USC (Marshall)
- Northwestern (Kellogg)
- Notre Dame (Mendoza)
- NYU (Stern)
- Cornell (Johnson)
- Columbia
- North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)
- UCLA (Anderson)
- Texas, Austin (McCombs)
- Arizona State (W.P. Carey)
- Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Michigan (Ross)
- Chicago (Booth)
- Ohio State (Fisher)
- Cornell (Johnson) & Queen's U. joint program
- Rice (Jones)
- Boston U.
- Rutgers
- Maryland (Smith)
- Cal Berkeley (Haas) & Columbia joint program
- IE Business School
- Vanderbilt (Owen)
WSJ Methodology: The Wall Street Journal surveyed 3,060 recent graduates of 87 Executive MBA programs at 64 business schools with campuses in 18 countries. Also surveyed were 189 corporate human resources and executive development managers. The final rankings were derived by combining the alumni ratings (40% weight), the corporate ratings (40% weight) and alumni assessments of how the schools enhanced their skills (20% weight).
The Financial Times 2010 Executive MBA Program Rankings: These are the North American programs in the top 50 of the FT global rankings. Following each program name is its place in the overall rankings, in parentheses. Joint programs between North American and European or Asian institutions are not listed if they are located outside North America. These were published in the 10/25/2010 issue.
- Pennsylvania (Wharton) (8)
- Duke (Fuqua) (9)
- Cal Berkeley (Haas) & Columbia joint program (13)
- Columbia (15)
- NYU (Stern) (17)
- Northwestern (Kellogg) (20)
- Northwestern (Kellogg) & York (Skelich) joint program (23)
- Cornell (Johnson) (T24)
- Toronto (Rotman) (T29)
- Michigan (Ross) (31)
- Maryland (Smith) (36)
- UCLA (Anderson) (38)
- Boston U. (40)
- Rice (Jones) (T41)
- Emory (Goizueta) (T41)
- Temple (Fox) (43)
- Georgetown (McDonough) (46)
- U. of Alberta & U. of Calgary (Haskayne) (48)
Top North American EMBA Programs in Finance per the Financial Times:
- Chicago (Booth) (1)
- SMU (Cox) (3)
- Pennsylvania (Wharton) (4)
- Columbia (5)
- Ohio State (Fisher) (6)
FT Methodology: The FT surveys both the schools and alumni. A 20% response rate from alumni is required, for each graduating class. A minimum of 20 responses is also required, if a class is under 100. Data collected in 2010 is gven a 50% weight, while that from 2009 and 2008 are weighted 25% each. Salary gains and career progress since getting the EMBA constitute 50% of the final score. Diversity of staff, students and board members of the EMBA programs, as well as the number of languages used in the program (most use 1, and none of the 100 on the list more than 2), constitute 25% of the final score. Diversity is measured on both the male/female mix and the mix by country of residence or citizenship. The credentials of faculty (% with doctorates and number of articles published in leading journals) are the final major criteria.
