UC Davis Online MBA Ranks in Top 20 of Poets&Quants' 2024 List of Best in U.S.

The UC Davis Online MBA program, the first and only online MBA in the University of California system, has been ranked among the top 20 for the second consecutive year in Poets&Quants 2024 list of “The Best Online MBA Programs in the U.S."

Poets&Quants, a leading online platform for business education news, released its seventh annual list of top online MBAs on November 27, 2023. This was the second time UC Davis submitted information to Poets&Quants for ranking purposes.

The UC Davis Online MBA moved up one spot overall to No. 19 nationwide.

UC Davis Stands Out in Survey of Online MBA Graduates

Two out of three categories in Poets&Quants annual ranking of online MBA programs relies on responses to surveys sent to more than 9,000 recent alumni at 51 ranked schools (see full methodology). The survey asked more than a dozen questions about their academic experience. Responses from UC Davis Online MBA grads ranked high in many of the factors, including:

No. 8 for recent graduates' satisfaction with their ability to immediately apply what they learned in the program to their job.

No. 16 for career outcomes for alumni based on promotions, salary increases, quality of school's career services and quality of the professional network.

In addition, among the online MBA programs on the West Coast ranked by Poets&Quants, the UC Davis Online MBA rated among the top 5 in several categories, including:

• No. 2 for the level of satisfaction in participating in consulting project.
• No. 3 for those who would recommend the program to a colleague, friend or family member.
• No. 3 for quality and accessibility and responsiveness of professors. 
• No. 3 for satisfaction with ability to participate in and learn from doing presentations.
• No. 4 for satisfaction with in-person meetings and residentials.

Launched in fall of 2019, the UC Davis Online MBA program has nearly 400 current students from more than 26 states and over 400 alumni. It is one of four MBA formats offered at UC Davis, which include nationally ranked Full-Time MBA in Davis and Part-Time MBA programs in Sacramento, Calif. and the San Francisco Bay Area in San Ramon. 

This Poets&Quants ranking follows the debut of the UC Davis Online MBA program at No. 10 in the Americas region in the latest QS rankings released on September 27, 2023.

Poets&Quants Methodology and Core Results

Overall, the UC Davis Online MBA scored 74.39 of 100 possible points.

 Poets&Quants based its seventh annual online MBA ranking on three core dimensions:

• Admissions Standards
  • UC Davis Online MBA ranked No. 26 with 51.46 points
• Academic Experience
  • UC Davis Online MBA ranked No. 24 with 81.45 points
• Career Impact
  • UC Davis Online MBA ranked No. 16 with 71.11 points

Admissions standards come from a school survey, while academic experience and career support come from an alumni survey. Among the 51 schools to participate, Poets&Quants sent an alumni survey to 9,080 graduates. Of those, 1,512  responded for an overall response rate of about 17%—down slightly from the 18% achieved the past two years.

Poets&Quants wrote that their methodology remained virtually identical to last year’s methodology, except for one change: "We included alumni data from the previous two alumni classes, rather than just one, whenever it was available. The most recent data (Class of 2023) was weighted 50% of the alumni scores while data from the Classes of 2022 and 2021 were weighted 25% each. (Schools that did not previously participate and, hence, did not have alumni data, were given the same scores for all three years.)"

Learn more about the Poets&Quants 2024 Rankings and read the methodology.

About Poets&Quants

Poets&Quants is the leading resource for complete coverage of graduate business education. It feature multiple tools and authoritative content, including consolidated B-school rankings, news and in-depth features, videos, podcasts, two searchable directories, and events, empowering its community with information needed to make decisions along their journey from pre- to post-MBA.