Part of Ivy-League Cornell University, Samuel Curtis Johnson School of Management offers a versatile MBA program with distinctive value in several areas. With its serene Ithaca campus in upstate New York, Cornell’s Johnson MBA program thrives on a collaborative spirit evidenced in its ranking as the best campus environment in the US by the Princeton Review. Further enhancing the sense of community is the small size of the program, which is kept at about 300 participants. Cornell students need not forgo big-city opportunities; the university’s tech campus in Roosevelt Island, Manhattan offers plenty of options, from a few courses to an entire semester spent in the Big Apple.
Johnson offers a two-year MBA along with a one-year Tech MBA, both of which carry a STEM designation. Choices abound when it comes to curriculum too, as students can pursue any number of 12 areas of focus, as well as choose from more than 4,000 electives throughout Cornell. As far as career assistance is concerned, Johnson stands out as the program with the best career prospects among US business schools, as evidenced by its Princeton Review ranking.
In terms of employment, the top two sectors for the MBA class of 2021 were finance and consulting, which attracted 36% and 27% of graduates, respectively, with tech coming in third at 17%. Notably, Johnson dispatched the second highest percentage of its class to investment banking of all US programs, 25%. 51% of graduates found employment in the Northeast, 13% in the West, and the rest spread throughout the US and globally in single-digit percentages.
Notable Cornell Johnson alumni include Ken Derr (Retired Chairman and CEO of Chevron, MBA 1960), Ann Chow (CEO of AT&T Business, MBA 1988), Ian Kline (President and CEO of The Cadmus Group, MBA 1992) and Paul Kavuma (Founder and CEO of Catalyst Principal Partners, MBA 1993).
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Large City
100
1,000
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Structured
30%
90%
10,000
110,000
680
740
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Top 5
$100,000
$175,000
