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What are the top colleges for finance in California?
Im a junior in high school and interested with finance.
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Justin Shapiro
Accounting | Finance | Financial Systems | Non-Profit Volunteer
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Justin’s Answer
Hi Braden,
I have a BBA & MBA in Finance so great choice :)
Here are some of the top colleges in California known for their finance programs:
University of California, Berkeley (Haas School of Business)
The Haas School offers a highly ranked undergraduate business program with finance specializations. It's known for a rigorous curriculum and strong connections to the finance industry, especially in tech finance.
University of Southern California (Marshall School of Business)
USC’s Marshall School is well-regarded for finance, with robust internship opportunities and alumni networks. Being in Los Angeles, it offers excellent access to finance internships and career paths.
University of California, Los Angeles (Anderson School of Management)
While primarily offering finance at the graduate level, UCLA’s undergraduate programs in economics and business economics are solid foundations for a career in finance.
Santa Clara University (Leavey School of Business)
Located in Silicon Valley, Leavey offers finance programs with a strong focus on real-world applications and connections to tech finance, venture capital, and investment banking.
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna is a top liberal arts college with a well-established Economics and Financial Economics department, offering close connections with finance industry professionals.
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Known for its hands-on learning approach, Cal Poly’s finance program offers a practical foundation in finance with strong placement in the finance and tech industries.
University of San Diego (Knauss School of Business)
USD’s Knauss School offers a finance program with good access to networking in Southern California’s finance industry, especially within wealth management and financial analysis.
If you're leaning towards finance, look into these programs' specializations, internship opportunities, and support networks to see what might fit your interests best!
I have a BBA & MBA in Finance so great choice :)
Here are some of the top colleges in California known for their finance programs:
University of California, Berkeley (Haas School of Business)
The Haas School offers a highly ranked undergraduate business program with finance specializations. It's known for a rigorous curriculum and strong connections to the finance industry, especially in tech finance.
University of Southern California (Marshall School of Business)
USC’s Marshall School is well-regarded for finance, with robust internship opportunities and alumni networks. Being in Los Angeles, it offers excellent access to finance internships and career paths.
University of California, Los Angeles (Anderson School of Management)
While primarily offering finance at the graduate level, UCLA’s undergraduate programs in economics and business economics are solid foundations for a career in finance.
Santa Clara University (Leavey School of Business)
Located in Silicon Valley, Leavey offers finance programs with a strong focus on real-world applications and connections to tech finance, venture capital, and investment banking.
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna is a top liberal arts college with a well-established Economics and Financial Economics department, offering close connections with finance industry professionals.
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Known for its hands-on learning approach, Cal Poly’s finance program offers a practical foundation in finance with strong placement in the finance and tech industries.
University of San Diego (Knauss School of Business)
USD’s Knauss School offers a finance program with good access to networking in Southern California’s finance industry, especially within wealth management and financial analysis.
If you're leaning towards finance, look into these programs' specializations, internship opportunities, and support networks to see what might fit your interests best!
Updated
Jackson’s Answer
Hey Braden,
There are a few colleges in California with quite a strong finance program. I highly recommend you have a conversation with ChatGPT to discuss what you're looking for in certain schools, your future goals, etc. As it will be a great tool to help you decide on which college to attend (I wish I had this tool when I was sending out applications as it can really help tailor its answers towards you for the best fit).
Anyways, based on my opinion there are a couple tiers/buckets of schools in California. To begin, I would say the tier 1 schools are UC Berkeley (Haas) and USC (Marshall). These are the schools where you will not only get a great education, but there are usually strong pipelines and recruiting into some of the top finance industries. You would consider these schools more "target" schools for finance jobs as the industry is quite competitive and the top jobs and elite firms recruit a strong majority of their employees from these programs. Basically, think jobs like investment banking which are harder to recruit for out of a smaller school.
It’s worth loosely thinking about what you want from your finance degree and what kind of job you might want after college. You don’t need to know for sure, but having a general idea can help you pick a school that gives you the right opportunities, connections, and academics to reach your goals.
Below this top tier, I would consider Santa Clara University (Leavey) and UC Irvine (Paul Merage) to be 2nd tier schools. I actually attended Santa Clara University and valued the smaller classrooms, which almost felt like bigger high school classes, so I could interact a lot more with professors and classmates. You can still land those top-tier jobs from these schools, but it usually requires more networking, building relationships, and being proactive about finding opportunities. At smaller schools like Santa Clara, fewer classmates are chasing the same competitive finance roles, making it easier to connect with professors, career services, and alumni, whereas larger target schools have more competition but also more direct recruiting pipelines and on-campus opportunities. I was also able to join a lot of high profile clubs on campus and work my way up to leadership positions in them, so I think that if you can still take advantage of the opportunities on campus at these schools, you can definitely benefit more from their program.
Beyond that, there are a few other schools to consider as well like USD, Cal Poly, LMU, and others which also have great finance programs that I would consider in a similar bucket to santa clara and UC irvine. Also, schools like UCLA or UC San Diego don’t have dedicated undergraduate finance programs, but strong economics or business economics majors paired with internships can still lead to top finance roles. Also, since I only attended one of these schools, this rankings list is based on opinion and I think you should do some more research online too.
I think that you should really consider a few other factors as well when you are picking your program. For example, for me, I based a large portion of my decision around the affordability of college and I decided to attend the school that offered me the most money. College is a huge expense and you should really consider the cost of everything, especially when thinking about how that college will help you get to the career that you desire. Its important to also think about things like private vs. public colleges. Also, location is pretty important too, as school's in a specific region usually have stronger ties and connections to jobs in that area as well. That's partly why I went to Santa Clara as I was interested in working in the Bay Area.
All in all, I think that you should consider many aspects before deciding on a college. Also, I believe in casting a wide net and applying to a lot of schools that you are interested in to just see what they offer you.
Also, talk to people from these colleges if you can! See what they enjoy and don't enjoy about the school and the finance program.
And, use chatgpt!
There are a few colleges in California with quite a strong finance program. I highly recommend you have a conversation with ChatGPT to discuss what you're looking for in certain schools, your future goals, etc. As it will be a great tool to help you decide on which college to attend (I wish I had this tool when I was sending out applications as it can really help tailor its answers towards you for the best fit).
Anyways, based on my opinion there are a couple tiers/buckets of schools in California. To begin, I would say the tier 1 schools are UC Berkeley (Haas) and USC (Marshall). These are the schools where you will not only get a great education, but there are usually strong pipelines and recruiting into some of the top finance industries. You would consider these schools more "target" schools for finance jobs as the industry is quite competitive and the top jobs and elite firms recruit a strong majority of their employees from these programs. Basically, think jobs like investment banking which are harder to recruit for out of a smaller school.
It’s worth loosely thinking about what you want from your finance degree and what kind of job you might want after college. You don’t need to know for sure, but having a general idea can help you pick a school that gives you the right opportunities, connections, and academics to reach your goals.
Below this top tier, I would consider Santa Clara University (Leavey) and UC Irvine (Paul Merage) to be 2nd tier schools. I actually attended Santa Clara University and valued the smaller classrooms, which almost felt like bigger high school classes, so I could interact a lot more with professors and classmates. You can still land those top-tier jobs from these schools, but it usually requires more networking, building relationships, and being proactive about finding opportunities. At smaller schools like Santa Clara, fewer classmates are chasing the same competitive finance roles, making it easier to connect with professors, career services, and alumni, whereas larger target schools have more competition but also more direct recruiting pipelines and on-campus opportunities. I was also able to join a lot of high profile clubs on campus and work my way up to leadership positions in them, so I think that if you can still take advantage of the opportunities on campus at these schools, you can definitely benefit more from their program.
Beyond that, there are a few other schools to consider as well like USD, Cal Poly, LMU, and others which also have great finance programs that I would consider in a similar bucket to santa clara and UC irvine. Also, schools like UCLA or UC San Diego don’t have dedicated undergraduate finance programs, but strong economics or business economics majors paired with internships can still lead to top finance roles. Also, since I only attended one of these schools, this rankings list is based on opinion and I think you should do some more research online too.
I think that you should really consider a few other factors as well when you are picking your program. For example, for me, I based a large portion of my decision around the affordability of college and I decided to attend the school that offered me the most money. College is a huge expense and you should really consider the cost of everything, especially when thinking about how that college will help you get to the career that you desire. Its important to also think about things like private vs. public colleges. Also, location is pretty important too, as school's in a specific region usually have stronger ties and connections to jobs in that area as well. That's partly why I went to Santa Clara as I was interested in working in the Bay Area.
All in all, I think that you should consider many aspects before deciding on a college. Also, I believe in casting a wide net and applying to a lot of schools that you are interested in to just see what they offer you.
Also, talk to people from these colleges if you can! See what they enjoy and don't enjoy about the school and the finance program.
And, use chatgpt!