Top 10 US-Based MBA Programs for Low Work Experience

A Boston-based business school to consider if you're short on work experience is Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, where student have 3.3 years' work experience on average. The school was ranked among the top 100 US-based business schools by Businessweek and the MBA program includes a six-month paid corporate residency.

MBA students at the Trulaske College of Business have about two-and-a-half years' work experience, on average. The school's location in Columbia, Missouri offers access to the city's main industries, which are education, health care and the insurance industry.

The level of work experience for MBA students at Argyros School of Business and Economics ranges for one to four years. The AACSB-accredited school's location in Orange County, with proximity to Los Angeles, offers plentiful networking opportunities. The school's full-time MBA includes concentrations in finance or marketing, plus an optional study program in Europe.

On the Jenkins MBA at NCSU, students have, on average, two years' work experience on arrival. The AACSB-accredited program offers concentrations in financial management, supply chain and marketing, as well as more diverse topics like biosciences. The program was ranked 70th in Businessweek's ranking of the top US business schools in 2017, while the school's Online MBA was ranked among the world's top 20 by the Financial Times.

Rollins College's Crummer Graduate School of Business is also home to an MBA program aimed at those wanting to get on with an MBA earlier in their careers. There is no work experience requirement on the Early Advantage MBA, and students have just 12 months' experience, on average. This program was named among the top MBAs in Florida by FIND MBA.

The Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon offers a dedicated Early Career MBA. On average, students have about one year of work experience when they arrive, and this program caters specifically to people like them. The AACSB-accredited school was ranked among the top US b-schools for an MBA by Businessweek.

Another relatively affordable MBA program is that of the University of Oklahoma's Michael F. Price College of Business. FIND MBA has named the school among the top b-schools for concentrations in energy. Here students have about two-and-a-half years' work experience, on average.

Located in upstate New York, the Whitman School of Management is home to a full-time MBA that's ranked in Businessweek. On average, incoming students to the MBA have just 28 months of work experience.

The Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University in Waco, Texas was named one of the top b-schools in the state by FIND MBA. Ranked among the top 100 MBAs in the US by Businessweek, students have, on average, just 22 months' work experience when they arrive. This school is also AACSB accredited.

The upstate New York university's School of Management is home to an MBA program that is AACSB accredited. The program was ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek among the top 50 US MBAs in 2017, and as a top New York business school by FIND MBA. This MBA program is both an affordable choice, and welcomes applicants with just two years' work experience.