What Are The Highest Paid MBA Salaries in San Diego?
If you’re looking to take in the California sun but avoid the fast-paced and high-priced centers of Silicon Valley or Los Angeles, heading southward to San Diego may be the perfect place for an up-and-coming business professional. Recently named the eighth best big city to live in the U.S., based on livability, education, health, and a strong local economy, San Diego is increasingly becoming the perfect spot for business students looking to advance their education and start a career. Not only is San Diego the perfect spot for those breaking into well-established fields within business, but it has also been ranked by Forbes as the best city to start a new business in the U.S. Demonstrating heavy concentrations in areas that predict high growth combined with adaptability to new business methods and tech make San Diego the perfect place for young entrepreneurs to put their education to work.
Of course, a city can really only top the list for business students if it can offer quality educations and high-value degrees. In a state with a notoriously high cost of living, students thinking about pursuing a degree in San Diego will want to be sure their investment is worth it.
Thankfully, San Diego offers a number of quality business schools with graduates that are able to quickly turn their degree into a high salary and promising career. Let’s take a closer look at the business schools with the highest post-graduate salaries for MBAs in San Diego.
Rady School of Management – UC San Diego
According to the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego Class of 2017 Employment Report for full-time MBA graduates, the overall salary average for MBA students was $84,335, with a majority of graduates finding jobs in San Diego’s ever-emerging technology industry. Tech-based companies actively hiring recent Rady MBAs include Amazon, HP, IBM, and San Diego’s own Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, among others.
Not only are the post-MBA salaries high for Rady graduates, but so is the likelihood that graduates will secure a job. About 82 percent of graduates had secured a job within just three months of graduating, and 10 percent started their very own company—reflective of San Diego’s entrepreneurial environment.
University of San Diego School of Business Administration
The average salary for graduates from The University of San Diego School of Business Administration is $72,363, with a true range of salaries anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 per year. Within just three months after graduation from the School of Business, 83 percent of MBA students would find employment, covering a wide range of industries from technology (40 percent) to consulting (20 percent) and consumer products (20 percent). Top companies such as Amazon, Deloitte, Intel, and Hewlett Packard have hired USD MBA graduates.
Fowler College of Business Administration – SDSU
The Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University also boasts some of the highest MBA salaries in San Diego. More than two-thirds of graduates from the full-time MBA program at Fowler would find jobs or promotions within three months after earning their MBA, with an average salary of $61,467. Graduates were spread through a number of industries and professional functions, the most significant percentage working in business development/sales and within the Technology/IT/Information Systems fields. Following graduation, Fowler students found jobs with some of the country’s top brands, such as The Gap Inc., GEICO, HSBC Group, and PepsiCo Inc.
For prospective MBA students looking to get paid out west, you can check out our overview of the highest paid MBA salaries in Los Angeles and San Francisco as well.
Semi-Retired Fowler College Professor Honored With Scholarship
Faculty can’t just walk away Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University. The school’s got a hold on them. At least that was the case for Finance Professor Mehdi Salehizadeh.
The professor retired in May 2017 after 37 years at the school, a press release reads, but he’ll actually be around campus this year, too. Salehizadeh agreed to stay with a school just a little bit longer while Fowler finds a replacement for The Corky McMillin Center for Real Estate. So for now, he’ll be its interim director until a full-time director is hired.
Given the semi-retired professor’s commitment to the business school, it’s now honoring him with a scholarship in Salehizadeh’s name with the Mehdi Salehizadeh Legacy Endowed Scholarship. The hope is that the scholarship would be $4,000 given to two students or $2,000 to four students every year. But the school must raise the money first. Ideally, $100,000 to be matched by the school, said Scott Brusseau, chair of the center’s advisory board.
Salehizadeh knew what kind of student to whom he wanted to gift such a scholarship. Here are the basics. The student’s got to be a junior who’s majoring in finance or real estate. This student must have a minimum 3.0 GPA. And, obviously, this person’s must be enrolled with the Fowler College of Business. There’s even the potential for the scholarship to give priority to first-generation college students who face obstacles different than their peers whose parents have attended college.
Center Coordinator Melissa Abeyta thought up the scholarship in conversation with Brusseau. She knew she wanted to honor the professor’s legacy with Fowler but wasn’t quite sure how.
“The scholarship was a great way to thank him for all he’s given to SDSU, for sustaining The Corky McMillin Center for Real Estate and his leadership within the Fowler College of Business,” Abeyta said.
The first scholarships were given out for this school year, 2017-18
San Diego Fowler College Alumni Join School as new Faculty
Three former students at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University have officially joined the business school as new professors.
Dr. Aaron Elkins (’03), Dr. Valerie Alexandra (’98), and Dr. Robert Briggs (’86) are returning to their alma mater to continue the school’s legacy, according to a recent press release. The three sat on the podium during their respective graduation ceremonies, receiving honors as top management information systems (MIS) undergraduates.
Their former professors played a major role in shaping them as professionals, and now as professors. Alexandra and Elkins will now be teaching alongside some of their most influential educators, Dr. Theo Addo and Dr. Bruce Reinig, respectively.
Briggs decided to return to the university as a professor because the university’s hard work toward becoming a leader inspired him. Briggs not only holds his MIS degree; he’s also an MBA graduate and art history buff. That was another one of his undergraduate degrees.
“When I was a student here in the ‘80s, SDSU was a regional commuter campus committed to excellent teaching,” Briggs said in the press release. “Now, SDSU also conducts nearly one-third of the grand-funded research for the entire CSU system and aspires to contribute even more. I wanted to be a part of that. I came back to help build research programs based on real-world issues that actually make a difference in the lives of real people.”
Alexandra, on the other hand, wants to give back to the community in the same way it gave to her—by teaching management. “When I joined SDSU as a student, I felt that I became a part of a diverse, thriving, creative, and caring community. The professors I met in my undergraduate program have been incredible mentors and instrumental in my academic and professional careers,” she said. “I came back to SDSU as a professor so that I could personally contribute on an everyday basis to the growth and development of our wonderful community.”
As for Elkins, he “came back for the people.”
Your Guide to the Best Marketing MBA Programs in San Diego
The San Diego metro is home to some of the country’s best weather and finest defense, tourism, international trade and research/manufacturing sectors. But “The Plymouth of the West” is also gaining notoriety as a rapidly growing digital marketing hub. Continue reading…
SDSU Fowler Welcomes New Dean Lance Nail
The Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University has named a new dean: Lance Nail, Ph.D. Nail was the previous dean of the business school at Texas Tech University as well as the business school at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has also served as the founding chairman of the board of advisors for the Texas Tech University Innovation Hub and Research Park. Continue reading…
San Diego State Sports MBA Program Discuss Baseball
Sports business can be complicated, particularly when discussing global growth. At least that’s what Chris Park, Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Senior Vice President for Growth, Strategy & International, had to say at a recent event hosted in San Diego and attended by SDSU Sports MBA students. In his talk, Park explained that doing business internationally means that “you are always the road team,” a challenging prospect. Continue reading…
