One thing about leadership is that you don’t just end up there by accident. Leaders are the people who have the drive, the skills, and the experience to take charge—and they show that drive long before they get to the head of the table.
The experience, both good and bad, is something you can pick up along the way. But the skills you need to be effective are only going to come through earning a college degree.
You’ll find a lot of options out there for degrees in organizational leadership. They’re offered at more than 370 accredited universities around the country, large and small, public and private, expensive and affordable. They’ll be offered with different concentrations and focus areas, and sometimes at radically different professional schools—schools of education and nursing, of business and engineering.
And they come at many different levels of the American college experience, from the entry-level bachelor’s degrees it takes to get started to the MBAs and other master’s degrees needed to advance.
The variety of different organizational leadership degrees is a huge benefit for future leaders. Among all those different programs, you’ll find the perfect match for your budget, your industry, and your interests.
But you may need some help finding it. And that’s where our editor’s selections come in.
We give you four general categories to start your search within:
There’s no question that leaders earn great rewards for their skills and efforts. But that doesn’t mean you start off with a silver spoon in your mouth. For people who have the drive and the heart to become a strong leader, but not the cash to cover tuition, it makes sense to start by looking at the most affordable high-quality organizational leadership programs available at accredited schools.
That’s what you will find on this list. We cover the whole spectrum of options, no matter what your career path or industry, from basic bachelor’s studies to advanced specialty programs like MBAs in Organizational Leadership. The list is drawn up state-by-state, so you can find something close to home, and we weigh public and private schools separately based on their separate state average total estimated tuition costs. With an outline of everything that makes these schools both unique and affordable, you’ll find some high-quality gems that won’t break the bank for your leadership training.
For students who are in a slightly more fortunate financial position, tuition costs may be a secondary consideration. And if that’s the case, then finding the best possible program, bar none, is your best bet to a long and lucrative leadership career.
If you want to get the right start on that path, then one of these undergraduate programs in organizational leadership will hit the mark. We include both public and private schools, marking out all the features that make them shine. Any one of them offers high-quality instructors, comprehensive leadership training, unique experiential or mentoring opportunities, and a shot at demonstrating your own quality and worth to future employers.
Choosing the very best master’s degree program in organizational leadership is a tough job even for seasoned managers and executives. By the time you hit the stage of your career where a graduate degree will be a game-changer, you already have some hard-won experience behind you. But you also have career goals based on the experience you’ve racked up. That will help narrow the field of options, but it makes picking the right degree more important than ever.
So to find the very best master’s-level programs in organizational leadership, this list is your first and last stop. We evaluate programs of almost every concentration, from every state. These schools graduate some of the most elite leaders in every sector, from non-profit, to government, to business… and they can put you in those same top ranks.
Because organizational leadership in the business world is often combined with the administrative and managerial demands of the private sector, MBA degrees with a concentration in organizational leadership offer their own unique take. So we’ve done the same thing, offering a select list that focuses exclusively on the very best MBAs in Organizational Leadership in the entire country.
It’s no secret that earning an MBA from the right business school can rocket your prospects right to the top in any industry. If you want to get your resume on top of the stack for the next executive position you apply for, an MBA from one of these programs will do the trick.
Finding the Right Fit for Your Organizational Leadership Degree Will Take More Than a List of Options to Choose From
Leadership requires initiative, and that means more than closing your eyes and stabbing a finger at these lists to decide what schools to apply to. You’ll need to engage in some of the same processes that great organizational leaders use to exercise their craft:
- Diligence and analysis
- Strategic thinking and planning
- Vision and creativity
So we’ve gone way beyond just tossing a bunch of names on a list in your direction. For each of these programs, we’re giving you the essential elements you’ll need to break down the options. That includes information like:
- Total cost of attendance, with a comparison to the state averages for schools in the same category on the most affordable list
- Formats in which the degree is offered, from traditional on-campus study to entirely online to hybrid options that blend both together
- Other leadership degree options offered at the same school at other levels of education
- The school within the university that offers the program, whether it’s a business or nursing or education school, or another field entirely
- The types of concentrations available for the degree
- A quick highlight reel of the major features that make the program unique—everything from special recognition from other big name evaluators to unique field experiences, symposiums, and projects you won’t find at any other school
On the other side of all this information, you’ll be well-prepared to make a decision about which program is best equipped to develop the leadership skills you need to make your vision a reality.