The Best Executive M.B.A. Programs by the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal has ranked the 25 top executive MBA programs for 2010. The list might surprise you because you're not going to see some top-tier schools like Harvard or MIT on that list. 

Here are the top 5 from that list of EMBA programs:

1. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
2. Washington University in St. Louis (Olin)
3. Thunderbird School of Global Management
4. University of Southern California (Marshall)
5. Northwestern University (Kellogg)

When you glance at the list of these top 25 programs, take a look at the last column. It's titled, "Total Program Cost." If you sort by cost, you'll see that Arizona State University (W.P. Carey) comes in at the low end ($67,440) and University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) comes in at the high end ($167,250).

I've been thinking about business school for several years, but I have to admit that it's very difficult to justify spending that kind of money. It's one thing if you have an employer that is willing to cover the tuition. It's another thing if you're going to fund your own education. It would be nice to see some tuition reductions during a recession when many executives are unemployed.

You can see the full list of EMBA programs ranked by the Wall Street Journal here.