AdminSecret

Education >> Browse Articles >> Education Paths

Associate and Bachelor Degrees in Business Administration

Do you wind up the leader of almost every group project you get involved in? Do other people frequently ask you for financial advice? Do you watch “The Apprentice” and similar TV shows and say to yourself, “I could do better than all these people”? You might never get to be the president of a multi-billion-dollar company, but businesses all over the world need people with managerial and financial skills. They can promote non-managerial employees into management or positions of financial responsibility. If you get training in business administration, you’ll have skills that firms everywhere are looking for.

Whether you’re finishing high school and want an important, rewarding career, or you’ve been working for a few years and want to improve your prospects, a business degree can be the avenue to fulfilling your dreams.

What are starting salaries like for people with a BA in Business Administration?

Starting Median Salary: $43,000
Mid-career Median Salary: $72,100
Source: Payscale

Curriculum

To earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration, students generally need to complete a “business core,” a term given to the group of classes every business administration student is required to complete. A degree is then rounded out with general education requirements (such as history, science, and English) and business electives. Most bachelor degree programs take four years to complete, though there are accelerated program options at many colleges and universities.

Associate degrees are also offered for business administration majors. Generally, an associate degree program lasts two years and is comprised of the business core and electives. This program does not include general education requirements.

Here are some of the subjects you might learn if you choose to study business:

• You will be called on to write memos and reports, give presentations, and much more. Business communication & correspondence polishes your verbal and written skills to a professional level.

• Economics is the science of money and the distribution of resources; microeconomics examines the economy on the personal and small-business scale, while macroeconomics examines the economy on a big-business and government-policy scale.

• Finance teaches you how the banking, capital, and debt markets work; how to use them to raise money for your firm; and how to wisely use that money through budgeting, cash-flow and risk analysis.

• Study accounting to understand how to track and report your company’s financial activity, and how to use those reports as a basis for business decisions.

• Courses in Leadership and organizational behavior show you how individuals and groups function in an organization, how to set goals for an organization, and how to lead and motivate the organization’s people and groups toward those goals.

---