Best Undergraduate Degrees for Business

You don’t have to be a prodigy to begin an early foray into your area of interest. At least that’s what we can say about getting an early start on your business aspirations. Heavily overshowed by its celebrity older sibling, the MBA or the other Master’s degrees in the field, the undergraduate business degree still manages to do quite well for itself.

According to a salary survey (source) by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), conducted in 2020, the median starting salary of a Bachelor’s graduate in the field of Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, is $58,000.

This is among the top undergraduate salaries along with other disciplines such as Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Sciences, and Engineering. Mid-career salaries for individuals with an undergraduate business degree can be upwards of $70,000. Read MBA Starting Salaries and MBA Mid-Career Salaries.

An undergraduate training in business encompasses a range of subjects that provide a basic initiation into the discipline. Besides the high dollar returns on employment, it is an excellent platform to gain entry into the field and build on the expertize through the years of experience afforded by the head start. Even without direct corporate business aspirations, you can use an undergraduate training to enhance your acumen for other unrelated fields such as non-profit organizations, or even social economic ventures. Also read How to get into the top universities in the world for an undergraduate degree and Top Universities in the world, for Undergraduate Studies.

Most undergraduate business degrees, especially the Bachelors of Business Administration, have a similar structure of training as its post graduate counterpart, albeit in a more fundamentally basic format. Related fields, such as the ones we will be elaborating on below, also provide a sound business education to build upon through subsequent work experience.

On top of all the rest of the goodness, an undergraduate business degree allows for great financial returns for the relatively low cost of education compared to the showstopper MBA. The lack of student debts, and the additional years of work opportunity, makes the undergraduate business, or business related, degree quite valuable.

As mentioned before, undergraduate business degrees are not limited to the bachelor’s version of the MBA, namely BBA. There are associated areas of study that can increase your aptitude for business.

In the present article, we will attempt to talk about all those fields in some detail, their concentration, career opportunities, and some of the well-known universities, if known, that offer these subjects for your taking. Also read List of MBA Specializations.

Best Undergraduate Degrees for Business

 

Accounting

A professional degree, allowing graduates to pursue a career in accounting. The degree concentrates on the concepts of keeping track of financial information of an entity – individual or an organization.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in USA, the majority of accountancy majors are employed in professional, scientific, and technical services, followed by retail and wholesale trade, healthcare and social assistance, and finally in finance and insurance firms. They are generally employed in one of the following designations – Trainee Accountant, Bookkeeping Clerk, Accountant, Auditor, Financial Analyst, Budget Analyst, Taxation Accountant, Forensic Accountant, and other positions requiring the quantitative, and record keeping, skills required in the profession.

Typical curriculum involves an introduction to financial accounting – how the information will impact planning and decision-making, resource allocation, resource acquisition, budgeting, cost-volume-profit analysis, costing, contribution margins, etc.

Students are taught how to conduct financial reporting in corporations, understand the economics underlying common business transactions. They are also trained in taxation, investment planning, profit planning, etc. Quantitative methods and accounting ethics, the essentials in an accountant toolbox, are also part of accountancy education. An undergraduate training in finance accompanies most curricula. Read about Accounting Concepts, Principles and Basic Terms.

Some of the best schools, according to the US News Undergraduate Accounting Program Rankings 2022, are tabulated below.

University of Texas Austin	University of Illinois
Brigham Young University	University of Notre Dame
University of Michigan- Ann Arbor	Indiana University
University of Pennsylvania	Ohio State University
University of Southern California	New York University

 

Actuarial Science

More commonly offered by the Mathematics, and Statistics, departments, Actuarial Science leads its students to assess cost of risk, and uncertainty, in finance, insurance, and other corporations. Actuarial majors follow a career as Risk Analysts, Insurance Underwriters, consultants, Financial Analysts, and more.

According to the BLS, Actuarial graduates earn a cushy median salary of over $100,000, with an ever-increasing demand, for their likes, in the job market. Their curriculum involves Data Analysis and other quantitative concepts, theories of interests, discounts, annuities, perpetuities, bonds, etc.

Some of the popular study destinations, for a degree in Actuarial Science, include the following.

Purdue University	Milwaukee School of Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University	Ohio State University
Temple University	University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas Dallas	State University of New York – Albany
Florida State University	University of Wisconsin

 

Advertising/Public Relations

Advertising keeps a successful business afloat. It involves understanding consumer behavior, the target market, brand management, and designing ad campaigns using modern tools such as the paper media, internet, and the newly popular social media.

Its close kin, often provided as a joint interdisciplinary program as Bachelor’s in Public Relations, focuses on marketing a company, and its products, by creating a widespread marketable image.

Generally offered by the department of Mass Media and Communications, their curriculums involve courses in various forms of communication – mass, business, corporate and organizational – marketing strategies, public service communication, ad campaigning, creative concepts, copyrighting, media law, media relations, AD/PR design and multimedia production, etc. BLS quotes an average salary of close to $120,000 for management professionals in Advertising and Promotions. Public Relations specialists can make close to $60,000 a year. With more experience, and networking clients, most specialists venture into entrepreneurship and establish independent firms with far more financial benefits.

Some popular schools for Advertising or Public Relations are listed.

University of Southern California – Annenberg	University of Wisconsin
University of Texas Austin	London School of Economics
Michigan State University	University of California Los Angeles
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign	Ohio State University
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill	Pennsylvania State University

 

Economics

An economics degree needs no introduction. It is the study of production, distribution, and consumption, of goods and services. The field uses the concepts of demand, and supply, and the interaction of economic agents, typically the buyer and seller of goods and services. The range of this study can vary from microeconomics, analyzing small scale interactions, to macroeconomics, analyzing an aggregate economy and its issues.

Students with an undergraduate economics degree go on to follow a career path in academia, global businesses, government, finance, consulting, law.Salaries, with an economics specialization, can range from $50,000 to well over $100,000, according to Payscale. Typical curriculum trains undergraduatesin various levels of Microeconomics, and Macroeconomics. Other courses include Public Policy, Financial Markets, Economic Applications and Game Theory, Psychology and Economics, Market Design, Mathematical Economic Modeling, E-Commerce, Economics of Incentives, Health, Urban, Labor, Information, Regulation, Growth, Economics, etc.Read Introduction to Economics: Basic Concepts and Principles.

Some of the top schools are listed below, according to QS.

MIT	Harvard University
Stanford University	University of California Berkeley
London School of Economics	Princeton University
University of Chicago	Yale University
Columbia University	Oxford University

 

Finance

Finance, another popular undergraduate degree specialization, is covered together with most Economics undergraduate programs. It spans a wide range of finance related studies, analyzing money-matters from corporations, to global scales. Students study financial management, capital markets, investments, derivative securities, mergers and acquisitions, behavioral finance, and more.

Career options include employment as Financial Analysts, Managers, and Planners, Security Analysts, and more. Popular employers are banks, financial trading, insurance, consultancies, hedge funds, and even government agencies. Salaries are commensurate of the skills involved in managing the big bucks, with Financial Analysts making over $80,000 and Financial Managers well over $120,000, according to the BLS. Read Introduction to Finance.

Some of the top schools for an extensive undergraduate training in Finance (US News) are,

University of Michigan Ann Arbor	University of Pennsylvania
Boston College	New York University
MIT	University of Texas at Austin
University of California Berkeley	Indiana University Bloomington
Carnegie Mellon University	University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

 

Operations Management

This discipline trains undergraduates in the design and management of business processes. Students learn the skills, including mathematical tools, to optimize resources, and operations, for the development of goods and services required by customers. Typical curriculums involve an education in Manufacturing Process Management, Service Operations Management, Management Science, Mathematical Modeling, Retail Supply Chain Management, Product Development, Decision Processes, Management Information Systems, Logistics, Manufacturing and Transportation, Project Management, and more.

Graduates generally follow a career path in manufacturing industries in purchasing, supply chain management, inventory, human resource management, production management, quality control, etc.

Salaries, as from BLS, indicates relatively decent returns on a bachelor’s degree investment. Production Managers, Human Resource Managers, and Logisticians earn from about $70,000 to over $100,000. Read all about Production and Operations Management.

Best schools for an undergrad degree in Operations Management are,

MIT	University of Pennsylvania
Carnegie Mellon University	University of Michigan
Purdue University	Arizona State University
Indiana University Bloomington	Michigan State University
University of Texas Austin	Ohio State University

 

Business Management

A bachelor’s degree in business management provides a professional training in business functioning. The structure is similar to an MBA, with emphasis on development of a student’s understanding, and decision-making, ability. Management training is imparted as part of a Bachelor’s in Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a quantitative focus (BSBA), Bachelors in Management Science, Bachelor of Business Management Studies (BBM) with a stronger emphasis on leadership and management skills, or the Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) with focus on management training. Some schools even offer a Bachelors of Commerce with a management concentration.

The specializations are similar to an MBA program with choices ranging from Accounting, Finance, Operations and Information Management, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Economics, Organizational Behavior, Business Law, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Information Technology, Real Estate, Healthcare, Hospitality, and many more.

Employment scales a wide range of opportunities as Brand Manager, Marketing Assistant, Systems Analyst, Financial Analyst, Auditor, Investment Consultant, etc. Median Salaries, from some of the top programs like Emory Goizueta’s BBA, are in the north side of $75,000 with over 90% placement rate.

Some of the top undergraduate business schools (QS) are listed below.

Harvard University	INSEAD
London Business School	MIT
Bocconi University	University of Cambridge
HEC Paris	Stanford University
University of Pennsylvania	London School of Economics

On top of the specializations, covered above, there are undergraduate degrees that concentrate on providing a healthy understanding in Real Estate, Health Care Management, Hospitality Management, Information Technology, Business Analytics, and Business Law. The list can go on based on the preferences of independent university curricula.

So, before you start getting overwhelmed by the breadth of information for your Bachelor’s aspirations, we recommend you to focus on your area of interest and explore the possibilities. Chances are, you will find your niche sooner and will know exactly what you want from your postgraduate studies, once MBA comes calling.

Also read,

• Best Undergraduate Business Schools in the World
• Undergraduate B-Schools with the highest salaries
• Undergraduate Business School with the best Placement
• Undergraduate Business School Acceptance Rates
• How to get into Stanford University
• Types of jobs after MBA in Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Technology
• Common Application, for Undergraduate Admissions in USA – Process, Guidelines, Fees, etc
• Rejected by your dream university?
• Best Undergraduate Business Schools for Finance, Accounting, Investment Banking (Wall Street), Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Consulting
• Do I need an undergraduate business degree for an MBA?

Sources:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14