What Can I Do with a Business Administration Degree?

Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion is a broad and diverse field of study. Because of that, the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion def­i­n­i­tion can some­times vary depend­ing on how the term is applied and what it’s applied to. Gen­er­al­ly, the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion def­i­n­i­tion will often mean hav­ing a gen­er­al or spe­cial­ized knowl­edge of busi­ness prac­tices, prin­ci­ples, and philosophies.

But the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion def­i­n­i­tion can also depend on the busi­ness degree type as busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion often refers to the type of degree rather than to a spe­cif­ic named posi­tion. For exam­ple, an appli­cant choos­ing to take up busi­ness cours­es may won­der what is busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion and man­age­ment, as these two things, admin­is­tra­tion and man­age­ment, aren’t always the same.

Is a Business Administration Degree a Good Investment?

All that said, is a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree good? Is a busi­ness man­age­ment degree good? Are they the same thing? When ask­ing what is busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion and man­age­ment, it’s impor­tant to look at the cur­ricu­lum. The terms are often used inter­change­ably, and some degree types may even include both words.

The major dif­fer­ence is that busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion tends to deal more with man­ag­ing a busi­ness on a more tech­ni­cal lev­el. Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion has a larg­er focus on back-office activ­i­ties and day-to-day run­ning of the busi­ness or a spe­cif­ic aspect of the busi­ness. Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion grad­u­ates will work to improve the effi­cien­cy of a busi­ness and help it achieve long-term goals.

By con­trast, busi­ness man­age­ment tends to deal more with the man­age­r­i­al aspects of deal­ing with per­son­nel and the more human aspects of a busi­ness. As these two types of busi­ness degrees con­tain a lot of over­lap, appli­cants should always make sure they study the cur­ricu­lum and ask ques­tions before pur­su­ing a busi­ness degree.

In some cas­es, these degrees have ele­ments of both admin­is­tra­tion and man­age­ment, so appli­cants can also choose to pur­pose­ful­ly pur­sue such degrees rather than spe­cial­ize in one aspect of busi­ness over anoth­er. For those who won­der is a busi­ness man­age­ment degree good, it will have a lot to do with their goals.

Man­age­ment and admin­is­tra­tion can often go hand-in-hand, so many of the ben­e­fits of study­ing busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion are some of the same ben­e­fits that come from study­ing busi­ness man­age­ment. Still, the ben­e­fits of study­ing busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion can eas­i­ly answer the ques­tion of is busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion a good major.

Some of those ben­e­fits include the abil­i­ty to take on oppor­tu­ni­ties in vir­tu­al­ly any type of busi­ness in any sec­tor or indus­try. That includes non­prof­its, for-prof­its, pri­vate, and pub­lic oppor­tu­ni­ties. Peo­ple who want to start their own busi­ness­es and entre­pre­neurs of any type can also ben­e­fit great­ly from a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree.

Busi­ness can look com­plex and com­pli­cat­ed which makes peo­ple ask if a busi­ness degree is hard. As with any type of high­er learn­ing, as long as stu­dents put in the work and take their degree seri­ous­ly, they’ll find it’s no more dif­fi­cult than any oth­er type of aca­d­e­m­ic pursuit.

What Types of Accreditations Should a Business Administration Program or School Have?

There are a lot of schools and pro­grams out there offer­ing busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degrees. One of the best ways to nar­row down the options is to pay close atten­tion to the school or program’s accred­i­ta­tion sta­tus. This is espe­cial­ly true for busi­ness degrees, as there are some types of accred­i­ta­tions for busi­ness that have a wider recog­ni­tion than others.

Accred­i­ta­tion from a rec­og­nized and respect­ed agency means the school or pro­gram has vol­un­tar­i­ly allowed its meth­ods and cur­ricu­lum to go under the scruti­ny of accred­it­ing bod­ies. Those accred­it­ing bod­ies usu­al­ly con­sist of pro­fes­sion­als in the field and oth­ers who set edu­ca­tion, qual­i­ty, and cur­ricu­lum standards.

For busi­ness schools and pro­grams, there are two main types of accred­i­ta­tions to look out for. Those two are region­al accred­i­ta­tion and spe­cial­ized accreditation.

Region­al accred­i­ta­tion comes from one of the region­al groups rec­og­nized by the US Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion. These groups tend to give accred­i­ta­tion to schools and facil­i­ties, rather than to indi­vid­ual pro­grams with­in the school.

This type of accred­i­ta­tion is a good start­ing point for appli­cants look­ing at schools, as these are the most rec­og­nized types of accred­i­ta­tion. That rec­og­niz­able sta­tus also means stu­dents can have an eas­i­er time trans­fer­ring cred­its should they need to.

Nev­er­the­less, for busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degrees, appli­cants should also look for spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion sta­tus from groups that specif­i­cal­ly accred­it busi­ness pro­grams. Region­al accred­i­ta­tion can help some­one find a good school, but it doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean the school will have an excel­lent busi­ness program.

There are sev­er­al busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion groups, but there are three major ones that appli­cants should look for. These include:

• AACSB – The Asso­ci­a­tion to Advance Col­le­giate Schools of Business
• ACBSP – The Accred­i­ta­tion Coun­cil for Busi­ness Schools and Programs
• IACBE – The Inter­na­tion­al Assem­bly for Col­le­giate Busi­ness Education

When it comes to busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion, appli­cants may have a lot of ques­tions regard­ing which of these accred­it­ing bod­ies is the one they need to pay the most atten­tion to. Each of these busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion groups have dif­fer­ent philoso­phies and approach­es when it comes to a student’s busi­ness edu­ca­tion needs.

AACSB accred­i­ta­tion has the most recog­ni­tion and is the old­est busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion group. A school or pro­gram with AACSB accred­i­ta­tion will enjoy an edu­ca­tion pro­vid­ed by a fac­ul­ty that knows about busi­ness, busi­ness phi­los­o­phy, and busi­ness research. AACSB accred­it­ed schools will have a large focus on research-based learning.

AACSB accred­i­ta­tion stan­dards are high, and if the choice comes down to AACSB vs region­al accred­i­ta­tion, appli­cants who specif­i­cal­ly want a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion or any oth­er type of busi­ness degree should go for the pro­gram with the AACSB accreditation.

What is AACSB accred­i­ta­tion mean in com­par­i­son to oth­er types of accred­i­ta­tion? Each accred­it­ing group has its own qual­i­ty stan­dards and approach­es to edu­ca­tion. The AACSB accred­i­ta­tion stan­dards will ensure stu­dents receive a schol­ar­ly busi­ness degree that holds the high­est recog­ni­tion in the indus­try. How­ev­er, AACSB accred­it­ed schools aren’t the only ones appli­cants can look out for.

ACBSP busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion focus­es on the way the edu­ca­tors teach the sub­ject. The ACBSP wants stu­dents to receive an edu­ca­tion that focus­es on achiev­ing goals through use of their knowl­edge. Stu­dents will like­ly receive less the­o­ry and more work­able knowl­edge and tech­niques they can apply immediately.

Because the ACBSP isn’t as well-known as the AACSB, some won­der is the ACBSP respect­ed or is ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion good or bad. ACBSP busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion is well-respect­ed and rec­og­nized. Some employ­ers may even pre­fer ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion, espe­cial­ly if the accred­it­ed degree con­forms to that entity’s way of doing business.

IACBE accred­i­ta­tion and IACBE accred­it­ed schools are all about teach­ing stu­dents in an out­come-based envi­ron­ment. An IACBE accred­it­ed school or pro­gram will strive to pre­pare stu­dents to solve prob­lems to achieve goals. In fact, IACBE accred­i­ta­tion was cre­at­ed specif­i­cal­ly as an answer to a mar­ket need. That means this type of accred­i­ta­tion does have recog­ni­tion and even pref­er­ence in many industries.

Are There Different Types of Business Administration Bachelor Degrees?

Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degrees do come in a vari­ety of types. The type of bach­e­lor’s an appli­cant pur­sues can dic­tate the cur­ricu­lum they will study as well as any spe­cial­iza­tion they choose. Appli­cants may see these types of degrees abbre­vi­at­ed in sev­er­al ways. Gen­er­al­ly, the degree des­ig­na­tions will con­form to one of three main types. These include the BBA, BSBA, and BABA.

The Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion (BBA) often offers a more gen­er­al study of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion. These degrees tend to focus on pro­duc­ing well-round­ed busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion pro­fes­sion­als. The cur­ricu­lum will typ­i­cal­ly cov­er var­i­ous aspects of how busi­ness and busi­ness sys­tems work with­out focus­ing on a sin­gle attribute.

BBA sub­jects can vary, main­ly because busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion is a large field. Stu­dents will have to take their core class­es, but may also need to pick and choose elec­tives to form a degree that fits their ulti­mate goals in the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion field.

Equal­ly, for those who choose a bach­e­lors in busi­ness man­age­ment instead, many of the same rules apply when it comes to dif­fer­ent degree types and focus­es. Swap in the word man­age­ment for admin­is­tra­tion and appli­cants will see they must still make a choice regard­ing what type of degree they should pursue.

The Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion (BSBA) is a degree type with a larg­er focus on the hard sci­ences of busi­ness. Stu­dents will find the BSBA cur­ricu­lum leans more heav­i­ly into the math­e­mat­i­cal, sta­tis­ti­cal, and ana­lyt­i­cal aspects of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion. It’s these aspects of the degree that can help dic­tate what types of spe­cial­iza­tions a stu­dent may want to pur­sue in busi­ness administration.

The Bach­e­lor of Arts in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion (BABA) aims to put the focus more on the soft sci­ence aspects of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion. This can include cur­ricu­lum that offers more by the way of lib­er­al stud­ies and asso­ci­at­ed aspects of business.

Under­stand that a BABA is still a busi­ness degree and not a lib­er­al arts degree. What stu­dents learn in a BABA pro­gram can help them in sev­er­al ways, espe­cial­ly if they’re not sure where they want to specialize.

Despite the degree type, busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cours­es do have a lot of over­lap. For exam­ple, BBA sub­jects in gen­er­al often form the basis of the oth­er degree types. Equal­ly, busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree require­ments tend to stay sim­i­lar between the dif­fer­ent types of degrees.

If an appli­cant were to look at a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion sub­jects list for any of these degree types, they will like­ly find that the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cours­es look large­ly sim­i­lar with a few dif­fer­ences in some of the core class­es. This begs the ques­tion of which busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cours­es will offer the most benefit.

Comparing the Business Administration Degree Types

BA vs BBA – When look­ing at the abbre­vi­a­tions for all these degree types, it can become con­fus­ing. A BA is sim­ply a bach­e­lor of arts degree. This is a lib­er­al arts degree and not a busi­ness-ori­ent­ed degree. Although, a BA can become a busi­ness degree or a BABA, which is specif­i­cal­ly a bach­e­lor of arts in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion. The BBA is specif­i­cal­ly the bach­e­lor of busi­ness administration.

BA vs BS Busi­ness – Sim­i­lar­ly, a BS is a bach­e­lor of sci­ence, so those look­ing for a BS in busi­ness would turn to the Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion degree path, or BSBA.

BBA vs BSBA – This com­par­i­son requires a lot more con­sid­er­a­tion for appli­cants. When it comes to a BBA vs BSBA, poten­tial stu­dents must weigh their goals against the cur­ricu­lum. The BBA gives a broad­er overview of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion, but the BSBA will work best for those who have a desire to enter ana­lyt­i­cal or math­e­mat­i­cal busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion careers.

The BBA sub­jects can change depend­ing on degree type because the focus for each degree type is dif­fer­ent. Still, these BBA sub­jects will often over­lap with the core cur­ricu­lums of a BSBA and BABA.

For exam­ple, the BBA scope increas­es with the more a stu­dent knows, how­ev­er, the BBA scope can nar­row because of spe­cial­iza­tion through the BSBA or BABA path. Gen­er­al­ly, the BABA offers the broad­est BBA scope while the BSBA offers the most nar­row and spe­cial­ized scope. The BBA sits some­where between the two.

Of these degree types, it’s impor­tant to remind appli­cants that a bach­e­lors in busi­ness man­age­ment or BS in busi­ness man­age­ment aren’t the same degree. The man­age­ment degrees also come in sim­i­lar types, such as the bach­e­lors in busi­ness man­age­ment (BBM), BS in busi­ness man­age­ment (BSBM), and BA in busi­ness management.

Some pro­grams offer admin­is­tra­tion and man­age­ment degrees inter­change­ably, so appli­cants need to pay close atten­tion to the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion sub­jects and busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion class­es list­ed. A busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion sub­jects list and the asso­ci­at­ed busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree require­ments may also look sim­i­lar to those for a busi­ness man­age­ment degree.

Are There Business Administration Degrees Online?

Every­thing stat­ed about busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degrees also applies to a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion online degree. An online bach­e­lors in busi­ness comes with the same con­sid­er­a­tions some­one might make when choos­ing a tra­di­tion­al busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree. As with oth­er degree types, a bach­e­lors in busi­ness online may come with the same require­ments, but usu­al­ly with a lot more flexibility.

When look­ing for a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion online degree, appli­cants should nar­row their search­es and take the same pre­cau­tions as they would when look­ing for any oth­er type of busi­ness edu­ca­tion school or pro­gram. It’s pos­si­ble to get a busi­ness degree online fast under some cir­cum­stances, but appli­cants shouldn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly look for the cheap­est online busi­ness degree.

In addi­tion, appli­cants should also make sure they’re look­ing for busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degrees if that’s what they want. Oth­er­wise, they can also find an accred­it­ed online busi­ness man­age­ment degree. But, no mat­ter the degree type, appli­cants should seek rep­utable and accred­it­ed bach­e­lors in busi­ness online.

The online busi­ness degree cost can vary. In some cas­es, the online busi­ness degree cost can look much the same as the costs asso­ci­at­ed with a tra­di­tion­al degree path, but there are also cheap­er online pro­grams that can also help some­one obtain their busi­ness degree online fast through accel­er­at­ed cours­es that aren’t always avail­able through tra­di­tion­al means.

Still, the cheap­est online busi­ness degree isn’t always the most ben­e­fi­cial. Appli­cants should do their research and due dili­gence just as they would under any oth­er circumstances.

Are There Certifications for Business Administration?

Busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions exist for prac­ti­cal­ly every type of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion job or career. Busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions aren’t always nec­es­sary, but they’re always appre­ci­at­ed. In some cas­es, busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can mean the dif­fer­ence between gain­ing a posi­tion or los­ing it to some­one else. In addi­tion, a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­tifi­cate can show that an appli­cant takes their cho­sen pro­fes­sion seri­ous­ly and they’re will­ing to work and con­tin­ue their edu­ca­tion in the field.

Some busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion pro­grams offer cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams so that a stu­dent can grad­u­ate with a rep­utable busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­tifi­cate. How­ev­er, busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions vary wide­ly. When seek­ing busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, appli­cants should look for those cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that com­ple­ment their cho­sen industry.

Some employ­ers may require some­one to have or obtain a spe­cif­ic busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­tifi­cate before they can begin work or con­tin­ue work. There are also indus­try-spe­cif­ic busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions worth get­ting for those who know pre­cise­ly what field they would like to apply their busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion knowl­edge in.

Some employ­ers can also require busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions just as gen­er­al proof the poten­tial employ­ee under­stands the indus­try they’re apply­ing for work in. Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, in this case, can show the appli­cant has a work­ing knowl­edge of how busi­ness­es in that sec­tor operate.

Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can also show an appli­cant has com­mand of a par­tic­u­lar spe­cial­iza­tion. Because of these vari­ances, the busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions worth get­ting will always depend on numer­ous fac­tors. How­ev­er, when some­one is ready to pur­sue a busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, they should make sure they look for the best cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online. The best online busi­ness cer­tifi­cate pro­grams will have rep­utabil­i­ty and indus­try recognition.

Some of the more renowned busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions worth get­ting include the Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion offered by many pres­ti­gious schools and groups. There are also inter­na­tion­al busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that can put some­one in a good posi­tion to deal with inter­na­tion­al busi­ness administration.

The best busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for col­lege stu­dents are usu­al­ly those offered by the col­lege or busi­ness pro­gram they’re already attend­ing. In many cas­es, they can work towards one or more cer­ti­fi­ca­tions while they work towards their degree.

It’s also pos­si­ble to earn busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions with­out a degree. These types of cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can help show that some­one has gained a spe­cial­iza­tion on top of a non-busi­ness degree or help some­one advance in the workplace.

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tions deal­ing with soft­ware typ­i­cal­ly used for busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion can also be extreme­ly help­ful. For exam­ple, gain­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in a CRM that’s indus­try-stan­dard can help an appli­cant tru­ly shine when seek­ing employ­ment with a busi­ness that makes heavy use of that CRM.

What Types of Careers Are There in Business Administration?

Because busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion lends itself to lit­er­al­ly any type of busi­ness in any indus­try, there’s always a pletho­ra of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree jobs to con­sid­er. With a bach­e­lors in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs can exist in any sec­tor, any­where for a moti­vat­ed career seek­er. In fact, a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs list can include just about any­thing, which means job seek­ers will need to nar­row that list down.

When look­ing at a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion job descrip­tion, it’s impor­tant to note exact­ly what it is the poten­tial employ­er is ask­ing for. Once again, this can become a ques­tion of whether these are tru­ly BBA degree jobs or BBM jobs. Since the posi­tions often over­lap, appli­cants must make sure the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion job descrip­tion is real­ly describ­ing an admin­is­tra­tive posi­tion, rather than a man­age­r­i­al one.

Even so, busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree jobs and careers can include:

• Office admin­is­tra­tor
• Account man­ag­er
• Admin­is­tra­tive director
• Human resources director
• Con­sul­tant
• Finan­cial analyst
• Oper­a­tion research analyst

Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree jobs also include man­age­ment posi­tions. The bach­e­lors in busi­ness jobs avail­able and the bach­e­lor of sci­ence in busi­ness jobs may all show up on the same busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs list. When search­ing for “busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs near me,” it’s pos­si­ble to broad­en the search to oth­er types of bach­e­lors in busi­ness jobs, not just those that specif­i­cal­ly look for administrators.

As pre­vi­ous­ly stat­ed, the sheer amount of over­lap in busi­ness-relat­ed posi­tions means appli­cants should read every busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs descrip­tion very care­ful­ly to make sure the oppor­tu­ni­ty is in line with their edu­ca­tion and desired career paths.

Bach­e­lors in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs aren’t just lim­it­ed to posi­tions seek­ing a spe­cif­ic job title. BBA degree jobs can extend them­selves into var­i­ous oth­er types of career paths. This can be very rel­e­vant for those who are look­ing for busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion or busi­ness man­age­ment degree entry-lev­el jobs.

What Are the Salary Expectations for a Business Administration Major?

Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree salary will depend on sev­er­al fac­tors. As with most degree types, the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary earned in one place or indus­try can vary great­ly from the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary some­one can earn in a dif­fer­ent locale or in a dif­fer­ent job sec­tor. Demand for a par­tic­u­lar skill set often dic­tates salary.

So, what is busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary in gen­er­al? Accord­ing to Chron, right out of col­lege, a bach­e­lors in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary can earn some­one around ~$48k and up to ~$77.9k. How­ev­er, indus­try mat­ters a lot when it comes to busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary, and so does expe­ri­ence. Some busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree salary num­bers can reach ~$140k.

The bach­e­lors in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary for those in engi­neer­ing are cur­rent­ly at the high­est. Nev­er­the­less, busi­ness­es put dif­fer­ent val­u­a­tions on BA majors, so a BA in busi­ness salary can fluc­tu­ate depend­ing on the spe­cif­ic com­pa­ny doing the hir­ing, even among sim­i­lar­ly posi­tioned com­pa­nies. The bach­e­lors in busi­ness salary may also depend on the job title as well.

Are There Any Professional Organizations for Business Administration Graduates?

Many pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions in busi­ness are out there, as well as pro­fes­sion­al lead­er­ship orga­ni­za­tions. These pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for train­ing, place­ment, advance­ment, net­work­ing, and oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties that are some­times impos­si­ble to find out­side of such organizations.

There are pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions for busi­ness admin­is­tra­tors as well as for spe­cial­iza­tions in the field. Many schools also have pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions that stu­dents can join while they’re still earn­ing their degree.

These pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions in busi­ness exist at the local, state, nation­al, and even inter­na­tion­al lev­els. Grad­u­ates would do well to inves­ti­gate some of them and join those that can offer them some ben­e­fit in their career.

Relat­ed Rankings:

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Administration

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Administration

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Administration

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Administration

15 Best Online Train­ing and Devel­op­ment Programs