According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the highest number of undergraduate bachelor’s degrees were earned in business in the 2016-2017 school year. If you already had an idea that a lot of people study business in college, you might be surprised to learn just how many different college MAJORS are encompassed in the field of business, which is what we’ll be talking about today. Studying business in college is definitely not limited to the fields you hear most about, like finance, management, and marketing, and hopefully one or more of these majors catch your eye!
For the sake of this post, I won’t be discussing all of the different degrees that could lead to a possible job in business. You could get a very wide variety of degrees in college and still end up working a business/corporate job! I will only be describing most of the options found within business-specific schools or programs, but stay tuned for a later post about various degrees that aren’t business-specific soon.
Undergraduate business students will likely earn a Bachelor of Science in Business/Economics degree (BS) or a Bachelor of Business Administration degree (BBA). Further than that baseline degree, there are majors or concentrations in specific fields of study that students can specialize in. I’ve gathered the majors/concentrations below from the top five business schools in the United States.
Accounting: study how to track and analyze the finances of businesses along with the theory of financial and transactional accounting
Business Analytics: learn how to thoroughly collect and analyze datasets as well as how to apply analysis and make predictions and recommendations within a business
Business Economics: understanding the theories of economics and its intersection and application to business
Entrepreneurship: studying how to perform operations, management, and other functions involved in owning a business
Finance: learning how money moves and how to make financial decisions like investing, costing, raising profit, etc
International/Global Business: understanding how business operates globally including the process of trade, foreign operations, and international business policy
Management: study how to take on the management of business and resolving challenges within a company, overseeing projects, and how to anticipate and navigate threats/changes to a company
Management/Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology: studying the intersection between technology and business in an increasingly digital world, may study engineering as well
Marketing: study how to analyze consumer and public trends and decisions and how to present goods/services in the most effective and persuasive manner to consumers
Statistics: generating quantitative data and studying the tools necessary for organizational aspects of business as well as using the data to forecast business activity
There are many more majors/concentrations depending on the business school in question, but these are some of the most commonly seen ones. By looking more into the wide variety that is offered, there's a good chance you'll be able to find something that piques your interest in business!