Top Online Business Degree Programs For 2024

Explore online business degree programs. Compare schools and see what you could be doing after graduation.

You can give your career a strong start by earning an online business degree. Through online studies, you can learn the skills and information that you’ll need for succeeding in offices and other business settings.

With a degree in hand, you’ll be a good candidate for many business positions.

Accounting

There’s no doubt about it: Organizations need clear, organized bookkeeping. You can meet that need with a degree in accounting. As an accounting professional, you should be capable of tracking income and spending, maintaining records, handling payroll, and preparing taxes.

Accounting professionals are often employed by organizations. You could be the sole accountant for a small company or one member of an accounting or finance team at a larger corporation. Other accountants work for firms that serve multiple organizations or individuals.

As an accountant, you could also consider self-employment by offering your services to various clients. Finally, you could become a government tax professional or auditor.

To get you ready for these careers, you’ll need to take classes on financial, cost, and managerial accounting. There may be courses like Business Math, Information Systems for Accounting Practice, and Local and Federal Taxation. In addition, you may learn about auditing practice.

You may have the option to select a degree concentration, such as public accounting or tax accounting.

After getting a bachelor’s degree in accounting, you could consider advancing to a master’s program for accounting. With enough college hours in this discipline, you can become eligible to apply for status as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Business Administration

If you know that a business career is in your future, but you aren’t sure which discipline is best for you, then consider a generalist degree in business administration. The courses you take can heighten your understanding of many different aspects of the business world. As a result, you can become a versatile employee.

Your career options after graduation will be varied. You might be able to work as an office administrator, serve on a human resources team, or get involved with an organization’s financial matters. This degree can also prepare you to take on a management role in a retail or office setting.

Business administration is one of the best business degrees due to the broad mix of classes that can contribute to your preparedness for these many different roles. You can learn about laws and regulations that affect businesses, ethics for professionals, and the economic principles that guide business activity.

Also, you can receive introductions to finance, human resources, marketing, leadership, and other essential business disciplines.

Finance

While accounting professionals primarily keep track of transactions that have already occurred, finance professionals use financial data to inform decisions for the future. If you have a head for numbers and data analysis, then finance may be a promising career option for you.

Finance students may have goals in mind, like working for a corporation, becoming a banker, getting a government job, or helping individuals take care of their money. Potential career paths include being a budget analyst, a financial examiner, a stock trader, a personal financial advisor, or a credit analyst.

Students in this field spend a lot of time working with numbers and figures. That means that you’ll probably take classes in statistics and economics. In addition, common course topics include finance law, ethics for working with others’ money, accounting, investing, and corporate finance.

You may also study financial markets and how they are connected across international borders. The classes can help equip you with the financial leadership skills needed for influential roles as a manager or another decision-maker.

To continue your studies, you could consider getting a master’s degree in finance. You should also have a good foundation for a degree in accounting or economics.

It may be worth noting that a growing number of universities offer finance degree online programs for students interested in this option.

Human Resources

If your interest in business leans more toward the people side of things than the numbers side, then you might find great success in the world of human resources. HR professionals help businesses prosper by bringing in, training, and retaining top talent.

An undergraduate program can prepare you to take positions as a human resources specialist in a business, a nonprofit, a medical system, or an educational institution. After gaining experience, you may qualify to move into a human resources management position.

You may want to consider a particular aspect of HR, such as being a training and development specialist or working in a company’s compensation and benefits department.

In college, you can study how to recruit talented employees to your organization and how to sort through applicants to identify the best ones. You can also discuss how to train new hires and make sure that all employees are continually improving their skills.

Other classes may address offering compensation packages and work environments that motivate good employees to stick around. You may also learn about mediating workplace or labor union disputes.

After graduation, getting a master’s degree in human resources may increase your chances of being promoted to a management position in this field.

Management

Your natural leadership skills can grow and develop during a bachelor’s degree program in management. Through your courses, you can learn essential skills for helping employees, teams, and organizations to be their very best.

Management professionals are needed throughout the business world. Examples of job titles include purchasing manager, sales manager, and human resources manager. You also could be the manager of a local establishment, like a retail store or a restaurant.

Keep in mind that you may have to start with entry-level positions but can work toward advancement as you gain experience.

You’ll need to learn about many aspects of the business before graduating with your management degree. These include human resources, statistics, global markets, supply chains, business technology, marketing, budgeting, and analytics.

To help you become a strong leader, you should also explore decision-making, team dynamics, project management, and organizational structure. For grad school, a master’s in management is, of course, a smart path to consider. You could also think about what area of management most interests you and further your education by studying that discipline.

For example, if your goal is to move into a marketing management role, then it would make sense to get your master’s degree in marketing.

Marketing

What does it take to get customers to notice your organization and become loyal to it? You can learn that and more in a marketing program. The field of marketing addresses branding, advertising, promotions, and other public-awareness strategies.

As a marketing student, you may be getting ready for a career as an advertising sales representative, a marketing manager, or a promotions director. It can take time to get a leadership role in these areas, but a bachelor’s degree can be a good first step. Online marketing is a growing field, so you could become a social media director.

You can get set for these careers with courses that cover the different types of communication used by marketers, such as advertisements. In your studies, you can learn to provide messages that help the public connect with your brand and feel good about your products.

Other courses may cover theories of consumer behavior and teach you to gather market research before developing new products or services. You may also spend some time learning about the principles of effective visual design and written communication.

Your bachelor’s degree in marketing can help prepare you for a master’s program in advertising, marketing, social media, digital communication, or public relations.

Organizational Leadership

Getting a degree in organizational leadership can help prepare you to rise to the top of an organization. With this degree, you can become equipped to lead groups through everyday decisions and times of great change.

Organizational leaders often take management positions. You could exercise your leadership skills as a project manager or a production manager.

Alternatively, you could head up sales teams or office staff. Especially if you gain some management experience of your own first, you could become a management consultant who helps other organizations improve their leadership structures.

Your degree program is likely to include some psychology courses so that you can become more knowledgeable about how people think and how teams interact with one another.

You may also study leadership skills for particular circumstances, such as managing interpersonal conflict, helping organizations go through transitions, and casting a vision for future growth and development.

To ensure that you are leading in the best way possible, you will need to think about legal regulations, ethics, and effective communication.

You could consider getting your master’s degree in management or leadership. To put your organizational leadership skills to work in a medical setting, you might pursue a healthcare administration master’s degree.

Courses for an Online Business Administration Degree

The field of business administration encompasses accounting, finance, human resources, management, marketing, and more.

During your studies, you can learn at least a bit about each of these areas. You can also gain foundational skills related to business math, communications, technology, law, ethics, and interpersonal relationships.

• Economics: Studying microeconomics and macroeconomics can help you understand how economic factors influence the business climate.
• Ethics and Law for Businesses: In this class, you can discuss the regulations that govern business practices and consider your ethical framework for professional choices.
• Global Business: You can talk about how markets across the world relate to one another and how that can affect your business practices.
• Information Systems for Business: This course can introduce you to data-management programs and teach you how to use them in the workplace.
• Management in Organizations: You can learn how to oversee teams, encourage productivity, and lead groups through times of transition.

Your program may include opportunities to complete internships or other hands-on experiences. These can give you a good introduction to what it is like in the business world and allow you to try out the skills you’ve been working on.

Jobs in Business Administration

Not surprisingly, a degree in business prepares most people to work in the business world. With this degree, you might get a job in an office building, a store, or a financial institution.

All types of organizations, from large corporations to local businesses to nonprofit groups, need the guidance and expertise of trained business professionals.

If you want to focus your attention on working for a midsize or large company, your business knowledge may make you a good candidate for a job like an office administrator or administrative services manager.

Working in a specific department, you might be a human resources specialist, an accountant, a social media coordinator, a marketing specialist, or a budget analyst. You could also look for positions in a company’s public relations, logistics, or purchasing department.

You could choose to work in the financial sector as a banker, an analyst, or an insurance underwriter. Your work could determine whether an applicant qualifies for a credit card or receives a loan. Trading stocks and bonds could be another career path that’s in your future.

Some business majors end up pursuing self-employment. You could work as an independent account who serves a variety of clients, a personal financial planner, or a management consultant. Opening a small business in your community is another viable option.

Business Administration Degree Salary

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of business positions is expected to grow over the coming years. For the next ten years, jobs in the business and finance sector are expected to rise by about 5%.

Currently, the average annual salary for business and finance professionals is $72,250 per year. The following table includes additional salary information for specific jobs.

Careers	Annual Median Salary
Management Analyst	$87,660
Financial Analyst	$83,660
Accountant	$73,560
Compensation Specialist	$67,190
Market Research Analyst	$65,810
Loan Officer	$63,960
Manufacturing Cost Estimator	$63,740
Human Resources Specialist	$63,490
Training and Development Specialist	$62,700
Fundraiser	$59,610

The above salary averages are not a guarantee of future earnings. Wages can vary greatly in different areas of the country, and education level and the amount of experience you have will play a large role in how much you will be paid as well.