15 Top Undergrad Business Degrees

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Under­grad­u­ate busi­ness degrees offer var­i­ous spe­cial­iza­tions, includ­ing account­ing, man­age­ment, entre­pre­neur­ship, finance, human resources man­age­ment, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, insur­ance, and inter­na­tion­al busi­ness.
• Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty is top-ranked for account­ing, Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty for man­age­ment, and Bab­son Col­lege for entrepreneurship.
• Grad­u­ates with these degrees can pur­sue var­i­ous careers, includ­ing super­vi­so­ry roles, finan­cial ana­lysts, IT spe­cial­ists, insur­ance pro­fes­sion­als, and inter­na­tion­al busi­ness con­sul­tants.

What fol­lows are the top degree fields, based on under­grad busi­ness degree rank­ings by U.S. New and World Reports, Prince­ton Review, Bloomberg Busi­ness and the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics. They are pre­sent­ed in alpha­bet­i­cal order. In some cas­es, the spe­cial­ties described require mas­ters degrees.

The top col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties offer­ing each of the under­grad busi­ness degree field spe­cial­ties are list­ed for each type of degree. We have also pro­vid­ed a link to each school men­tioned so that you can eas­i­ly request more infor­ma­tion if you’d like.

1. Accounting

Top rat­ed schools for accounting: 

Brigham Young University, Marriott School of Management

The Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty School of Accoun­tan­cy guides stu­dents into suc­cess­ful careers in account­ing, con­sult­ing, indus­try, and gov­ern­ment. At both the under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate degree lev­el, the school has received acclaim and awards from numer­ous nation­al sources. The School of Accountancy’s suc­cess is mea­sured not just in terms of recog­ni­tion, but through BYU sur­veys that show account­ing stu­dents are among the hap­pi­est with their cho­sen major.

Under­grad­u­ate Pro­gram Overview: The basic core require­ments for a BS in account­ing from BYU are com­prised of 64 hours of course work. This includes a basic foun­da­tion in com­put­ing, five pre­req­ui­site account­ing class­es, a course in busi­ness law, and a rig­or­ous upper lev­el intro­duc­tion to advanced account­ing. Most account­ing stu­dents will take only their account­ing junior core class­es in their junior year, as the course­work is inten­sive. These class­es include Account­ing Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems, Finan­cial State­ment Audit­ing, Fun­da­men­tals of Tax­a­tion, and more. Grad­u­ates have the option of pur­su­ing their Master’s in account­ing from the school.

Tuition: $30,152

Also:
Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois Urbana-Cham­paign Col­lege of Busi­ness
The Uni­ver­si­ty of Notre Dame, Men­doza Col­lege of Business

2. Basic Management

Top rat­ed schools for basic man­age­ment degrees: 

The Business School at Harvard University

A bachelor’s degree in Busi­ness Man­age­ment degree qual­i­fies you for reward­ing posi­tions such as super­vi­sor, depart­ment man­ag­er, oper­a­tions ana­lyst, sales man­ag­er, and oth­er lead­er­ship posi­tions in busi­ness. The need exists for capa­ble man­agers across all indus­tries. Man­agers play a vital role in a company’s prof­itabil­i­ty and viability.

The typ­i­cal Bachelor’s in Busi­ness Man­age­ment degree pro­gram empha­sizes vital man­age­ment pro­ce­dures, tasks, and skills to pre­pare stu­dents to han­dle com­pli­cat­ed man­age­ment and busi­ness issues. Stu­dents learn to man­age resources and over­see staff. These pro­grams pro­vide fun­da­men­tal man­age­ment skills applic­a­ble in prac­ti­cal­ly every career field.

The Busi­ness School at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty ful­fills all the promise of a first class edu­ca­tion. The cours­es it offers includes: account­ing, arts admin­is­tra­tion, con­sult­ing, e‑commerce, eco­nom­ics, entre­pre­neur­ship, finance, gen­er­al man­age­ment, health care admin­is­tra­tion, human resources man­age­ment, inter­na­tion­al busi­ness, lead­er­ship, man­u­fac­tur­ing and tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment, mar­ket­ing, not-for-prof­it man­age­ment, production/operations man­age­ment, orga­ni­za­tion­al behav­ior, port­fo­lio man­age­ment, pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion, pub­lic pol­i­cy, real estate, sports busi­ness, sup­ply chain management/logistics, quan­ti­ta­tive analysis/statistics and oper­a­tions research, tax, and technology.

Tuition: $74,910

Also:
Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty
The Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia (Whar­ton)

3. Entrepreneurship

Top rat­ed schools for entrepreneurship: 

Babson College

Bab­son Col­lege cur­rent­ly offers 55 entre­pre­neur­ship-relat­ed under­grad­u­ate cours­es. Over the last five years, its grad­u­ates have start­ed 118 companies.

100 per­cent of the total under­grad­u­ate entre­pre­neur­ship fac­ul­ty have start­ed, bought, or run a suc­cess­ful busi­ness. Addi­tion­al­ly, 927 indi­vid­ual men­tors have worked with stu­dents through an offi­cial­ly spon­sored school program.

Bab­son is the only busi­ness school that has devel­oped and advanced an inno­v­a­tive teach­ing method, Entre­pre­neur­ial Thought and Action. Unlike most busi­ness schools that teach entre­pre­neur­ship as a dis­crete, siloed sub­ject, Bab­son incor­po­rates Entre­pre­neur­ial Thought and Action across all dis­ci­plines. In fact, Bab­son’s MBA pro­gram has been ranked num­ber one in the coun­try for entre­pre­neur­ship for 21 con­sec­u­tive years by U.S. News & World Report, as well as by the Prince­ton Review.

Tuition: $56,032

Also:
Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty: Arthur Rock Cen­ter for Entre­pre­neur­ship
U. of Michi­gan: Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Insti­tute for Entre­pre­neur­ial Studies

4. Finance

Top rat­ed schools for finance: 

University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School)

Wharton’s Finance Depart­men­t’s mod­ern the­o­ries of port­fo­lio choice and sav­ings behav­ior have pro­vid­ed the basis for the inno­va­tion of these mod­els, and the school has remained at the fore­front of these developments.

The Finance Depart­ment has four areas of spe­cial­iza­tion:
• Bank­ing and Finan­cial Insti­tu­tions, which entails the over­all eco­nom­ic con­text affect­ing a fir­m’s invest­ments
• Cor­po­rate Finance, con­cen­trat­ing on the financ­ing and invest­ment activ­i­ties of an orga­ni­za­tion
• Finan­cial Instru­ments and Port­fo­lio Man­age­ment, which exam­ines finan­cial instru­ments and their mar­ket behav­ior
• Inter­na­tion­al Finance, explor­ing the impact of such issues as for­eign cur­ren­cy options and exchange rates par­i­ty on the multi­na­tion­al corporation

Tuition: $87,370 per year, and there are six terms in the two–year pro­gram cal­en­dar, which includes 19 courses.

Also:
Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go (Booth)
New York Uni­ver­si­ty (Stern)

5. Human Resources Management

Top rat­ed schools for human resources management: 

Quinnipiac University School of Business and Engineering

Hir­ing, retain­ing and reward­ing a com­pe­tent work­force are all crit­i­cal to the suc­cess of any orga­ni­za­tion. As today’s busi­ness world gets increas­ing­ly com­plex, human resource exec­u­tives must be able to effec­tive­ly bal­ance cor­po­rate goals with the capa­bil­i­ties of their staff.

The human resource track helps you under­stand how to achieve that bal­ance. The course­work at Quin­nip­i­ac Uni­ver­si­ty School of Busi­ness and Engi­neer­ing focus­es on the spe­cial chal­lenges you’ll face in regard to recruit­ment, reward sys­tems, and employ­ee devel­op­ment and retention

Tuition: $42,270

Also:
DePaul Uni­ver­si­ty
Mered­ith Col­lege, Raleigh, North Carolina

6. Information Technology

Top rat­ed schools for infor­ma­tion technology: 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)

The MIT Sloan Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Group con­ducts research on the eco­nom­ic, busi­ness, and orga­ni­za­tion­al impli­ca­tions of the dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies that trans­form the way we live and work. For 20 years, lead­ing arbiters like U.S. News and World Report have ranked the group first among busi­ness school IT pro­grams. The group’s leg­endary strength is, in part, a func­tion of being root­ed at one of the world’s most respect­ed busi­ness schools with­in one of the world’s most influ­en­tial insti­tu­tions of technology.

What fur­ther dis­tin­guish­es the group is its breadth. The IT Group fac­ul­ty cov­ers all the key dis­ci­plines com­pris­ing the study of IT from eco­nom­ics to orga­ni­za­tion­al behav­ior to com­put­er sci­ence. Each mem­ber of the fac­ul­ty is a leader in his or her field and works close­ly with indus­try part­ners and with pio­neer­ing research cen­ters like the MIT Cen­ter for Dig­i­tal Busi­nessm the MIT Cen­ter for Col­lec­tive Intel­li­gence and the MIT Cen­ter for Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Research.

Tuition: $87,600

Also:
Carnegie Mel­lon Uni­ver­si­ty (Tep­per)
U. of Ari­zona (Eller)

7. Insurance

Top rat­ed schools for insurance: 

University of Georgia (Terry)

At the Ter­ry Col­lege of Busi­ness, Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia, you will find a BBA insur­ance pro­gram that was estab­lished in 1965 with pro­fes­sors who are top pub­lished in the pre­mier risk man­age­ment and insur­ance journals.

The pro­gram also pro­vides intern­ships with more than 50 employ­ers in 15 states. It was also ranked as the #1 insur­ance degree col­lege pro­gram by U.S. News & World Report and #2 by Cam­pus Explor­er. It is a high­ly selec­tive uni­ver­si­ty, accord­ing to Cam­pus Explorer.

Tuition: In state, $53,700; Out-of-state, $63,300

Also:
U. of Wis­con­sin School of Busi­ness
U. of Penn­syl­va­nia (Whar­ton)

8. International Business

Top rat­ed schools for inter­na­tion­al business: 

University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business

U.S.News & World Report ranked the Dar­la Moore School of Busi­ness’ under­grad­u­ate inter­na­tion­al busi­ness edu­ca­tion No. 1 in its Sep­tem­ber 2014 annu­al sur­vey “America’s Best Col­leges Guide” — the 16th con­sec­u­tive year the school has received this distinction

The Inter­na­tion­al MBA pro­gram has been ranked No. 1 in the inter­na­tion­al busi­ness spe­cial­ty by U.S.News & World Report in its sur­vey of “Amer­i­ca’s Best Grad­u­ate Schools 2015,” released March 11, 2014. The Moore School has ranked in the top three for 25 con­sec­u­tive years.

Tuition: In state, $25,625; Out-of-state, $29,520

Also:
The Uni­ver­si­ty of North Carolina’s Kenan-Fla­gler Busi­ness School
Wash­ing­ton University’s Olin Busi­ness School

9. Management Information Systems

Top rat­ed schools for man­age­ment infor­ma­tion systems: 

Bentley University

You may not have heard of this uni­ver­si­ty, unless you are inter­est­ed in pur­su­ing a busi­ness degree, major­ing in MIS. Bent­ley Uni­ver­si­ty is a small col­lege that by U.S. News & World Report ranked fourth among best region­al col­leges in the North for 2011. The uni­ver­si­ty also offered one of the top 20 man­age­ment infor­ma­tion sys­tems pro­grams in the nation that same year.

Bent­ley’s Infor­ma­tion and Process Man­age­ment (IPM) depart­ment offers an IPM minor for both under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dents with three tracks of study. These include enter­prise sys­tems, infor­ma­tion man­age­ment and process man­age­ment. Some under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate cours­es include top­ics in infor­ma­tion sup­port sys­tems, busi­ness cyber­foren­sics, man­age­ment process­es and infor­ma­tion privacy.

Tuition: $58,150

Also:
Mass­a­chu­setts Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy
Uni­ver­si­ty of Min­neso­ta-Twin Cities

10. Marketing

Top rat­ed schools for marketing: 

College of William & Mary’s Mason School of Business

As part of the aca­d­e­m­ic cur­ricu­lum at Col­lege of William & Mary’s Mason School of Busi­ness, busi­ness majors take core cur­ricu­lum cours­es and choose a major in a spe­cif­ic dis­ci­pline of study. Stu­dents may also choose to add a con­cen­tra­tion (sec­ondary field of study) and inter­na­tion­al emphasis.

Stu­dents will be intro­duced to the var­i­ous fields of busi­ness as well as cross-dis­ci­pli­nary themes through the core cur­ricu­lum. This will pro­vide a broad under­stand­ing of the form and func­tion of each field and how the fields inte­grate. The core cur­ricu­lum includes pre­req­ui­sites, the Inte­grat­ed Foun­da­tion Semes­ter, and the upper-lev­el core courses.

Along with the core cur­ricu­lum stu­dents will also choose a major busi­ness dis­ci­pline in which to focus. The under­grad­u­ate busi­ness pro­gram offers four majors: Account­ing, Finance, Mar­ket­ing, and Process Man­age­ment & Con­sult­ing. Con­cen­tra­tions are offered in six areas: Account­ing, Entre­pre­neur­ship, Finance, Man­age­ment & Orga­ni­za­tion­al Lead­er­ship, Mar­ket­ing, and Process Man­age­ment & Consulting.

Tuition: $69,825

Also:
Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty (Olin)

11. Operations Management

Top rat­ed schools for oper­a­tions management: 

Washington University in St. Louis Olin School of Business

The Olin Busi­ness School, found­ed in 1917, has a long­stand­ing rep­u­ta­tion for out­stand­ing busi­ness edu­ca­tion. We equip high-poten­tial stu­dents with the skills, knowl­edge, and expe­ri­ences they need to become lead­ers in a time of intense com­pe­ti­tion and glob­al change. Par­tic­i­pants in our pro­grams learn much more than man­age­ment the­o­ry and prac­tice; they acquire new ways of think­ing that can pro­found­ly change their lives and the suc­cess of their organization.

All oper­a­tions and sup­ply chain man­age­ment majors take: Man­age­ment Sci­ence and Oper­a­tions Man­age­ment. Oper­a­tions and sup­ply chain man­age­ment majors also choose elec­tives from cours­es like:

• Advanced Oper­a­tions Strat­e­gy
• Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment and Process Design
• Oper­a­tions Plan­ning and Con­trol
• Cost Analy­sis and Con­trol
• Com­pet­i­tive Indus­try Analy­sis
• Retail Man­age­ment
• Mar­ket­ing Research
• Nego­ti­a­tion

Tuition: $132,400

Also:
Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia (Whar­ton)
Carnegie Mellon’s Tep­per School of Business

12. Quantitative Analysis

Top rat­ed schools for quan­ti­ta­tive analysis: 

Carnegie Mellon (in Pittsburgh)

The Quan­ti­ta­tive Social Sci­ence Schol­ars Pro­gram (QSSS) is designed to help stu­dents nav­i­gate the gap that exists in the social sci­ences between the increas­ing­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed use of math­e­mat­i­cal mod­els and quan­ti­ta­tive data analy­sis in fron­tier research and grad­u­ate edu­ca­tion, and the lim­it­ed treat­ment of this mate­r­i­al in tra­di­tion­al under­grad­u­ate curricula.

It accom­plish­es all this by lay­ing out a struc­tured pro­gram of train­ing in advanced mod­el­ling and quan­ti­ta­tive tech­niques that can be broad­ly applied across a range of social sci­ence dis­ci­plines and topics.

Tuition: $62,260

Also:
Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia (Whar­ton)
Mass­a­chu­setts Insti­tute of Technology

13. Real Estate Finance

Top rat­ed schools for real estate finance: 

University of Wisconsin — Madison

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Wis­con­sin-Madi­son has a long and hon­ored tra­di­tion of excel­lence in edu­ca­tion and research in the dis­ci­pline of real estate and urban land economics.

In 2007, the cen­ter was named for the late James A. Graaskamp, a leg­endary fig­ure in real estate edu­ca­tion at Wis­con­sin. Today, the James A. Graaskamp Cen­ter for Real Estate’s main goal is to serve as a link between fac­ul­ty and stu­dents, alum­ni, the pro­fes­sion­al real estate com­mu­ni­ty, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, and the gen­er­al public.

Tuition: $43,362 per year (full-time, in-state); $161,856 per year (full-time, out-of-state)

Also:
Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia, Whar­ton
Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berkeley

14. Sports Management

Top rat­ed schools for sports management: 

Temple University’s School of Tourism & Hospitality Management,
Sports and Recreation Management Program

The Sport and Recre­ation Man­age­ment pro­gram pre­pares stu­dents inter­est­ed in sport and recre­ation careers in the private/commercial sec­tor, pub­lic recre­ation and park agen­cies, pro­fes­sion­al sports, ath­let­ics, youth sport agen­cies, vol­un­tary agen­cies, cam­pus ser­vices, armed forces, and corporate/industrial settings.

Tuition: In-state, $17,976; Out-of-state, $32,376

Also:
Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas
Uni­ver­si­ty of North Carolina

15. Supply Chain Management

Top rat­ed schools for sup­ply chain management: 

Rutgers Business School

Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment is how busi­ness gets done. Sup­ply chain man­age­ment spans all move­ment and stor­age of raw mate­ri­als, work-in-process inven­to­ry, and fin­ished goods from point-of-ori­gin to point-of-con­sump­tion. Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment is pro­ject­ed to be one of the fastest grow­ing indus­tries in recent years with employ­ment increas­ing 83 per­cent in 2008.

The Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment under­grad­u­ate major offers stu­dents the com­pre­hen­sive knowl­edge and tech­no­log­i­cal skills they need in order to ensure employ­ment in lead­ing sup­ply chain man­age­ment roles. The req­ui­site knowl­edge and skill sets extend over all sup­ply chain ech­e­lons and func­tion­al areas: strate­gic sourc­ing, glob­al pro­cure­ment, con­tract man­age­ment, busi­ness per­for­mance improve­ment, sup­ply chain tech­nolo­gies and six sig­ma, pric­ing analy­sis, chan­nel coor­di­na­tion, brand man­age­ment, new prod­uct devel­op­ment, sup­ply chain align­ment, retail man­age­ment and dis­tri­b­u­tion management.

Tuition: $14,976 for New Jer­sey res­i­dents; $25,998 non-residents

Also:
Penn State Uni­ver­si­ty
Uni­ver­si­ty of North Texas (Dal­las)

What are the Best Undergraduate Business Programs in America?

Some of the best under­grad­u­ate busi­ness schools include:

• Haas Busi­ness School at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berkeley
• McCombs School of Busi­ness at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Austin
• Indi­ana University
• Ross School of Busi­ness at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan Ann Arbor
• Colum­bia University
• George­town University
• Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia (USC) in Los Angeles
• Uni­ver­si­ty of Miami
• Uni­ver­si­ty of Virginia
• Cor­nell University
• New York Uni­ver­si­ty (NYU)
• Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na at Chapel Hill

What Am I Looking for in a Business School?

There’s no per­fect method­ol­o­gy for pick­ing a busi­ness school that is right for you. Enroll­ment in an on-cam­pus pro­gram is bet­ter for some, while oth­ers need online. A lib­er­al arts col­lege may be bet­ter for you than an Ivy League uni­ver­si­ty. Inter­na­tion­al stu­dents have dif­fer­ent needs. High­er edu­ca­tion has many forms.

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