Business Administration

Prepare for an exciting career as a problem-solver and decision-maker who can identify opportunities for business

Program Details

Location:

Online, Corvallis, Bend

Program Type:

Major

Overview

Business Administration

Get ready to be a problem-solver, decision-maker and leader who can identify opportunities to evaluate the success of any organization.

Our business administration degree provides you with broad business skills in accounting and quantitative methods, an understanding of the legal and social environment of business, and a background in management and organizational behavior, marketing, finance, and operations management.

A business administration degree is the starting point for many careers in business, and it opens any number of doors to entry-level business jobs. But we'll help you go a step further. Our degree options will prepare you for a career in high-demand job sectors like digital marketing, supply chain, entrepreneurship or merchandising management.

Business administration is a major program of study offered in Corvallis, Bend, Portland and online through Ecampus.

Options:

Once you enroll in the business administration program, you can select an area of focus from the following options:

The Dean’s Academy is an academic forum for high-achieving first-year students, transfer students, and current undergraduate students who wish to maximize the educational and experiential aspects of their college experience. Invitation to this option is restricted to those who meet eligibility requirements.

Digital marketing provides you with the knowledge to develop data-driven strategies for social media, websites and email campaigns. You'll enter the workforce able to make data-driven decisions using analytics and business intelligence and be proficient in SEO/SEM strategies.

It's vital to understand the unique dynamics within a family business to equip family members and non-family consultants and executives with the added expertise they need to help a thriving family firm endure. You'll graduate with the insights to balance the business, the family and employees, and leverage new opportunities, for example, broadening the portfolio of assets.

The hospitality management degree is designed to equip you with skills in service, operations management, hospitality technology, food and beverage operations, as well as solid business fundamentals in marketing and accounting. With a focus on the jobs of the future, this specialized degree path will make you well-positioned to go directly into management and be on the fast track to executive leadership or ownership positions in this rapidly changing field.

Business advantages require change-makers, disrupters, and insightful thinkers. Entrepreneurship embraces these forces of creativity, innovation and process-based refinements. Here you'll learn how to recognize and develop opportunities in any organization, including corporations, non-profits, family, and small business.

This area of study prepares you for management positions and exciting international careers at multinational firms, global financial service organizations and international centers of trade.

The heart of marketing is creating value in a complex, advanced economy. Marketing consists of a sequence of activities: identifying customer needs, developing goods and services to satisfy those needs, communicating information about products to potential customers, and distributing the products to customers.

You’ll graduate with a solid business foundation in merchandising topics including global sourcing, consumer behavior, retail merchandise planning and others. And, you're learning with the best — our program is ranked No. 12 in the nation, and No. 1 on the west coast for fashion merchandising by fashion-schools.org.

Retail management offers you specialized knowledge of management and marketing strategies relevant to the retail industry. The online coursework details all the steps required to bring the customers into the store and fulfill their buying needs.

The sports business option provides students with an understanding of the fundamentals of the business of sport, including sports finance, marketing, analytics and sponsorship. The program builds on core business knowledge acquired in business and design programs, and prepares students for careers in sports-related organizations.

Trade, manufacturing, sourcing, global production — every item you touch and use — has a complex story of parts and pieces that brought the functioning item to you; supply chain and logistics management provides you with the knowledge to optimize how all these parts come together and when developed, in front of consumers. While studying supply chain and logistics management, you'll train to be operations and procurement managers for companies and government agencies within manufacturing and service sectors around the globe.

28+

degrees and areas of focus

85% Job placement rate

of classes have fewer than 50 students

#3

nationally for online education
US News and World Report

Business Administration Opportunities

Study Abroad

Study Abroad

Sydney, Australia: University of Technology Sydney

Vienna, Austria: Vienna University of Economics & Business

Santiago, Chile: Universidad de Chile, Facultad Economia y Negocios

Explore study abroad opportunities >

Student organizations and clubs

Associated Clubs

Business Information Systems

Supply Chain Club

Management Association

See all clubs >

Scholarship

Scholarships

Joe D Lewis Scholarship

Foodguys Values Business Scholarship

Helen Mae Cropsey Memorial Scholarship

Glenn L Jackson Memorial Scholarship

See all scholarship opportunities >

Careers

Possible Careers

Human Resources

Sales Manager

Public Relations

Market Research Analyst

Two amazing terms, two simple words: The Microbusinesses

The Microbusinesses are the most engaging and provoking learning experiences we can possibly offer to our first-year business students. This isn’t “monopoly money” or digital coin; these are real bank accounts with financial resources loaned and an expectation for profits.

A team of fellow students helps you plan sales and marketing strategies; our DamLab makerspace is your factory for prototypes and production, and we offer all the academic support you need to create and launch a microbusiness. What could go wrong!!!!

“To be honest, I expected the first year of business school to be all book work — just reading about business without much doing — with junior and senior year being when we’d write business plans.

“So for us to be working together as freshmen to start our own business and launch a real product is pretty exciting. Not to mention, our product could really take off, which makes this much more motivating than your average team project.”

Read More

Meet Regan Mott

It started out like any other day at Beaverton High School for Regan Mott. She was sitting in the cafeteria, visiting with friends. Mott was waiting to hear back about a scholarship she had applied for to attend Oregon State University.

Mott has been coming to Oregon State her whole life, attending sporting events with her family. It’s where her parents met, and the college was her top choice, too. Before heading back to class, Mott refreshed her email one more time ... “When I saw that I got an email from the College of Business, I started freaking out,” Mott recalls. “I was too afraid to open it.”

Read More

"

I enjoy challenges, and I love to learn. That desire to learn and solve tough problems has guided me my entire career.

Kate Johnson '98
Act-On Software CEO

Where our graduates work

Graduates from the college's business administration program have become computer analysts, business process analysts, quality control managers, IT project managers, consultants, teachers, systems' analysts, chief information officers and more.

  • Adecco
  • Cambia
  • Cambia Health Solutions
  • Compucom
  • Daimler
  • Dell
  • Deloitte
  • Huron Health Care
  • Intel
  • Nike
  • Odom
  • Portland General Electric
  • Providence Health Services
  • Puppet Labs
  • Salesforce
  • Schnitzer
  • The Standard
  • Umpqua Bank

Here's why you should be a College of Business student

A success plan for life

Professional, personal and leadership skills form the backbone of successful careers. Blueprint, our award-winning series of classes, is focused on professional and leadership development and financial literacy. With Blueprint, you’re on track to graduate on time, with the skills and network to choose your career, and the savvy to make the big decisions at the right time.

We're not just business; we're family

Our first-year students live in one of our business-themed residence halls. This learning-focused, student-first, open-door culture makes the big Oregon State campus feel like the supportive place it is – and feel a lot smaller and easier to navigate than you might think.

We’re the only college at OSU that has a dedicated Career Success Center for our students. We help you find an internship, write a resume and find a job.

Ranked and accredited

Oregon State is ranked in the top five for online education with U.S. News & World Report. The College of Business overall, as well as our accounting program, is accredited by AACSB International – the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. AACSB International is the premier accrediting agency for degree programs in business and accounting.

Discover the OSU difference