Earn Your Online Business Administration Degree from Southern Miss!

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Business Administration (General Business) BSBA

Undergraduate

Explore the corporate world with an online Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from Southern Miss. In an ever-changing economy, the opportunities to excel in the business world are limitless. The University of Southern Mississippi’s online business administration degree will provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to work in various arenas within the business industry.

The general business emphasis is a broad degree preparing students for careers in a wide range of business settings. This emphasis is appropriate for students who wish to obtain a business degree but who do not wish to specialize in a specific area of emphasis. The general business emphasis also allows students the most flexibility to custom design their program of study.

Through this affordable online program, you will earn an online business administration degree that will advance your career and open the door to more opportunities in the workforce without having to come to campus! Are you ready to take the next step in your career? Join The University of Southern Mississippi today!

A number of scholarship opportunities are available to online students. To find our list of available scholarships for which you may qualify, click here.

Your Future

Check out some of the jobs our graduates landed after earning this degree:
  • Branch/Store Manager
  • Customer Service Manager
  • Business Analyst
  • Business Operations Specialist
  • General Manager
  • Business Continuity Planner
  • Project Manager
  • Consultant
  • Purchasing Manager
  • Executive Assistant
  • Human Resource Administrator
  • Insurance Sales Agent
National Salary Averages* Career pathway for Online Business Administration Degree

General Education Curriculum

Written Communication (6 hours)

Course Credits
Composition One
3 hrs.
Composition Two
3 hrs.

Natural Science (8-10 hours minimum)

Select 2 courses with labs:

Course Credits
Biology and Society *
3 hrs.
Principles of Biological Science I *
3 hrs.
Principles of Biological Science II *
3 hrs.
Chemistry and Our Environment *
3 hrs.
General Chemistry I *
3 hrs.
General Chemistry II *
3 hrs.
Weather and Climate *
3 hrs.
General Physics I *
3 hrs.
General Physics II *
3 hrs.

Humanities (9 hours)

Course Credits
World Literature
3 hrs.

Select 2 courses, 1 history required:

Course Credits
World Civilizations: Beginnings to 1500 C.E.
3 hrs.
World Civilizations: 1500 C.E. to present
3 hrs.
Introduction to Philosophy
3 hrs.
Ethics and Good Living
3 hrs.
Comparative Religion
3 hrs.

Aesthetic Values (3 hours)

Select 1 Course:

Course Credits
Art Appreciation
3 hrs.
Dance Appreciation
3 hrs.
The Enjoyment of Music
3 hrs.

Social and Behavioral Sciences (6 hours)

Select 2 courses:

Course Credits
The Human Experience: A Global Perspective on Human Diversity
3 hrs.
Basic Economics
3 hrs.
World Geography: Dynamics of a Changing Earth
3 hrs.
American Government
3 hrs.
General Psychology
3 hrs.
Understanding Society: Principles of Sociology
3 hrs.

Mathematic (3 hours)

Course Credits
Cognitive Reasoning
3 hrs.
College Algebra
3 hrs.
Higher-level MAT course
3 hrs.

Writing-Intensive Requirement (Major Area)

Select 1 course:

Course Credits
Technical Writing
3 hrs.
Organizational Communications
3 hrs.

ENG 101 & ENG 102 prerequisites

Capstone Requirement (Major Area)

Course Credits
Global Managerial Policy and Strategy (Capstone)
3 hrs.

Must be taken Senior year, ENG 101 & ENG 102 prerequisites

 

Program Curriculum

Major Area of Study Requirements (21 hours)

Select 21 hours of 300 or 400 level College of Business courses beyond the College of Business Core with no more than 15 hours from any one discipline.

The following courses have been approved for online delivery and satisfy the requirements above.

Schools of Accountancy and Finance (Select 2):

Course Credits
Accounting Essentials for Business
3 hrs.
Short-Term Financial Management
3 hrs.
Financial Analysis
3 hrs.
Real Estate Principles
3 hrs.

School of Management (Select 2):

Course Credits
Human Resource Management
3 hrs.
Organizational Behavior
3 hrs.
Introduction to Entrepreneurship
3 hrs.

School of Marketing (Select 2):

Course Credits
Principles of Merchandising
3 hrs.
Consumer Behavior
3 hrs.
Customer Services Management
3 hrs.

Additional Requirements (55-58 hours)

College of Business Core Courses

Course Credits
Introduction to Financial Accounting
3 hrs.
Managerial Accounting
3 hrs.
Legal Environment of Business
3 hrs.
Applied Business Analytics
3 hrs.
Business Analytics II
3 hrs.
Principles of Macroeconomics
3 hrs.
Principles of Microeconomics
3 hrs.

Select and approved College of Business international course

Course Credits
Principles of Finance
3 hrs.
Management of Organizations
3 hrs.
Operations Management
3 hrs.
Global Managerial Policy and Strategy
3 hrs.
Management Information Systems
3 hrs.
Principles of Marketing
3 hrs.

Select 1 course:

Course Credits
Business Analytics I
3 hrs.
Introduction to Statistics of the Behavioral Sciences
3 hrs.
Statistical Methods I
3 hrs.
Elementary Statistics
3 hrs.

Additional BSBA Requirements

Select 1 course:

Course Credits
Technical Writing
3 hrs.
Organizational Communications
3 hrs.

Select 1 course:

Course Credits
Business English
3 hrs.
Computer Applications in Business Technology
3 hrs.
English Grammar
3 hrs.

a single foreign language course

Select 2 course (MAT 102 required):

Course Credits
College Algebra
3 hrs.
Brief Applied Calculus
3 hrs.

a single foreign language course not used in another BSBA field

Electives

Choose electives as needed with adviser’s approval. Non-business courses recommended. (See Hours to Degree below.)

Additional Note

Please note that the above information is meant to be a guide and is not official. For further information regarding courses for this degree, see the University Bulletin. Please be aware that not all course choices listed in the University Bulletin are available online. However, sufficient online options are available to complete this degree.

* Requires additional 1 hour lab
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there any additional fees?

Yes, there are lab fees which range from $20 – $50 for this online Business Administration degree.

The Undergraduate Admissions website will provide information for the steps you’ll need to complete in order to be admitted to Southern Miss.

As an online student, you may complete an online application to Southern Miss and do not have to make an in-person visit to the campus. The online student academic adviser for the College of Business and Economic Development will advise you via e-mail, phone, Skype or by other mutually agreeable methods. Once you’ve been advised and cleared to register for classes, you may add classes via SOAR (Southern’s Online Accessible Records).

To find pricing information, click here. For financial aid information, click here. For detailed tuition information, click here. Financial aid is also available on a part-time basis for those students who work full-time.

Follow this link and choose the term that applies to view the costs associated with part-time enrollment.

You should NOT be charged out-of-state fees, because the online classes are considered in-residence for the online Business Administration degree.

Contact the online Business Administration degree academic adviser, Linda Jordan, at linda.jordan@usm.edu or 228.214.3433. In your correspondence please include your USM student ID# and the semester for which you are seeking advisement as well as the number of classes or credit hours you want to take.

You may not be able to enroll in an online Business Administration degree course if you do not have the necessary pre-requisite(s), all sections of the class are full, or the class is not offered that semester.

An online academic adviser from the College of Business can perform an Unofficial Transfer Evaluation if you email (linda.jordan@usm.edu) or fax (228.214.3475) a copy of all college-level courses completed at other institutions. However, the evaluation is only an estimate of possible transfer of classes and only the official Southern Miss transcript reflects the courses that the university accepts.

Yes, the College of Business has a career services office that assists students in finding career positions after earning your online Business Administration degree.

All students in the College of Business are encouraged to be advised prior to enrolling in classes for the next semester. Please contact your academic adviser, Linda Jordan, at linda.jordan@usm.edu or 228.214.3433. Once you have been advised you will be given access to register for courses in SOAR (Southern’s Online Accessible Records).

Follow this link and choose the term that applies.

You must enroll in at least 12 credit hours in order to have full-time status in the spring and fall semesters and at least 9 credit hours in order to have full-time status in the summer semester.

Yes, you’ll start and end classes on the same dates as face-to-face students.

Yes, the major specific courses (business courses) required for the degree are offered in an on-line format as are a growing number of other required courses. The General Business program has an alliance with Mississippi Virtual Community College (MSVCC) that offers additional on-line core courses (English, History, Psychology, etc.).

Once you’ve transferred to Southern Miss, you can complete a “Permission to Transfer Credit” form prior to taking a class offered at another institution if you want to use the class to satisfy the requirements of the General Business degree at Southern Miss. Completing this form ensures that the course you take somewhere else will be an acceptable substitute for the Southern Miss class. A few rules must be noted related to this process:

  • Earn at least 25% of the credit hours needed for the degree from Southern Miss.
  • Earn at least 21 of the last 30 hours of course work from Southern Miss.
  • 50% of credit hours must be from a senior university.
  • Earn at least 50% of all business courses at Southern Miss, including the capstone course (MGT 400)

No, you will not be required to conduct face-to-face meetings. However, in an on-line course an instructor may also require synchronous meetings (often in the form of chats or web cam real-time meetings).

The instructor of the course determines how he/she sets up the labs. You may be asked to perform job site visits and observations or a course lab may involve the use of simulation or Virtual Reality to learn concepts and perform lab assignments.

It is up to the instructor of a course if exams require a proctor. You should always read the content in the syllabus and on-line course site to determine if a proctor is needed. There is an application that must be completed at least 15 days prior to taking an exam. For information about proctoring click here.

Other classes that aren’t listed may count towards your degree once your transcript has been evaluated and posted.

If yes, visit online.usm.edu/military for more information on how Southern Miss can serve you and your needs. We will help you with funding and scholarship information, admissions and course enrollment.

Please visit our programs page here: https://online.usm.edu/programs/

If you still have questions, please visit our FAQ page, or take a moment to fill out our form at the bottom of the screen, and we will reach out to you!

Admission Requirements

FRESHMAN ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS 

Students planning to enter the university as freshmen must complete the College Preparatory Curriculum (CPC) listed below and submit a composite ACT or combined SAT (verbal/quantitative) score. Please note that the writing components of the ACT and SAT are not used in evaluation for admission. Full admission will be granted to the following: 

  1. All students completing the College Preparatory Curriculum (CPC) with a minimum of a 3.2 high school GPA on the CPC and a submitted ACT (composite) or SAT score 
  2. All students completing the College Preparatory Curriculum (CPC) with a minimum of a 2.5 high school GPA on the CPC or a class rank in the top 50 percent, as well as a score of 16 or higher on the ACT (composite) or a combined score of *770 or higher in critical reading and math on the SAT 
  3. All students completing the College Preparatory Curriculum (CPC) with a minimum of 2.0 high school GPA on the CPC and a score of 18 or higher on the ACT (composite) or a combined score of *860 or higher in critical reading and math on the SAT 
  4. Students who satisfy the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) standards for student-athletes who are full qualifiers under Division I guidelines 

*Based on any SAT taken before March 2016 

The University of Southern Mississippi accepts scores from both the old SAT (any SAT taken before March 2016) and the newly redesigned SAT. If you have taken the SAT after March 1, 2016, use College Board’s SAT Score Converter to compare your SAT scores to old SAT scores. 

TRANSFER ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS 

 A transfer applicant can be admitted to Southern Miss through several different routes.  Please note that admission to some academic programs may require students to meet additional requirements. 

Students must have either an associate degree intended for transfer from a regionally accredited institution or have completed the 30 semester hours of designated coursework outlined below with a minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average for admission. 

  • 6 semester hours of English Composition (English Composition I and II) 
  • 3 semester hours of mathematics (college algebra, quantitative reasoning, or higher mathematics) 
  • 6 semester hours of natural science (courses must be laboratory-based, with the lecture courses accompanied by the respective lab course) 
  • 9 semester hours of humanities and fine arts (common examples of acceptable coursework are history, philosophy, religion, world literature, art, music) 
  • 6 semester hours of social or behavioral sciences (common examples of acceptable coursework are anthropology, geography, sociology, psychology, social work) 

ADMISSION THROUGH FRESHMAN REQUIREMENTS 

Students must meet freshman admission requirements and have earned a minimum 2.0 cumulative college grade point average for admission. Please note that transfer students admitted through this route must submit transcripts from all colleges/universities attended after high school and that transfer credits will be applied toward their degree at Southern Miss.  

CONDITIONAL ADMISSION THROUGH ADULT STATUS 

An applicant who is at least 21 years old and does not meet any other admission requirements may apply for admission as a non-degree-seeking student, which is commonly referred to as the conditional status.  Students seeking admission through this route must have a minimum cumulative college grade point average of 2.0. Students with this status may enroll in no more than 12 semester hours and must a minimum 2.0 grade point average during the first 12 hours of enrollment at the university.  Once these requirements are satisfactorily met, all restrictions are lifted and the student is considered degree-seeking.  Students admitted on this status may experience financial aid restrictions, including Pell Grant ineligibility. Once conditional status requirements are satisfied, all financial aid restrictions will be lifted.

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