BSc in Business Administration

Learn How to Succeed in the Business World

The bachelor’s in business administration program at UAlbany will increase your understanding of fundamental business concepts and provide you with practical skills in your chosen area of concentration.

Available concentrations include the financial analyst honors program, information systems, and business analytics, and marketing. Many combined concentrations are also offered, including entrepreneurship and management.

AACSB Accreditation

The School of Business maintains dual accreditation in business administration and accounting through the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) – the hallmark of excellence in management education. As the highest achievement standard for business schools worldwide, it denotes top-quality teaching and meaningful student-faculty interactions.

Concentrations

Financial Analyst Honors Program

The financial analyst concentration for business administration majors allows you to share an integrated educational experience with a small group of motivated students who have earned a GPA of 3.5 or higher.

This honors program provides you with individual mentorship, rigorous coursework, smaller class seminars, and special activities designed to help you develop a successful career in financial analysis and investment.

As a financial analyst honors student, you will:

• Work with a mentor selected for you by finance faculty and the Office of Student Services.
• Be trained by Wall Street experts in a semester-long financial analysis boot camp. This course includes behind-the-scenes field trips to financial services organizations such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Oppenheimer, Bank of America, and the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
• Interview for the opportunity to join the student-run University at Albany School of Business Investment Group (UASBIG), whose members get hands-on portfolio management experience. Members of this group analyze real securities and pitch stock-investment ideas to an advisory board during weekly conference calls. Student officers also prepare performance reports and make annual presentations to the Foundation Board.
• Participate in the annual Adirondack Cup student stock portfolio contest.
• Compete in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute equity research challenge.
• Become certified in the Bloomberg Terminal for equity and fixed-income analysis.
• Connect with investment professionals in the Center for Institutional Investment Management (CIIM).

Sample Job Titles

Financial advisor, investment banking analyst, sales and trading assistant, fixed-income securities trader, risk analyst, securities research associate, portfolio/fund manager, credit analyst.

Information Systems and Business Analytics

Discover the ways information technology and data management systems impact organizational strategy and how they can be used to solve business problems.

This concentration area provides you with skills in predictive analytics and teaches you how to develop business and accounting applications using relational database tools and domain-specific programming languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL).

You may either concentrate solely on information systems and business analytics or in one of the combined areas of study.

Sample Job Titles

Data analyst, business intelligence specialist, software application developer, information technology manager, process improvement officer, business systems consultant, quality assurance manager.

Marketing

Concentrating in marketing equips you with the knowledge and skills to better understand, analyze, and manage consumer behavior, customer and business relationships, and firm strategy. You will practice applying tools and strategies used by businesses today to identify potential customers, introduce new products to the market, develop branding and advertising campaigns, and analyze market data. You will also be exposed to emerging trends in marketing analytics, services marketing, and social media, and digital marketing.

You may either concentrate solely on marketing or choose a combined area of study that will complement your career goals.

Opportunities for Applied Learning

Marketing instructors often collaborate with local companies to provide you with hands-on experiences such as working on applied projects for course credit. Additionally, you will have opportunities to collaborate with marketing faculty on research projects to gain practical exposure to how marketing research is conducted. Marketing students typically complete at least one internship before graduation.

Sample Job Titles

Customer insights manager, business/marketing data analyst, market researcher, social media strategist, digital marketing manager, retail manager, visual merchandiser, advertising manager, creative designer, brand manager, sales manager, communications director, public relations manager, customer service manager, and fundraising manager.

Entrepreneurship

Get your startup company off the ground while you’re a still student! Through UAlbany’s Blackstone LaunchPad, you’ll benefit from mentorship and special access to startup resources while you compete for funding and connect with alumni and faculty who can help you achieve your business dreams.

If you want to focus on entrepreneurship, you can choose from the combined concentration areas listed below.

Management

Learn how to manage teams, measure individual performance, and recruit, compensate, and motivate employees.

If you want to focus on management, you can select from the combined concentration areas listed below.

Choose a combination that matches your interest in budgeting and fiscal leadership, data mining, and predictive modeling, or product development and strategic promotion.

Sample Job Titles

Project manager, customer service specialist, claims representative, account coordinator, sales manager, program evaluator, regional sales representative.

Finance

Master the fundamentals of corporate financial policy and strategy, financial statement analysis and budgeting, investment management, money, and capital markets, stock valuation and analysis, and entrepreneurial finance.

If you want to focus on finance, you can choose from the combined concentration areas listed below.

Sample Job Titles

Investment banking analyst, private wealth manager, financial data associate, fiscal risk manager, insurance representative, loan officer, a financial consultant.

Internship opportunities

Gain practical experience in your area of interest by completing an internship with a local, national, or global organization. The School of Business enjoys strong relationships with employers in and beyond the Capital Region, and most business administration students complete at least one internship as part of their program of study.

Core Business and Accounting Courses

• Financial Accounting
• Cost Accounting Systems for Managerial Decisions
• Financial Management
• Information Technologies for Business
• Statistics
• Improving Business Performance with Information Technologies
• Business Law OR Environment of Business
• Marketing Principles
• Behavioral Foundations of Management
• Strategic Management

Required Liberal Arts and Sciences Courses

• Principles of Economics I: Microeconomics
• Principles of Economics II: Macroeconomics
• Economics (upper-level elective)
• Calculus
• Introduction to Psychology
• Introduction to Sociology OR Cultural Anthropology
• Electives as needed or advised

Concentration Courses

Fulfill the requirements for your chosen area of focus. See below for more information.

Career paths

The School of Business at the University at Albany maintains close ties with alumni recruiters working for regional, national, and international consulting firms, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies such as the NYS Office of the Comptroller.

To get the job you want, you can take advantage of services and recruitment events available through the business school’s dedicated career center – learn how to write a resume and cover letter, complete mock interviews, and get weekly updates on internship and job opportunities.

Recent alumni surveys indicate that more than 80% of UAlbany business students find employment within five months of graduation. Of these, over 90% report that they’re satisfied with their job.

Sample Employers

General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Northwestern Mutual, Macy's, and Big Four accounting firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers).