Can I Get an MBA without a Business Degree?

An Master of Business Administration (MBA) can be an important step in your career, whether you are nearing the end of your bachelor's degree program or already in the workforce. Having an MBA typically opens up a wide range of opportunities in any industry, leading to a large return on investment (ROI) from your education. Earning one can also increase your network, communication skills, knowledge of global markets, and time management skills.

If you wish to pursue an MBA but didn’t major in business during your undergraduate education, you might wonder if you can obtain one without a business degree. The short answer is yes. Read on to learn the kinds of degrees MBA candidates have and the best time to pursue an MBA. 

Read more: Master of Business Administration (MBA) Guide

Can I get an MBA without a business degree?

A business degree is not required to enroll in an MBA program. In fact, a 2023 survey of prospective MBA students by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) revealed that 55 percent of respondents had a non-business bachelor's degree [1]. These students come from liberal arts, science, and engineering disciplines. An understanding of business helps when it comes to applying for an MBA program, but you can apply simply with a bachelor’s degree in any discipline once you meet the MBA admission requirements. 

Read more: How to Get an MBA Degree

Possible undergraduate majors for MBA candidates

Since you can apply for an MBA without a business degree, let’s explore some possible undergraduate majors that are relevant to business, including:

• Accounting

• Analytics

• Communications

• Economics

• Engineering

• Finance

• Global studies

• Management information systems

• Marketing

• Psychology

We'll explore how each major gives you a different understanding and approach when it comes to business and pursuing an MBA. 

Accounting

As an accounting major, you learn how to make financial decisions for businesses and individuals, leveraging knowledge in finance, tax law, and cost analysis. You also learn how to use various software, principles, auditing practices, and mathematics associated with accounting. Accounting is a useful major that touches various aspects of business. 

After working in the field, some accountants want to pursue an MBA in accounting. While you can pursue a general MBA to learn more about business administration, an MBA with a concentration in accounting gives you specific skills in both disciplines. This opens up positions like:

• Accounting manager

• Budget director

• Financial manager

Read more: What Is a Bachelor's in Accounting and What Can You Do with One?

Analytics

Business analytics uses tools from data science to manage, analyze, interpret, and visualize raw data to identify trends useful for business. A bachelor’s degree in business analytics helps you gain useful skills, such as forming questions businesses want answered, cleaning data, gathering analytics, creating models, and making predictions. 

If you major in business analytics or data science and want to pursue an MBA, some programs offer a concentration in business analytics, where you learn the fundamentals of management and business administration while using your technical analytics skills. An MBA in business analytics opens up managerial positions like:

• Chief data officer

• Business intelligence analyst

• Business analytics specialist

Communications

A communications degree gives you a multi-disciplinary education by focusing on creating effective messaging in digital and print spaces. It also helps you learn how to communicate in peer settings and to larger audiences. These skills that businesses admire could help you get into an MBA program. 

If you’re looking to move up to higher-level communications positions like communications manager, an MBA helps you develop the skills to think strategically at the business level while leveraging your communications skills. 

Economics

Economic reasoning is an important way of working through business problems since it gives you a broad background in solving problems from various liberal arts disciplines. Studying economics gives you an understanding of public finance, governments, markets, and the history of economics. This is a key aspect of an MBA, and thinking through problems in this way gives you leverage when applying. 

Some undergraduate economics majors may want to consider an MBA in economics, which focuses on how economics affects business directly. Jobs that open up when you have an MBA in economics include:

• Pricing analyst

• Management consultant

• Economic forecaster.  

Engineering

An engineering degree combined with an MBA opens up unique paths for engineers with business aspirations, like running your own business or consulting between engineers and corporate clients. Engineers gain skills to break down and solve problems with many variables, giving them a key skill set that applies to the business environment.

Engineers with business ideas gain skills in pitching those ideas to potential clients or investors, transforming their technical skills in engineering into high-level business skills from their MBA. An MBA also helps you gain higher-level positions within an organization, such as:

• Project manager

• Operations manager

• Program manager

Finance

A finance degree helps you develop a range of investment, data analysis, and risk management skills. It also helps you gain communication, collaboration, and fast problem-solving skills, as finance is always changing. Finance majors have strong math and statistics skills to help analyze a business's financial health and create smart investments. 

When you're interested in finance for business, you can pursue an MBA with a concentration in finance, allowing you to develop your financial skills while applying them directly to the business administration environment. It also allows you to pursue higher-level positions like:

• Chief financial officer

• Financial manager

• Financial analyst

Global studies

In a global studies major, you learn about the interactions between different countries and cultures. You think about the world at a macro level, how it changed throughout history, and how it can change in the future. In some global studies programs, you develop language fluency in the regions you study, giving you skills in communicating across cultures. 

You have the opportunity to gain business skills that you may apply across cultures to make a change. A degree in global studies helps learners seeking an MBA to prepare for careers in governments, multinational corporations, or global organizations like the World Bank. 

Management information systems

A major in management information systems (MIS) helps you gain skills in data storage and security in computer databases. The storage and usage of information is a core aspect of how a business runs. Management information systems majors combine the technical theory of computer science with business operations. 

Pursuing an MBA after a degree in MIS gives you a deeper understanding of business administration principles and practices that you can leverage with your knowledge of technical systems. Jobs that combine an MBA and MIS degree include:

• Business analyst

• Database administrator

• Computer systems analyst

Marketing

In marketing, you study various types of media, like digital and social media, using consumer behavior analysis to create marketing plans. A marketing degree helps you analyze marketing data through performance analytics, research communication methods across platforms, and reach your audience on those platforms. 

Some colleges offer an MBA in marketing designed to teach those with a marketing background key factors in business administration to help them execute their marketing plans focused on growing business. 

Psychology

Psychology programs explore how the human mind works at various levels. You learn to interpret scientific research to understand how and why humans make certain decisions. Additionally, you learn about how the human brain functions within various environments and how that influences human behavior. 

Understanding human behavior at the psychological level gives you important insight into business by examining it at the human level. After a psychology degree, an MBA leads to various jobs in:

• Corporate counseling

• Consumer research

• Management consulting

Read more: What Is a Market Research Analyst? Guide

Is an MBA worth it?

Whether an MBA is worth it depends on your current circumstances, career goals, and whether you can afford the time and money to attend school. However, MBAs help with these three things:

1. It helps increase your educational ROI by improving your career trajectory through a rigorous program that challenges you to become a better thinker and business leader. 

2. It increases your earning potential compared to those with just a bachelor’s degree. 

3. Additionally, MBA programs allow you to network with a diverse range of individuals and make friends and business colleagues. 

When is the best time to get an MBA?

If you want to move up in your current position, find a different career with higher educational requirements, or have aspirations as an entrepreneur, consider getting an MBA. Keep in mind the best time to get an MBA is the time that works for your circumstances. This includes a range of financial, social, and time considerations in your life. 

Get started with Coursera

You can get an MBA without a business degree, and whatever your degree is in, you can leverage it to have a successful career with an MBA. Is now the right time for you to pursue an MBA? Consider the Master of Business Administration (iMBA) from the University of Illinois Gies College of Business to give you lifelong leadership skills. You can complete your iMBA 100 percent online on Coursera.