A degree in business can help you build your own career curriculum.
Accounting
Accounting is the "language of business" and the financial lifeline of every organization, affecting everything from bottom line to future growth. That's why accounting courses are key to your business education and your future career. Accounting will push you to unlock your critical thinking skills, and usually includes studies in areas such as financial accounting, managerial accounting, and tax and financial planning.
Behavioral Sciences
Behavioral sciences are an important tool for understanding leadership practices in a business or organization. It can help you understand things like leadership techniques, decision making, conflict management, team building and innovation. You'll learn how to keep people happy and productive. Courses you'll encounter in behavioral sciences include psychology, sociology, counseling and human development.
Business Law
To get an understanding of how legal concerns are dealt with in
business, engage yourself in Legal and Social Environments studies.
Another important area of study is business law, which provides you with knowledge of the specific laws that govern business. Studying this subject will also help you understand the difference between state and federal laws, how common law works, and the ins and outs of contracts, wills, estates and sales.
Communication
Are you comfortable speaking in front of a group of people? And can you listen as well as you speak? How are your writing skills? These are skills you're practicing all the time — in class, studying with friends, acting in a play or engaging in a debate — and they're indispensable skills in business. So much of good business is being able to collect and analyze information, and then communicate your findings clearly to your audience. Studies in communications will really help you strengthen these skills.
Economics
Economics is divided into two areas: macro and micro. By studying macroeconomics, you'll gain an overview of how the whole economy works, including: income measurement, employment, growth, international economics and government policies concerning taxes and spending. Microeconomics takes the "big picture" view and studies how economic forces affect organizations, businesses and individuals and the ways those groups interact. This includes studying the relationship between price and demand, and how business competition operates.
Ethics
Do you know the difference between morals and ethics? You've probably heard that question before. Morals are usually defined as a responsibility to yourself, while ethics are about your responsibility to those around you. Strong business minds need to be aware of the principal ethical concerns related to a specific industry, as well as their associated professional and legal responsibilities.
Finance
Finance is one of the most important applications of business. Courses in finance will teach you the fundamentals of business operation, and give you tools and techniques needed to manage the financial resources of an organization. It's the best way to gain an understanding of how fiscal resources are managed within an organization, and how economic conditions affect that management. You'll also learn how money gets raised and income is reported, and how to use information to measure and control potential risks.
Chances are you're already using computers often, in school or at home. You're doing homework on them, playing games and staying in touch with friends. If so, great — knowledge of computers is really crucial to today's business world. This means getting to know the hardware, as well as software like Internet applications, database and spreadsheet programs, word processing and custom-built applications.
International Business
Globalization is a reality of life in business today. With so many U.S. companies doing a large amount of their business worldwide, understanding international aspects of business, finance, economics, accounting and marketing is extremely important.
Legal and Social Environments
The business world has its own set of industry regulations and laws. Legal and social environments teach you how federal and state agencies, courts and other private and professional organizations govern and interact. It also makes you aware of social issues that affect business, such as labor unions, environmentalism and minority rights.
Marketing
The next time you buy something--a pair of jeans, for instance--look at the displays around the store. Then think about elements such as advertising and price, and how they might have influenced your decision to make that purchase. All of those factors are part of marketing. Marketing studies will teach you how a company combines its products and services with factors such as market trends, price, advertising and distribution to make them available to everyone.
Risk Management
To answer your question: yes, this name sounds scarier than it actually is. Risk management is kind of like the science of business, combining mathematics and statistics. It helps solve complicated business problems by applying scientific techniques such as analysis, comparison and examination of evidence to help calculate potential success or failure. This makes it a very challenging and compelling area of business studies.
Statistics
In business, statistical data is some of the most important information to a company--but it takes a specialist to take that data, interpret it and make intelligent decisions based on the information generated. Statistics helps not only determine probability, but also in figuring out the best data to collect and analyze. From there, you'll need the insight to develop theories and hypotheses that can be used to develop real business strategies. Statistics also involves "crunching" data with mathematical models and computer software.