Can You Get an MBA without a Bachelor’s Degree?

If you're considering advancing your education, getting a Master of Business Administration (MBA) can be a worthwhile investment. However, as a graduate degree, MBAs typically require applicants to have a bachelor’s degree by the time they start the program. That being said, your bachelor’s degree does not need to be in business.

Learn how to get an MBA without a bachelor’s degree or when you haven't studied business as an undergraduate, and other MBA alternatives. 

Can you get an MBA without a bachelor’s?

Usually, to get into an MBA program, you need to have a bachelor’s degree. In fact, it’s one of the major requirements to earn your MBA. That being said, your bachelor’s degree does not need to be in business. Many students interested in earning a graduate degree pursue a subject different from their college major.

In fact, many business schools welcome students with unique backgrounds because this creates a more well-rounded experience for all MBA candidates. It leads to an environment that challenges perspectives and brings more creativity and originality to the program. Some schools may even value specific skills, like leadership or ethics, over a business background. 

How to get an MBA without a bachelor’s degree

Unfortunately, because MBA programs require a bachelor’s degree for admission, there is no easy way to apply for admission to an MBA without first obtaining an undergraduate education. However, there may be faster ways to earn your bachelor’s before moving on to your MBA. Let’s review some of them. 

Bachelor’s completion programs

If you’ve earned some college credit but did not finish your bachelor’s degree program, you may want to consider looking into bachelor’s completion programs. These largely online offerings are often designed to accept a higher number of transfer credits so you don’t have to repeat what you’ve already learned and you can graduate with your bachelor’s in a timely fashion. 

Online colleges

Earn your bachelor’s degree online so you can learn around your other commitments, like work or family. When you earn an online degree, there are many benefits, including not having to relocate or travel to campus. You can also learn at your own pace, so while it may require a longer time commitment to first earn your bachelor’s before moving on to your MBA, you can work on that goal on your own time. 

Dual MBA programs 

If you do not yet have your bachelor’s degree, you may want to explore dual MBA programs. Many universities offer the option to get your bachelor's and master's degrees, such as an MBA, at the same time. Essentially, you attend school for a longer period—usually around five years— and when you graduate, you've earned both degrees. 

Can you get an MBA without a business degree?

The good news is that an undergraduate business degree is not required to apply to 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.

10 majors that can lead to an MBA

Let's review some of the majors that can lead to an MBA.

1. Accounting

A bachelor's in accounting can be a good way to 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

2. 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

3. 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. 

4. 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  

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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. 

8. 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

9. 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 their business. 

10. 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

Alternatives to the MBA

If earning your bachelor’s degree in order to achieve an MBA is not feasible at the moment, there are other types of education you can consider to strengthen your business acumen and skill set. 

Online courses

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) can be an effective way to bolster your knowledge without having to travel to campus or formally enroll in a school. Whether you’re interested in learning about business foundations or want to study something more advanced, such as business analytics, there are a range of options to explore. 

Professional Certificates

Earn a Professional Certificate from an industry leader in business. The Microsoft Business Analyst Professional Certificate or the Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate are excellent ways to add to your skill set while gaining a credential you can feature on your resume. 

Learn more: 9 Alternatives to College

Earn your MBA through Coursera 

Once you have a bachelor's degree, earn an MBA through an esteemed university partner on Coursera without applying. Learn more about Illinois’ iMBA and Illinois Tech’s MBA—or get started in one of their open courses to see if either could be a good fit.