Why We Love It
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$91,770Potential Avg. Salary*
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Growing DemandJob Outlook
* Salary & growth data is based on the recent Bureau of Labor and Statistics data published at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes131111.htm for 13-1111 Management analysts 11/2021. Based on national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary.
A bachelor of science in general studies is a flexible degree program that allows students to meet general bachelor of science degree requirements while also designing their own course of study.
As long as students complete general requirements, their upper-level coursework can be chosen from classes offered in any discipline from any department. This allows students to design their own education and career.
What is a Degree in General Studies?
A bachelor’s degree in general studies is a modern build-your-own education program. Students must take general coursework to meet general bachelor of science requirements, but the remainder of coursework can be selected from offerings from any subject or department. This flexibility is one of the degree’s greatest strengths, because it allows students to combine subjects in ways that reflect how many careers actually work in practice rather than staying inside one narrow academic lane.
Students can use this to learn about a variety of disciplines, designing educational paths that help them achieve a broad educational background to cater to the needs of diverse and complex careers. That can be especially useful for students whose goals span several fields and require communication, analysis, creativity, and business knowledge at the same time.
For example, a student who is interested in starting an online business may need to understand business, marketing, design, writing, e-commerce, and development concepts. A degree in any one of those specific fields would be insufficient to provide the diverse education required.
Instead, the student can major in general studies and take the most important courses that lead to a diverse education, preparing them more adequately for their chosen careers than any other specialist major they could choose. This approach can also help graduates adapt more easily as industries change, since employers often value people who can learn quickly, work across teams, and connect ideas from multiple disciplines.
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What Courses Would I Take For a Major in General Studies?
- Composition
- Algebra
- Literature
- Biology
- History
- Computer Science
- Public Speaking
- + Individually Selected Electives
What Jobs Can You Get with a Degree in General Studies?
Since a bachelor’s degree in general studies can lead to any number of careers, there’s really no way to anticipate what the job outlook is for graduates of this program.
However, because students gain a broad and diverse education—and because they have earned the needed bachelor’s degree prerequisite credential for many jobs—they should have ample job opportunities after graduation. Many move into business-focused roles, working in digital marketing, as entrepreneurs, or as business consultants.
Current labor data supports the strength of those broader paths: business and financial occupations are projected to have about 942,500 openings each year from 2024 to 2034, with a median annual wage of $80,920 in May 2024, while management occupations are projected to have about 1.1 million openings each year and a median annual wage of $122,090. Specific roles often pursued by broadly educated graduates also show solid demand, including market research analysts, projected to grow 7% from 2024 to 2034, and management analysts, projected to grow 9% over the same period.
How Long does it take?
A bachelors in General Studies will have a typical length of 4 years in a full time schedule. That said, there are many ways to speed up the timeframe by either taking more units via online coursework, community college, or taking free classes at OnlineDegree.com that could transfer to universities in the US.
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Best Jobs for General Studies Degrees
The advantage of a bachelor’s degree in general studies is that you design your own career path. You choose courses that suit exactly what you want to learn, and that allow you to have a diverse background and set of knowledge to pull from when working in complex, multi-disciplinary careers.
Many graduates move into business fields that require broad skill sets that cross many different specialized sets of knowledge.
How to save time and money
Our mission is to help you to avoid paying full price for college. We want your General Studies degree to be affordable and accessible. Here’s how you could save:
Create Your Free SmartPlan
There are many ways to make college affordable and accessible.
That’s why we created a helpful tool called SmartPlan.
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