Our Goal: Developing Your Business Skills
It takes a variety of skills to succeed in today’s business world. Alma’s Business Administration Department strives to develop the skills that are imperative for career success, including analytical, critical thinking, conceptual, communication, interpersonal, and entrepreneurial skills. Students at Alma also receive a global business perspective, international travel opportunities, internship possibilities, and interaction with business professionals.
We Offer These Concentrations
Alma College offers majors in both Business Administration and International business Administration. The Business Administration major offers concentrations in three areas: general business administration, accounting and marketing. All three integrate basic business disciplines in accounting, finance, international business, management, marketing and statistics, with options for specialization.
Our Faculty Have Real-World Experiences
Since Alma’s Business Administration faculty members all have actual business experience in the areas they specialize, you receive experiential instruction based on real-world knowledge. In the tradition of America’s best business schools, you learn decision-making and problem-solving skills using the case study method. A senior year seminar in business strategy exposes you to complex global, accounting, marketing, managerial and financial problems.
Alma’s SIFE Team among Nation’s Best
Alma’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team finished third out of more than 1,600 colleges and universities in the “market economics” section of the national SIFE competition in May 2006. The national competition awards the SIFE teams that are most effective in teaching the principles of market economics through outreach projects in their communities. Read more.
Why Alma?
Profiles of Business Students/Graduates
Josh Brehm, Student-Athlete
Josh Brehm, winner of the national Gagliardi Trophy, is proof that students at Alma can excel in both the classroom and in athletics. Read more.
Mike Pennie, Marketer
Mike Pennie works in sales in the medical device industry. Yet, he often dresses in scrubs to assist surgeons in the operating room. The 1994 business administration alumnus sells high-tech surgical devices to physicians for ConMed Endoscopic Technologies. Read more.
Steven Bailey, Cartoonist
If a person gets paid for drawing cartoons, you’d think that person might be an art major; however, Steven Bailey double majored in business and mass communications. Read more.
The Gazmararian Scholarship
The George Gazmararian Spring Term Scholarship awards up to $2,500 stipends to business students enrolled in a Spring Term course in a foreign country. Contact a business faculty member for further details.
We Help Find Internships
We encourage students to plan a business-related internship in order to obtain on-the-job experience before leaving college. Practical experiences are available in accounting, general business management, finance and marketing. Not only do internships give you valuable professional training, they also allow you to make important personal contacts with potential employers — contacts that can result in pre-graduation job offers.
Learn How To Be Leader
Many business students at Alma take advantage of the opportunities available through the Center for Responsible Leadership. In particular, the CRL Fellows’ Program offers students opportunities for in-depth leadership training and development. Read more.
Our Graduates Find Jobs
Our graduates are well prepared for careers in for-profit, not-for-profit, and government organizations. In accounting, Alma graduates earn between $45,000 to $55,000, with most graduates receiving offers six months before they graduate. Other significant career fields include banking, consulting, finance, insurance, international business, management, marketing, public relations, research and retailing.
Interested in Grad School?
Alma Business Administration graduates have gone on to very prestigious business schools, including Indiana University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University.
Certified Public Accountant Preparation
It is possible for students to meet the five-year academic requirement for CPA certification within four years at Alma College. In order to accomplish this, students must complete 168 Alma College credit hours in four years — 18 credits per term, plus two additional spring terms and one summer internship or independent study. For more information, please talk with one of the Business Administration professors.
