Is a Business Administration, Management and Operations degree worth it?
Graduates earn a median $64,706 two years after finishing, more than 62% of master's majors.
Measured across 1,207 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.
C
The verdict on the money
It pays around the middle. What you earn will depend more on where you study and what you do with it than on the subject label.
Median earnings$64,7062 years after finishing
Typical range$55,964–$78,719middle half of US programmes
Over no degree+$25,186vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year119,2311,207 programmes
Where a Business Administration, Management and Operations degree pays best
US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.
It is the median of what real graduates of this exact major earned, taken from tax records two years after
they completed. It is not a starting salary, not an average of job adverts, and not a projection.
The median master's major in this dataset reports $54,713, so Business Administration, Management and Operations sits
above the middle by $9,993.
Two years is early in a career. Fields with long training pipelines — medicine, law, research — look weaker at
this point than they will at ten, while trades and applied technical fields peak sooner. Read a low figure in a
long-pipeline subject as "slow start", not "bad degree".
There is no debt figure here on purpose. The Department of Education publishes earnings by
field of study but not borrowing, so nobody can honestly tell you the debt of a specific major. Debt is
published per institution — that is where our
university cost pages carry it.
Business Administration, Management and Operations at other levels
We may earn a commission if you take a loan through a provider here. It never changes the earnings figures on
this page — those come from the US Department of Education.
Business Administration, Management and Operations: the questions people ask
How much do Business Administration, Management and Operations graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $64,706 two years after finishing, across 810 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $65,200.
Is a Business Administration, Management and Operations degree worth it?
It pays around the middle. What you earn will depend more on where you study and what you do with it than on the subject label. The median graduate earns $25,186 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Business Administration, Management and Operations?
Half of US programmes report medians between $55,964 and $78,719. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Business Administration, Management and Operations each year?
About 119,231 students complete a master's in this field each year across 1,207 US programmes.
Does this include student debt?
No — and deliberately. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not debt, so any "debt by major" figure you see elsewhere is an estimate. Debt is published per institution, which is why our university pages carry it and this page does not.
Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard, field-of-study earnings (median earnings of graduates who
received federal financial aid, measured 1–3 years after completion). Figures are per major and credential level,
pooled across US programmes. Information only, not financial advice.