What Is a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) Degree and Is It Worth It?
| 9 Min Read
Have you finished technical training, an associate degree or military coursework? You may already be closer to a bachelor’s degree than you think. A Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) degree turns that coursework into college credit. There’s no starting over required.
This gap shows up for a lot of working adults. You earn a certificate or an associate degree, then get hired. A few years in, you notice something. Bachelor’s degree holders earn significantly more than those with only a high school diploma. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts median weekly earnings at $1,578 for bachelor’s degree holders in 2025, compared to $966 for high school-only graduates.
A BAS degree closes that gap using credit you already have. It’s built specifically for people with real-world experience to build on, not for students starting fresh out of high school. New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) offers an online Bachelor of Applied Science in General Business program built for exactly this transition. The program accepts substantial transfer credit from occupational, vocational or technical training. Many students finish their bachelor’s degree in as few as 21 months. Courses run fully online, so you can keep working while you finish.
So, what can you do with a business degree once you’ve finished one? For BAS graduates, it usually means access to a well-established career path. That might mean a management role or a core business operations position. It could also mean the skills to run a business of your own.
Most people asking this question fall into one of two groups. Some already work in business-adjacent roles and want the credential to formalize what they’re already doing. Others are looking to pivot out of a technical field entirely, using the degree as the bridge.
This article covers what the degree includes and who it’s built for. It also looks at the career paths it opens up and whether it’s worth the time and cost. By the end, you should have a clear picture of whether this particular path makes sense for where you are right now.
What Is a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) Degree?
A Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) degree converts career and technical training into college credit. That credit counts toward a full bachelor’s degree. It differs from a traditional Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in one key way.
A BAS assumes you already bring hands-on skills to the table. Those skills might come from a technical program, an associate degree or military service. A traditional business degree, by contrast, usually assumes you’re starting from scratch.
The remaining coursework builds on that foundation. It adds business fundamentals, leadership training and analytical skills. Those are pieces a technical background usually doesn’t cover on its own. That combination is what turns the credential into a bachelor’s degree employers recognize, not just a certificate.
That practical structure is what sets the BAS apart from other business degrees. Traditional options include the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and the Bachelor of Science (BS) in Business Administration. Both typically expect two full years of general education before the business coursework even starts. A BAS skips most of that by design, which is exactly why it appeals to career-changers rather than recent high school graduates.
Courses typically cover fundamentals like management, marketing and business law. You’ll also choose applied electives you can tailor to your career goals. At NMHU, the required core includes Integrated Business Applications. It ends with a Strategic Thinking capstone that ties everything together in your final term.
This head start matters more than it might sound. Many students weigh whether to go back to school at all. For them, it’s often the difference between finishing a bachelor’s degree and never returning.
Who the NMHU BAS in General Business Is Designed for
This program is built for adult learners with some college-level or technical training. Most haven’t finished a four-year degree yet. That group includes people with an associate degree, a technical certification or credit earned through military training. Common backgrounds include healthcare technicians, IT and construction trades and veterans leaving military occupational training.
NMHU accepts up to 30 transfer credits toward the 60-credit-hour program. This online business degree format lets working adults complete coursework around a job or family schedule. Nobody has to put their income on hold to study.
Courses run in eight-week terms with five start dates a year, instead of a traditional two-semester calendar. That means you don’t have to wait for a fall or spring start. No entrance exam is required, either.
Completing a bachelor’s degree isn’t always straightforward for non-traditional students. The National Center for Education Statistics found that only 64% of students completed a bachelor’s degree within six years. That figure covers first-time, full-time students at four-year institutions, the most traditional path there is.
For adults juggling transfer credits, technical training and work, that traditional path often doesn’t fit. Family obligations and a full-time job leave little room for a standard four-year timeline.
A program built around bachelor’s degree completion, rather than a fixed calendar, can make finishing more realistic. That’s the specific gap this BAS degree is designed to close.
What Can You Do With a Business Degree?
Graduates move into roles across management, business operations, human resources, marketing and entrepreneurship. That’s the direct answer to what you can do with a business degree once you’ve finished one.
A bachelor’s degree opens doors that a technical certificate or associate degree alone typically cannot. The BAS in General Business prepares you for all of them, through core coursework plus targeted electives.
Those outcomes generally fall into three broad categories, and each one suits a different kind of graduate. The sections below cover management and leadership, core business and financial roles and building something of your own.
Management and Leadership Roles
Many BAS graduates move into management roles, where the program’s leadership coursework pays off directly. According to BLS, management occupations paid a median annual wage of $126,520 in May 2025. That category is also projected to add roughly 1.1 million job openings a year through 2035.
The Society for Human Resource Management found that more than half of workers now rank training as a top priority. If organizational leadership degree topics interest you, Leadership Ethics and the Organizational Leadership elective build those skills directly.
Business and Financial Roles
Other graduates head into core business and financial roles, the kind of business administration careers that keep most companies running day to day. The BLS reports a median annual wage of $82,660 for this category, with a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry requirement.
These roles include operations analyst, budget coordinator and financial specialist. They’re jobs with a business degree that reward the analytical skills covered in NMHU’s Business Law and Strategic Thinking courses.
For students weighing business management careers against a purely technical path, this category offers the clearest bridge. You keep your hands-on knowledge and add a business layer on top.
Entrepreneurship and Small Business Paths
A third path leads outside the traditional employer altogether. NMHU’s dedicated entrepreneurship coursework suits graduates who’d rather start or grow a business than climb a corporate ladder.
This path fits graduates with hands-on trade or technical experience who want the skills to run their own operation — budgeting, marketing and hiring included. A plumber, electrician or IT contractor with a BAS degree can run a business, not just work in one. It’s a reminder that the highest paying jobs with a business degree aren’t limited to corporate roles alone.
Is a BAS Degree Worth It?
A BAS degree is worth it for most students with transfer credits or technical training to build on largely because of what a bachelor’s degree does for earning potential and job access. Whether it’s worth it for you personally still depends on where you’re starting from, though. Business degree salary data makes a strong case for finishing.
O*Net reports a median annual wage of $83,050 for business operations specialists, a role many BAS graduates step into directly. That figure reflects the specialist-level position, before any move into a dedicated management track.
PayScale‘s research puts the average salary for a business administrator at $64,098 in 2026. Together, the two figures span a realistic range, from an entry-level analyst role to a senior operations position.
Combined with the careers outlined above, that earning potential is a meaningful return on 21 months of study. That’s especially true for students transferring in credit instead of starting from zero. NMHU’s core curriculum, including Strategic Thinking for Decision Making and Business Law, builds toward these roles. These career paths also tend to compound with experience, so finishing sooner pays off even more over time.
For anyone still weighing the question “is a business degree worth it?”, the honest answer depends less on the degree itself. It depends far more on how quickly you finish and put it to work.
Build on the training you already have. Finish faster than a traditional four-year path allows. That combination is what actually answers what you can do with a business degree. It opens roles that peers without a bachelor’s degree typically can’t access.
Ready to turn your transfer credits into a bachelor’s degree? Explore NMHU’s online BAS in General Business program and see how fast you could finish.
About NMHU’s Online BAS in General Business
New Mexico Highlands University offers its Bachelor of Applied Science in General Business fully online. There’s no entrance exam required. Admission is open to students with at least 30 transfer credits from technical, vocational or military training. The 60-credit-hour program is structured into eight-week sessions, with five start dates a year.
Students choose nine of 16 available electives, from human resource management to marketing and project management. That range lets you shape the degree around your own career goals. NMHU also holds regional accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission.
Most students complete the program in about 21 months of full-time study. They graduate with the leadership, analytical and decision-making skills employers look for in business administration careers. Learn more about NMHU’s online Bachelor of Applied Science in General Business program.