General Studies Degree Online Bachelor of Arts

Earn a General Studies Degree Online

General Studies Degree Online Program Overview

Tailor your degree and earn it faster with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in General Studies degree online. This meaningful milestone can help you maximize already-earned credits and get a degree in the shortest amount of time – especially if you're already working in a field you love.

At Southern New Hampshire University, your general studies degree can give you a strong foundation of general education courses, including writing, humanities, history and science. You’ll also develop in-demand career skills like critical thinking and communication to gain an edge in the competitive job market.

Learn how to:

• View human culture and the world through multiple lenses
• Adapt communication for various audiences
• Analyze and assess the value of information
• Show empathy toward diverse cultures and perspectives
• Make ethical decisions to promote positive change
• Apply classroom learning to real world situations

With the help of your academic advisor, you’ll focus your online general studies degree on a concentration that aligns with your interests and career goals. Concentrations for a bachelor of general studies include information technology, business, communication, creative writing, psychology, sport management and so much more.

Career Outlook

A general studies degree can prepare you for a range of job opportunities. The critical thinking and communication skills you gain with a bachelor of general studies can benefit many career paths. And having a 4-year degree can help you advance a career across many fields.

"More and more employers require a bachelor’s degree for eligibility for career advancement opportunities, and professionals with bachelor’s degrees are more likely to earn higher incomes,” said Priscilla Hobbs, SNHU’s associate dean of general education and interdisciplinary studies. “Because this degree lets you choose the concentration pathway that suits you, you have the opportunity to explore a variety of career options."

Earning an undergraduate degree can significantly boost your lifetime earnings and reduce your chances of unemployment. A general studies degree program can help you complete your degree – and reap these benefits – faster.

A bachelor’s degree could increase your median weekly earnings by about 67%, compared to working with only a high school diploma.¹ In 2020, bachelor's degree holders also earned 48% more each week than workers who have completed some college courses but do not have a degree.¹

Jobs for bachelor’s degree holders are growing. Jobs that require a 4-year degree are projected to grow 10% betweenthrough 2026 – faster than the national average.¹

Bachelor’s degree holders also experienced lower rates of unemployment than workers with less education, at 5.5% in 2020. Workers with some college experience but no degree saw 8.3% unemployment in 2020, while the unemployment rate for workers with only a high school diploma was 9%.¹

No matter what career goals you have, completing your bachelor's degree can help you get ahead.

Jon Galvin '16 said earning a bachelor's degree was key to his long-term career potential. Working without a degree had kept him from management positions and a higher salary during a 10-year career as a civilian in the computer industry. After returning to active duty in the military, Galvin said he knew that SNHU's general studies bachelor's degree program would allow him to complete his degree – and help him prepare for the next chapter.

"Now that I have that degree, the doors that are open are limitless," Galvin said.

A bachelor of general studies from SNHU can give you the skills you need to get started in entry-level and management positions across a broad range of industries.

"Before even completing my degree, I accepted a position as the head of park maintenance for my city," said Cody McKee '20. "My work experience played a large role in that, but I believe the fact that I was nearing completion of a bachelor's degree really set me apart. Subsequently, since completing my degree, I have seen a large uptick in recruiters reaching out to me from all over the country, and I have been offered positions at other municipalities and lawn and landscape firms."

With dozens of degree concentrations available, you can get the specialized training you need to explore careers in fast-growing fields like human services, human resources, marketing and more.

For example, jobs for social and human services assistants are projected to grow 17% through 2030 – much faster than the national average for all occupations.¹ The need for human resource specialists is projected to see a 10% increase, and jobs for advertising, promotions and marketing managers are also projected to see a 10% increase through 2030.¹

An online general studies degree can also prepare you to advance your education with one of SNHU’s many online master’s degree programs. By completing your undergraduate degree as quickly as possible, you can get started on a valuable master’s degree sooner.

Earning your master's degree can boost your career growth and salary potential even further. Workers with a master’s degree earned a median weekly salary of $1,545 in 2020 – nearly 20% higher than bachelor’s degree holders. The same year, master's degree holders saw only 4.1% unemployment rates.¹

Courses & Curriculum

SNHU's general studies degree online provides a solid foundation of critical thinking and other career skills that can give you a competitive edge.

The curriculum offers a broad base of liberal arts coursework that can be customized to your previous college experience and interests. In the general studies program, you'll be on the fast track to a valuable 4-year degree.

"The (general studies) program is designed to help busy students finish their degrees,” said Priscilla Hobbs, SNHU’s associate dean of general education and interdisciplinary studies. “If you have earned credits from other institutions and experiences, but have yet to earn your degree, this program lets you leverage those credits toward a degree that will open opportunities toward achieving your professional goals."

A general studies degree at SNHU includes 120 course credits. Requirements include 42 general education credits, 12 credits in a concentration of your choice, a 3-credit degree planning course and 63 elective course credits.

SNHU’s generous transfer policy accepts up to 90 transfer credits toward an online bachelor’s degree program. This means you could take as few as 5 terms – or 10 courses – to complete your degree.

"I was able to transfer in 90 credit hours from other universities and complete my degree in a year," said Cody McKee '20.

Not only did McKee save time – he gained a much more enriching learning experience. "I have been enrolled in 3 other universities prior to my time at SNHU," McKee said. "I feel like I actually learned more in SNHU classes than any of the other institutions I attended. The discussion posts and essays really required you to know the material you were studying and dive into it in a way that I never felt like I had to before."

The general studies bachelor's degree program kicks off with a degree planning course. This course helps you establish goals and outline your coursework so you have a clear path to graduation.

General education courses are designed to give you in-demand skills that employers want and lay the groundwork for lifelong learning. In these courses, you'll explore a broad range of educational topics, including:

• English composition
• Mathematics
• Humanities
• Social sciences
• Natural sciences
• History

The courses you take for your general studies degree concentration depend on your career goals and interests.

"There are several concentration options that you may choose, each focused on the essential skills desired by employers across the spectrum," Hobbs said. "These skills may be oriented toward a discipline, such as accounting or psychology, or toward a valuable skill, such as leadership or creative problem-solving. With the variety of options, you can choose the path that works best for you and your goals."

The concentration options can be explored in more detail during the degree planning course at the start of your program. Your academic advisor is also available to support you through the process of choosing a concentration.

Kaylee Castillo '21 chose to pursue the human resources concentration.

"I wanted to study this program to gain knowledge pertaining to the human resources field," she said. "I was attracted to the organizational leadership courses like Human Resource Management, Employee and Labor Relations, and Total Rewards."

"I chose a concentration in environmental science," he said. "I have worked in lawn and landscape my entire life, and I was looking to find a path that would help me branch off of that into a role in conservation and land management."

You can customize your general studies degree even further with your elective courses. Electives give you the flexibility to dive deeper into your chosen concentration. You can also use your electives to explore another area of interest. If you’ve completed college coursework in the past, electives make it easy to transfer past credits to your SNHU degree.

Throughout your degree program, SNHU's student support team can help you stay on track with your studies and get you to graduation – and a career – faster.

Our admission team tries to make sure you don’t miss out on any transfer credit opportunities so you can complete your degree program as quickly as possible. Your academic advisor can offer guidance and support throughout your degree program. And SNHU’s career advising team can help you land an internship to strengthen your degree learning.

An internship is not required to earn a general studies degree. But it can give you a leg up when applying for jobs, particularly if you find an internship position that aligns with your degree concentration and career goals.

An internship can also further develop the career skills gained through your online general studies degree courses and help you apply them to real-world situations.

These skills include:

• Communication: Effectively share ideas and adapt a message to reach a variety of audiences.
• Collaboration: Build partnerships and work effectively with others to reach a common goal.
• Critical thinking: Analyze information and assess its value to make data-driven, ethical decisions.
• Problem-solving: Connect online learning to practical solutions for real-world problems.

Curriculum Requirements & Resources

• General education courses: All bachelor's students are required to take general education classes, if not obtained in prior coursework. Through these foundation, exploration and integration courses, students learn to think critically, creatively and collaboratively, giving you the edge employers are looking for.
• Technology resources: We provide cloud-based virtual environments in some courses to give you access to the technology you need for your degree – and your career. Learn more about our virtual environments.
• Earn math credits for what you already know: Save time and tuition with our Pathways to Math Success assessments. Depending on your scores, you could earn up to 12 math credits – the equivalent of 4 courses – toward your degree for less than $50 per assessment.

Tuition & Fees

As a private, nonprofit university, we’re committed to making college more accessible by making it more affordable. That’s why we offer some of the lowest online tuition rates in the nation.

We also offer financial aid packages to those who qualify, plus a 30% tuition discount for U.S. service members, both full and part time, and the spouses of those on active duty.

Tuition Rates are subject to change and are reviewed annually. *Note: students receiving this rate are not eligible for additional discounts.

Additional Costs No Application Fee, $150 Graduation Fee, Course Materials ($ varies by course)