Columbia Southern University Online Bachelor of Science in Business Administration With a Cybersecurity Concentration

Choose this Columbia Southern degree when you see yourself managing security, budgets and people instead of configuring systems. It is a business administration bachelor's with a cybersecurity concentration, priced at $33,360 for 120 credits, and it fits adults who want a broad business credential with a security specialty.

Columbia Southern University is an online school in Orange Beach, Alabama, and it is a private for-profit institution accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). This Bachelor of Science in Business Administration has a Cybersecurity concentration, and the program page says it lets you explore security vulnerabilities, policy development and cybercrime.

That wording tells you what kind of degree this is. The headline is business administration, and cybersecurity is the area you specialize in. It sits next to a sibling degree at the same school, the Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and Cyber Security. Both are 120 credits and $278 per credit. The sibling has a technical security core; this one has a business core with a security concentration.

The degree is 100% online and asynchronous, with courses available around the clock and 11 start dates a year.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

Tuition is $278 per credit, and for 120 credits the published total is $33,360. Active-duty military members using tuition assistance pay $250 per credit hour.

The total is identical to the information systems degree at the same school, so cost does not separate the two. What changes is the content, so decide on that first.

Bring your old transcripts to the admissions office early. With up to 90 transfer credits accepted, the real cost of the degree depends heavily on how many of your credits count. Ask what fees add.

120 credits at $278 a credit comes to $33,360 in tuition, before fees.

Who It Fits

• You already work in management, operations, finance or human resources and want to add security knowledge to a business credential.
• You want a degree that stays useful if you move out of security later, because a business administration title is understood across industries.
• You are transferring credits. The program states a maximum of 90 transfer credits, so a long work-and-college history can shorten the path.
• You are in the military and using tuition assistance, which brings tuition to $250 per credit hour.

Who Should Skip It

• You want to be a hands-on analyst or engineer. The Information Systems and Cyber Security degree at the same school has the technical security core with application security and intrusion detection.
• You want a long list of security courses. The cybersecurity portion is a single concentration, not the whole degree.

Business administration degrees usually pair a general business core with a concentration, and this one follows that shape. The program page names the Cybersecurity concentration and describes it as covering the identification of security vulnerabilities, policy development and cybercrime.

Read those three areas as three jobs. Identifying vulnerabilities is the risk-spotting side. Policy development is the rules and governance side, the part a manager writes and enforces. Cybercrime is the legal and investigative background that helps you understand what you are protecting against.

The concentration is about policy and risk, so expect little penetration testing, network defense lab work or programming. If you want those skills, this is the wrong degree. If you want to talk to a security team in plain terms and make budget decisions about it, this fits.

Standout Features

• Cybersecurity concentration covers security vulnerabilities, policy development and cybercrime

The program is entirely online, with courses available 24 hours a day and 11 start dates every year. That start frequency is unusual and is the best argument for this school if you cannot wait for a fall start.

Federal data shows that 100% of the school's students study exclusively online, which means the support systems, from advising to tutoring, are designed for distance students rather than added later.

Federal data also shows a completion rate of 50.5% for transfer students over eight years. A business degree with many general courses can feel less urgent than a technical one, so set a regular weekly schedule from the first term.

You earn a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and the transcript shows a Cybersecurity concentration. The school is accredited by SACSCOC. Any certification would be a separate study plan.

Federal data puts median earnings for the school's graduates in cybersecurity-related fields at $77,738. That figure comes from the school's graduates in this field as a whole, so it may not reflect a business-degree graduate exactly.

A business administration title is a flexible credential. It works for security management and governance, and it also keeps general management roles open to you.

Where this degree can lead: Cybersecurity Degree Jobs.

• The cybersecurity portion is one concentration inside a business degree, so you will take fewer security courses than in a dedicated cybersecurity degree.
• Hands-on technical practice is limited by the concentration's policy focus.
• No technical skills such as programming or network defense are mentioned on the program page.
• A private for-profit school may be viewed differently by some employers than a public university.

• How many courses make up the Cybersecurity concentration, and what are their titles?
• Can I see the full degree plan so I know how many credits are business core and how many are security?
• Which of my existing credits count toward the 90-credit transfer maximum?
• If I later want technical roles, can I switch to the Information Systems and Cyber Security degree without losing credits?
• What fees are charged in addition to the $278 per credit?
• Will I work on any hands-on projects, or is the concentration entirely reading and writing?

Online university based in Alabama.

• Best Cybersecurity Management Degrees Rank 4 of 10, bachelor's
• Best Online Programs in Alabama Rank 2 of 3, bachelor's

• Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and Cyber Security

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  Fully Online $278 per credit Score 61.0

• Bellevue University

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• University of Maryland Global Campus

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• Purdue University Global

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• The University of Texas at San Antonio

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