Ranked #28 in popularity, general business/commerce is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in West Virginia to determine which ones were the best for general business/commerce students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 212 master's degrees in general business/commerce during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great General Business/Commerce School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of general business/commerce for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality general business program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to general business/commerce students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general business/commerce students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt general business/commerce students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized general business/commerce related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general business/commerce students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank General Business/Commerce Schools
The general business school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best General Business/Commerce Master's Degree Schools in West Virginia.
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West Virginia University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in general business/commerce. Located in the small city of Morgantown, WVU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the general business/commerce major at West Virginia University make $18,382 more than the standard college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
It is hard to beat Marshall University if you want to pursue a master's degree in general business/commerce. Located in the small city of Huntington, Marshall University is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the general business program make about $60,649 in their early career salary.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in general business/commerce needs to look into University of Charleston. Located in the city of Charleston, UC is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the general business program earn about $50,026 in the first couple years of their career.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of general business/commerce for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality general business program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
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