I work as a BA in a Fortune 500 financial company.  My job is supporting the Project manager which includes pulling, analyzing data and making some recommendations based on that data.  I use SQL, SAS, Microstrategy and Access to pull data.  I use VB to write macros in excel and use a lot of pivot table function.    I also have to give presentation in front of the team sometimes.  I don't know anything about QA but I do some project testing as well.  About the degree, many BA have business degree with some IT background.