General Business Major, B.B.A.

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Major-Field Requirements

The general business major consists of 33 credit hours of 300/400 level business course work beyond the B.B.A. degree’s core requirements. The requirements for a major in general business are as follows: General Business Major Core course: OSM 442 - Innovation Management and completion 30 hours of general business elective course work from a list of courses from various functional business disciplines.

Students must select ten courses from the list below based on the student’s interest and program of study (the on campus or online program). The list of general business major elective course work provides information regarding if the course is offered via the online method for the General Business Online BBA Degree Completion program or if the course is offered via on campus at CSU, or if the course is offered both online and on campus at CSU. The General Business major requires completion of an overall average GPA of 2.0 within the major course work, which does allow for completion of a course with a grade of D combined with courses of grades of A and B. Note: CSU requires an overall GPA of 2.0 in order to file for graduation.

Please speak with your assigned Monte Ahuja College of Business Undergraduate Advisor for additional information and the Advising Center is located in BU 219 within the College of Business and can be reached at 216.687-3729.

General Business Major Courses

Required Course (3 credit hours)

OSM 442 - Innovation Management

General Business Major Electives (Choose 10 courses, 30 credit hours)

Honors Program/University Scholars Requirements

The following upper-division requirements apply for honors/scholars students who select a major in either the BBA or BSCS programs in the Monte Ahuja College of Business Administration.

Students will be required to take a minimum of 15 credit hours of upper-division (i.e., 300- and 400-level) honors courses in the College of Business Administration. General guidelines for these credit hours are given below. However, the specific courses that each student takes will be agreed upon by the student and the student’s honors/scholars advisor.

Honors Courses

A minimum of 15 hours of honors credits will be taken as follows:

Honors Thesis (required in senior year, three credit hours). Each honors/scholars student will conduct a piece of original research and write and present a thesis in his or her major area under the supervision of a faculty member from that department. This new Honors Thesis course will be available in each department and designated with the following titles and course numbers for each major as appropriate: ACT 499H - Honors Thesis in Accounting ; CIS 499H - Honors Thesis in CIS ; FIN 499H - Honors Thesis in Finance ; INB 499H - Honors Thesis in International Business ; IST 499H - Honors Thesis in Information Systems ; MGT 499H - Honors Thesis in Management and Labor Relations ; MKT 499H - Honors Thesis in Marketing ; and OSM 499H - Honors Thesis in Operations and Supply Chain Management .
Honors Internship (required in either junior or senior year, three credit hours). Each honors/scholars student will engage in an internship experience in which the student will gain work experience in an organizational environment related to the student’s area of interest. The student may choose to either sign up for the regular internship experience within the departments that offer such courses already (i.e. ACT 490 , FIN 490 , MGT 490 , MKT 490 , or OSM 490 ), or enroll in a new course, BUS 490 , that will serve those majors that do not already have an internship available.
Honors Courses (minimum of nine credits). Honors/Scholars students in business will also be required to take at least three honors courses within the College of Business Administration, with at least one course (minimum of three credit hours) within the major. These honors courses will be created via a contract between honors/scholars student and a cooperating faculty member. The contract allows for any 300- or 400-level business or computer science course to be modified to become an honors course. The honors/scholars student and the faculty member agree to a contract that spells out how the course will be modified to provide an appropriate learning experience for the honors student. The contract, including a copy of the revised syllabus and an explanation of how the honors version of the course differs from the regular version, is then submitted to the department chair for approval. The student then registers for the honors version of the course, but attends a regular section of the course that the cooperating faculty is teaching. The honors section of the course is designated with the regular course number with the letter H added to designate that the student is enrolled in the honors version of the course (e.g., MKT 301H - Introduction to Marketing). Only the approved honors/scholars student is allowed to register for the course under the honors number. The designation of an H course needs to be approved by the director of the university’s honors/scholars program.
Honors credits can be used to replace a maximum of 16 credit hours of required major courses, major electives, or free electives, with the approval of the honors advisor.

Honors/Scholars Advisor

Each honors student will select an advisor from among the approved honors/scholars advisors in the department. The advisors will advise honors students and supervise the honors thesis course as well as the honors internship. The honors/scholars advisors will assist the students in designing their honors experience, including choosing their honors courses, identifying a thesis topic, and arranging for an internship.