Curriculum: Bachelor of Business Administration - Finance

This course introduces foundational business communication principles and practices. Students will learn to analyze different communication situations; to plan and design oral and written communications; to communicate effectively using appropriate formats, styles, and technologies; and to apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills in order to achieve desired communication objectives.

English Composition 1001 is a writing-centered course that emphasizes the careful reading, analytical thinking, and persuasive strategies inherent in researching and writing within an academic community. Students learn that rhetorical knowledge is the basis of composing while learning to write with purpose, audience, context, and conventions in mind. Students develop rigorous academic research practices: how to locate and evaluate primary and secondary sources relevant to their line of inquiry and position their own ideas in conversation with public writing. Students also engage in regular self-reflection: articulating what they know, what they can do, and how to apply their knowledge and skills in various contexts.

The first part of a two-semester sequence (MATH1044 and 1045) of courses on calculus appropriate for students in business and life sciences. Topics covered include functions, graphs, limits, continuity, properties of exponential and logarithmic functions, differentiation, higher order derivatives, curve sketching, model, solve and interpret solutions of applied optimization problems and marginal analysis.

The second part of a two-semester sequence (MATH1044 and 1045) on calculus appropriate for students in business and life sciences. Topics covered include antidifferentiation, the fundamental theorem of calculus, numeric and technology-based estimation of definite integrals, computation of area under a curve and between two curves, model, solve and interpret solutions of consumer/producer surplus as well as present/future value problems, elasticity, improper integrals, applications to probability, functions of two variables, partial derivatives, maxima and minima of two variable functions.

Business Pathways I develops understandings and skills that support an integrated college experience. The Lindner College of Business uses the PACE curriculum. This course places focus on Professionalism and Academics. Classes pertain to college transition, academic planning, university resources, Lindner College of Business degree offerings, and the themes that our faculty, staff, and employers believe are important to the development of business problem solvers.

Business Pathways II continues to develop the understandings and skills that support an integrated college experience. The Lindner College of Business uses the PACE curriculum. This course places focus on Character and Engagement. Classes pertain to civic engagement, diversity & inclusion, university resources, and the themes that our faculty, staff, and employers believe are important to the development of business problem solvers.

The course assists students to learn and comprehend (1) economics as a social science that draws conclusions based on hypotheses, theories, and data in order to understand human behavior, (2) basic microeconomics terms and concepts, including scarcity and choice, equilibrium, efficiency and equity, positive and normative economics, comparative advantage, and specialization, (3) the fundamental economic question of allocating scarce resources, (4) opportunity cost and the production possibility frontier, (5) supply and demand, the function of prices in markets, how markets work and sometimes don't work, including market failure and externalities, (6) the effects of government intervention in markets, (7) how consumers make choices, (8) production theory, (9) the costs of production, (10) firm behavior in competitive markets, (11) firm behavior in imperfect markets, (12) elasticity and its application, (13) markets for resources, the determination of wage rates, interest, and rent, (14) the determination of income distribution, including poverty and discrimination, (15) the determinants of international trade flows, (16) to apply economic

The course assists students to learn and comprehend (1) economics as a social science that draws conclusions based on hypotheses, theories, and data in order to understand human behavior, (2) basic macroeconomic terminology and concepts, including the distinction between real and nominal magnitudes, (3) the national income accounts, (4) the nature of the business cycle, (5) the determinates of important macroeconomic variables,including the level of income, the level of employment, the unemployment rate, the natural rate of unemployment, the price level, the inflation rate, productivity and the rate of interest, (6) the supply and demand for money, (7)the Federal Reserve System, (8) aggregate demand and aggregate supply, (9) the effects of fiscal and monetary policies, (10) the basics of theories of macroeconomic instability, (11) unemployment and inflation tradeoffs, (12) the effects of the federal government's budget deficit, (13) long run growth and policies to affect growth, (14) comparative advantage, (15) the determinants of foreign trade flows and exchange rates, and their effects on the domestic economy, (16) to apply economic reasoning to better understand and critically evaluate real world circumstances and events.

Business Fast Track is closely linked to the broader learning objectives of your UC experience,namely those of UC Gen Ed (General Education) and the CoB Undergraduate Program. This course is also interdependent with your Business Pathways course.Together, Business Fast Track and Business Pathways enable your integrative first-year experience. While Business Fast Track emphasizes the fundamental concepts of business, Business Pathways focuses on developing your professional skills through your own academic choices, strategic planning and personal development.

Business Fast Track is designed for new, incoming freshmen to the College of Business. As part of their integral first-year experience, this course seeks to develop foundational business skills and mindset. Students build understandings of business organizations, their environments, and their functional units.

Career Success Strategies (FYE) is part of the Lindner Freshman Experience. This course is targeted to the specific needs of Lindner freshmen, helping students explore possible career paths and leverage their varied options for gaining professional experience. To build a foundation for career success, the course develops skills vital for executing an effective job search. For example, students will learn how to (a) identify opportunities fitting their career goals, (b) articulate their strengths, skills and interests, (c) effectively compile job application materials, and (d) expand their professional network2.

This course develops foundational knowledge and skills needed to prepare and analyze basic financial statements. Topics include cash, inventory, fixed assets, current and long-term liabilities and equity. Students will prepare multi-step income statements, classified balance sheets and statements of cash flows. Students will utilize efficiency and effectiveness ratios, as well as vertical and horizontal analysis, to evaluate financial performance.

This course develops foundational knowledge and skills needed to apply accounting data in planning and controlling business operations. Topics include costs, cost drivers and allocation, contribution margin and managerial budgeting.

This course develops fundamental knowledge and skills for applying statistics to business decision making. Topics include descriptive statistics, probability distributions, sampling, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing and the use of computer software for statistical applications.

This course is a continuation of BANA 2081. It further develops fundamental knowledge and skills for applying statistical and management science models to business decision making. Topics include simple and multiple linear regression, contingency tables, chi-square tests, ANOVA, decision analysis, simulation and risk models and optimization models, including the use of software for business applications.

This course examines the legal environment in which business operates, and develops an understanding of the legal consequences attached to business decision making. Topics include the study of torts, contracts, property, ethics and the legal system of the United States.

Intermediate Composition is a writing-centered course that builds on what students learn in first-year composition and focuses students’ attention on theoretical underpinning of how meaning is made, understood, and communicated within and across various discourse communities and genres. The course emphasizes critical reading and writing, advanced research and analysis skills, and rhetorical sensitivity to differences in academic, professional, and public composing. This course challenges students to engage in substantive projects drawing on primary research and source analysis methods and asks students to document, communicate, and reflect on their research.

Information Systems (IS)-and the enabling digital technologies-constitute integral and critical resources for all aspects of a business, from operational efficiency and managerial decision making, to the implementation of transformative business strategies. Businesses spend over $1 trillion annually on technology and related information systems. This course is designed to help students develop a working knowledge of digital technologies, to understand business opportunities created by digital technologies, and to gain awareness of how organizations leverage digital technologies to improve organizational processes and enhance related business strategies.The course also has a hands-on component-students will develop specific competencies in using spreadsheet, database, and web development tools to make informed business and financial decisions.

Consumer behavior is the study of human responses to products, services, and the marketing of these products and services. The topic is of critical importance to managers because the focus on the consumer is the key contribution of marketing to business practice; other business functions (e.g.,finance, accounting, production) ignore the consumer. Managers who really understand the consumer develop better products and services, and also market their products and services more effectively.

This is a foundation course in international business. The objective is to present a selected mix of information which exposes students to cultural, social, political, economic, legal, and financial environments in which American business executives manage their operations in today's complex business environment. Students will gain a greater awareness of the many challenging issues facing corporations in the global economy.

In this course, students will learn and apply the basic principles of organizational behavior and theory. We will examine a number of theories and concepts relevant to the problems and issues confronting managers today. Class sessions will consist of lecture, discussion, exercises, self-assessments, and other activities designed to help students learn relevant organizational behavior theories as well as develop vital managerial skills. The course is divided into three modules that examine the varied and interwoven levels of management: individuals, groups and teams, and organizations.

Survey of the operations function in industrial, service and public organizations. Includes forecasting, line balancing, aggregate scheduling, layout, inventory planning, work measurement, quality control, quality improvement, MRP.

This is the core finance course required of business majors. Business Finance acquaints students with the fundamental principles of finance. The two key concepts developed in the course will be 1) the time value of money; and, 2)the trade off between risk and return. This is a 'tools' course that will provide you with the skills to analyze a wide range of financial decisions. A major emphasis in the class will be on learning how to think systematically about financial valuation and how to apply these insights to a variety of business (e.g., capital budgeting decisions) and personal (e.g., retirement planning, automobile and mortgage loans) financial problems.

This course is intended to be the culmination of your undergraduate curriculum. As a capstone course, it provides a framework for integrating knowledge from functional foundation courses throughout the undergraduate curriculum. You will be expected to analyze and assess internal operations of a firm and the external and competitive environment of an industry. Students will also be asked to formulate effective competitive strategies for firms under conditions of domestic and international uncertainty. Comprehensive case studies, readings and industry simulations will be used to help the student understand the difficulties and challenges of effectively implementing strategic plans. This course is designed to challenge your analytical and decision-making skills, as well as develop interpersonal skills important to your future success.

In this course students will develop the analytical tools necessary for analyzing corporate financing decisions. Central to these decisions is the firm's cost of capital. After learning to compute the cost of capital, you are to apply it to numerous questions that are essential to corporate financing decisions including what is the value of the firm, should the firm raise capital, what is the optimal mix of debt and equity, what should the firm's payout (dividend) policy be, should the firm lease or buy its assets, and how to value a firm's equity as an option on the firm's assets?

This course is designed to examine the operations of the financial markets and to increase understanding of the major types of financial institutions. The course will cover various markets (stock and money markets) and institutions(banks and pension funds) through which savings are used to fund investments.

This course educates students in the fundamentals of finance and accounting. The methods covered are used extensively throughout the MBA program. Topics include: the accounting process that results in the preparation of financial statements for external users, techniques for analyzing a basic set of financial statements, using accounting information to support management decisions, and using time value of money techniques to evaluate capital asset decisions. (MS Accounting students cannot earn credit by taking this course.)

Introduction to data analysis and statistical methods with focus on practical decisions using quantitative models in a spreadsheet environment. Topics include sources of data, descriptive and graphical statistical methods, probability, distributions, sampling and sampling distributions, estimation, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing.

This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of economics at the graduate level for students without previous economics coursework. Students will be exposed to the essentials of both microeconomics and macroeconomics.

Microeconomics topics to be discussed include the supply and demand mechanism,how markets are affected by regulation and taxation, costs of production, and how market structure affects outcomes. Macroeconomic topics to be discussed include the fundamental measures of the aggregate economy, the sources of economic growth, explaining short-run fluctuations in economic activity, and how government policies can affect these fluctuations.

A particular focus will be to understand how fundamental economic principles at both the micro and macro level can affect companies, investments, industries, and national economies.

Natural Sciences Students complete six hours of NS coursework.

The principal objective of this course is to provide a detailed examination of options, futures, forwards, and swaps. By the end of the course students will have a good knowledge of how these contracts work, how they are traded, how they are used, and how they are priced. A major emphasis in the class will be on how derivative instruments are used by financial institutions in light of recent economic events.

This course examines fixed-income markets, with anemphasis on the pricing and risk of fixed income securities, derivatives, and portfolios. Bond immunization and trading strategies will be discussed with an in-depth coverage of both Treasury and Corporate Debt Securities. We will explain how Federal Reserve uses monetary policy to influence the term structure of interest rates.This course helps students to establish a solid foundation in understanding fixed-income securities and furthermore to apply such knowledgeto real-world investment decisions in bond markets.

Portfolio Management covers the significant issues in managing client money professionally. This course provides a broad view of the investment process, client needs, institutional knowledge, historical precedents, and current issues in portfolio management.

This course is an introduction to financial markets, security analysis, and securities differences.

The purpose of this course is to help students develop spreadsheet modeling skills applied to a wide variety of corporate finance and investments topics that cover many of the quantitative models used in finance. This course will emphasize active, hands-on learning rather than passive, lecture style learning.

This course is designed to examine the operations of the financial markets and to increase understanding of the major types of financial institutions. The course will cover various markets (stock and money markets) and institutions(banks and pension funds) through which savings are used to fund investments.

Natural Sciences Students complete six hours of NS coursework.

BoK Courses–FA/HP/HU/SS
Students complete six hours of approved coursework.

Students must complete 12 hours of free electives