Figuring out what you want to do with your one precious life is a challenging task. There are many possibilities and sorting through them is a daunting task. Many business school students come to us with “fuzzy goals” and hope to narrow their choices as they go through their college years. The problem with this approach is that a late change in your area of study can greatly delay your time to graduation and leave you with gaps in your experience and skill sets as you leave college and enter the marketplace.
#UCFBusiness works under the idea that there are many benefits to taking a more proactive approach to choosing a career and has designed a curriculum and programs to help you land your next opportunity (e.g., job, business start-up, graduate school) before you leave UCF.
Before You Enter the College of Business: PRE-“Major”
We are a selective admission college: You must qualify to be admitted. This has been true for several years and remains true under the new processes that will be put in place starting summer 2015. During this period you will be considered as PRE-“Major” (PRE-Integrated Business, PRE-Accounting, PRE-Finance, PRE-Management, PRE-Marketing)
In order to be considered for admission, or move to IN-“major” status, you must:
- Complete the Business Common Program Prerequisites with a grade of “C” or better;
- MAC 1105: College Algebra
- ACG 2021: Financial Accounting
- ACG 2071: Managerial Accounting
- ECO 2013: Macroeconomics
- ECO 2023: Microeconomics
- QMB 3003 Quantitative Business Tools I, or STA 2023 Statistics and MAC 2233 Concepts of Calculus
- CGS 2100: Computer Fundamentals for Business
- Have a cumulative G.P.A. of 2.0 or higher on at least 54 credit hours.
- Complete the Gordon Rule requirements
It is also highly recommended that you:
- Complete the General Education Program—this will allow you to focus on your business courses once you get into the college.
- Explore possible careers through mentoring, summer employment and job shadowing. As we noted above, the earlier you can identify a likely career path, the better you can use your time with us to prepare you for what lies ahead.
PRE- “Major” and Your First Semester with Us
Starting in summer 2015, your first semester with us will be designed to help you match your abilities with your interests and get you on the path to a successful career. This involves both intense academic preparation along with professional development and meetings with your career coach. In your first semester (or two semesters if you are a part-time student) you are required to take:
- GEB 3006: Career Development and Financial Planning: Career decisions relating to choice of major and programs of study are often time consuming and haphazard. This course provides personal reflection and decision making skills to help you successfully navigate educational and on-going career challenges. You will learn about the local economy, job market and valuable information about financial planning.
- The Primary Core: These 5 courses will help you identify your academic strengths as well as the degree to which you are interested in pursuing one of our more specialized majors (accounting, finance, marketing or management).
- MAN 3025: Management of Organizations
- MAR 3023: Marketing
- FIN 3403: Finance
- QMB 3200: Quantitative Business Tools II
- ACG 3173: Accounting for Decision Makers or if PRE-accounting ACG 3130 Intermediate Accounting
These courses must be completed before beginning any Business Major, or being IN-“major”.
IN-“Major” and Your Remaining Semesters with Us
All students, upon successful completion of the aforementioned Primary Core classes (a GPA of a 2.0 or better in the Primary Ciore classes), are eligible to enter majors in Economics BSBA, Economics BS, Real Estate BSBA, and Integrated Business BSBA and must maintain a 2.0 grade point average in the major and college to successfully complete the degree. For more information on these requirements click here.
Due to the highly specialized nature of the revised Accounting, Finance, Management, and Marketing majors, any student choosing to major in one of these disciplines, must show mastery of the subject matter in all aspects of the Primary Core, as demonstrated by a 3.0 GPA, a minimum grade of “C” in all 5 classes as well as a grade of at least a B “3.0” in all upper level business classes. To successfully complete these specialty degrees, students must maintain a major grade point average of 2.75. For more information on these requirements click here.
In addition to completing the requirements for their major, students must also complete the Secondary Core as well as the remaining three (3) professional development courses:
- The Secondary Core: These courses are designed to ensure that you have a solid understanding of the various functions of business and the environment in which the enterprise operates. The Secondary Core culminates with our “Great Case Competition” which is part of our Strategic Management Course (MAN 4720) and has become a signature experience for all business students:
- GEB 3375: Introduction to International Business (3 credit hours)
- BUL 3130: The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business (3 credit hours)
- MAR 3203: Supply Chain Management (3 credit hours)
- MAN 4720: Strategic Management/Capstone (3 credit hours)
- The Professional Development Sequence: Students must also complete the professional development sequence that began with GEB 3006. These three additional courses, to be completed one at a time over your remaining three semesters have the goal of landing you your next opportunity before you leave UCF:
- GEB 3005 Career Search Strategies: Students will learn about the mechanics of finding a job including sources of hire (job boards, campus resources and activities, cultivating referrals, networking, internships, etc.) and job seeker activities (sourcing job leads, application process, interviewing, follow-up).
- GEB 4223 Business Interviewing Techniques: Students will practice the verbal skills needed to find a job by learning how to “tell their story.” This includes activities such as mock interviewing, networking, elevator pitch, social media messaging, personal branding, etc.
- GEB 4004 Executing Your Career Plan: Students will finalize the implementation of their career plan and learn what to do after they get their entry-level job to manage their career. The class will end with a reflection paper on their career development journey beginning with GEB 3006.
