RIPON COLLEGE
Business Administration
Requirements for a major in business administration: Business Administration 231, 313, and 452; Economics 211-212, 350, 354; Mathematics
120 or Psychology 211-212; a self-designed component comprising at least four
courses. Students lacking basic computer
skills must also complete Computer Science 100.
Junior and senior
business administration majors are strongly encouraged to complete an internship
in an area of interest. Internships
with approved employers or agencies may be arranged on an individual basis.
In addition, the Tropical Field Research (Costa Rica), Urban Studies
(Chicago) and Washington (D.C.) Semester off-campus programs offer the opportunity
to pursue appropriate supervised internships.
The major consists of three
components:
Core courses:
Economics
211-212 (Principles of Economics). Four
credits each semester.
Business Administration
231 (Accounting Fundamentals with Spreadsheet Applications). Four credits.
Business Administration
313 (Corporation Finance). Four credits.
Mathematics 120
(Elementary Statistics). Four
credits. (Psychology students may wish to substitute Psychology 211-212,
Research Design and Statistics. Four
credits each semester.)
Economics 350
(Price Theory). Four credits
Economics 354
(Managerial Economics). Four credits.
See course listings for prerequisites.
Self-designed:
Completion of an integrated set of at least four courses from at least
two departments totaling at least twelve credits. No more than one of these courses may be at the 100 level, and no
more than two may be at the 200 level or below. At least three of these courses must be taken subsequent to declaration
of the major. The focus and content
of the self-designed component will be proposed by the student and approved
by the Director of the Business Administration
Program in consultation with appropriate faculty from other departments. Courses taken to complete this requirement may also be counted toward
completion of distribution requirements or toward completion of another major.
An appropriate semester of off-campus study may be counted as one course
(four credits) toward satisfaction of the self-designed component.
Guidelines for completing this requirement as well as possible examples
are available from the Director of the Business Administration
Program and from other faculty advisors.
Capstone/Integrative Experience:
Business Management
452 (Senior Seminar in Business Administration). Four credits.
An integrative course analyzing
managerial decision making in the firm. Emphasis is placed on the formulation of policies and strategies
and the application of concepts through case studies and simulation exercises.
All areas of the business administration major (including long-run
strategic planning, employment and ethical issues, and questions of marketing,
sales and finance) are integrated by developing skills in problem identification,
analysis, and solution. The case preparations may take the form of
individual written presentations, both individual and group oral presentations,
and group discussions in class.
See course listings for prerequisites.
The
self-designed component
1. Requirements
To satisfy the
formal requirements of the self-designed component, a student must complete at
least four courses from at least two departments or areas of the curriculum
totaling at least twelve credits. No
more than one of these courses may be at the 100 level, and no more than two
may be at the 200 level or below. At
least three of these courses must be taken subsequent to declaration of the
major. An appropriate semester of
off-campus study may be counted as one course (four credits) toward
satisfaction of the self-designed component.
Courses taken as
part of the self-designed component may include both courses taken to satisfy the
college’s distribution requirements and the requirements of another major. This facilitates completion of another major
in addition to business management.
However, any student wishing to count courses toward both the
self-designed component and either distribution requirements or another major
must demonstrate convincingly that any such courses are essential to the
purpose and focus of that student’s self-designed component.
As part of the
process of declaring a major in business management, a student must prepare
a statement of at least one page describing the proposed self-designed component.
This proposal should be submitted to the student’s current advisor,
the Director of the Business Administration Program, and the advisor(s) for
any other major(s) contemplated by the student.
It must include a statement of purpose, a list of the courses or off-campus
programs to be completed, and a rationale for the selections made. Following consultation with advisors and other faculty as appropriate,
the student should make any necessary revisions and submit the final version
to the Director of the Business Administration Program for approval.
Once approved, subsequent revisions may be made with the Director’s
consent.
2. Guidelines
No single set of
requirements can possibly provide the complete education needed by the
successful manager in the emerging commercial world. Knowledge and skills of every sort will be required, and all
areas of the curriculum are relevant.
The self-designed component of the business management major
acknowledges this reality. Each student
is encouraged to construct this substantial portion of the major so as best to
accommodate individual expectations, plans, needs and interests.
Because the
self-designed component is an integral part of the major, it must be crafted
with care. In so doing, two general
considerations are paramount. One is
that the courses selected comprise the intermediate segment of the major,
leading from the core to the capstone, so they should at least to some degree
draw upon the basic courses and prepare for the advanced ones. The other is that the courses selected must
form an integrated whole in the sense that they have a common purpose or focus. The following paragraphs elucidate these
principles.
The core of
courses required for the major has been selected so as to provide students with
fundamental knowledge and skill in a number of areas. More advanced courses in these subjects would build upon these
basics, expanding and developing the tools to be drawn upon in projects later
undertaken at the capstone level. Thus
additional courses in accounting, finance, economics, computer science and
mathematics might be included. But
these kinds of courses should be incorporated into the self-designed component only
to the degree that they serve the purpose or focus of that component as
identified by the student.
The nature of
this coordinating thread that binds a student’s self-designed component
together is limited only by that student’s range of interests and breadth of
vision. The manager of the future will
be expected to lead and communicate effectively in an increasingly diverse and
technically complex world encompassing a multitude of peoples, cultures,
languages and systems of belief. Thus a
host of courses in the humanities, fine arts, foreign languages, sciences and
social sciences would be candidates for selection. But the challenge is to select those most appropriate for each
particular student. Students may well
meet this challenge by setting the focus of the self-designed component on a
specific kind of occupation, type of enterprise, business or societal concern,
ethical paradigm, or area of the world, or perhaps by combining elements of two
or more of these.
For example, students
interested in the possibility of arts management could select from courses in
art, music, and theater for industry background, coupled with additional
courses in accounting and finance and the Arts of London and Florence program. A student thinking about working in
advertising might put together a selection of courses from English, speech,
psychology and art. Contemplation of
management in a manufacturing setting could lead to a combination of courses in
chemistry, physics, psychology and corporation finance. A student concerned with ethical standards
in contemporary capitalism might find appropriate courses in philosophy,
politics and government, history, leadership studies and economics. Someone leaning toward a career in
telecommunications could find suitable offerings in speech, computer science
and economics. A student with an
interest in working with small enterprises in Africa could combine African
history, development economics and accounting with participation in the ACM
Zimbabwe program. Preparation for a
career in marketing with a multinational firm focusing on Western Europe could
be enhanced with language study, economics, politics and government, history
and a semester in Europe. An interest
in urban problems and community development could result in designing a
component to include courses in history, psychology, sociology and leadership
studies along with participation in the ACM Urban Studies program.
3. Examples of possible self-designed
components
There is a wide range of possible
concentrations within business management.
The following are intended only as illustrations, and should not
constrain your selection of courses or area of focus. Your proposal should consider the following:
• What is your main area of interest?
• What type of career do you wish to pursue?
• How can you best prepare to fulfill your
goals?
• Why are the courses selected germane to your
area?
• How do the courses selected build upon the
core and each other to form a cohesive whole?
• What other courses taken as electives or as
distribution requirements might add to the concentration you have proposed?
Example A: Management of an Art Museum
A student who hopes to attain
a management position with an art museum might complete the concentration
by taking Art 371 (Seminar in Contemporary Art) which familiarizes students
with current trends in art and allows them the opportunity to organize discussions
and present their own slide talks; completing the Arts of London and Florence
program; taking Bus Man 322 (Financial and Managerial Accounting) and Bus
Administration 310 (Social Entrepreneurship) to familiarize themselves with
principles of financial coordination and management decision making.
The student might also consider taking Speech 339 (Organizational and
Business Communication) or Speech 348 (Persuasion and Mass Media).
Example B: Small Enterprise Credit in Africa
A student who wishes to work
with a development organization in Africa in the area of financial management
and loans to small businesses might construct a concentration consisting of
History 252 (Introduction to African History), Economics 361 (Development
Economics I), Business Management 322 (Financial and Managerial Accounting),
and the completion of the ACM Zimbabwe program.
Example C: Marketing in the European Community
A student wishing to work
for a multinational doing business in Western Europe could complete a
concentration by taking courses such as German 212, Politics and Government 366
(Contemporary European Politics), Speech 348 (Persuasion and Mass Media), and
Economics 382 (Comparative Economic Systems) or Economics 451 (International
Economics). The student might also
consider completing a minor in Speech or Psychology, and spending a semester abroad
in Europe.
Example D: Pre-Law/Mergers
A student who plans to
complete a law degree and work in the area of mergers may wish to complete a
business management concentration consisting of Economics 375 (Public Policies
Toward Business), Economics 472 (Industrial Organization Economics), Politics
and Government 242 (Introduction to the Law), and Business Management 322
(Financial and Managerial Accounting).
Example E: Sports Management
A student interested in
assuming a management position at a fitness center or athletic facility might
take a number of courses in the area.
Appropriate courses might include Physical Education 211 (Sports
Medicine), Physical Education 352 (Sports Psychology), Physical Education 324
(Theories of Coaching), Philosophy 213 (Philosophy of Sport), and Physical
Education 450 (Problems in Administration).
Example F: Non-Profit Organizations (Environmental)
A student wishing to pursue
a career in an administrative area of an environmental organization, such as
The Audubon Society, might choose to take four of the following courses: Math
146 (Environmental Modeling), Chemistry 100 (Chemistry in Modern Society, which
addresses global environmental issues), Psychology 233 (Comparative Animal
Behavior), Speech 348 (Persuasion and Mass Media), and/or Economics 332
(Environmental Economics).
Example G: Business Forecasting
A student interested in
working in the area of forecasting, whether for an industrial company, a bank
or a consulting firm, could construct a self-designed component consisting of
Economics 342 (Econometrics), Economics 352 (Macroeconomic Theory), Computer
Science 210 (Computer Science II), and Math 206 (Multivariate Calculus). This student might also choose to pursue
additional courses in mathematics and computer science.
Example H: Corporations, Values and the Market System
A student interested in
tracing the relationship between business and society might complete a
self-designed component consisting of History 236 (Twentieth Century Europe,
which investigates “the disruptive influence of industrialization on society
and the changing responses to those influences”), History 242 (The United
States, 1877-1890, which examines “the rise of corporate America”), PoGo 351
(Political Economy), and Philosophy 241 (Ethics). Students interested in working in philanthropical areas of
corporations, such as The Phillip Morris Foundation, might well construct such
a self-designed component for their major.