Business Management, MS Degree Requirements



Students in the Master's degree program in Business Management are required to take 30 credit hours, or ten courses at three credits each, at the graduate level. Most students will have satisfied prerequisites in accounting (2 courses), communications (through a communications course or through business classes with major presentation requirements such as upper-level courses in management and marketing), computer fundamentals (one course equivalent to BUS 150), economics (two courses equivalent to microeconomics and macroeconomics and quantitative methods (minimum of pre-calculus and statistics) as undergraduates. Those who have not may be permitted to remedy undergraduate proficiencies, but courses taken to remove the deficiencies must be in addition to their regular coursework.

With prerequisites satisfied, all students are required to take four core courses:

MGT 600 The Administrative Process
MGT 605 Business, Government, and Society
MKT 600 Strategic Marketing Management
FNC 600 Financial Management

These courses, as well as later courses, may involve case studies, computer simulations, formal presentations and projects, and exploring the Internet.

Once these core courses have been completed, students are required to take four more advanced courses:

MGT 710 Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness
MGT 720 Global Business Strategy
MGT 730 Strategic Human Resource Management
MGT 770 Managerial Decision Making and Applications

The capstone course, Managerial Decision Making and Applications, involves a comprehensive and integrative approach to managing an organization over time through computer simulation. There is a significant quantitative and financial aspect to the course complemented by a qualitative analysis of business policy and strategy over time. While not a thesis per se, a significant written assignment is required at the culmination of the course in addition to smaller papers during the term. This capstone course is comparable to those offered at many business schools worldwide. It is a very rigorous experience designed to bolster the program's intent of training decision makers.

In addition, students will elect two courses from a group of seven:

ACC 730 Accounting/Management Information Systems
ACC 740 Tax Strategies and Business Decisions
FNC 730 Financial Statement Analysis
FNC 740 Financial Planning
MKT 730 Services Marketing and Management
MKT 740 Business-to-Business Marketing
MGT 790 Seminar in Contemporary Business Topics (including topics in Information Systems, Internet Marketing, Entrepreneurship, etc.)