Program Requirements

Course Requirements

General Education Component (62 credit hours)
Kelley School of Business majors must complete at least 62 credit hours of General Education coursework in the following categories:
  1. Communications (9 credit hours)
  2. Mathematics (6 credit hours)
  3. Other I-Core prerequisites that count for General Education (13 cr.)
  4. 27-hour Core
  5. ECON-E 202
  6. General Education Supplemental Hours
  1. Communications
  • ENG-W 131 Elementary Composition or an approved substitute (3 cr.)1
  • BUS-X104 Business Presentations (3 cr.)2
  • BUS-X 204 Business Communications (3 cr.)

A minimum grade of C is required in all courses taken to fulfill the communications requirement.

  1. Mathematics
  • MATH-M 118 Finite Mathematics (3 cr.)3
  • MATH-M 119 Brief Survey of Calculus I (3 cr.)4

A minimum grade of C is required in all courses used to fulfill the mathematics requirement.

  1. Other I-Core prerequisites that count for General Education
  • BUS-X 201 Technology (3 cr.)
  • BUS-X 220 Career Perspectives (2 cr.)
  • BUS-G 202 Business and Economic Strategy in the Public Arena (2 cr.)
  • ECON-E 201 Introduction to Microeconomics (3 cr.)
  • ECON-E 370 Statistical Analysis in Economics and Business (3 cr.)
  1. 27-hour Core

Students may choose one of two alternatives—the distribution option or a field specialization—to complete the 27-hour Core. I-Core prerequisite courses and Economics courses may not be used to fulfill the 27-hour Core.

Distribution Option

Complete a total of 27 credit hours of coursework distributed across three academic categories in the following way:

  1. Fifteen credit hours of coursework in one of the academic categories listed below with a minimum of six credit hours at the upper level (300/400 level for S&H and A&H; 200/300/400 level for N&M):
  • Arts and Humanities (A&H)
  • Social and Historical Studies (S&H)
  • Natural and Mathematical Sciences (N&M)
  1. Six credit hours in each of the other two academic categories not selected for the 15 credit hour requirement.

Note: For the distribution option, students may use one course for each academic category chosen from the following: COLL TOPICS courses E103, E104, E105, S103, S104, and S105, and Intensive Freshman Seminar courses.

Field Specialization Option

Complete a total of 27 credit hours of coursework from the group of departments in one of the field specializations listed below. At least six of the 27 required credit hours must be at the upper level (200/300/400 level for Science and Technology; 300/400 level for all the other field specializations).

  1. Communication
  • Communication and Culture
  • English
  • Journalism
  • Physics (P 105 and P 106 only)
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences
  • Telecommunications
  • English
  • BUS-X 330
  1. Environmental
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Geological Sciences
  • Public and Environmental Affairs
  • Physics (P110, P120, P125, P201, P211, and P310 only)
  1. Global Studies and Languages
  • African Studies
  • Anthropology (Lakota - L310, L311, L312, and L313 only)
  • Central Eurasian Studies
  • Classical Studies (language courses)
  • East Asian Languages and Culture
  • Folklore (with prior business advisor approval)
  • French/Italian
  • Germanic Studies
  • History (with prior business advisor approval)
  • India Studies
  • International Studies
  • Jewish Studies
  • Latin American and Caribbean Studies
  • Near Eastern Languages and Culture
  • Political Science (with prior business advisor approval)
  • Russian and East European Studies
  • Slavic Languages and Literature
  • Spanish and Portuguese
  • West European Studies
  • BUS-X 330
  • BUS-X 488
  1. Arts and Social Services
  • African American and African Diaspora Studies (A100, A104, A110, and A120 only)
  • Fine Arts
  • Jewish Studies
  • Music
  • Philosophy
  • Public and Environmental Affairs
  • Religious Studies
  • Social Work
  • Theatre
  1. Science and Technology
  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Cognitivie Science
  • Computer Science5
  • Geological Sciences
  • History and Philosophy of Science
  • Mathematics (beyond Kelley School requirements)
  • Medical Sciences
  • Physics

Note: To discuss additional courses that may count for the field specialization requirements, students should see a business academic advisor.

  1. ECON-E 202

Microeconomics is a required Junior/Senior course.  However, it's classified as a general education course for the purpose of counting the 62 general education credits needed for graduation.

  1. General Education Supplemental Hours

Students may choose courses from throughout the university, excluding Kelley School and Department of Economics courses, to complete the 62 credit hour General Education component. The number of General Education Supplemental credit hours required for each student depends on how the criteria for the other categories of the General Education component are satisfied.

General Education Special Opportunities

Freshman Seminars

Freshman Seminars are three credit courses that are content-oriented and normally include a writing component.

COLL Topics Courses

The Kelley School uses the number definitions established by the College for topics courses as follows:

  • COLL-E 103 TOPICS in Arts and Humanities (A&H)
  • COLL-E 104 TOPICS in Social and Historical Studies (S&H)
  • COLL-E 105 TOPICS in Natural and Mathematical Sciences (N&M)

Students may apply one COLL Topics course per academic category to the distribution option or one COLL Topics course to a field specialization. Credits for additional Topics courses are counted as supplemental hours.

Hutton Honors College

The College has designated the numbers shown below as honors courses. Students may apply any honors course with the following course prefix and number to the 27-hour Core.

  • HON-H 203 Interdepartmental Colloquia (A&H)
  • HON-H 204 Interdepartmental Colloquia (S&H)
  • HON-H 205 Interdepartmental Colloquia (N&M)
  • HON-H 211 Ideas and Experience I (A&H)
  • HON-H 212 Ideas and Experience II(S&H)
  • HON-H 304 Interdepartmental Colloquia (S&H)
  • HON-H 305 Interdepartmental Colloquia (N&M)

1 The following substitution has been approved for ENG-W 131 (3 cr.): ENG-W 170 (3 cr.).  Credit is not given for both ENG-W 131 and ENG-W 170.

2 CMCL-C 121 may be substituted for BUS-X 104.

3 Approved substitutions for MATH-M 118 are: MATH-D 116 (3 cr.) & D 117 (3 cr.) (both courses are needed to meet the requirement), MATH-S 118 (3 cr.), MATH-M 301, MATH-M 303 (3 cr.), MATH-S 303, MATH-M 360 (3 cr.), or MATH-A 118 (3 cr.) & MATH-M 295 (1-3 cr.) (both courses needed to meet the requirement).

4 Approved substitutions for MATH-M 119 are: MATH-M 211 (4 cr.), MATH-M 213 (4 cr.) or COLL-J 113 (3 cr.).

5 CSCI majors may substitute CSCI-C 211 for BUS-K 201 if they are pursuing a busines minor or cognate; however, if they change majors or become business majors, they must take BUS-K 201.

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