BUSINESS MINOR
STRUCTURE

The structure of Vanderbilt's Undergraduate Business Minor is depicted in the following diagram. The recommended order of courses is as follows: Prerequisites, Fundamentals, Electives. However, students may take Elective courses before finishing the Fundamentals, if they are able to enroll. Students should ensure that they have taken the prerequisites for each specific course before attempting to enroll.

Undergraduate Business Minor course requirements image

Pathways are not required; rather, students are encouraged to pursue a pathway when it supports their academic interests. Students may choose all 9.0 of their Elective hours from the Business Pathways curriculum; it is not required that students take a course within Business in Society.
Only one business-related minor may be declared. Students electing the BUS minor may not also fulfill minors in Human and Organizational Development (HOD) or Engineering Management (ENGM).
The BUS minor carries a 2.0 minimum GPA requirement.
Pass/fail credit may not be used to satisfy BUS minor required fundamentals or elective courses.
Prerequisites may be taken pass/fail, although students should confirm that doing so doesn’t conflict with other academic requirements.
Students may take two fundamentals and/or elective modules per mod period (half semester).
Students must follow the rules and regulations of their home school regarding unique hours.

FUNDAMENTAL AND ELECTIVE COURSES

Five Fundamentals (7.5 hours) required by the Undergraduate Business Minor. Fundamentals courses are half-semester courses taught by Owen Graduate School of Management faculty. The courses are designed to give a broad perspective and introduction to basic business language and techniques.

The Business Pathways courses may count up to nine hours as electives toward the Undergraduate Business Minor. No more than one BUSA 3841 directed study may be counted toward fulfillment of the BUS electives requirement. Picking a pathway is not required and will not show up on your transcript. Instead, students are encouraged to pursue a pathway when it supports their academic interests.

Students may count toward the electives requirements of the Undergraduate Business Minor a maximum of 3.0 hours from the Business in Society courses. Students must complete the electives requirements with a minimum of 6.0 hours from the Business Pathways courses. If desired, these courses may come from different pathways.

More details below.

Fundamentals Courses

Five Fundamentals (7.5 hours) required by the Undergraduate Business Minor.

Fundamentals courses are half-semester courses taught by Owen Graduate School of Management faculty. The courses are designed to give a broad perspective and introduction to basic business language and techniques.

BUS 1100. Essentials of Financial Reporting. (Formerly BUS 2100) Emphasis on mandated corporate disclosure. Economic concepts that guide the development and use of accounting conventions as well as the institutional context that disciplines producers and users. Prerequisite: ECON 1020. [1.5]

BUS 1300. Principles of Finance. (Formerly BUS 2300) Emphasis on asset valuation. Stock and bond valuation, capital budgeting, cost of capital, market efficiency, and company valuation. Prerequisite: BUS 1100 (Previously BUS 2100), ECON 1020, and one of BME 2400, ECON 1500, ECON 1510, MATH 1011, MATH 2810, MATH 2820, MATH 2821, PSY 2100, PSY-PC 2110, or SOC 2100. [1.5]

BUS 1400. Organizational Behavior. (Formerly BUS 2400) Accomplishing goals by effectively working for, with, and through others. The units of analysis explored are individuals, teams, and organizations. Not open to HOD or HOS majors, or to students who have earned credit for HOD 2100 without permission, as students will forfeit credit hours. Serves as repeat credit for HOD 2100. [1.5]

BUS 1600. Principles of Marketing. (Formerly BUS 2600) Success in business is driven by providing goods and services that consumers need and want. This course covers how to achieve such success through analyses of companies, customers, and competitors, and making the right decisions regarding what products to offer, and how to price, promote, and distribute them. Course content spans a wide variety of settings including consumer goods, hi-tech, and service firms, and puts a particular emphasis on digital marketing opportunities and the evolving role of social media. Prerequisite: None. [1.5]

BUS 1700. Managing Operations. (Formerly BUS 2700) Provides an overview of operations in both service and manufacturing organizations. Process analysis, queuing, inventory management, quality management, lean operations, and optimization. Prerequisite: one of BME 2400, ECON 1500, ECON 1510, MATH 1011, MATH 2810, MATH 2820, MATH 2821, PSY 2100, PSY-PC 2110, or SOC 2100. [1.5]

Q: What courses satisfy the statistics prerequisite for the BUS 1600, BUS 1300, and BUS 1700 fundamentals courses?

A: Statistics prerequisite may be satisfied by one of the following courses or by a score of 4 or 5 on the AP Exam or a 6 or 7 on the IB exam: ECON 1500, ECON 1510, MATH 1010, MATH 1011, MATH 2810, MATH 2820, MATH 2821, PSY 2100, PSY-PC 2110, SOC 2100, BME 2400

Q: What course satisfies the microeconomics prerequisite for BUS 1100 and BUS 1700?

A: ECON 1020 Principles of Microeconomics

Q. May I take multiple Fundamentals courses concurrently?

A. Yes. Students may enroll in two Fundamentals course per mod, allowing students to complete up to four Fundamentals courses in a semester.

Business Pathways

The Business Pathways courses may count up to 9 hours as electives toward the Undergraduate Business Minor. No more than one BUSA 3841 directed study may be counted toward fulfillment of the BUS electives requirement. Picking a pathway is not required and will not show up on your transcript. Instead, students are encouraged to pursue a pathway when it supports their academic interests.

Electives courses may have prerequisites; students should check the course catalog to confirm.

There are 6 pathways, or collections of courses, to choose from when picking electives:

Entrepreneurship

BUS 2310 Introduction to Entrepreneurship (1.5 hrs)
BUS 2320 Innovation Strategy (1.5 hrs)
BUSA 2300 Entrepreneurship: The Business Planning Process
BUSA 3300 Entrepreneurial Challenge
ENGM 3600 Technology-Based Entrepreneurship
SOC 3206 Creativity and Innovation in Society

Finance & Accounting

BUS 2710 Business Finance (1.5 hrs)
BUS 2720 Introduction to Real Estate (1.5 hrs)
BUS 2730 Financial Modeling (1.5 hrs)
BUS 2740 Real Estate Finance and Development (1.5 hrs)
BUS 3720 Case Problems in Finance (1.5 hrs)
BUSA 2600 Managerial Accounting
BUSA 2705 Corporate Finance
BUSA 3605 Financial Reporting and Analysis
BUSA 3700 Investment Analysis
BUSA 3705 Financial Management
BUSA 3710 Corporate Valuation
ECON 2300 Money and Banking
ECON 3200 Public Finance
ECON 3300 Financial Instruments and Markets
ECON 3610 International Finance

Marketing

BUS 2210 Consumer Behavior (1.5 hrs)
BUS 2220 Digital Marketing Strategy (1.5 hrs)
BUSA 2205 Business Development
BUSA 3200 Advanced Marketing
ENGM 3200 Technology Marketing

Operations

BUSA 2200 Data Analysis and Presentation
ENGM 3000 Enterprise Systems Design
ENGM 3650 Operations and Supply Chain Management
ENGM 3700 Program and Project Management

Organizational Effectiveness

BUSA 3105 Negotiation
CMST 2120 Business Communication
HODC 3232 Ethics for Human Development Professionals
HODI 3240 Effectiveness in International For-Profit Orgs
HODL 3204 Leadership Theory and Practice
HODL 3224 Analyzing Organizational Effectiveness
HODL 3234 Advanced Organizational Theory
HODL 3244 Introduction to Human Resource Development
HODL 3254 Human Resource Management
HODL 3264 Evidence-Based Practice in Organizations
HODL 3274 Managing Organizational Change
HODL 3314 Strategic Planning and Project Management
PHIL 1100 Introduction to Business Ethics
PHIL 3609 Ethics and Business
PSY 3605 Industrial and Organizational Psychology
SOC 3615 Human Behavior in Organizations

Strategy

BUSA 2150 Leading Business Through Crisis
BUSA 2160 Corporate Social Responsibility
BUSA 2200 Data Analysis and Presentation
BUSA 3110 Business Management
BUSA 3255 Corporate Strategy
ECON 2160 Strategic Analysis
ECON 3250 Industrial Organization
ECON 4260 Game Theory with Economic Applications

Business in Society

Electives courses may have prerequisites; students should check the course catalog to confirm.

ANTH 3135 Development, Social Enterprise, Social Injustice
ANTH 4153 Economic Anthropology
CHIN 4401 Business Chinese I
CHIN 4402 Business Chinese II
ECON 2100 Labor Economics
ECON 2150 Economic History of the United States
ECON 2220 Latin American Development
ECON 3100 Wages, Employment, & Labor Markets
ECON 3160 Economic History of Europe
ENGL 3898 Special Topics: The Business Leader’s Bookshelf
FREN 3111 French for Business
GER 4558 Business German
HIST 1600 European Economic History, 1000-1700
HIST 1640 History of American Capitalism
HIST 1660 American Enterprise
HIST 1665 Capital, Labor, and Democracy in the United States
HIST 2138 Blood Diamonds, Blood Oil, Commodities, and Conflicts in Africa
HIST 3190 Religion, Culture, and Commerce: the World Economy in Historical Perspective
HIST 3200 Poverty, Economy, and Society in Sub-Saharan Africa
HODL 3890 Special Topics: Introduction to Data Science: Using Data for Understanding
MENT 1120 The Business of Music
MENT 1130 Building Communities through Music and the Arts (1 credit hr)
MENT 1135 Arts Administration: Best Practices and Careers in the Arts Organization (2 credit hrs)
MENT 1140 Creating Funding and Nonprofit Vehicles for 21st-Century Community Service (2 credit hrs)
PSY-PC 2120 Statistical Analysis
PSY-PC 3735 Correlation and Regression
PSY-PC 3749 Applied Nonparametric Statistics
SOC 1020 Contemporary Social Issues: Corporations and Society
SOC 3316 Business, Civil Society, and the Environment
SOC 3318 Sociology of Green Jobs
SPAN 3345 Spanish for Business and Economics

Eligibility

General Details

Only one business-related minor is allowed. Students electing the Undergraduate Business Minor may not also fulfill minors in Human and Organizational Development (HOD), or Engineering Management (ENGM).
The Undergraduate Business Minor carries a 2.0 minimum GPA requirement.
Pass/Fail credit may not be used to satisfy Fundamentals and Electives requirements.
Students may take two Fundamentals courses per mod period (half-semester).
Students may NOT count BUS 1100W (MGRL 1100W) (Fundamentals of Management) toward the minor. The course will count toward graduation hours only.
Students may substitute HOD 2100 for BUS 1400 for credit toward the minor. Students enrolled in or having completed HOD 2100 will be blocked from registering for BUS 1400.

For Transfer Students

Pre-matriculation Transfer Details

Pre-matriculation transfer credit may be awarded at the discretion of the Director of the Undergraduate Business Minor. Such credit will allow a student to substitute introductory financial reporting, marketing, finance, organizational behavior, or operations courses for the duplicate BUS course and block registration of the duplicate BUS course. If credit is given for a BUS course, enrollment in the BUS course for which credit has been granted will be blocked. Equivalency credit for each respective BUS Fundamentals course may not exceed 1.5 hours. For example, a course in Principles of Marketing may be awarded 3.0 equivalent credit hours, of which 1.5 hours may count toward the Fundamentals marketing course. The remaining 1.5 hours will count toward graduation, but not toward the fulfillment of other Undergraduate Business Minor requirements, including elective hours. Credit will be applied even if the student has not declared the Undergraduate Business Minor.

Post-matriculation Transfer Details

Post-matriculation and study abroad credit shall not be awarded for BUS fundamentals courses.
Post-matriculation and study abroad credit shall not be awarded for non-equivalent Business in Society elective credit.
Post-matriculation and study abroad credit may be awarded for equivalent Business Pathways credit.
Post-matriculation and study abroad credit may be awarded for one course up to three hours of non-equivalent Business Pathways credit.
Students should confirm prior to enrolling in a study abroad/elsewhere program that any courses intended for credit toward the BUS minor have been reviewed for equivalency.
Students may consult the Global Education Office for specifics on course review procedures.

How to Declare the Business Minor

The Undergraduate Business Minor is trans-institutional, spanning all 4 undergraduate colleges. Students can declare the minor at any time; that includes even first-year students in A&S.

To declare a minor in Business, complete the online Undergraduate Major/Minor Declaration/Change form.

Degree Audits

For students subject to their college’s minimum hours for minors rule, confirm that your degree audit is not using courses for your major or another minor to satisfy your BUS minor requirements.

Courses being used for BUS electives can be found in the
“Business Pathways” and “Business in Society” elective folders, not in the GPA section of the degree audit as this section shows ALL courses eligible to count toward the minor.

Meet the Team

Lisa Wright

Program Manager, Hoogland Undergraduate Business Program
Email (615) 322-4021

Gary Kimball

Professor of the Practice of Management
Email (615) 480-9900

Kelly Goldsmith

E. Bronson Ingram Chair, Professor of Marketing
Email

FAQ

Program Information

Q. May I declare more than one business-related minor?

Only one business-related minor is allowed. Students electing the Undergraduate Business Minor may not also fulfill minors in Human and Organizational Development (HOD), or Engineering Management (ENGM).

Q. What makes the Undergraduate Business Minor unique?

The Undergraduate Business Minor allows students to pursue a program that is “Uniquely Vanderbilt.” This trans-institutional program, with elective course options from each of the 4 undergraduate schools and Fundamentals courses taught by the Owen Graduate School of Management, is designed to complement the strong liberal arts education.

Q. If I have a question for my unique set of circumstances that is not addressed on this site, who should I contact?

Your school’s Associate Dean or use our Contact page.

Q. Is there a minimum GPA required for completion of the Undergraduate Business Minor?

Yes. Students must achieve an overall GPA of 2.0 in courses counted toward the Undergraduate Business Minor.

Q. I am a transfer student. Will courses I have completed at another institution be eligible to count toward the Undergraduate Business Minor?

Credit may be awarded at the discretion of the Director of the Undergraduate Business Minor. Transfer students should follow the standard course review process and direct any questions about a specific course to the Director.

Q. How do I contact the office of the Undergraduate Business Minor?

Email undergraduatebusinessminor@vanderbilt.edu or call (615) 322-4021.

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