BA Business Major
The BA program is designed for students who are strongly interested in exploring business alongside another academic discipline to complement and intertwine the two fields. If you have questions about or are interested in enrolling in the undergraduate business program, please contact us to schedule an advising meeting.
The BA degree in business consists of 12 courses, along with pre-major requirements of calculus and statistics. The major satisfies the social sciences division of the Rochester Curriculum, and students must meet prerequisites and/or co-requisites for individual courses.
Requirements for a BA in business:
- Pre-major requirements in calculus and statistics (AP/IB credit is acceptable, and courses are not subject to the school’s overlap policy)
- Set of nine required core courses
- Three courses chosen from the approved elective list
- Must complete a second major (either a BA, BS, or BM degree)
Completing the required coursework above satisfies the upper-level writing requirement.
Students are eligible to officially declare for the BS business major by submitting a major declaration form once all pre-major requirement courses have been completed.
Curriculum Changes
Curriculum updates to the BA Business major will take effect in Fall 2026.
Current students who have an intended or declared business major before Fall 2026 can request to complete the old curriculum or opt into the new curriculum. Students graduating on or before August 31, 2026, must follow the old curriculum. Incoming students for Fall 2026 will follow the new curriculum.
Changes have been bolded.
Old Curriculum | New Curriculum | |
| Courses Total | Pre-major + 11 | Pre-major + 12 |
| Pre-major | MATH 141-143 | MATH 141-142 |
| MATH 161-162 | MATH 161 | |
| MATH 171-172 | MATH 171 | |
| One statistics course | ||
| Core | One statistics course | ECON 108 |
| ECON 108 | ECON 207 | |
| ECON 207 | ACC 201 | |
| ACC 201 | BUS 103 | |
| MKT 203 | MKT 203 | |
| FIN 205 | FIN 205 | |
| CIS 220 or OPS 221 | CIS 220 | |
| STR 203 | OPS 221 | |
| STR 203 | ||
| Electives (3) | No changes - choose three | No changes - choose three |
New Curriculum Requirements
For students declaring their major after Fall 2026, and current business majors who opt into following the new curriculum.
Pre-major Requirements:
One of the following calculus courses or its equivalent:
- MATH 141-142: Calculus I and Calculus II
- MATH 161: Calculus IA
- MATH 171: Honors Calculus I
Plus one of the following statistics courses:
- STAT 180: Introduction to Applied Statistical Methodology
- STAT 190: Introduction to Statistical Methodology
- ECON 230: Economic Statistics
- MATH 203: Introduction to Mathematical Statistics*
- PSCI 200: Data Analysis I
- PSCI 205: Data Analysis II
*MATH 201 is a prerequisite for MATH 203
Core Courses (9):
All of the following courses are required:
- ECON 108: Principles of Economics*
- ECON 207: Intermediate Microeconomics
- ACC 201: Financial Accounting
- BUS 103: Business Communication
- FIN 205: Financial Management
- MKT 203: Principles of Marketing
- CIS 220: Business Information Systems and Analytics
- OPS 221: Operations Management (previously listed as BUS 221)
- STR 203/ECON 214: Economics of Strategy and Organization
*Students who received AP or IB credit for ECON 108 must take one additional higher-level ECON course.
Old Curriculum Requirements
Students who declared their major before Fall 2026 can still follow the old requirements listed below. Students graduating on or before August 2026 must follow these requirements.
Pre-major Requirements:
One of the following calculus sequences or its equivalent:
- MATH 140-143
- MATH 161-162
- MATH 171–172
Core Courses (8):
All of the following courses are required:
- One statistics course: STAT 190, ECON 230, or MATH 203 (required for finance track) or STAT 180, PSCI 200, PSCI 205 (options for all other tracks)
- ECON 108: Principles of Economics*
- ECON 207: Intermediate Microeconomics
- ACC 201: Financial Accounting
- FIN 205: Financial Management
- MKT 203: Principles of Marketing
- CIS 220: Business Information Systems and Analytics OR OPS 221: Operations Management (previously listed as BUS 221)
- STR 203/ECON 214: Economics of Strategy and Organization
*Students who received AP or IB credit for ECON 108 must take one additional higher-level ECON course.
Electives
Choose three of the following courses:
- ACC 221: Managerial Accounting (S)
- ACC 222: Financial Statement Analysis (S)
- ACC 224: Intermediate Accounting I (F)
- ACC 225: Intermediate Accounting II (S)
- ACC 226: Auditing (F)
- ACC 227: Individual Income Tax (F)
- ACC 228: Corporate, Gift, and Estate Tax (S)
- BUS 103: Business Communications
- BUS 118: Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (S)
- BUS 201: Impactful Presentations (F/S)
- BUS 217: Business Leadership (F)
- BUS 219: Negotiations (next offered SP 2027)
- BUS 389: Business Research (S)
- CIS 191: Introduction to Programming for Business Analytics (F/S)
- CIS 211: Business Modeling Using Excel (F/S)
- *CIS 220: Business Information Systems and Analytics (F/S)
- CIS 240: Data Management and Descriptive Analytics for Business (F)
- CIS 242: Predictive Analytics (S)
- CIS 245: Social Media and Text Analytics (S)
- CIS 279: Generative AI and Business Applications (S)
- ECON 209: Intermediate Macroeconomics (F/S)
- ENT 101: Introduction to Entrepreneurship (F)
- ENT 223: Planning and Growing Business Ventures (S)
- ENT 227: Fundamentals of Social Entrepreneurship (every other S, odd years)
- ENT 230: Ignite Impact Lab (S)
- FIN 206: Investments (S)
- FIN 213: Corporate Finance (F)
- FIN 233: Mergers and Acquisitions (S)
- FIN 241: Real Estate Principles (F)
- FIN 242: International Finance (F, even years)
- FIN 244: Asset Management (S, odd years)
- FIN 246: Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, and FinTech (S)
- LAW 205: Business Law: Contracts and Legal Entities (F)
- LAW 250: Business Law: Transactions, and Other Topics (S)
- MKT 212: Marketing Research and Analytics (S)
- MKT 213: Marketing Projects and Cases (F/S)
- MKT 233: Advertising and Promotional Strategy (F)
- MKT 235: Product and Brand Management (F)
- MKT 237: Digital Marketing Strategies (S)
- *OPS 221: Operations Management (F/S) (previously listed as BUS 221)
- PSCI 238: Business and Politics (S)
- PSCI 244: Politics and Markets (S)
- STR 221: Business Strategy (offered next SP 27)
- STR 241/ECON 241: Pricing Strategy (F)
F= offered fall semester
S= offered spring semester
F/S= offered both fall and spring semesters
*For the old curriculum, students can only take CIS 220 or OPS 221 as an elective if not taken as a core course.
Students can use the following worksheets to help plan their courses: