Business Administration/Business Studies Minor

Note: The Business Administration minor has been renamed to Business Studies for the Class of 2024, with some adjustments made to the curriculum as well. The Business Administration/Business Studies minor is open by application only and students apply in the spring semester of their sophomore year.

Applications for the Business Studies minor for the Class of 2024 are now closed. All applicants will receive decisions later in March 2022.

The Business Administration/Business Studies minor in the Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences offers students an opportunity to develop business knowledge and skills, in combination with their liberal arts education, to better equip them to contribute to the global economy with creativity and integrity. This minor brings College students together with McDonough School of Business (MSB) students in various curricular programs to examine the field of business from diverse intellectual perspectives and more thoroughly understand business in a cultural, political and social context. The minor allows College students to take business courses in the six main areas of accounting, finance, operations and analytics, management, marketing, and strategy, economics, ethics, and public policy, as well as in selected liberal arts disciplines that build bridges between a student’s major, minor or other interests and the broad field of business.

The minor is limited to 50 students per class, selected on the basis of an application submitted in spring of their sophomore year. Junior and senior students are not eligible to apply retroactively.* The application will consist of an essay outlining the student’s reasons for seeking a minor in Business Administration/Business Studies, with an emphasis on how the minor would complement the student’s other major or minor interests. A committee of deans from the College and the McDonough School of Business will review the applications.

*Interested transfer students who matriculate to Georgetown in spring of sophomore year or in junior year should speak to their advisor as soon as possible upon matriculation to Georgetown.

Students accepted to the minor and students interested in applying for the minor should not take ACCT-001 or FINC-150 (these courses do not count toward the minor). All College students (including minors) are limited to a maximum of 6 MSB courses (ACCT, BADM, FINC, MARK, MGMT, OPIM, and STRT) within their College degree. All MSB courses taken above and beyond 6 will not count toward the College degree.

Students who wish to complete the minor and take FINC-150 must make sure that 1 of the Advanced Electives required for the minor is a College bridge elective (see below), thereby keeping the total number of MSB courses in the degree within the limit of 6.

Minors must take ACCT-101 in the fall term of their junior year (or upon return if a student is studying abroad in the fall term of junior year). Students in the minor or interested in applying for the minor should not take ACCT-001.

As part of completing the minor, students may take up to one “bridge” elective. These are designated courses within the College that explore the cultural, political, and social contexts of business. Bridge electives offered in a particular semester can be found in the Schedule of Classes using the “College/Bus Admin Minor Bridge” attribute search. Past courses that have been recognized as suitable bridge electives are:

AMST-382 Advertising and Social Change

ANTH-170 Commerce Across Cultures: Trade in Turbulence

CATH-205 Catholicism and the Origins of Modern Business

CLSS-342 Ancient Roman Economy

COSC-011 Introduction to Information Privacy

COSC-287 Data Science

COSC-411 Information Warfare

ECON-156 Poverty

ECON-243 International Trade

ECON-244 International Finance (students may not take this and FINC-250)

ECON-264 Global Equity Capital Markets

ECON-384 Topics in Trade

ECON-391 Japanese Economy

ECON-408 Economics of Information

ECON-429 Topics in Competition and Regulation\

ECON-458 Economic Crises

ECON-461 Industrial Organization

ECON-465 Money, Banking, & Financial Markets

ECON-481 Labor Economics

ECON-484 Political Economy of Trade Policy

ENST-441 GIS Environment and Health

GOVT-261 International Political Economy

GOVT-262 International Organizations

GOVT-354 Environmental Politics

GOVT-362 Poverty and the World Economy

GOVT-382 Max Weber

GOVT-415 Dept Seminar: Globalization and International Law

GOVT-478 Poverty and Inequity

GOVT-499 Dept Seminar: Politics, Markets, and Cultures

HIST-203 Global/Local Foods and Food Systems

HIST-284 History of American Labor

HIST-290 Oil and World Power

HIST-328 China and the US

HIST-382 Topics in US History: Unfree Labor in US after 1865

MATH-240 Applied Statistical Methods

MUSC-261 Perform Arts & Museum Mgmt I

MUSC-262 Perf Art Adm:Fund/Grnt/Mkt/PolJ

PHIL-129 Ethics: Global Justice

PHIL-377 Ethics and Economics

PHIL-141 Ethics: Moral Foundations of Market Society

SOCI-154 Sociology of the 1 Percent

SOCI-157 Global Power Elites

SOCI-166 Modernization and Development

SOCI-167 Globalization and Social Change

SOCI-168 CBL: Social Entrepreneurship

SOCI-220 CBL: Global Inequalities/Social Justice

SOCI-223 Visual Sociology and Consumer Technology

SOCI-226 Consumerism in East Asian Societies

SOCI-245 Philanthropy and Social Change

SOCI-258 Inequality and Social Chance in Latin America

SOCI-437/438 Project DC

WGST-224 Labor, Sexuality, Globalization  

ARAB-328 Business Arabic

CHIN-321 Business Chinese

FREN-293 Business French

GERM-292 German Business Culture

JAPN-322 Business Japanese II

KREN-321 Business Korean I

PORT-171 Business Portuguese

SPAN-209 Adv Spanish for Business

For students in the Class of 2021, 2022, and 2023, please see “Business Administration Minor” for prerequisites and minor requirements.

For the Class of 2024 and later, please see “Business Studies Minor” for prerequisites and minor requirements.

Study Abroad

Students are strongly advised to complete all business electives on campus at Georgetown. Study abroad programs should be appropriate for students’ majors, but students may receive credit toward the Business Studies minor for a course (maximum of one) taken while studying abroad. The course must be approved in advance by the MSB Undergraduate Program Office. For more information, including to view MSB-approved study abroad programs, please visit the Office of Global Education.

Questions about the Business Administration/Business Studies minor may be directed to Assistant Dean Jessica Ciani-Dausch at cianij@georgetown.edu.

For Class of 2021, 2022, and 2023

College students are eligible to apply for the Business Administration minor if they:

  • are in the spring term of sophomore year,
  • will complete 4 prerequisites (see below) by spring of sophomore year,
  • have earned a 3.3 grade point average cumulatively and in the prerequisite courses.*

*While a minimum 3.3 g.p.a. is preferred, applications are reviewed by the committee in a holistic manner.

4 prerequisites:

  • Calculus (MATH-035)
  • Statistics (MATH-040, MATH-140, OPIM-173, ECON-121, or GOVT-201)
  • Economics: Microeconomics and macroeconomics, only one of which may be completed with AP credit.
    • If you have AP credit for both ECON-001 and 002, take ECON-101.
    • If you have AP credit for ECON-001 only, take ECON-002.
    • If you have AP credit for ECON-002 only, take ECON-001.
    • If you have no AP credit in ECON, take ECON-001 and 002 or take ECON-003 and ECON 101 or 102.

6 required courses (plus OPIM-170):

  • OPIM-170, Computational Business Modeling (1 cr.)
  • ACCT-101, Accounting I
  • STRT 230, Ethical Values of Business
  • 4 Advanced Electives: Students must take at least 3 courses in MSB. (Note: ACCT 001, FINC 150, OPIM 170, OPIM 172 and OPIM 173 do not count toward this requirement.) Students may choose to take a broad-based minor or to specialize in a single area by taking at least 3 electives in one area to gain in-depth knowledge. Students may choose the 3 MSB courses from offerings in:
    • Accounting
    • Finance
    • Management, Leadership, and Innovation
    • Marketing
    • Operations (Statistics/Analytics; Management Science; Operations Management)
    • Strategy, Ethics, and Public Policy
    • The fourth elective may be from any of the above MSB areas or from the list of approved College “Bridge Electives.” These are designated electives in College departments that explore the cultural, political, and social contexts of business. Students are encouraged to take as their fourth elective an approved College course in their major or minor discipline, or in another area of interest to enhance the integration of their curricular programs. This course, however, will only count toward the Business Administration Minor, and not toward the student’s major or other minors. (Note: “Bridge electives” must be taken in the College. They cannot be transferred from other schools in the University or from abroad). Bridge electives can be found in the Schedule of Classes using the “College/Bus Admin Minor Bridge” attribute.

For Class of 2024 and later

College students are eligible to apply for the Business Studies minor if they:

  • are in the spring term of sophomore year,
  • will complete 2 prerequisites (see below) by the end of fall semester* of sophomore year,
  • have earned a 3.3 grade point average cumulatively and in the prerequisite courses.**

*Beginning with the Class of 2025, students are required to have completed both prerequisite courses by the end of the fall semester of sophomore year (i.e., before applications are due in spring of sophomore year).

**While a minimum 3.3 g.p.a. is preferred, applications are reviewed by the committee in a holistic manner.

2 prerequisites:

  • 1 Statistics course (MATH 040, MATH 140, OPIM 173, ECON 121, or GOVT 201)
  • 1 Economics course (ECON 001, ECON 002, or ECON 003)

6 required courses (plus OPIM-170):

  • OPIM 170, Computational Business Modeling (1 cr.)
  • ACCT 101, Accounting I
  • 2 of the following core business courses:*
    • FINC 211, Business Financial Management
    • MARK 220, Principles of Marketing
    • MGMT 201, Management and Organizational Behavior
    • MGMT 220, Foundation of Entrepreneurship
    • OPIM 220, Modeling Analytics
    • STRT 261, International Business
    • STRT 283, Strategic Management

*Students should check prerequisites for specific courses in advance. Students may need additional coursework before enrolling in certain core business courses.

  • 3 Electives: Students must take at least 2 additional courses in the MSB. (Note: ACCT 001, FINC 150, OPIM 170, OPIM 172 and OPIM 173 do not count toward this requirement.) Students may choose to take a broad-based minor or to specialize in a single area by taking multiple electives in one area to gain in-depth knowledge. Students may choose the 2 MSB courses from offerings in:
    • Accounting
    • Finance
    • Management, Leadership, and Innovation
    • Marketing
    • Operations and Analytics
    • Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy
    • The third elective may be from any of the above MSB areas or from the list of approved College “Bridge Electives”. These are designated electives in College departments that explore the cultural, political, and social contexts of business. Students are encouraged to take a Bridge Elective in their major or minor discipline, or in another area of interest to enhance the integration of their curricular programs. This course, however, will only count toward the Business Studies Minor, and not toward the student’s major or other minors. (Note: “Bridge electives” must be taken in the College. They cannot be transferred from other schools in the University or from abroad). Bridge electives can be found in the Schedule of Classes using the “College/Bus Admin Minor Bridge” attribute.