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Undergraduate Courses at Simon

Simon Graduate School of Business Undergraduate Course Offerings

Every year the Simon School offers undergraduate level courses that students at the University of Rochester can take to strengthen their knowledge about business and related topics. This is a sample if this year's courses. For more detailed information contact the Univerity registrar at 585-275-8131.

ACC201 Principles of Accounting
An introduction to the principles and procedures used by organizations to record economic transactions that affect them, and to report the net effect of these transactions to interested external parties. The course will cover the judgment inherent in certain aspects of the recording and reporting process, the acceptable alternatives for recording a given transaction, and the effect these judgments and alternatives have on comparisons of financial reports for different organizations, and on the usefulness of financial reports in general. Also covered will be cases where the financial reports fail to fully incorporate the economic condition of an organization, and why.

Restrictions: Permission of instructor required for freshmen
Offered: Fall and Spring

ACC 221 Cost Accounting
A study of the accounting problems involved in determining, analyzing, and controlling production and distribution costs, and income determination for financial statements. Budgetary control, standard costs, and other topics are discussed from the viewpoint of management use in planning and control.

Prereq: ACC 201
Offered: Spring

BSI 241 Fundamentals of Personnel Administration
An introduction to how human resources are managed to maximize employee and organizational goals. Current human resource issues are explored. Topics include strategic planning, staffing, training and development, compensation, benefits, health and safety, union relations, and laws governing how organizations must treat people.

Restrictions: Not open to freshmen and sophomores
Offered: Spring

CIS 215 Management Information Systems
A survey of information system technology and its application to the various functional areas of business. Topics include a complete overview of computer hardware and software, introduction to systems analysis, database management systems, data communications, system development and acquisition, e-commerce, management of enterprise computing resources and an analysis of the strategic considerations of information systems for business.

Prerequisites: One of ECE114 or CSC 170 or CSC171 courses
Offered: Fall

CIS 225 Data Management
An in-depth study of data management, data processing, and database techniques. Topics include input and output processing; data structures; sequential, direct and indexed access methods; report generation; and theory and practice of database management systems. Microsoft ACCESS is used to design and use several databases.

Prerequisites: CIS 215
Offered: Spring

ENT 223 Planning & Growing a Business Venture
This course provides a dynamic, practical, hands-on approach that encourages students to immerse themselves in the vision, research, and planning aspects of a new venture. It is designed to teach students how to research, develop, and write detailed plans that can be used to create successful new ventures. Students will learn effective entrepreneurial practice that will make a difference in the ultimate success or failure of the entrepreneurial process.

The course centers on the business planning process—opportunity recognition, business concept development, feasibility testing, and the Business Plan. The Business Plan will include four major sections: Management and Organization Plan, Product/Service Plan, Marketing Plan, and Financial Plan. Students gain the knowledge, skills, concepts, and strategies relevant for start-up and early-stage entrepreneurs.

Students experience all aspects of planning a new venture, from determining their personal vision to conducting market analysis to testing financial feasibility, drawing from the whole spectrum of business and management. This course demonstrates why good planning leads to successful business performance. Students gain insight in how the various pieces of the business’s puzzle fit together and why the different aspects need to be managed in harmony for the venture to operate successfully.

A purpose of the course is to present the basic concepts and tools of business analysis, and to instill the methods of crafting a well-conceived plan and executing it competently. The student will be called on to probe, question, and evaluate all aspects of a potential venture’s external and internal situation.

Offered: Fall
 

ENT 225 Technical Entrepreneurship
This course teaches how to take a new business concept, analyze its viability, and develop a thorough business plan using a disciplined approach. Key topics will include market definition, research and analysis, sales, financial projections and analysis tools, team building, intellectual property and other legal issues, raising capital, and operations management. Each student will be required to write a business plan using the tools and methodologies provided.

Offered: Spring

FIN 205 Financial Management
This course provides a market oriented framework for analyzing the major types of financial decisions made by corporations. Discounted cashflow techniques are introduced and applied to the capital budgeting problem (the choice among alternative investment projects) and financial asset valuation. Security markets are discussed and topics of capital market efficiency and portfolio theory introduced. The effects of capital structure and dividend policy on the value of the firm are analyzed.

Prerequisites: ACC 201; ECO 207 or equivalent
Offered: Fall and Spring

FIN 206 Investments
This course covers various aspects of investments. Debt, equity and derivative instruments will be discussed, along with the markets in which these securities trade. In addition, investments in these and other financial instruments via mutual funds will be examined, as will the market implications of combining financial investments into portfolios. The concept of efficient capital markets will be covered, along with anomalies that arise regarding the efficient markets hypothesis. Debt securities and the management of debt portfolios will be explored, as will equity valuation. In addition, financial derivatives such as options futures and swaps will be studied in detail.

Restrictions: Not open to freshmen and sophomores
Offered: Spring

GBA 257 Fundamentals of Business - Why Businesses Succeed and Fail
An introduction to the principles of business, examining a wide range of problems businesses face today using commercial successes and failures to illustrate the issues including: how companies should consider identifying the markets for their products, leadership and motivation of employees, fund raising considerations and ethical issues facing businessmen and women. The class concludes with small group preparation and presentation of a modified business plan which integrates information studied during the semester.

Restrictions: Not open to freshmen and sophomores
Offered: Fall and Spring

LAW 205 Business Law
A study of basic principles in several fields of law of significance to businesses, including the formation and legal liability of business organizations. This will be preceded by a review of certain environmental and historical aspects of the law, including the legal processes by which our laws are created,the functions of the courts and the rule of law in American society. Throughout, the emphasis is on developing an understanding of the reasoning process used by the courts to resolve disputes and define new law.

Restrictions: Not open to freshmen and sophomores
Offered: Fall (2x) and Spring

MKT 203 Principles of Marketing
A broad overview of the marketing function in the modern organization, with a central focus on customers and the management of response to their needs, expectations and behaviors. Study covers the evolution of 20th century marketing theory and practice, the emergence of technology-driven relationship marketing, and the robust nature of traditional marketing theory. Students gain practical experience applying strategic knowledge and tools to the market planning process. Upon completion students understand marketing's deep impact within organizations, with ability to recognize and use marketing concepts in real world settings.

Prerequisites: ACC 201; ECO 207 or equivalent
Offered: Fall and Spring

MKT 213 Marketing Projects and Cases
This is a course that provides the student with an opportunity to focus on the practical application, in a real world business(profit or not-for-profit)environment of sound marketing principles and concepts. Students will be assigned to work with a local organization in terms of addressing a specific marketing opportunity or issue in the form of the development of a marketing plan for the organization. The typical marketing plan would include recommendations in the areas of: product, price, promotion and distribution, and overall marketing strategy. Student support in terms of problem analysis and marketing plan creation will be provided in the form of: case studies, guest speakers, and selected readings and lectures. Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to effectively develop and deploy a sound marketing plan.

Prerequisites: MKT 203
Offered: Spring

OMG 231 Operations Management
This course discusses problems encountered in managing the production of goods and services, and models and techniques for dealing with these problems. Emphasis is on developing analytic insight into selected models. Topics include strategy and tactics, decision theory, forecasting, production management, supply chain management and project control. The dynamics of global operations and marketplace are also discussed at length. Video presentations and case discussions are also included to gain practical insights into the operations function. Students are also required to work on a library research paper.

Restrictions: Not open to freshmen
Offered: Fall