Bachelor of Science in Business Administration: Concentration in Finance

The College of Business

The College of Business is made up of eight departments supervised by chairpersons. The departments are Accounting, Decision Sciences, Finance, Hospitality Management, Information Systems, International Business, Management, and Marketing.

The primary objectives of the College of Business at San Francisco State University are to:

• Provide students majoring in business administration with a foundation in the basic concepts and practices of the business community, and with a particular expertise in one or more of the specialties of practice, in order to prepare them to think creatively and to exercise critical judgment in the making of business decisions;
• Provide other students with a general understanding of the foundations and philosophies of the business community;
• Encourage a continuous liaison with the business community in order to respond to the educational needs of that community;
• Encourage faculty professional development activities designed to provide service to all segments of business and education for business through academic research and publication, applied research and publication, community education and services (seminars and consulting involving non-publishable, proprietary research, for example), and self-education or study designed to improve business knowledge and expertise.

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

The Bachelor of Science in Business Administration includes basic core courses and an area of concentration. Except for BUS 682 and 690, the core courses listed below should be completed by the end of the junior year. The specific courses for the areas of concentration are listed by department on the following pages. Students who have already earned a bachelor's degree from an accredited university may want to consider entering the M.B.A. or M.S.B.A. rather than earning a second bachelor's degree.

The Bachelor of Science in Business Administration requires a minimum of 120 units for graduation. The major consists of 6 units of prerequisite courses and 63 units of lower and upper division courses in business, economics, the major field, and electives.

Concentration in Finance

The Finance concentration teaches students to recognize, understand, and attain the skills necessary to be successful in the world of finance. It focuses on the financial decisions made in every organization, which include investment, decisions in purchasing and selling real and financial assets, raising cash to fund these investments, and managing the risk of its assets and investments. Other operational decisions include implementing routine day-to-day procedures to manage all financial aspects of the organization and decisions regarding changes in the mix of its services and products. Although a financial manager specializes in these decisions, managers from across the organization also contribute.

Four sets of skills are essential to financial decision-making: First, an understanding of the environment within which decisions are made, including both the internal structure of the organization and the nature of external capital and financial markets; second, familiarity with the organization’s information system, including accounting, financial, and human resources; third, analysis of available financial data to understand the likely impact of alternative decisions and their level of uncertainty; finally, understanding the interrelationships between financial decisions and decisions made in other parts of the organization, such as marketing, production, and IT.

All concentration courses must be taken on a letter grade basis. Students must maintain an overall minimum grade point average of 2.0 across the seven concentration courses.