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School of Business

BSBA Programs in Accounting, Business and Management, Finance, Marketing and the Prince Program in Retail Management

Faculty

Ray Pfeiffer, Associate Professor and Director, School of Business
Stacy Blake-Beard, Professor
Erin DeCurtis, Lecturer
Kwamie Dunbar, Associate Professor
Todd Herrmann, Professor of Practice and Director, Undergraduate Program
Jane Hughes, Professor of Practice
Yulong Li, Associate Professor
Teresa Nelson, Professor
Susan D. Sampson, Associate Professor and Director, Prince Program in Retail Management
Mary Shapiro, Professor of Practice
Charlene Spiceland, Associate Professor and Director, Accounting Program
Špela Trefalt, Diane K. Trust Associate Professor in Leadership Development
Edward Vieira, Professor

Overview

The Simmons Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) is a rigorous undergraduate business program that prepares students for successful business careers and leadership roles across a wide range of industries. The business programs are offered through the Simmons School of Business, which is accredited by AACSB International. Simmons School of Business graduates demonstrate the leadership, analytical, and communications skills that employers value. This is achieved through small, inclusive classes and engaged faculty. Simmons is the only AACSB-accredited highly selective women's liberal arts university in the US that has an undergraduate business school. Through relevant and diverse majors and minors, the program offers students the opportunity to focus on functional areas, such as accounting, finance, or marketing, or target a specific industry, such as healthcare, retail, or human services. Students tailor their learning to explore interests and pursue their goals.

Through their coursework, students develop the critical thinking, decision-making, and project management skills needed in today’s workplace. Through class projects and presentations, they learn to be effective communicators and become strong team members and leaders. Through a required internship, students pursuing a BSBA major apply what they have learned to real-world business challenges and gain marketable experience.

Beyond critical business skills, organizations are seeking college graduates with the education and experience to succeed as creative, ethical and versatile problem solvers. They want team members who are globally aware and sensitive to the value of a diverse workforce. Simmons students integrate their learning from the humanities, sciences, and social sciences across campus with their learning from the BSBA curriculum using experiential and service learning, reflection, case studies, and practical, hands-on class projects. Students graduate with an e-portfolio of project deliverables, reflections, and learning experiences that demonstrate their business skills and competencies.

 

In addition to interdisciplinary core requirements for the business program, students may select from the following five majors leading to the BSBA degree:

  • Accounting
  • Business and Management
  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • Retail Management

 

Additionally, there are minors available to business majors or students from other parts of campus in:

  • Accounting
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Health Care Management
  • Leadership for Social Impact
  • Marketing
  • Retail Management

 

Students may elect to complete a major, a minor or both. The BSBA Program allows both double majors and double minors.

 

Also, the following complementary majors across the University draw on School of Business courses:

  • Arts Administration (with the Department of Art and Music)
  • Chemistry Management (with the Department of Chemistry and Physics)
  • Data Science and Analytics (with the Division of Mathematics, Computing, and Statistics)
  • Financial Math (with the Economics Department and the Division of Mathematics, Computing, and Statistics)
  • Public Relations and Marketing Communications (with the Department of Communications)

 

See the sponsoring department for the following interdisciplinary minors:

  • Arts Administration (Department of Art and Music)
  • Public Relations and Marketing Communications (Department of Communications)
  • Sustainability (Department of Chemistry and Physics)

Students can combine business coursework with a wide variety of majors and minors in departments across Simmons to fit students’ individual career and educational goals. For example, Economics majors may find a business minor a great practical complement for the job search. Nursing and Public Health majors may want to gain a greater appreciation of health care organizations and funding through a Health Care Management minor. Marketing majors may look to Communications as a minor to develop a complementary knowledge set in media and promotional design. Business and Management majors may want to deepen their analytic and financial quantitative skills with a minor in Finance or Accounting.

The options are many and we encourage you to see your undergraduate advisor to find out more.

Mission and Vision

The Simmons School of Business faculty, students, and staff work in partnership to develop socially responsible and skilled leaders ready for successful careers in the collaborative and competitive environments of business and nonprofit management. We are dedicated to a highly participatory learning environment that values academic excellence, diversity and inclusion, academic scholarship, teaching excellence, and life success for all our students and our colleagues.

The Simmons School of Business advances knowledge and practice in business and management through superior, distinctive education and research. We incorporate rigorous and applied education that integrates the strategic, functional, and behavioral aspects of business and management to ensure our students gain the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in dynamic, global environments.

Learning Outcomes

Simmons BSBA graduates develop specific knowledge and skills across six areas:

Program Goal 1: Leadership

Simmons graduates, as members of a team or as individuals, are prepared to provide strategic and principled leadership within organizations.

Learning Objectives for Leadership

  • Apply strategies for managing team processes and task outcomes.
  • Analyze and articulate the ethical implications of organizational issues and managerial decisions.
  • Reflect on the role and impact of personal and managerial social responsibility in communities and organizations.

Program Goal 2: Knowledge of the Disciplines

Simmons students understand the theory and practice of the various management disciplines, and can apply appropriate vocabulary, models and frameworks to multiple functional areas in the context of organizations.

Learning Objectives for Discipline Knowledge

  • Articulate the underlying management theories in the various functional areas within an organization.
  • Use appropriate analytical tools in various functional disciplines.
  • Use appropriate discipline specific vocabulary to describe organizational structures, processes and behaviors.

Program Goal 3: Analysis, Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning

Simmons graduates can analyze, think critically and reason quantitatively in response to complex professional issues in global and technologically sophisticated environments.

Learning Objectives for Analytical Thinking

  • Use analytical skills to identify and diagnose specific organizational problem(s) and/or opportunities.
  • Generate and evaluate alternative solutions.
  • Make actionable recommendations.

Program Goal 4: Gender and Cultural Diversity

Simmons graduates understand and appreciate the strategic and behavioral roles of gender and cultural diversity in organizations and are prepared to manage their careers in context effectively.

Learning Objectives for Diversity

  • Identify and analyze the role of diversity and its impact on organizational effectiveness.
  • Develop personal career strategies to respond to a complex work environment.

Program Goal 5: Communication

Simmons graduates can communicate effectively and professionally, choosing appropriately from a portfolio of written, oral and visual techniques and styles to best convey a desired message to a selected audience.

Learning Objectives for Communication

  • Demonstrate professional written communication skills.
  • Demonstrate effective oral communication skills.
  • Develop visual aids that support written communication and oral presentations.

Program Goal 6: Global Perspective

Simmons graduates bring integrity and ethics to organizations and are adept at applying a socially responsible lens to evaluate situations and implement solutions to complex societal and managerial issues.

Learning Objectives for Global Perspective

  • Articulate how and where organizations are situated in their external environment.
  • Describe how the global context impacts the decisions within organizations. 

Honor Societies: Beta Gamma Sigma and Alpha Delta Sigma

Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) is the premier honor society for students enrolled in business and management programs accredited by AACSB International, the world’s top accreditation distinction for business schools. BGS’s membership comprises the brightest and best of the world’s business leaders and draws from students in the top academic ranks of their class. Juniors and seniors are selected based on ranking by GPA.

The Society’s mission defines this lifelong commitment to its members’ academic and professional success: to encourage and honor academic achievement in the study of business, to foster personal and professional excellence, to advance the values of the Society, and to serve its lifelong members.

Beta Alpha Psi is the International Honor Organization for Financial Information students and professionals. The requirements are that students must have a GPA of at least 3.0 and have achieved a rank of the top 35% of the university’s class.

Since its inception in 1937, the American Marketing Association has remained committed to the advancement of excellence in the field of marketing. It was this commitment that fostered the establishment of the national marketing honor society, Alpha Mu Alpha.

 

The Alpha Delta Sigma honor society is part of the American Advertising Federation for marketing and communications students. Requirements for membership are that the student must be current in dues membership, be a senior or rising senior, have taken at least two advertising or marketing courses, and have a minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.25.