Primary Area Depths

Businessweek recently ranked Goizueta’s undergraduate accounting program #3 in the U.S., and about one-third of our BBAs acquire a concentration in accounting. Our Financial Accounting and Analysis concentration, taken in conjunction with an area depth in finance, is pursued by students preparing for careers in corporate finance, financial analysis, investment banking, portfolio management, venture capital and private equity, and commercial lending. In your future career as a professional, when deciding whether to allocate capital you will have to analyze and predict future performance and risks for firms. Strong fundamental understanding of financial reporting and accounting and strong analytical and conceptual thinking are crucial components of such predictions. Our Professional Accounting (CPA) concentration is taken by students preparing for professional careers in accounting. If you follow this path, you will join professional accounting firms in their auditing, forensic, tax, or consulting practices. Other common career paths include internal audit and financial management in corporations and governmental and not-for-profit entities, as well as careers that focus on a wide range of professional capabilities to serve the business community. Corporate managers prefer the advice of accounting information experts who understand the organization as a whole and the strategic and tactical problems of senior management. Many of the top financial professionals – the controller, the treasurer, the director of internal auditing, the director of financial planning, the vice president of finance, the chief financial officer – are CPAs.

Why Choose Accounting?

Accounting is the language of business, and fluency in financial reporting, the legal environment, and taxation should be part of your vocabulary. Every business decision involves choices of transaction structure, resource allocation, reporting to constituents such as shareholders, creditors, and investors, and compliance with many levels of government regulation and taxation. The Accounting area electives give you critical skills to help you make complex decisions in an ever-changing environment. Today’s business world is more dynamic and complex than ever before and managers, consultants, investors, and entrepreneurs need a roadmap to that complexity. Advancing technology, globalization of commerce, and complex transactions make the environment of business and the practice of accounting extremely challenging. Successful business leaders must have a broad array of financial reporting skills and knowledge. Whether you choose an area depth in accounting or choose to round out your financial skills with a few additional elective courses, you will have a better grasp of financial forces and the choices businesses face.

Accounting Area Depth Requirements

Non-CPA Track

Required Courses:

• 312A – Financial Reporting I
• 312B – Financial Reporting II

TWO elective courses from the following:

• 313 - Advanced Managerial Accounting
• 412 - Advanced Financial Accounting
• 414 - Financial Statement Analysis
• 415 - Federal Income Tax
• 416 - Corporate and Partnership Taxation
• 417 – Professional Accounting Research
• 418 - Auditing
• 419G - Information and Global Capital Markets

May substitute ONE of the following related courses for an elective:

• 411G – Law and Business
• 421 – Corporate Governance & Restructuring (Finance)
• 428B – Venture Capital & Private Equity (Finance)
• 439 – Ethics for Leaders (O&M)

 

Auditor (CPA) Track

Required Courses:

• 312A – Financial Reporting I
• 312B – Financial Reporting II
• 412 - Advanced Financial Accounting
• 415 - Federal Income Tax
• 418 - Auditing

At least 30 hours of accounting credit beyond Financial Accounting & Managerial Accounting*:

• 313 - Advanced Managerial Accounting
• 414 - Financial Statement Analysis
• 416 - Corporate and Partnership Taxation
• 417 – Professional Accounting Research
• 419G - Information and Global Capital Markets

Note:  Students who intend to sit for the CPA exam in most states must earn 150 credit hours including 30 hours of accountancy beyond BUS 210 & BUS 211 for the state of GA

Businessweek recently rated Goizueta’s BBA program #2 in the area of Financial Management, and our Finance track is consistently one of the top concentrations at Goizueta. The curriculum is carefully designed to equip you with the analytical skills and practical expertise necessary to excel in finance careers. Many students graduate to join banking firms on Wall Street, and other common career paths include corporate finance and investment management. Our course offerings also allow you to emphasize career tracks in real estate as well the growing areas of private equity, hedge funds, and new venture financing through Goizueta’s Center for Alternative Investments.  

Why Choose Finance?

If accounting is the language of business, then finance is the science. Our goal in the Finance Area is to provide you with a strong framework for financial decision making, from the Nobel prize-winning models of the early theorists to the state-of-the-art methodologies of today.  

If you enjoy math and the sciences, you will likely enjoy the structured way of thinking in Finance. Careers in finance can be intellectually stimulating as well as rewarding in a monetary sense.  In addition, students with a primary interest in other fields frequently add a secondary depth in Finance. An understanding of the principles and practice of finance is often essential for career development, particularly as graduates’ responsibilities become more general in nature as they progress in their careers.  Or you may be interested in learning about finance for personal reasons. Virtually everyone can benefit from an understanding of how financial matters influence their personal lives, including concerns such issues as retirement planning, insurance and risk management, and investments in financial assets and real estate.  

Finance Area Depth Requirements

Required Course:

• 423 - Investments

THREE elective courses from the following:

• 321 - Finance and Economics of the Film Industry
• 322 - Financial Valuation: The Theory & Practice of Valuing a Business
• 324 - Sports Finance
• 420 - Advanced Corporate Finance
• 421 - Corp. Governance & Firm Value
• 424 - Derivative Asset Analysis
• 427G - International Finance
• 428 - Investment Banking
• 428B - Venture Capital & Private Equity
• 429 - Fixed Income
• 483 - Applied Investment Management
• 485 - Private Equity Investing
• 487G - Global Derivatives Markets

May substitute ONE of the following related courses for an elective:

• 382 - Real Estate Law
• 414 - Financial Statement Analysis (Accounting)
• 422 - Advanced Financial Markets
• 425 - Real Estate Finance
• 481 - Illiquid Alternative Investments
• 482 - Real Estate Market Analysis
• 486 - Real Estate Equity Investment
• 488 - Real Estate Development
• 489 - Advanced Real Estate Finance
• 497R - Finance Honors Seminar  

Selection of courses should be based on academic and professional goals. The finance faculty will guide you in your selections.  

The Information Systems & Operations Management (ISOM) area deals with the variety of approaches to structured and unstructured problem solving that have become critical to today's businesses and the hallmarks of modern consulting best-practices.  The ISOM curriculum is designed to inform a wide range of professions, perhaps most emblematically that of consulting (in which systems and process problems are regularly tackled).  To gain an appreciation of the dynamics of systems and processes, the ISOM curriculum offers a range of analytics courses that prepare you for dealing with large data sets, how to best apply statistical and computational methods in prediction, risk-assessment and strength/weakness detection, and the task of decision support application development to help automate and encapsulate intelligent approaches to problem solving. Along with preparation for analytical work, the ISOM curriculum offers courses that prepare you for best practices in management activity, including how to effectively account for operational and IT capabilities in strategy development and deployment and how to account for idiosyncrasies in individual and group psychology -- issues that can either help or hinder strategic efforts.  

Why choose ISOM?

The ISOM faculty ranks #4 internationally in terms of research productivity in elite outlets such as the Journal of Operations Management, MIS Quarterly, Production and Operations Management, and Information Systems Research.  Per capita productivity in these outlets led the business community in 2006-2010. The ISOM curriculum reflects the strength of this knowledge base. Here three central themes reflect attention to the role of information technology in the contemporary enterprise, management of operations (including project, supply chain and quality management) and decision analysis (including quantitative methods). Recent ISOM majors have been placed at such firms as Bain, McKinsey, PwC and Hitachi. 

FOUR of the following courses:

• 352 - Project Management and Collaboration
• 355 - Appcology: New Commerce Infrastructure
• 358 - Data Analytics and Visualization
• 359 - Innovation in a World Gone Digital
• 450G - Foundations of Digital Enterprises and Markets
• 451 - Making Effective Decisions
• 452 - Healthcare Operations & Technology Management
• 453 - Operations Strategy
• 455 - Forecasting & Predictive Analytics
• 456 - Special Topics: Social Media and Virtual Communities
• 457 - Economics and Psychology of Political Violence and Terrorism
• 458 - Psychology of Technology
• 459 - Process Analysis and Six Sigma

May substitute ONE of the following related courses for an elective:

• 342 - Marketing Research and Customer Insights (Marketing)
• 423 - Investments (Finance)
• 430 – Industry & Competitor Analysis (O&M)
• 432 - Negotiations (O&M)
• 433 - Leading and Managing Change (O&M)
• Approved computer science class  

Marketing is concerned with creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Goizueta’s marketing faculty is comprised of highly-accomplished scholars well known for their work on customer relationship management, diffusion of innovations, pricing and auctions, market structure and evolution, strategic alliances, and multi-channel management.  If you pursue a concentration in marketing, you will select from electives that develop your toolkit to analyze customers and market opportunities, assess and create marketing strategies, and implement marketing programs.  

Why Choose Marketing?

Now is a great time to be considering a career in marketing. Organizations are increasingly taking a more customer-centric (versus product-centric) view of their business. Further, the shift in marketing resources to online media and channels and the emerging importance of consumer-generated communications, present opportunities for graduates whose skills combine the traditional creative approach to marketing with a data-driven perspective to resource allocation. Graduates with a concentration in marketing have obtained positions involving product and brand management, digital and interactive marketing, advertising and marketing communications, marketing research and customer insights, customer relationship management, sales, and consulting.    

Marketing Area Depth Requirements

Click here for additional details regarding marketing courses

ONE of the following Foundation courses:

• 342 - Marketing Research and Customer Insights
• 347 - Product and Brand Management
• 449 - Marketing Strategy and Customer Relationship Management

(It is recommended that students take more than one Foundation Course, with the additional courses viewed as Marketing electives)

THREE of the following Elective courses:

 

• 341G - Marketing Seminar
• 343 - Digital Marketing and Social Media
• 345 - New Product Lab
• 346 - Consumer Behavior
• 348 - Sales & Business Development
• 349 - Entertainment, Media and Sports Marketing
• 440 - Non-Profit Marketing
• 441 - Ideation
• 442 - Applied Integrated Marketing Communications
• 444 - Marketing Analytics Consulting
• 446 - Advertising and Marketing Communications 
• 448 - Channel Retailing Strategy

OR one or two more from 342, 347, 443  

May substitute ONE of the following related courses for an elective:

• 313 - Advanced Managerial Accounting (Accounting)
• 411G - Law and Business
• 414 - Financial Statement Analysis (Accounting)
• 420 - Advanced Corporate Finance (Finance)
• 352 - Project Management and Collaboration (ISOM)
• 356 – Analytics for e-Markets (ISOM)
• 358 - Data Analytics and Visualization (ISOM)
• 450G - Foundations of Digital Enterprises and Markets (ISOM)
• 451 - Making Effective Decisions (ISOM)
• 453 - Operations Strategy (ISOM)
• 455 -  Forecasting & Predictive Analytics (ISOM)
• 430 - Industry & Competitor Analysis (O&M)
• 432 - Negotiations (O&M)
• 433 - Leading & Managing Change

Approved Economics, Psychology, or Sociology class    

The Area Depth in Marketing Analytics provides students with the knowledge and marketing decision making tools to create insightful and innovative business solutions through the use of analytics.  

Marketing Analytics Area Depth Requirements

Required Courses

• 342 - Marketing Research and Customer Insights
• 444 - Marketing Analytics Consulting
• 449 - Marketing Strategy and Customer Relationship Management

ONE of the following:

One other marketing elective*

• 358 - Data Analytics and Visualization (ISOM)
• 455 - Forecasting and Predictive Analytics (ISOM)

* This elective may double count towards the regular marketing depth or another depth if appropriate  

Organizations are the engines of technological and social innovation, the foundations of individuals' careers, and therefore the bases of social advance and diversity. The academic study of organizations is a multi-disciplinary endeavor that draws from various social science disciplines including economics, political science, psychology and sociology. Organizational scholars utilize an array of quantitative and qualitative research methods to develop important insights about the antecedents and consequences of organizational behavior.

Why Choose Strategy and Management Consulting?

The Organization and Management faculty at Goizueta embody this diversity of disciplines and approaches and collectively have an active program of research and publication in leading management journals, as well as those in the corresponding social science disciplines. Members of our faculty play visible roles on the editorial boards of leading academic journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Strategic Organization.

FOUR of the following courses:

• 332 - Business & Society
• 334 - Social Enterprise in Nicaragua
• 336 - Catalyzing Social Impacts
• 337 - Managing Groups and Teams
• 430 - Competitive Advantage
• 431 - Social Enterprise
• 432 - Negotiations
• 433 - Leading and Managing Change
• 434 - Psychology of Leadership
• 435G - Multinational Firms
• 436 - Entrepreneurship
• 438 - Consulting
• 439 - Business Ethics*
• 471 - Applied Entrepreneurship*
• 472 - Corporate Strategy

Courses marked with * are offered intermittently

May substitute ONE of the following related courses for an elective:

• 313 - Advanced Managerial Accounting (Accounting)
• 414 - Financial Statement Analysis (Accounting)
• 420 - Advanced Corporate Finance (Finance)
• 421 - Corp. Governance & Restructuring (Finance)
• 428B - Venture Capital & Private Equity (Finance)
• 358 - Data Analytics and Visualization (ISOM)
• 451 - Making Effective Decisions (ISOM)
• 453 - Operations Strategy (ISOM)
• 458 - Psychology of Technology (ISOM)
• 459 - Process Analysis and Six Sigma (ISOM)
• 347 - Product and Brand Management (Marketing)
• 442 - Applied Integrated Marketing Comm (Marketing)
• 446 - Integrated Marketing Communications (Marketing)
• 449 - Marketing Strategy & Customer Relationship Management (Marketing)
• FILM 373 - The Biz: The American Film and Television Industry (O&M)
• Approved Economics, Psychology, or Sociology class