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Bachelors of Arts
(claude audit) Business
Major | Minor
What Is Business Study?
Business is the study of how organizations create something people want, pay for the work of making it, and lead the people who do it.
The Business major at Goshen College is a 50 credit Bachelor of Arts program. It covers accounting, marketing, analytics, information systems, economics, ethics, and strategy, then chooses one of four concentrations to go deep in. There is also a 20-credit Business minor, open to students in any major, for people who want the fundamentals without the full degree.
You learn all of it inside a liberal arts college, which means you graduate able to think across fields, write clearly, and work with people who do not see the world the way you do. That combination is the point. A business degree gets you the first interview. The rest of it is what makes you useful in the job, and still useful in the one after that.
It is also a credential that travels. Wherever you go next, whether that is an hour from campus or back across an ocean, the language of business is the same and the degree comes with you.
What business people actually do
- Find the opportunity. Work out what people need, what they will pay for, and whether the organization can deliver it at a price that works.
- Make it run. Money, systems, supply, and process. The unglamorous machinery that decides whether a good idea survives contact with reality.
- Lead the people doing it. Hire them, develop them, motivate them, and resolve it when they disagree. Nothing else works if this part does not.
You do not need a business background to start. Most students arrive without one.
For the current course lists and requirements for both the major and the minor, see the Business listing in the course catalog.
Major or Minor: Which One Fits You?
The major is the full degree, a shared core plus a concentration you choose. The minor is the fundamentals, added to whatever else you are studying.
The Business Major: 49 to 50 credits, B.A.
- For students who want business to be the degree and the direction.
- A 31-credit shared core across accounting, marketing, analytics, information systems, economics, ethics, and strategy, plus one concentration of 18 or 19 credits chosen from four.
- Includes a required experience-focused course, dedicated career planning, and a senior strategy capstone.
- Teacher certification in business for grades 5 through 12 is available through the education department.
- You can begin Goshen MBA coursework once you have 60 undergraduate credit hours and a 2.50 GPA.
Two planning notes: you cannot double major in business and accounting, or in business and marketing. And your concentration choice can rule out the matching standalone minor, so choose it with your advisor.
The Business Minor: 20 credits
- For students who want to understand how organizations work without changing their major.
- The foundations: accounting, how customers decide, information systems, and economics, plus nine credits of upper-level business you choose.
- No fixed track after the foundations. You aim the upper-level credits at whatever your major does not already cover.
- Pairs with almost anything. Scientists who will run a lab budget, artists who will price their work, nurses who will manage a unit.
- Ask your academic advisor to map it against your current plan.
One planning note: you will need to meet the minimum grade standard in the courses that count toward the minor.
Why Study Business at Goshen College?
Because you learn business in a place small enough that people know what you are good at, and broad enough that you learn to work with people unlike you.
In classes this size your professors know your name and your ideas in the first week, not the third year. They are the ones who connect you to the internship, write the recommendation, and tell you honestly when an idea will not work. That is worth more over four years than a bigger building.
Ethics is required coursework here, not a guest lecture. Every business major takes it, because a degree that teaches you to run something without asking what you owe the people it affects is only half a degree.
What sets it apart
- A concentration, not a general degree. Everyone leaves with a specialization on the transcript, in an area employers hire for by name.
- Ethics in the core. Required of every major, and treated as part of the judgment the work needs rather than a compliance topic.
- Genuinely international, in the room. Students come from across the U.S. and around the world, and the admissions office walks international applicants through the I-20 and visa process. You will spend four years learning to work across difference, which is the actual condition of every workplace you will enter.
- A faster route to the MBA. Once you have 60 undergraduate credit hours and a 2.50 GPA, you can begin taking Goshen MBA coursework while still an undergraduate.
Goshen welcomes students of every background, religious or not. Whether your world is an hour from campus or an ocean away, you can belong here as fully yourself while you build something you can take anywhere.
Choose Your Concentration
Every business major picks one of four. This is the choice that shapes what your degree is actually for, and it is worth making deliberately with your advisor.
- Data and Systems Management (19 credits). Bridge business strategy and technology. A fit for business intelligence, systems analysis, IT project management, or data-driven decision-making. Available only as a concentration.
- Healthcare Management (18 credits). For hospital administration, healthcare consulting, public health organizations, or health insurance, where business meets care delivery. Also available as a standalone minor for students in other majors.
- Operations Management (18 credits). For supply chain, logistics, manufacturing, process improvement, and sustainability-focused operations across industries.
- People and Culture Management (18 credits). For human resources, organizational development, talent management, and leadership focused on workplace culture. Also available as a standalone minor for students in other majors.
If you take the Healthcare Management or People and Culture Management concentration, you cannot also earn the minor of the same name. They cover the same ground. Your advisor will help you pick the route that fits your plan.
Where You’ll Put It to Work
Every business major completes at least three credits of experiential learning. It is a requirement of the degree, not an opportunity you have to go find.
You choose how to meet it. Some students take an internship with a business or organization. Some manage Java Junction, the student-run coffee bar on campus, and spend a semester responsible for its marketing, purchasing, staffing, and daily operations. Some do job-connected applied learning inside a working organization, and some take on a business process innovation project.
Whichever route you take, you finish the degree with something you have actually run, and a story you can tell in an interview that is not about a class.
[Student name, class year]
[Business major, concentration; current role]
Common Questions About the Business Major & Minor
The major is 49 to 50 credit hours depending on the concentration; the minor is 20. Both are listed in full in the Business course catalog, which is updated annually and is the place to confirm current requirements. You will need to meet the minimum grade standard in the courses that count toward either one.
Four: Data and Systems Management, Healthcare Management, Operations Management, and People and Culture Management. They run 18 or 19 credits. Pick based on the kind of problem you want to be handed at work, not the job title you can currently name, and talk it through with your advisor before your second year.
No. Healthcare Management and People and Culture Management exist both as concentrations inside this major and as standalone minors for students in other majors. If you take one as a concentration, you cannot also earn it as a minor, because the coursework overlaps. Choose the route that fits your plan.
No. Those pairs share too many required courses for the college to count them separately. Most students in that position add a complementary minor instead, chosen around where they want to specialize.
Graduates work in marketing, human resources, management, finance, and operations, across business, banking, overseas development, nonprofits, and consulting. A good number start their own businesses. The concentration you choose shapes the first job more than the fifth.
Yes, and it is required. Every business major completes at least three credits of experiential learning, through an internship, managing the student-run Java Junction coffee bar, job-connected applied learning, or a business process innovation project.
Yes. Once you have earned 60 undergraduate credit hours with a GPA of at least 2.50, you can begin taking courses in Goshen College’s MBA program while still an undergraduate. Ask your academic advisor how to plan for it, since the timing affects your remaining undergraduate schedule.
Yes. Teacher certification in business for grades 5 through 12 is available through the education department alongside the major. Talk to both your business advisor and the education department early, because licensure coursework has its own sequence.
Apply through Goshen College undergraduate admissions, or request information first if you are still deciding. There is no separate application to the major. International applicants work with the admissions office on the I-20 and visa process after admission.
Scholarships make up a large portion of Goshen financial aid packages, which average almost $26,000 per student, not counting work-study or loans. Enrolled business students may also qualify for endowed awards including the Sauder Scholarship and the Gorsline Scholarship, listed with other scholarships. Run the net price calculator to see your own number, then talk it through with a real person in the financial aid office.
Ready When You Are.
Take the next step toward a business degree, or a minor, that works during college and pays off long after
Roy Jackson
Associate Professor of Education
Brooke Lemmon
Professor of Education
Director of Special EducationRobina Sommers
Associate Professor of Education
Steven Thalheimer
Associate Professor of Education
Department ChairDanae Wirth
Assistant Professor of Education
About the Goshen College Business Major & Minor
Goshen College is a Mennonite-affiliated liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana, founded in 1894. The Business major is a 49 to 50 credit Bachelor of Arts: a 31-credit core of accounting, marketing, analytics, ethics, information systems, economics, and strategy, plus one of four concentrations, Data and Systems Management (19 credits), Healthcare Management (18), Operations Management (18), and People and Culture Management (18). A 20-credit Business minor is open to students in any major. Every business major completes at least three credits of experiential learning, and students who reach 60 undergraduate credit hours with a 2.50 GPA can begin Goshen MBA coursework. Financial aid packages average almost $26,000 per student.
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