There are many considerations to keep in mind when planning your degree. Do you have a specific employment field that you'd like to enter into after graduation? What are your strengths? And, on the other side, what are your weaknesses?
The best way to figure out what you want to do is to try things - give each of your courses a solid effort and discover which intrigues you most, choose to engage in extra curricular activities and see where those lead you!
What Courses make up the BBA?
The Bachelor of Business Administration is a minimum of 40 courses, and 120 credits. All students must have at least one major from within the BBA, and can add a concentration and/or up to two minors if they'd like. All BBA students complete a common core of 16 business courses ranging from introductions in Human Resources, Marketing and Finance to capstones in Management and Business Plan Development.
The BBA program is designed to be taken in four years, but students have up to eight years to complete their degree requirements (including allowable absences).
What are Majors, Concentrations and Minors?
- What is a major?
- A major is your primary area of study in your degree. In the BBA, your major will make up about 25% (ten courses) of your degree. For example, if you major in Supply Chain Management, you will complete 10 courses in the subject as your major courses.
- What is a concentration?
- A concentration is similar to a major, in that it is your primary area of study and will make up about 25% (ten courses) of your degree, but a concentration must be housed within the General Management major in the BBA.
- What is a minor?
- Minors are not mandatory to complete a degree, but they are a great way to maximize the new interests that you discover at university.
- A minor is a secondary area of study that can be taken to compliment your major or concentration, or for general interest.
- A minor at MRU is between six and nine courses and MRU offers minors in over 50 different disciplines.
- You can choose minors offered by faculties outside Business.
- Minor courses can fit in either electives or GNED (if approved GNED courses), as well as the minor. Ideally, in mruGradU8 you will notice that the courses you have completed or are registered in for your minor should be listed in two places – the minor block and in one other block (major, General Education, or electives).
- Adding a minor may require taking more than 40 courses total in your degree.
A minor allows you to have a secondary focus of interest to your degree and it is also recorded on your transcript. You should consider doing a minor if:
- You want to connect two similar areas of study, e.g. a major in Marketing and a minor in Supply Chain Management, or a BBA in Human Resources with a minor in Psychology;
- You find yourself taking a lot of courses for your electives or General Education requirements from one discipline as it shows you have an keen interest in that area of study;
- You want exposure to a second language or culture;
- You are having trouble knowing what courses to choose - a minor adds more structure to your degree.
- You would take it if it was available as a major, but is only available as a minor at MRU.
What is General Education (GNED)?
General Education is a collection of courses in a range of subjects that will compliment studies in your chosen field, and will give you well-rounded knowledge in a variety of areas.
Students may use approved GNED courses towards fulfilling the requirements for a minor. If you want some advice on what that may look like, please contact your Business Advisor at businessadvising@mtroyal.ca.
What are Electives?
Electives are courses of your choice. Within the BBA, there are no rules on electives, except that you must have the prerequisites for the courses you want to take.
Students can use electives to fulfill a number of different requirements (if they choose), including:
- the requirements for the BBA Honours program
- the requirements for a minor
- transfer credit
- courses taken on international exchange
- a combination of courses fewer than 3 credits can be used to meet requirements of one elective (for example, two 1.5 credit HPED courses can be combined to equal one elective).
If you have questions about how to use your electives effectively, please contact your Business Advisor at businessadvising@mtroyal.ca.
How do I Pick my Major?
Choosing the major that you'd like to graduate from is a very personal decision, and not one that anyone else can make for you. You will want to do your research to make sure that you feel that the specialty that you choose will set you up best for the types of opportunities that you want to pursue after you graduate from the BBA.
Some of the considerations you'll want to take into account include:
- your passions, interests and values
- your strengths and weaknesses
- what types of employment opportunities are you interested in post-graduation
- opportunities for post-graduate education (MBA, professional designations)
- courses you have enjoyed and found success in
Ways to help you choose your major include:
- market research into employment trends and predictions, but keep in mind that many of the jobs that you'll be interested in haven't even been thought of yet!
- interviewing professionals in the fields that you're interested in
- taking part in a mentorship program, such as the Harry G. Schaefer Mentorship Program
- participating in the Career Passions workshop conducted by the MRU Counselling Department.
- exploring options with the team in Career Services
- volunteer
- attend Career Fairs and Graduate Study Fairs to see your options
- join the Co-operative Education program to gain valuable and relevant work experience
- talk to your advisor if you have a couple of ideas in mind, so that they may be able to recommend courses to take to help you make your decision, or ways to keep your options open for a while
Declaring your major, concentration and/or minor
Once you have an idea of what you might want to specialize in, try a 'what if' on mruGradU8, making sure to select the calendar year of the year you were admitted to the BBA (the system defaults to 2010/2011). View the program planning sheet for that program to understand the prerequisite sequencing and compare the curriculum with that shown on mruGradU8. Meet with an advisor to ensure you understand how courses can overlap with other degree requirements.
Once you have decided on your major, concentration and/or minor combination, it is your responsibility to declare your intentions with the Office of the Registrar, by emailing studentrecords@mtroyal.ca. This process will update the information in your student record so that your mruGradU8 contains the correct curriculum and courses for you to follow.
You can declare your intended program as early as October 1 of your first year (if you have taken at least 10 courses, including at least one in your intended area of study). Check our our Tip Sheet on reasons why you should declare your major early.
Program Planning Sheets
Check out the program planning sheet archive for current and past program plans. Please make sure to read through the information posted about which year's planning sheet you should be using.
Once you have declared your major, you are also highly encouraged to use mruGradU8 to check on the progress of your degree. If you have questions about mruGradU8, or if courses aren't being applied as you'd hoped, please contact your Business Advisor at businessadvising@mtroyal.ca.