International Business

Undergraduate Information

OFFICE: Arts and Letters 208
TELEPHONE: 619-594-4505 / FAX: 619-594-7738
E-MAIL: ib@sdsu.edu
WEBSITE: http://ib.sdsu.edu

A member of AACSB International-The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Director: Kazemi, Ranin, Associate Professor of History (B.A., Middle Tennessee State University; M.A., The Ohio State University; M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.,Yale University )

Faculty

International Business draws on courses offered by faculty in the following areas: Accountancy, Africana Studies, American Indian Studies, Anthropology, Arabic, Art, Asian Studies, Chicana and Chicano Studies, Chinese, Communication, Comparative Literature, Economics, English, European Studies, Finance, French, Geography, German, History, Humanities, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Studies, Linguistics, Management, Management Information Systems, Marketing, Philosophy, Political Science, Portuguese, Religious Studies, Rhetoric and Writing Studies, Russian, Sociology, Spanish, and Women’s Studies.

Undergraduate Information

The Major

International Business is an interdisciplinary major that culminates in a Bachelor of Arts degree offered jointly by the College of Arts and Letters and the Fowler College of Business. This program integrates coursework in Business Administration, languages other than English, and Regional/Cultural Studies. It offers students an opportunity to combine two emphases, one in a Language and one in Regional/Cultural studies, and to create a focused program of study suited to their individual interests and career goals. All students are required to spend a semester abroad and to complete an internship.

Students must select one of the following Regional/Cultural Studies emphases: Asia/Chinese, Asia/Japanese, Asia/Korean, Latin America/Portuguese, Latin America/Spanish, Middle East and North Africa/Arabic, North America/English, North America/French, Central Europe/Russian, Western Europe/French, Western Europe/German, Western Europe/Italian, Western Europe/Portuguese, Western Europe/Spanish. Students also complete the necessary business courses to meet accreditation standards of the AACSB for a major in Business Administration.

High school students who are planning to select this major are strongly advised to complete the following courses prior to admission to the university: four years of one language other than English; four years of Mathematics; and courses in Accounting, Computer Programming, Economics, and World History.

Retention Policy

The International Business program expects all students to make reasonable academic progress towards the degree. Premajors who have earned 60 units but have less than a 2.9 cumulative GPA will be removed from the International Business premajor and placed in undeclared. Upper division Business majors earning less than a 2.0 average GPA in the major for two consecutive semesters may be removed from the major and placed in undeclared.

Semester Abroad Requirement

As part of the degree requirements for the International Business major, students must complete a semester abroad in their region and language of emphasis. Students must meet eligibility requirements prior to the semester abroad and complete a global business project. In order to clear the semester abroad requirement, students select an international business approved program. Two program options are offered (programs vary by location; consult department for options):

Study Abroad
1. Students selecting this option spend one semester (fall or spring) studying abroad.
2. Full-time registration required abroad (equivalent to 12 SDSU units).
3. All courses must successfully be completed with a passing grade.
Internship Abroad
1. Students selecting this option must spend 250 hours at an internship located in their region and language of emphasis.
2. Choosing this option allows students to complete the semester abroad requirement and internship requirement concurrently.

NOTE: International students registering in the English/North America emphasis meet the semester abroad requirement by studying at SDSU.

Internship Requirement

All students in the international business major must complete an International Business internship by enrolling in International Business 495 and interning a minimum of 150 hours. Students must attain upper division status prior to starting the internship. Although not required, students may choose to complete an internship abroad. Internships must be completed with approval of the internship adviser.

Advising

All students admitted to the university with a declared major in international business are required to attend an advising meeting with the international business adviser during their first semester on campus.