This combined major provides students with a robust overview of business along with communication studies. It can help prepare students for career opportunities in growing industry markets such as public relations, marketing communications, and digital media.

What is a Combined Major?

A combined major combines two majors in a way that allows a student to fulfill all requirements within the standard 8 academic semesters. For details, see the BS in Business Administration and Communication Studies program requirements.

This degree can be accomplished using either the four- or five-year co-op plan. There are also business concentrations and business minors to help you customize your unique Northeastern educational experience.

BS in Business Administration and Communication Studies Curriculum

The curriculum below is an abbreviated sample of the business administration academic requirements for the Business Administration and Communication Studies degree. Please refer to the program information in the Registrar's Undergraduate Catalog for the full curriculum appropriate to your class year. Course numbers and titles are subject to change.

Required Courses

Complete one of the following introductory courses:

BUSN 1102. Personal Skill Development for Business. 1 Hour.

Offers first-year students in the D'Amore-McKim School of Business (DMSB) an opportunity to achieve a better understanding of themselves as students and as future professionals. Explores self-analysis, leadership traits and styles, diversity and cultural awareness, professionalism, emotional intelligence, and ethics. Encourages students to draw connections among classroom education, extracurricular activities, and practical experiences and to identify how each component fits into the pursuit of their individual goals.

COMM 1000. Communication Studies at Northeastern. 1 Hour.

Designed to provide a unique opportunity to engage faculty, professional staff, and peer mentors in small group discussions. Introduces students to the College of Arts, Media and Design. Offers students an opportunity to learn about the communication studies major and to explore the different areas of emphasis offered by the department. As part of the course, students are expected to prepare a detailed plan of study and are introduced to the co-op program and meet their academic co-op advisor.

Complete this integrative course:

MKTG 4504. Advertising and Brand Promotion. 4 Hours.

Focuses on managing and integrating marketing communications in relation to a company's overall marketing objectives. Includes advertising; creative and media strategy; the communication process; direct and interactive marketing; consumer and trade promotions; public relations; and the social, ethical, and economic considerations underlying marketing communications in the twenty-first century.

Complete one of the following capstone courses:

STRT 4501. Strategy in Action. 4 Hours.

Provides for the integration and application of administrative theory, knowledge, skills, and experiences for effective strategic performance in an organization. Offers students an opportunity to acquire a better understanding of the relevance and limitations of business and management concepts and techniques when making and implementing strategic decisions.

COMM 4608. Strategic Communication Capstone. 4 Hours.

Offers students an opportunity to complete a semester-long, intensive research and writing capstone project related to the field of strategic communication. Research topics can span business, politics, advocacy, entertainment, public health, the environment, and other societal sectors. Building on previous course work, students have an opportunity to gain a deeper scholarly and professional understanding of strategic communication; cultivate professional and academic contacts; and demonstrate mastery of relevant theoretical concepts, professional principles, research methods, and writing approaches. Encourages students to share and translate their findings for relevant academic and professional communities.

COMM 4533. Consultation Skills. 4 Hours.

Introduces the theoretical frameworks necessary to engage in a broad range of consulting activities (management consulting or organizational training and development). By studying nonprofit organizations in the Boston area, offers students an opportunity to learn how to gather and analyze data, to use mathematical methods to perform critical analysis, and to evaluate and critique choices made in the presentation of data. Requires students to make a formal report to the organization and to write a paper reflecting on the organization and its mission in the context of broader social, political, and economic issues. Emphasizes ethical considerations involving security, privacy, and fairness.

Business Administration Requirements

ACCT 1201. Financial Accounting and Reporting. 4 Hours.

Covers the basic concepts underlying financial statements and the accounting principles followed in the preparation of the balance sheet, the income statement, and the statement of cash flows. Offers students an opportunity to become familiar with accounting terminology and methods designed to enable them to interpret, analyze, and evaluate published corporate financial reports. Wherever appropriate, the course relates current economic, business, and global events to accounting issues. Analyzes how financial reporting concepts affect the behavior of investors, creditors, and other external users. Emphasizes the importance of ethics in financial reporting. Requires second-semester-freshman standing or above.

MGSC 2301. Business Statistics. 4 Hours.

Offers students an opportunity to obtain the necessary skills to collect, summarize, analyze, and interpret business-related data. Covers descriptive statistics, sampling and sampling distributions, statistical inference, relationships between variables, formulating and testing hypotheses, and regression analysis in the context of business. Use of the SPSS statistical programming package is an integral part of the course.

MKTG 2201. Introduction to Marketing. 4 Hours.

Provides an overview of the role of marketing in business and society. Considers the planning, implementation, and evaluation of marketing efforts in consumer and business-to-business companies, in service and goods companies, and in for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Also examines contemporary issues in marketing that can affect organizational success. A term project is used to enable students to apply their learning about the fundamentals of marketing.

FINA 2201. Financial Management. 4 Hours.

Designed to develop the financial skills and logical thought processes necessary to understand and discuss financial policy decisions in a global economy. Specific objectives include developing an understanding of the time value of money; using financial statements in decision making; and understanding the nature of financial markets, the cost of capital, valuation of stocks and bonds, management of short-term assets, short-term and long-term financing, capital markets, and multinational financial management. Addresses the impact of legal, social, technological, and ethical considerations on efficient economic outcomes. Requires a financial calculator and provides an opportunity to develop computer spreadsheet skills.

Complete one of the following business core courses:

INTB 1203. International Business and Global Social Responsibility. 4 Hours.

Introduces the student to forces and issues confronted in our era of rapid globalization. Managers must understand forces from interconnected social, political, and economic national environments that affect their company's operations. At the same time they need to draw on their ethical foundations to address and act on social responsibility imperatives across national borders.

ORGB 3201. Organizational Behavior. 4 Hours.

Provides an overview of the actions and behaviors of people in organizations. Uses case studies, videos, experiential exercises, lectures, and discussions to explore the effects of individual, interpersonal, group, organizational, and cross-cultural factors on human behavior. Topics include groups and teams, motivation, leadership, organizational change, organizational culture, structure, conflict resolution, and communication. Both the underlying theories and principles of these topics, as well as their practical applications and implications for organizations, are covered.

Complete one of the following business core courses:

ACCT 2301. Managerial Accounting. 4 Hours.

Focuses on the development and use of information—especially financial information—for managerial decisions within the firm. Introduces managerial accounting concepts, analyses, and practices that support business decisions through class discussions, exercises, and case analysis. Topics include budgeting, cost management and behavior, cost-volume-profit analysis, relevant costs for decision making, cost allocation issues, and performance evaluation. Emphasizes the importance of ethics.

ENTR 2301. Innovation!. 4 Hours.

Designed for students across the entire University who wish to learn about innovation—the creative process, the different types of innovation, how innovations are created, and how innovations can be transformed into commercial reality either as new products or new services and either in startups, existing corporations, and nonprofit entities. Offers students an opportunity to obtain the fundamental insight needed to understand the innovation process and to become a player in it.

MISM 2301. Management Information Systems. 4 Hours.

Explores how a wide range of enterprises around the world use information and information technology to create better-managed, more innovative, and successful organizations. The twenty-first-century enterprise runs on information, and every part of the business has been transformed by the use of information technology. Today's business leaders, therefore, must have ready access to timely, accurate, and relevant information to manage effectively in the global economy.

SCHM 2301. Supply Chain and Operations Management. 4 Hours.

Focuses on the integrative management of business activities intrinsic to the smooth flow of goods or services, information, and financial transactions across firms from raw materials to the end customer. This collaborative approach creates competitive advantages for all members of a supply chain. Emphasizes the responsibilities of managers regarding decisions concerning the design, operation, and control of supply chains and operations. Considers customers, globalization, corporate strategy, resources, sustainability, ethics, and diversity. Topics covered include customer-centric management; supply chain and operations strategies; process structure and control; and supply, inventory, and quality management. Emphasizes the key role of information technology, logistics network design, supply chain relationships, and process evolution.

Example Communication Studies Courses

  • Persuasion and Rhetoric
  • Global and Intercultural Communication
  • Theories of Conflict and Negotiation
  • Free Speech: Law and Practice
  • Great Speakers and Speeches

Choose a Business Concentration

Note: If the Marketing Analytics concentration is selected, an additional general elective is required.

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Undergraduate Concentration in Accounting

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Undergraduate Concentration in Marketing

Product design, research, pricing, packaging, transportation, advertising, selling, and servicing: marketing impacts every one of these essential aspects of business.

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