Specific dual majors and minors

I have previously written about Ross’s support for dual majors and minors (in other disciplines); read this post for a better idea of what I think about this. However, I haven’t ever listed the wide variety of disciplines that students have pursued for their dual or minor. Here is a list of them:

Actuarial math Applied statistics Asian Language & Culture Asian Studies Brain, behavior, & cognitive science Cellular & molecular biology Crime & Justice Economics Environment French & Francophone Studies Gender, Race & Ethnicity German Studies

History of Art International Relations of the Middle East Industrial & Organizational Engineering Latin Mathematics Organizational Studies Philosophy Political Science Psychology Russian & East European Studies Spanish Language, Literature, Culture Statistics

Don’t read this as an exhaustive list. Read it as an indication of the variety of possibilities that lie before you as a UM/Ross student.

Dual majors and minors

One of the reasons that I pushed for the creation of the 3-year BBA Program was that I thought it would increase the chances for students who want to get a dual major with business or to get a minor along with their business major. Well, we are not even one year into the change to the new program but I can give some preliminary results on this point.

We have increased the number of students who are pursuing a dual/minor from about 3% two years ago to about 10% today. And this number should continue to increase since the sophomores are not anywhere near the deadline for filing (which really is sometime in their junior year). I think this change is fantastic for Ross and for BBAs.

First, though, you may wonder why this increase has occurred. The reasons I can come up with are institutional support, time, and student support.

• Institutional support: Rob has worked with Academic Services to make sure that the schools or departments in question can come together to figure out all of the details related to course sequencing and requirements and put them together in a way that students will be able to fulfill.
• Time: None of this would matter if students were not BBAs during their sophomore year. This gets them better access to the advisors and gives them three years in which to complete their academic plans for the dual/minors. The student's schedule is less full with business classes because they are stretched out over 3 years instead of 2; this allows them to take longer sequences of courses from other departments (as well as from Ross).
• Student support: Our BBA Program Student advisors (Rob, Katie, and Michael) can help students think about the possibilities for making the most of their time at UM and are available to help students put together their academic plan in order to make the dual/minor a reality.

Okay, so it's easier for students and they are taking advantage of the opportunity. I happen to think this is a great thing for students, UM, and Ross.

• Students: I think it's a great thing for students because I believe a broad-based, liberal arts education is in the student's best interest. I believe it will lead them to live more interesting, productive, and fulfilling lives. I also think it will make them better employees and better citizens.
• UM: UM's strength as an institution is its strength across a wide variety of disciplines and the accompanying strength of the affiliated faculty and students. Attracting more students who have an interest in a broad range of disciplines will only strengthen UM's already diverse character.
• Ross: Ross's strength is in general management and its overall strength in many disciplines (as opposed to being known specifically for a strength in finance or marketing). Ross does not really allow students to take 75% of their undergraduate education in business; it's more like 50%. We do not want our students to focus too narrowly on business; we want them to develop their other interests.

The Ross BBA Program wants to attract students who have a broad range of interests. Students should not come to Ross if they want to student finance or marketing (or whatever) to the exclusion of other disciplines. They should come here because they have an interest in business, want to develop it, but know that there's more to life than options or product line extensions.

“Co-creation” and the BBA Program

One of the four core values of the Ross School is “Co-Creation”. You might ask, “What in the heck is that?” I’m glad you asked! According to the School’s strategic positioning statement, this is defined as the following:

Our commitment to innovation in business education together with our relationship to the University of Michigan supports our philosophy of co-creating robust and diverse individual experiences for faculty and students across all programs — from BBA to Executive Education. Co-creation means that each person participates actively in the educational process; that the process is not a one-way delivery system from professor to student.

This core value also recognizes that we have forged and will strengthen cross-disciplinary programs, research partnerships and intellectual affiliations. For example, faculty grapple with the complex, often multidisciplinary problems that challenge our society and students can customize their education with a variety of opportunities.

After reading that you still might ask, “What in the heck is that?” For a long time, you could have put me in that camp, too. But now I’m getting a much better understanding of what it means. And it turns out that it’s really important for understanding all that Ross has to offer to BBAs. Let me take a shot at translating what this means to our undergraduate population.

Co-creation is all about creating a program of study that fits you as an individual rather than simply taking some pre-defined course of study. It’s about taking diverse pieces from around Ross and around this great University and constructing an educational experience that fits you. It’s about working with an advisor, working with representatives of the school, creating with them (get it?! — co-creating!) a set of courses and extra-curriculars that support your goals.

This is a big deal for Ross and the BBA Program and is one of our core values because we have such a set of absolutely fantastic programs surrounding the academic classes. There’s the Dare to Dream competition for those with an entrepreneurial bent. There’s the Washington Campus program for those who are interested in pursuing a life in, or simply understanding a life in, public policy. There’s the Erb Institute for students who emphasize the importance of sustainable enterprises. Study abroad programs in Germany and China for those who think that international business is what deserves emphasis. Double majors in business and music or economics or engineering or ... whatever. It almost doesn’t matter what a student wants to do. If he or she takes the time to define the interest, the Ross School has programs in place that the student can take advantage of.

This is a strength in diversity and a strength in context that is not easily duplicated elsewhere. I have always matained that the strength of Ross is that it is located within the University of Michigan. And this is one way in which the BBA Program fits the strategy of co-creation better than the MBA Program: BBAs have a diverse set of resources throughout the University in which to co-create their educational experience. If another undergraduate business program were to want to compete with Ross in this dimension, it would almost certainly come up short unless it was part of one of the world’s great universities as Ross is. Further, since business schools (any school, for that matter) have little influence over the rest of the university in which they are located, they have little ability to change their competitive position in this dimension.

This same philosophy manifests itself in the Ross BBA curriculum. Yes, students have a core curriculum that they all must complete; however, this is not a large number of hours, leaving a good chunk of the students course work for electives in Ross, electives in LS&A, minors, and double majors. In this case, the co-creation is primarily between the student and his or her advisor who brings a deep knowledge of possible courses inside and outside of Ross.

In conclusion, though co-creation sounds like a theoretical concept, it can actually be seen and felt in many different parts of a student’s experience while they are here at Michigan.