Who should apply? The Business Track is open to students in the Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business. The track will be especially helpful to students seeking to enhance their research skills and pursue a career in consulting. The track is also ideal for those students who are pursuing a minor in Business Administration or Music Management. This track will help students who plan to apply to a graduate program, in particular to a quality MBA program. All students in the track must have a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher. Get to know a past member of the Business Honors Track, Michele Boyle, through a recent interview: click here. How do I enroll? To enroll in the Business Honors Track, contact the Director, Dr. John Malindretos at malindretosj@wpunj.edu. You must also complete the track application and submit it to the Honors College. What courses will I take? The track includes 5 courses, 3 of which are taken as business core requirements. In those 3 courses, FIN 3200, MGT 3550, and MGT 4600, students in the honors track will need to complete an honors project. The two other courses, Thesis I and Thesis II, honors students will need to take in addition to their major requirements. The three business core courses can be taken in any order preferred by the student as long as the director is notified in which semester s/he takes them. Thesis I and Thesis II need to be taken in sequence where Thesis II is take in the last Spring semester before graduation and Thesis I is taken in the Fall semester of that academic year. CORPORATE FINANCE (FIN 3200) – an honors project component is added to this business core required (see below additional requirements) Course Description: A study of the basic principles and practices of the financial management of private business corporations. The course provides an operational framework for financial analysis, planning, and forecasting, along with profit analysis and financial control for today's business world. Prerequisites: ACCT 2110 AND ECON 2020 Additional Learning Outcomes for Honors Students: Construct and maintain a stock portfolio according to desired investment criteria. Write an analysis report for one public company. VALUES, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY (MGT 3550) – an honors project component is added to this business core required (see below additional requirements) Course Description: This course is designed to increase awareness of values, ethics, beliefs and attitudes, and how they relate to issues of sustainability. It will pay special attention to the manner in which corporations can become agents of injustice and inequality in society, and conversely, how they can be transformed by individual actors and by institutional reforms. This course will also analyze sustainability at the institutional level, focusing on socially and structurally imbedded nature of corporate actions. This is a writing intensive course.Prerequisites: MGT 2000 OR MKT 2100 Additional Learning Outcomes for Honors Students: Write a case study describing a sustainable-focused organizational initiative or Write a report analyzing a company’s CSR policy BUSINESS STRATEGY AND POLICY (MGT 4600) – an honors project component is added to this business core required (see below additional requirements) Course Description: This three credit course represents a case study approach to business decision-making that integrates functional and organizational disciplines. It examines a series of complex industrial situations in depth to determine, in each instance, the strategy and policies a firm should follow for its long-run survival. Some sections of this course are writing intensivePrerequisite: ACCT 2120 AND ECON 2100 AND MGT 2000 AND MKT 2100 AND FIN 3200 Additional Requirement for Honors Students in: FIN 3200, MGT 3550, MGT 4600 Objective: The additional assignment will provide an opportunity for honors students to enrich their academic experience by applying theories learned in the course to a specific issue or topic. The assignment will allow in-depth study of theoretical concepts and more advanced analysis of the chosen topic. Furthermore, the assignment will prepare students for more extensive writing required in subsequent courses in the honors business track (e.g., thesis and practicum related courses). Requirement: The students will agree on a research topic with their instructor and will be required to submit the following to the professor and the program director: At the beginning of the semester: one page outline of the assignment including the topic under investigation, the frameworks/concepts/methodologies that will be used, and the questions that will be addressed Mid-semester draft: a draft of the assignment will be provided to give the professor a chance to review and give a constructive feedback to the student. The student will use this feedback to revise the assignment for the final submission. At the end of the semester: a research paper which will adhere to the following structure and format: Cover page with the following information: Student name and date, Instructor’s Name, and Project Title Analysis section (5 pages) with the following information: Importance of the topic and relevant literature Analysis and discussion / conclusions Cited sources/references (APA style) The paper format will be as follows: Arial font, 10 points, single-spaced (NOT double-spaced) 0.5 inch top and bottom margins, 1.0 inch left and right margins 0.6 References appear on a separate page Practicum (FIN/MGT/MKT 4850): a course of study designed especially for the supervised practical application of previously studied theory in a group setting. Done under the supervision of a faculty sponsor and coordinated with a business organization. Case Writing (FIN/MGT/MKT 4860): this is a cross-disciplinary course that represents the second part of the 6-credit practicum Honors option, which must be conducted over two semesters and undertaken in the junior or senior year. It will be a core component of the Practicum Honors option. The course involves writing an effective business case based on the consulting report or business plan completed in the practicum course. This course will be supervised by a mentor chosen from the Cotsakos College of Business Academically Qualified (AQ) faculty members who participated in the corresponding g practicum course. About the Track Director: Dr. John Malindretos has had a diverse background in the areas of academia, entrepreneurship and industry. He has taught at St. John’s and Rutgers universities in addition to WP. At former universities, he developed an internship program in which he placed numerous students with permanent employment. He has been nominated for excellence in instruction and research. He has over one hundred presentations in Finance, Accounting and Management. Additionally, he has published more than one hundred book chapters and refereed journal articles. Moreover, he has co-authored a monograph in International Finance. Dr. Malindretos was instrumental in bringing scholarly journals to the Cotsakos College of Business. The first was entitled The International Journal of Finance of which he was the Co-editor. The second is the Journal of Business in Developing Nations of which he is the editor in chief. Dr. Malindretos managed and owned a real estate firm for about 15 years. He has consulted for commercial banks and investment banks. He has had a career in Wall Street that spans a dozen years. He associated himself with a few firms, the most notable of which was Salomon Smith Barney. He founded and managed an investment bank as the Chairman of the board of directors.
