College of Business: Business for a Better World

Alright, good afternoon everybody and welcome to the College of Business. My name is Mike Homoeo. I am the director of Undergraduate programs in the College of Business and I would like to welcome all of our better semi finalists. 2 business where our motto is business for a better world and so we'll be talking about how we are able to utilize business to make the.

World a better place throughout this presentation I'm going to be talking a lot about different aspects of the College of Business and what we have to offer our students and so please if as we go. If you have questions, please post those questions in the chat feature, which should be to your left on the screen and then I will try to answer questions as I go. But then I will also answer questions toward the end of the presentation, and so let's jump in. Also, when you signed up for this event.

Or very shortly, here after, you will be receiving an electronic document emailed to you, which is all of the information that we're talking about in this presentation today. So you'll be able to go through it and then and get much more detail. And then if you have questions, you'll be able to reach out to me with more questions. So in the College of Business we are in the business of transforming lives, and so we work with lots of students from all walks of life and through business education. We are able to make the world a better place.

We're here to help students succeed academically, but then also to help you move toward your educational, but mostly your professional goals. What you want to do with the rest of your life. And so I'm going to talk about that throughout this presentation.

Here's the agenda. We're going to talk a little bit about admission requirements. The College of Business is a competitive major at Colorado State University, so I want you to know what those requirements are will also go through the business degree overview, which is basically all of the courses that are required for a student to earn their degree in business. An graduate will also do some concentration expiration, so we offer ten different concentrations in the College of Business. For the most part, your concentration is where you're going to seek your first career after you graduate.

And although we call them concentrations, most students refer to them as their major, and so we'll talk about that will also go through student opportunities and support systems that we have available. And then we'll wrap up with a question and answer session. And I have a couple of our current business students who are student ambassadors in the College of Business. We're going to come in and talk a little bit of as well, so be thinking about what kind of questions you might want to ask some existing students here at Colorado State University in the College of Business.

So jumping in, let's start talking about admission. And so, as I mentioned in the packet, you're going to have our full admission policy, but we are a competitive major. That means that we have higher admission standards than what it takes to get admitted to Colorado State University, and so this is an example of a student who would be a strong candidate for direct admission. Now our admission is 2 pronged, so we're looking at hard scores. So GPA AC T&SAT scores.

But we're also looking holistically and I'll talk about that as well. So a strong candidate for admission would have a 3.5 to a 4.0 cumulative GPA. In high school. We do accept both weighted and unweighted GPA, so we will accept whatever GPA your school reportes. So if you are weighted, GPA is higher than your unweighted GPA. Obviously that is to your advantage and that would work in your favor.

We also will accept an AC T or S80. However, we do not require an AC T or S80. If you submit one or more, we will happily take those and include those into your admission decision process with regard to an AC T. If you're in the range of a 24 to 28, you would be a strong candidate for direct admission. If you have an essay T score of an 1142A1280 and that is on the math.

And verbal portion only of the essay T You would be a strong candidate for direct admission. Now we do super score at Colorado State University. So basically what that means is, let's say you take the AC T two different times and maybe the first time you do particularly well on the math portion and the second time you do particularly well on the English portion, we will take your higher math score and your higher English score from the two different exams. Merge those together and give you your super score.

And so that is just giving students the most at the best advantage that we can. And then we do that for the essay T as well. So if you're in these hard score, range is going to be a strong candidate for direct admission. Now the other side of the equation is what we call holistic review. That's where we're looking at you. Holistically looking to see one. Are you going to be a strong candidate for business? Have you already started establishing yourself?

As a future business person, will you be able to be successful in business and go out and get a great job in industry after graduation? So what we're looking for is a record of leadership record of teamwork and a record of at least already starting to expose yourself to different cultures. Different ways of thinking, different ways of doing so. The way that we determine if you meet those types of requirements as we look at your extracurricular involvements, so are you involved in clubs and organizations.

Cheerleading band, choir athletics. Robotics Club chess club. Do you have a part time job? We love to see students who are working part time jobs. It doesn't really matter what kind of a job you're doing, but having a part time job means that you've started developing a work ethic. It also probably means that you have started learning how to balance your time, how to manage your time well, so those are the types of things that we're looking for. We're also looking for students who are doing volunteer work in their community.

Either through their school, local church, or organization anything a synagogue, it doesn't matter, but if you're doing volunteer work in the community, that will be favorable for you with regard to admission. So we're looking for a balance of hard scores, an extracurricular involvements to determine who would get admitted. Now back to the AC T and S80. As I said, we happily accept those, but if you don't have an AC TRS 80 that you're going to be submitting.

Then what we do to balance those scores out is we go in and we look more closely at your transcript. So in that case then we're looking more closely at what types of courses did you take in high school? Did you take AP or IB courses? Did you take honors courses? Did you take harder classes? Student courses that are more academic focus rather than courses that are more fun? Courses that might be more relevant if you're looking from an extracurricular perspective.

So we're looking at that, and then we're looking at what kinds of grades you actually earned in those courses so well taken, a CRC key, and if not then we will happily just go in and do a deeper look at the courses that you completed in high school. So that's our admission requirement for incoming first year incoming freshmen.

We do also admit alot of students upon transfer, so it let's say that maybe you get admitted to see issue and you decide to start at another institution and then transfer to Colorado State University. Then the requirements currently to get admitted to business. Our completion of business calculus at CSU. That's math 141 at every other institution, it might be a different number, but it's business calculus with the greatest C minus or higher as well as completion of microeconomics.

At CSU, that can be E con 202 or agricultural resource economics. So you just need a microeconomics course with a greater B minus or higher an overall you need to have a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA at that institution or group of institutions, and that 3.0 has to be on a minimum of 15 graded credits. So if you start somewhere else and you just take two courses, maybe for six credits and establish a 4.0, and you took the calkini con, that's not going to be enough to get you admitted because that 3.0 or higher GPA has to be on it.

Least 15 graded credits.

And so this requirement is the same for external transfers as it is for internal transfers. So maybe you decide to start it, see issue as an incoming first year freshman, but maybe in a different major. And then maybe you decide to transfer into the College of Business after a year of being in that other major. That's absolutely fine. We have a lot of students who do that, but the admission requirement be the same. So at CSU you would need to have a 3.0 GPA on a minimum of 15 graded credits to include the calculus with a C minus or higher.

And the microeconomics with a greater B minus or higher, and so we will be happy to admit you as an incoming first year student. We would also be just as happy to admit you as a transfer student, OK?

So the next thing I want to talk about is the curriculum and so in the packet of information that we will be sending you or have already just sent you, you're going to see a copy of our check sheet and it's a two page document an it identifies all of.

Horse is an all of the requirements that must be fulfilled for you to earn your degree in business at Colorado State University and so on. Page one of that document is basically divided into four different sections. The first section is called the All University Core curriculum or a UCC. These are the Gen Ed requirements. These are the courses in categories that are required for all business students and all other students at Colorado State University. Now we have woven some of our business requirements into that all University core curriculum.

So wherever possible, we try to help you basically take care of more than one requirement with one course. So on the AUC, see for business, you're going to see calculus, microeconomics, macroeconomics, an statistics. Those four courses are all specifically required for business majors, but they've been set up to double count for University requirements as well.

And then also part of that all University core curriculum you're going to see Science, Arts and Humanities. Historical perspectives and diversity and global awareness. Now the courses that you'll be allowed to choose from to fulfill those categories are listed on page 2 of that document. So if you see a course on that document under the science, you can be guaranteed that that course, if you complete it, will fulfill one of the science requirements. If you don't see a particular course on one of those lists, then it will not fulfill that particular category.

And in that case, that course would count as an elective, the second section on the check sheet is our business core. The business core are those 37 credits that are required of all business majors, regardless of the concentration that you may be going into, and so the reason for that is our degree is a business administration degree, so it is important for you to know a little bit about all of the different areas of business. So even if you want to be an accountant.

For example, you still have to understand marketing and finance and management and technology and so that is what this business core gives you. It gives you that solid foundation that every business person needs to have and those classes will begin your very first semester at sea issue with introduction to business and will go all the way through to your last semester with business 479, which is your capstone course and it is titled strategic management.

Then you've also got your business concentrations. We offer ten concentrations. Currently every business student is required to complete at least one concentration. Whichever one you choose that will become your area of expertise, and that is also the area that you will most likely seek your first karere upon graduation, and so I'm going to go through each of those 10 here in just a moment. The 4th category are your elective credits. Elective credits are courses and credits that we're not going to tell you what you have to do with them.

They are for you to be able to make this degree your own. It is to be able to be creative to throw in a potential minor or a second concentration. So about 16% of our business students are doing 2 concentrations and the reason why some people might want to do that is some of our concentrations pair very nicely and they can equate to certain types of career opportunities an industry other students like to have two different backgrounds that they can fall back on.

And pursue different career opportuities within.

So we have a 10 concentrations you have to declare at least one, and then the electives again could be for a second concentration or for a minor. Most minors at Colorado State University are only 21 credits, so you can see as a business student you will have anywhere from 27 to 30 credits of electives, so you can easily do a minor or a second concentration all within your 120 credit package, and it does not delay graduation at all.

You could also use those selective credits to take random courses that are of interest to you. We also offer certificate programs in the College of Business, which typically range between 9 and 12 credits and then also students like to do internships and we strongly encourage that because they get your foot in the door with a real company and it also allows you to do the networking that is absolutely imperative for you to do as a student so that you do have job opportunities when you graduate and then also we send more students abroad for education abroad experiences than any other major at C issue.

Business Today is global and so most of you if you decide to go into business or going to be working internationally in some shape or form now that can look very different. That may mean you're working internationally, but you're living and working right here in Fort Collins, but it could be that you're traveling abroad or that you're actually living and working abroad upon graduation, and so a lot of our students decide to have an education abroad experience. And so we have a lot of different types of programs that are available. Anything from spring break, summer break, and winter break. 2 week programs.

Two full semester programs living abroad and taking a full time load of classes or semester at sea where you are living on a ship and you're taking a full time load of classes on the voyage while you're visiting 18 to 20 different ports around the world. It could also include an international internship so we place students for internships all over the world, so that could be an option as well. So your electives are there to help you kind of make this degree your own.

And kind of make it unique to you so that you stand out so that you're much more marketable upon graduation when it's time to apply for graduate programs or to apply for full time permanent positions.

Now next I want to talk about the 10 different concentrations and in the packet of information you have information sheet on each one of these. It is far more detailed than what I'm going to be able to share with you today, so I encourage you to read through those. I just want to highlight a few things about each of these concentrations, starting with accounting. Accounting is a fantastic program. Our program is designed to prepare people to go into public accounting, but also to prepare students if they want to sit for the CPA exam.

Become a Certified public accountant. All of the different career opportunities are available in the accounting industry. Within this concentration, some of you may not want to become CPA's, and that's absolutely fine.

One of the things that's important to note is on each of these, you'll see average starting salary. Also, job and Graduate School offer rates and placement rates, and then also internship and practicum rates. We've also got a very small listing of some of the types of jobs that you could do within this industry. OK, so accounting is a fantastic program that prepares you for any type of career path. It also prepares you to sit and qualify for the CPA exam.

The next concentration? Excuse me, the next concentration is our computer information systems concentration. This is technology from a business perspective, so this is very different than computer science. Computer science is going to be mostly programming, designing, developing apps program systems now, computer information system students. They know how to do the programming and designing and creating, but they also understand technology from a business perspective.

So the career paths and career tune is available in computer information systems is very vast. There are lots of opportunities available for you to go into anything from being an analyst to a consultant to a designer. Oftentimes people who have computer information systems degrees eventually become managers of departments, and they manage people who have computer science degrees who are actually designing and developing. So computer information systems again is the technology side of business.

We also offer finance and within finance we actually have four different areas that I'm going to touch on so we have finance from a corporate perspective. An investment analysis perspective or a real estate perspective. So corporate finance is going to be working with large corporations. Some of these companies have fifty 60,000 employees worldwide and helping these companies manage and deal with their finances. Investment analysis is going to be learning how to.

Predict the future. How to buy himself stocks and bonds and so working with the in the investment sector and then real estate finance is the finance aspect of a real estate venture. So this one is not to be confused with our real estate concentration. And I'll talk about real estate here in a bit. So the real estate finance option again is the financial aspect of a real estate venture. And so most people today, if they want to buy a home, let's say.

They had to apply for a loan and get a mortgage and so that would be One Financial aspect of a real estate venture. And so if you're interested in that side of real estate, finance could be a great fit for you.

The next finance option is financial planning. Now this is a standalone concentration because a lot of our students want to become certified financial planners. They want to help people plan their financial futures and in order to do that, you do have to become licensed and so having your financial planning concentration as a standalone concentration makes it easier for you to qualify to sit for the CFP license. Now completion of this concentration and earning your business degree fully prepares you to sit.

For the CFP license so you don't have to take any additional courses after graduation to qualify to sit for this program, but again, this is going to be helping people plan their financial future. So life insurance, retirement plans anything having to do with a person's finances that they cannot necessarily make those decisions on their own or they need somebody to guide them on those decisions.

Human Resource Management is the people capital side of business. So folks who work in human resource management typically really enjoy working with people on a day in, day out basis. These types of positions can be anything from recruiting people to apply for positions actually being part of the interviewing process, dealing with the hiring and firing of employees, also helping people manage their benefits, knowing what their benefits are.

So that is what human resource management would be.

We also have international business. This is our newest concentration and is quickly becoming one of our most popular concentrations. You'll see there, we don't have any average data placement rates or internship rates, and the reason for that is this program has only been in place for one year and so we haven't collected enough data yet to be able to give you good information on this. But what I can tell you is that this one is becoming very popular, because again, many students want to work internationally in some shape or form.

Or they will be working internationally. Whether they think so are not so having that international business concentration perspective gives our students an edge in the market now. The thing that's interesting about this concentration and makes it unique from all of the others that I'm talking about today, is that this concentration is not a standalone concentration, so you cannot just pursue international business and graduate with just an international international business concentration. This one has to be paired with one of the other concentrations that we offer.

This is industry driven so industry is excited that we have this concentration, but they want it to be attached to one of the other concentrations so that you can actually, for example, maybe declare marketing as your concentration with international business as your second and that way then you're going to be looking at more of the marketing international business type of positions. So international business is great also because there is an immersion requirement as part of this program, which means that you either need to take.

Has several foreign language courses to complete this program or you need to have an international internship. And again, international internships can be here locally or abroad or you need to have some type of an education abroad experience for credit. So it's great because it means that you're going to have had some strong international experiences before you would move into a position within this particular industry.

Marketing is another concentration that we offer now. We tend to focus more on marketing from a data, an research perspective. So marketing is not necessarily the creative development of campaigns and advertisements and artwork for all of those types of endeavors. The marketing that we teach is where you look at data and you look at research an you use all of that information too.

Make decisions about a particular company or a Department or a product. Now people who get degrees and marketing are typically the folks who are going to be hiring and supervising graphic designers who are the folks who actually create the more artistic type of endeavors that I just spoke about. Now alot of marketing majors also choose to do a double major in marketing and graphic design because they want both aspects of that industry and that works very well. Because again, as I said.

Earlier because of all of the elective credits that you would have as a business student, you have plenty of room to throw in a second major, but you do need to make that decision relatively early if you come to us your junior or senior year and say I want to add a second major now, you may not have enough credits to still be able to be on track to graduate in four years. If you are OK delaying graduation to earn that second major, we're happy to help you do that. But if you let us know your freshman an early in your sophomore year that you want to do a double major, we can probably set that up so that you can still graduate in four years.

You may just have to take a semester or two of heavier loads, or maybe take some summer courses one or two summers.

We also offer organization, an innovation management. Now this title doesn't do justice for what this concentration offers, and so organization and innovation management is where all of our leadership programs reside. So if you want to be a leader in industry, if you want to be a manager, if you want to work with people an motivate them to do a particular job or to accomplish a specific task within the organization, organization and innovation management would be a good fit for you. This is also where our entrepreneurship program resides.

So if you have dreams of being an entrepreneur starting your own company, maybe you already have a product in mind of something that you would like to create and be able to put out there for customers to purchase. Entrepreneurship will be a good fit for you and that would fit within this particular concentration. We also, by the way, have a certificate in entrepreneurship and we also have a minor in entrepreneurship.

We also offer real estate and so again this is not to be confused with the finance concentration with the real estate option. Our real estate concentration looks at both the residential and commercial real estate industry and it really is preparing you to become a broker. So you or an appraiser so you are fully prepared when you complete this concentration and the business degree to sit for an appraiser licensure or a broker licensure.

And then the final concentration that we offer is supply chain management. Supply chain Management is a very hot area of business right now. Supply chain management is the concept or the process of getting a product. Let's say from an assembly line and another country, maybe China, which is where a lot of our products come from into the store in Fort Collins and ultimately under the hands of a customer. And so all of the decisions that are made along the way to get that product. Here are one going to determine how much you have to charge for that product.

But ultimately, also how much profit your company can expect to gain from that product. So a quick example to get a product from China to the United States. There are really only two options. You can either fly it here by airplane airplanes or smaller, so you can't get a lot of product on the plane.

Also much more expensive, but it's also a lot faster. The other option is by ship, and so ships are huge and so you can get a lot of product on the ship, but it is a very slow process. It takes a lot longer for that product to get here, but it's also a lot less expensive and so those different decisions that you have to make will ultimately determine how much you need to charge for that product. And you have to determine if the customer base that you have can actually afford that product at the price point that you're going to be bringing it in.

So supply chain management is going to be looking at a lot of data. They're going to be analyzing a lot of information, but they're also going to have to work with a lot of different people, and there's a great chance that you would be working internationally, so you have to be interested in working from an international perspective, and through that lens as well.

So those are the 10 different concentrations that we offer, and again you have to complete at least one about 16% of our students are choosing to do a double concentration, and that is still very doable in four years.

I just want to give you a little information now about the College of Business and the culture of our college. It's important that you choose an institution that is going to be a good fit for you that you're going to see yourself represented that you're going to want to come to class everyday and interact with the faculty and the staff and the students that you're going to be able to interact with. So it's important for you to know a little bit about our culture and so our college we currently have about 2300 students pursuing a business degree at Colorado State University. So we are the largest major.

At CSU, and that is because we only have one major's business.

Demonstration, however, we are the 2nd to the smallest college as the issue. So in the grand scheme of things, we have a very tight knit, small community. Our students are known by their faculty and their staff, their advisors in their career counselors. I will know who you are after. I have met you, so you are able to develop really strong relationships with people in particular, students who are going to become your friends and your colleagues for the rest of your life.

About 24% almost 1/4 of our students identify as racially or ethnically diverse. It's really important that we have a diverse student body because business as an industry is very diverse. Companies today need multiple perspectives. They need to hear from and see people from all different types of backgrounds so that they can be as effective as possible and ultimately as profitable as possible. So we work very hard to ensure that our students.

Are as diverse as we can, but also that we prepare all of our students for the diverse type of workforce that you're going to be going into for five or six years after you join us at CSU. And so we offer a lot of trainings, workshops, social opportunities to interact with each other to help you get to know people and learn how to interact with and communicate with people who are different than yourself.

In line with being as diverse as possible, about 19% of our students also identify as first generation, meaning that you are the first person in your family to go to college, meaning that neither one of your parents have a college degree. And if that is you, I just want to 1st say congratulations. I also am a first generation student. I'm the first person in my entire family ever to go to college. Both were undergraduate and all of my graduate degrees and.

Because I made that choice and I worked really hard and I was able to graduate. It has had a profound impact on my life, but also it has had an impact on the rest of my family because I went to college, I was unable to open doors for my sister and nieces and nephews and cousins to be able to go to college after me. So if you're going to be a first generation student, I say congratulations to you.

71% of our students identify as Colorado residents. We are the land Grant University for the State of Colorado, so the majority of our students excuse me, I'm sorry. Working remotely means that I'm at home and I have dogs and they choose to fight when I'm when I'm presenting, so I apologize for that. So a large percentage of our students will always be from Colorado again because we are the land Grant University for the State of Colorado, however.

Currently about 28% of our students are non residents which means they come from all over the US and right now currently only about 1% of our students are international. Now that number has shifted significantly due to covid for obvious reasons. A lot of our international students were not able to come back into the US when covid hits, so hopefully in another year or so when we've all had our vaccines are international population will pop back up to about 6 to 7%. That's where we typically are.

And we do want to make sure that we have international students in our college because it's important for domestic students to interact with international students because a lot of you are going to be working internationally. But we also want international students to learn and learn how to interact with and work with domestic US students. Because Business Today is global, there are very few companies anymore that only reside within their small community and only provide services and resources to their small community. So it's really important that students have.

As broad of an experience as possible.

Now, as part of being a business units issue, it's not going to be enough to just be a strong student academically. Now that is very important. However, most of our students are very career focused and career driven, meaning that they are looking for a specific type of a job, potentially in a very specific industry and so developing a strong resume while you are here at Colorado State University is going to be very important. And so as part of that you need to continue to develop and hone.

Those leadership skills and teamwork skills and cultural competency skills that I talked about when I was talking about admission. So once you get here, it doesn't mean you can stop doing all of those things. In fact, you need to continue to do those things now. It is time consuming and so it is all about balance. You want to be a strong student academically, but you also want to get involved in organizations that are going to showcase on your resume all of those skills that I just talked about. And so there are over 500 different clubs and organizations available. It's issue.

In the College of Business we have about 30. You can visit our website to see the full listing. I've just identified a few here for you and I'll go through them quickly. The Global Business Network is a fun social student organization for domestic students who want to interact with international students and potentially work internationally upon graduation and for international students who want to interact with domestic students, be DLA the business diversity and Leadership Alliance is a group of students who are interested in learning about.

And then also educating other business students about business and diversity as they relate to each other. The Latin X Business Association is for Latin X identifying students as well as non Latin X identifying students. But students who are interested in Latin X issues as they relate to business and industry.

We also have the women in Business Association and so this is not just for our female students, but it focuses on women's issues in business and so it's important for men and women to learn about women working in industry. And so we bring in top level of female executives and leaders and industry to help show that women don't have to sacrifice something that they're interested in to have a business degree. Unfortunately, there is this myth out there.

That if you're going to go into business as a woman that you have to give up having relationships or having a family, and that is absolutely not true. In fact, a lot of the women that we bring in have received awards for being mother of the year as a business executive, so we are able to show you how you can combine all of those passions and interests so that you don't have to give up one for the other.

We also have our rock solid Stewart program. The two students are going to be joining us today are members of that organization. This is basically our student Ambassador program and then we also have a peer to peer mentoring program, which is where we compare an incoming first year freshman with a trained and supervised business junior or senior who can help you avoid potholes in higher education, but also so you can develop a friendship or relationship that can go on for many many years. In fact, we know that some of the very first

mentoring pairs that we put together 20 years ago are still connected today and we hear about those relationships persisting for many, many, many years beyond, and then again. Also, we have our go abroad initiatives and so we can help you go pretty much anywhere in the world as long as it's on the federal Safe travel list. And then if we personally do not have a relationship with that country or the school that you want to go to, we will be able to connect you with one of our sister institutions who does have a relationship in that particular part of the world.

Now I also want to talk about some of the support systems and services that we offer, so all of our students are assigned a full time professional advisor who will guide you through all of the stuff that you need to go through as Betcher finalist. If you become a better finalist, you will be invited to be a part of the University and the College business Honor Scholars Program. So we have an incredible honors program at Colorado State University for business students.

And you will be assigned a business honors advisor. We have an incredible facility if you have an opportunity to come and visit our campus at some point. We encourage you to do so. Rockwell Hall, which is the home of the College of Business, is a very welcoming and inclusive space. And that is where all of our business courses, our house, and where all of our faculty and staff in the College of Business are housed. We also provide curriculum, guidance, academic skills were here to prepare you for graduation.

And then we also have different programs. Help you succeed. So we do have tutoring programs available. If you're struggling with writing papers or taking exams or how to take notes or how to give presentations, we have resources, trainings and workshops to help you with that as well.

Another resource that we have available that not a lot of business programs and certainly no other colleges at CSU have is we have our own career management center so see issue as a Career Center for all students at the University but in the College of Business. Housed in Rockwell Hall is the career Management Center and so this is our Career Center for business students. It's only accessible by business students and so that team of career counselors are here to help you with.

Prepping for interviews so they can help you sign up for mock interviews. They will help you with resume and cover letter writing. They will help you with personal branding, how to write an elevator pitch. They can also connect you with professional mentors and so these are alumni who have graduated within the last few years who are working out in industry and so we can connect you with those folks and they will mentor you for your senior year at CSU. They will also help you develop.

A career search strategy. And so you really do need to begin this whole process from day one, and so this is not a resource that you will access only your senior year. You will start accessing these resources, your freshman or your first year at see issue an will carry through all the way till you graduate and then the other great thing about our career management center is that this is a resource for life. So most of you today we know are going to probably end up having three or four different careers.

In your lifetime, and so it's important for you to know that we will always be here to help you when it's time to transition into a new industry or a new position. So it's always easy to look for your first job or to apply for Graduate School while you're still here at the University. Because we are here to assist you with that. But you're not alone when you decide to do that after you graduate, you'll just contact us and we will be happy to help you with any of that at anytime after you graduate as well.

Just some other information, some data I think that will be particularly interesting to you and probably to your family as well. We have the highest retention rate at the University, so we typically range between 87 and 91% retention rate from our freshman year to our sophomore year, and then overall we retain about 89% of our total students, and so that includes all of our transfer students who are coming in as well.

So we work very hard to ensure that our students are successful. We also have the highest 4-5 and six year graduation rates at Colorado State University and in the state of Colorado. So 67% of our students graduate in four years and 78% of our students graduate in between 4:00 and six years. Now it's important to understand that students who do not graduate in four years. That is not because they couldn't get into the classes that they wanted or needed. There are a lot of reasons why students will choose to delay graduation.

And so one example is almost all of our accounting majors who want to become CPA Certified Public Accountants will have to either go into a Masters program when they graduate, a Masters of Accountancy, which we do offer, or they have to accrue 150 credits and complete certain additional accounting courses. So a lot of our accounting students they want to become CPA's, but they can't or don't want to pursue a Masters degree.

So in those cases, most of those shoes will delay graduation and graduate at the five year mark and accrue the 150 credits, which typically involves adding a second or third major or concentration. But that way then they are qualified to sit for the CPA exam when they graduate.

There are also students who, when they go abroad for a semester, they fall in love with it and they decide to stay for a full year. So sometimes staying a full year in another country may delay graduation by one or two semesters. So there are some legitimate reasons why students choose to not graduate in four years, and as long as it's a legitimate reason the College of Business will support those students through those decisions.

Now, if you kind of follow our guidance and take into account all of the things that I've talked about so far, that should equate into some really good.

Admissions into various graduate programs across the country and then also job offers from a lot of different companies throughout the country and the world. Now, if you want to visit our College of Business website, you can get a much more exhaustive list of all of the types of companies that our students go to work for, but our students go to all over the world but also to all types of positions. Anything from a small mom and pop startup entrepreneur venture all the way up to corporations that maybe have 5060 thousand employees. They may have offices.

In every state, in many communities, or they may only have one location worldwide. So it just depends upon what your interests are and what your academic goals are and your professional goals are, and so that is also why it's really important that you make sure you're always working with your advisor, your academic advisor, but also that you're working with the career Management Center.

Now I have shared a lot of information with you and so I do want to take a moment to answer questions from you, so please post any questions that you have in the chat feature. But I'm also going to now ask that our two student Sallianne Serra join us in the presentation and we'll have a conversation with them as well. But while we're waiting for them to come in, please post any questions that you have in the chat feature.

Hey Sarah.

Good to see you Sarah.

It's good to see you too.

Hi Ali.

How you doing welcome.

Alright, so so far we're just waiting for students to ask questions, and while we're doing that, why don't we have the two of you introduce yourselves? Let us know where you're from. So if you're a Colorado resident or not and maybe talk a little bit about what major you or what concentration or concentrations are in and any other credentials that you're currently pursuing OK, and so Sarah, would you maybe start us off, please?

Can you hear me?

Yep, I can hear you.

OK perfect hi. I'm Sarah Hill. I'm a senior graduating in May and I am originally from Lakewood, Co. So a little West of Denver and I'm studying human resource management and organization innovation management.

Um, think about it.

OK, thank you Ali. How about you?

Can you hear me now?

Allie, we can't hear you and so I don't know if you're muted. Yeah, we can hear you now.

OK yeah very OK. Hi, my name is Allie. I'm from San Diego, CA. I'm a business administration student with concentrations in marketing and supply chain management. I'm also getting certificates and leadership and data analytics and then also a part of the Business Honors Program here at CSU.

Thank you, thank you both for introducing yourself and Sarah. Are you part of the Honors program as well?

OK.

No, I'm not, but I just remember things Ali. I'm also getting certificates in international business and manage real accounting.

OK, very good, thank you. So I'm thinking again we still don't have any questions from students, so maybe the two of you can maybe talk a little bit about why you chose business as a degree and the different credentials that you've chosen to pursue, why you chose those, but also why you chose Colorado State University. What attracted you to Colorado State University? And so Allie? Maybe we can start with you this time.

Yeah, so I'd start off with why chose CSU one. I just left Colorado when I came to visit. Sees you for the first time. I just love the community that it involves in everyone. Here is just so kind and welcoming. I also just love the Business School because it has so many resources. I love that it had its own crew management center that had its own advisors. I love that it had specialized classes for people and also I like telling class sizes were going to be smaller.

I ended up picking business just because I thought I wanted to do it. I was debating between business and education. Went with business, went in with accounting. Figured out that that wasn't for me, 'cause we get to take a lot of starting classes. You take classes in every major to see what you like and take supply chain management and marketing and just fell in love with both of them. I also just love people so I got a certificate in leadership and I also love data analytics so.

Fun things with computers and technology, so that's kind of a background of what is you and why you chose my concentrations.

Wonderful thank you. And how about you, Sarah?

Yeah, so um, I came into college as a business major and I just wasn't super sure about what I wanted to do and I knew that businesses in every aspect of life. So no matter what I found like a passion it I could go into the business side of that. And especially with human resources. I really love people. And you know, developing people and expanding human capital. So I was really drawn to that from the get go. And then as far as CSU goes, I just really love the vibe of our campus and the people that it attracts.

I tell people that when I was choosing colleges, I was between this and CU Boulder and so I went to each college and didn't really do the official tour. Kind of just walked around with a backpack and pretended to be a student just to see you know who I met and how they would react to me. I found that the people at CSU were very welcoming and open and I just really loved how friendly everybody was. Tord me.

Wonderful thank you both. So all of the participants today are better semi finalists, which means that all of them will probably qualify to be a part of the University Honors Program and the Business Scholars Program, so Allie would you mind telling us a little bit about the Honors program and what your experience has been like and what you feel that you've gotten out of that program?

Ah, so I love the Honors program for business classes. Instead of having a 50% class, which is still pretty small for starting business class, I get to have a 15 person class so all of my beginning classes and we're all very small and focused. I actually just got to be a nominee for the supply chain program for a scholarship an I had three professors offer to write me a letter recommendation because I was so close to them because of owners.

Which was so awesome and it's so great just to have professors know your face. I also love the like focus. It puts the focus that a professor can. Sorry words it professor can focus on each student in their needs. I also love that you can pick. You have to take honors classes that are outside of your major. So I took an onerous oceanography class. I thought it was really fun. I need to choose something that you're interested in that you wouldn't necessarily ever do, but it's very interesting, so I also have loved.

Those honors classes as well, and also the Honors program is just a community too. I've gotta know a lot of people, Ann and pretty good friends with a lot of them, so it's been really great.

Great thank you. Thank you Ali. So the other aspect of the Honors Program is that students will have to submit and write a thesis. Now the whole word thesis tends to be intimidating to a lot of people. The Honors Program thesis is not necessarily a 500 page dissertation. Most business students will choose something project, maybe that they did an one of their business courses that they really liked, or that they're passionate about.

Or they may look at a particular industry that they want to go into after graduation and do some research and write a paper and give a presentation on that. So it's something that's actually going to benefit you in the long run. It's not just writing a 500 page paper just for the sake of writing a massive paper an in fact I've never in the Honors program. I've never seen a 500 page document come through, so it's not even that expensive, but it's also a great opportunity. The Honors Program is great opportunity, as Allie mentioned.

To really get to know business faculty and so because so many of your business courses are in smaller formats than the general student population, you get to know these faculty on a different level, and so they will know all of your professional interests. Hopefully that some of them will want to be on your committee, may even want to be your honors advisor. So great program there is a lot of research opportunities available. There are a lot of research opportunities available in the College of Business for undergrad students.

Who are part of the Honors Program but also for students who are not part of the Honors Program? So we are a research one institution, so all of our faculty are also doing research and their publishing, and so they love to collaborate with our undergraduate students on research projects and data collecting. So lots of opportunities there as well.

So I'm still not seeing any questions from our student participants today, so maybe the two of you can talk a little bit about the Fort Collins community. I see that a number of our students are not from this particular area, and so would you maybe both like to talk a little bit about the Fort Collins community. Sarah, can we start with you?

Sure, so I love Fort Collins. Um, I hadn't been up here until I started college at CSU, but since living up here, I just have found so many fun things to do. If you're really into outdoors like I am, there's so many cool places to hike and set up a hammock. We have Horsetooth reservoir really close by where you can find somebody with a boat and go boating or swimming.

And in Old Town, which is kind of the like Main Street of Fort Collins, there's so many fun little shops and restaurants. We have the second most restaurants per capita out of any other city in the US, so it's really hard not to find a place to eat, and everywhere serves really good food. So I enjoy spending my time just exploring around Old Town with my roommates, trying out new restaurants and walking it off later on. A hike in Lory State Park.

Thank you, thank you, Alli. I'm going to ask you a different question. Can you talk a little bit about the different types of student organizations that are available? I know you're involved in some extracurricular activities to see issue. Can you share a little bit about that?

Yeah, so I'm involved in quite a few things at CSU, so I'm a club volleyball player, so I part of the club volleyball program here and then. I'm also in Greek life and I'm part of Gamma Phi beta. The thing I love about CSU is there's just so many places so many clubs to join. 100% will guarantee that you will find something you like. I know there's a huge page with like 550 clubs that you can join. I remember just scrolling through that and didn't even know they had a club volleyball.

Program and it was like, oh, I guess we'll go. Try out met the girls love the girls love the sport I played in high schools it was really great.

Come to college and have get to do that too. I know there's a lot there student government that my friends are involved in. I know there's different opportunities in the dorms and my friend was in hold counselor. There's just so many things you can do outdoors, club skiing, snowboarding.

I promise you that you'll be able to find something that you love and just you can try out any.

Cool thank you Ali and thank you Sarah. Both we I want to honor our participants time and so I want to end this on time and so we only have about one minute left and so thank you both for joining us today and sharing your perspective. I always think it's you know I can share a lot of information but we the students often want to hear from other students. They want to see who you are and see if they can relate to you.

But also hear about your experiences. So thank you both for sharing today.

Thank you.

And so with that red? Yeah, thank you. And so with that said, I do want to thank you all for joining us this afternoon. I hope that the information that we have provided you has been helpful. I have got on this particular side our website but also if you are interested in meeting with me for a one on one I'm happy to do that. I can set up a Microsoft Teams meeting with you one on one and chat with you about your specific situation and so just reach out to us if you'd like to do that.

I know you have a lot of tough decisions to make and a lot of choices to make, and it's not easy, but I encourage you to do all your research which you're obviously doing now because the University and the major that you choose is going to be a part of your life for the rest of your life. We don't let her alumni go we. We hold on to our alumni and we want to stay very closely connected, so hopefully we're a good fit for you. Reach out if you have any questions and if not, I wish you the very best of luck with your decisions. Take care and have a great afternoon.

Bye.