The Bachelor of Business Administration is offered with majors in accounting, business analytics and information systems, economics, finance, management, marketing, and risk management and insurance.

This catalog section provides information about requirements that all BBA students must fulfill, regardless of their major, as well as admission information and academic rules and procedures for the BBA. For information about the individual majors, see the departments of Accounting, Business Analytics, Economics, Finance, Management and Entrepreneurship, and Marketing in the catalog.

Students may earn multiple majors in the BBA; they also may earn combined degrees in the colleges of Education, Engineering, or Liberal Arts and Sciences. See "Multiple Majors in Business" under Requirements and see Combined Programs in the Business Administration, BBA section of the catalog. Many business students earn one or more certificates and minors offered in disciplines across the university; see the following sections, "Minors" and "Certificates."

The Tippie College of Business's undergraduate and graduate programs are accredited by AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Undergraduate Advising

All students enrolled in the Tippie College of Business are advised at the business college's Undergraduate Program Office. Pre-business students are enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and are advised at the university's Academic Advising Center. Drop-in hours and scheduled appointments are available at both offices. For more information on advising, contact the college's Undergraduate Program Office or the university's Academic Advising Center.

Honor Code

Integrity and honesty are essential to success in all facets of life. The purpose of the Tippie Honor Code is to promote honorable and ethical behavior. Students admitted to the college or enrolled in courses offered by the college are required to uphold the honor code.

Minors

The Tippie College of Business offers a minor in economics for all students and a minor in business administration for non-business students.

Bachelor of Business Administration students may earn minors in a number of disciplines outside of the Tippie College of Business. For example, students interested in international business might choose to earn a minor in a second language. For a list of minors and links to the departments and programs that offer them, see Find Your Program on the General Catalog website and select undergraduate minors.

Students may declare a minor on MyUI. To have the minor recorded on their transcripts, students must complete the minor section on their application for degree which they submit through MyUI in the session they intend to graduate.

Certificates

Bachelor of Business Administration students may earn certificates offered by the Tippie College of Business as well as by other colleges at the University of Iowa. The Tippie College of Business offers the Certificate in Entrepreneurial Management and the Certificate in Risk Management and Insurance. In addition, it partners with the College of Engineering to offer the Certificate in Technological Entrepreneurship and with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to offer the Certificate in International Business.

The colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Public Health, and University College offer a wide range of certificates open to all undergraduates. Many pair exceptionally well with a business major. See Find Your Program on the General Catalog website and select undergraduate certificates for a complete list of certificates and links to their catalog sections.

Tippie RISE

RISE is an acronym for hands-on experiential learning in the form of research with faculty, internship course, study abroad, and experiential course.

All Tippie College of Business students must successfully complete at least one of the following Tippie RISE experiences to graduate. Each experience is tied to an academic course for which students must register. See "Experiential Learning Requirement: Tippie RISE" in the Business Administration, BBA Requirements section for the full list of qualifying courses.

Research with Faculty

Working closely with a faculty mentor, students explore a research question of interest for a semester or more. By conducting academic research, students enhance their critical thinking skills, learn techniques to collect and analyze data, and apply their findings to business practices. These skills are highly useful for a variety of businesses and graduate programs.

Internship Course

As students gain valuable hands-on work experience in a professional internship, they complete one of the approved internship courses to assist them in having a meaningful learning experience. The internship courses encourage students to take on relevant job responsibilities, outline strategies to meet internship goals, regularly communicate with their supervisors, explore the career field, and reflect on their growth throughout the experience.

Study Abroad

By taking advantage of short-term, summer, semester, or academic year programs, students can expand their worldview and learn alternative business and cultural practices outside of the United States. Students can participate in Tippie RISE study abroad programs such as London Winter, International Business in Sydney, CIMBA Italy, Global Internships, spring break programs through the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, or any of the many UI study abroad programs in over 40 countries.

Experiential Course

In approved experiential courses, students improve their understanding of academic concepts by applying them to a class project with a company or nonprofit organization. Using real circumstances and issues, students engage with the organization to make a lasting impact. Students have support from classmates and guidance from their instructor throughout the duration of the project. Experiential courses are offered in many Tippie majors and as business and non-business electives. Courses must be taken at the University of Iowa to satisfy Tippie RISE.

Undergraduate Program of Study

• Bachelor of Business Administration

Academic Recognition

Dean's List

Undergraduate students in the Tippie College of Business who achieve a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.50 or higher on 12 s.h. or more of University of Iowa graded coursework during a given semester or summer session and who have no semester hours of I (incomplete) or O (no grade reported) during the same semester are recognized by inclusion on the Dean's List for that semester.

President's List

Undergraduate students in the Tippie College of Business who achieve a GPA of 4.00 on 12 s.h. or more of University of Iowa graded coursework and who have no semester hours of I (incomplete) or O (no grade reported) for two consecutive semesters (excluding summer sessions) are recognized by inclusion on the President's List.

Graduation with Honors in the Major

Graduation with honors in the major recognizes high scholastic achievement based on grades and on completion of a research project that enables students to gain expertise in a topic related to their field of study. The requirements to graduate with honors in the major at the Tippie College of Business are the following:

• GPA of at least 3.50 in cumulative, University of Iowa, business, and University of Iowa business coursework at the time of graduation;
• completion of BUS:1999 Introduction to Research in Business;
• two-semester research project with a Tippie College of Business faculty member that results in a written thesis; and
• a poster presentation of research at the Undergraduate Research Festival.

To learn more, see Tippie Honors on the Tippie College of Business website.

Graduation with Distinction

Graduation with distinction recognizes high scholastic achievement based on grades. The Office of the Registrar certifies to the deans of the colleges the names of students eligible to graduate with distinction. To be eligible for consideration, degree candidates must complete the final 60 semester hours in residence as an undergraduate at the University of Iowa and at least 45 semester hours must have been completed prior to the final semester or session of registration. The grade-point average (GPA) upon which distinction is determined includes all work undertaken prior to the beginning of the final semester or session.

The three levels of distinction are as follows.

• With Highest Distinction: 3.95 GPA or above.
• With High Distinction: 3.85–3.94 GPA.
• With Distinction: 3.75–3.84 GPA.

Credit and Grading

Credit by Examination

Students may earn up to 30 s.h. of credit by examination by taking selected tests from the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) and the Advanced Placement (AP) program of the College Board or the International Baccalaureate Program (IB). The University of Iowa is a testing center for CLEP tests. For information about when and how to take CLEP tests, see Testing Services on the Admissions website. The Tippie College of Business Undergraduate Program Office has information on scores, credit, and course duplicates for all CLEP, Advanced Placement, and IB tests accepted by the college.

Maximum Schedule

Students may register for a maximum of 18 s.h. in the fall and spring semesters and a maximum of 12 s.h. in the summer session. Course schedules of more than 18 s.h. for a fall or spring semester, or more than 12 s.h. for the summer session, require approval from the Undergraduate Program Office. Approval is based on a review of past academic performance. Permission for more than 12 s.h. in the summer session is granted only in extraordinary circumstances.

Adding and Dropping Courses

Students may add or drop courses, except College of Law courses, any time before the deadline published in the university's academic deadline calendar. Deadlines are different for regular and off-cycle courses. See the Academic Calendar and Course Deadlines for course-specific deadlines at the University of Iowa on the Office of the Registrar website. Students must obtain approval from the college that offers the course in order to add or drop a course after these deadlines.

To request a late add of a Tippie College of Business course, students must obtain both the authorization of the instructor and the authorization of the Undergraduate Program Office.

To request a late drop of a Tippie College of Business course before the term is over, or a retroactive drop of any University of Iowa course after a term is over, students should meet with an advisor in the Undergraduate Program Office to discuss the petition process to drop the course after the deadline. To request permission, students must submit a written petition. The petition is granted only with documentation of extenuating circumstances beyond the student's control.

Prerequisites and Restrictions

Undergraduate students must complete a course's prerequisites. When a student registers, the MyUI course registration system reads a student's record, and if there is no evidence that a prerequisite has been completed or is in progress, enrollment for the course is blocked. See the Tippie College of Business Prerequisites webpage for more information about prerequisite policies and procedures.

Departments also restrict some of their courses based on students’ programs of study or other criteria. Students who find that a course from another major can fulfill a requirement for their declared major may still find that the course is subject to prerequisites or restricted to students who have declared the major within the offering department. Tippie students should speak with their advisor about the availability of restricted courses and students outside Tippie can request access to restricted undergraduate courses, but that access is not guaranteed.

Administrative Drops for Nonattendance

Instructors have the option to drop a student who has missed the first two class periods of a course, unless the student has offered an acceptable reason for beginning the course late. Administrative drops must be processed by the first eight calendar days of the semester or the first two calendar days of the winter session, each summer session, or the start of an off-cycle course. Administrative drops are made without assignment of a W (withdrawn). Students who are dropped from a course are notified. Students should not assume that they have been dropped from a course because they have not attended.

Auditing Courses

Students may register to audit a course with approval of the course instructor. Students must obtain the required authorizations and register for 0 s.h. of credit in the course to be audited. The mark of AUS (audit successful) is assigned if a student's attendance and performance are satisfactory; if they are unsatisfactory, the mark of AUU (audit unsuccessful) is assigned. Courses completed with a mark of AUS do not meet any college requirement and carry no credit toward graduation. Auditing may not be used as a second-grade-only option. Tuition and fees will still be assessed for audited courses.

Pass/Nonpass

Up to 15 s.h. of coursework required for the BBA may be taken pass/nonpass with the consent of an advisor and the instructor. Students must be in good academic standing to be eligible for the pass/nonpass option. A maximum of two pass/nonpass courses may be taken in one semester or session.

Courses taken pass/nonpass may not be used to satisfy general education, prerequisite, core, or major business requirements; major business requirements include any course that fulfills a business major course requirement or is offered by a business major department, regardless of the business major of the student seeking to take the course pass/nonpass.

Pass/nonpass registration must be completed by the last day to add a course without dean's permission. For full-length courses during the fall or spring semesters, that is the first ten days of the semester. For summer or off-cycle courses, see the Office of the Registrar's Course Deadline webpage for the last day to add a course without dean's permission.

For courses taken pass/nonpass, an earned grade of D-minus or higher is recorded as a P; an earned grade of F is recorded as an N. Pass/nonpass credit is not included in GPA calculations.

Satisfactory/Fail and Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Certain courses are offered satisfactory/fail (S/F) or satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U). All students registered for these courses receive one of these marks.

Special forms are not necessary to register for S/F or S/U courses, since all students enrolled in such courses automatically receive an S, an F, or a U.

Semester hours of S or U graded coursework are not used in computing GPAs, but hours of F graded coursework are used.

Semester hours of S graded coursework are counted as semester hours earned toward graduation; semester hours of F or U graded coursework do not count as semester hours earned toward graduation.

A maximum of 15 s.h. of S credit from the University of Iowa is accepted toward a bachelor's degree.

Second-Grade-Only Option for Students Admitted to Business

Students admitted to the Tippie College of Business may use the second-grade-only option on any course except courses numbered above 3005 with the prefix ACCT, BAIS, BUS, ECON, ENTR, FIN, MGMT, MKTG, or any course offered by a department outside the Tippie College of Business that is being used to fulfill a business major course requirement.

Policies

• Students may apply the second-grade-only option to a maximum of three different courses while they are enrolled at the University of Iowa; any second-grade-only options used before entry to the Tippie College of Business count toward the maximum of three second-grade-only options allowed.
• Students in combined degree programs are allowed a combined maximum of three second-grade-only options.
• The second-grade-only option may be used only once per course. Once placed on the record, the option may not be retracted.
• A course taken at another college or university may not be repeated at the University of Iowa under the second-grade-only option.
• A University of Iowa course may not be repeated at another institution under the UI second-grade-only option.
• If the course was taken for a grade the first time, it must be taken for a grade the second time.
• If the course was taken pass/nonpass the first time, a student may choose to take the course for a grade or as pass/nonpass the second time.
• Any University of Iowa course taken in any mode of delivery—during a regular semester, a summer session, an intensive session, or through distance learning and Distance and Online Education—may be repeated in the same mode of delivery or in any other mode of delivery.
• Students who have been awarded a degree from the University of Iowa may not use the second-grade-only option on a course taken before the degree was awarded.
• Graduate or professional colleges may recalculate GPAs using all grades visible on the permanent record.

Procedures

• Students must register as usual for the course that is to be repeated.
• After the session in which the course is being repeated has begun, students must request the second-grade-only option by completing the Request a Second-Grade-Only Option form.
• The permanent record is adjusted by placing a pound symbol (#) next to the first grade to indicate that it is no longer being included in the GPA calculation, and only the semester hours from the second registration have been counted as semester hours earned.

Second-Grade-Only Option for Pre-Business Students

Pre-business students must follow the rules established by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). Contact the CLAS Undergraduate Programs office or consult the CLAS Academic Policies Handbook for more information.

Incomplete Grades

Instructors may report a mark of I (incomplete) only if the unfinished part of a student's work in a course other than research, thesis, or independent study is small; if the work is unfinished for reasons acceptable to the instructor; and if a student's standing in the course is satisfactory.

Students should not re-enroll in a course for which they have an incomplete. Incomplete grades must be removed by completing the unfinished part of the work. Faculty and students are encouraged to state clearly in a written agreement how the incomplete is to be completed. Both the faculty member and the student should keep a record of the written agreement.

Failure to remove the incomplete before the end of the next full semester, excluding summer and winter sessions, results in replacement of the I with a grade of F, regardless of whether a student is enrolled during that semester. A grade change may be submitted to convert a grade of F to another letter grade, with the instructor's approval.

Probation and Dismissal

Students are placed on academic probation when their GPA in any of the following categories falls below 2.00:

• all coursework taken;
• all coursework taken at the University of Iowa;
• all business coursework taken;
• all business coursework taken at the University of Iowa;
• all coursework taken to satisfy requirements for the major(s); or
• all coursework taken at the University of Iowa to satisfy requirements for the major(s).

In probation decisions, a 3 s.h. minimum is used to calculate the GPA for all coursework taken to satisfy requirements for the major(s), and all coursework taken at the University of Iowa to satisfy requirements for the major(s).

Students on probation are required to meet with an academic advisor and cannot register for the next session's classes before doing so. Students on academic probation who withdraw registration after the deadline for dropping courses may be dismissed.

Students on probation with more than one declared business major may be required to drop one or more majors in order to pursue one business major only.

Students may be dismissed from the college at any time for unsatisfactory scholarship. While some probationary period usually precedes a dismissal, students in good academic standing who complete a session with extremely unsatisfactory grades may be placed on academic probation or dismissed immediately. To appeal a dismissal, students may submit a written appeal as described in their dismissal letter. Students dropped from the college for poor scholarship may petition for permission to be reinstated, but usually only after one year following the end of the session in which they were dismissed, and only in accordance with the instructions as described in their dismissal letter; see "Reinstatement."

When all of the GPAs previously outlined equal or surpass 2.00, students are removed from probation. Students usually are allowed only one session to return to good academic standing.

Reinstatement

Students dismissed for unsatisfactory scholarship for the first time are not permitted to register again for one year. Students dismissed for the second time may or may not be granted a second reinstatement. Requests for reinstatement must be made in writing and should be addressed to the Associate Dean, Undergraduate Program Office. Arrangements for a reinstatement interview must be made with the Undergraduate Program Office in the Tippie College of Business. The interview must take place between March 1 and June 15 for reinstatement for fall semester, or between Oct. 1 and Nov. 15 for reinstatement to spring semester. Late requests are deferred to the following semester. Students who are permitted to register following dismissal are registered on academic probation and ordinarily are allowed two semesters to achieve good standing. Most reinstatements include a limit on the number of semester hours the student may take upon reinstatement. Very poor academic work in the first semester of a reinstatement, however, may result in dismissal at the close of that semester.

ReStart

The undergraduate colleges at the University of Iowa offer an academic forgiveness policy, referred to as ReStart.

If students were previously enrolled in the Tippie College of Business and are returning, or have returned, to the University of Iowa after an extended absence (four consecutive years or more), they may use the ReStart option to request removal of one or more previously completed academic sessions at the Tippie College of Business (i.e., semesters or winter/summer enrollments) from future GPAs and satisfaction of degree requirements.

If students have already graduated from the University of Iowa, they are not eligible to use the ReStart option whether for a second degree or any other purpose.

Students are strongly advised to contact the director of undergraduate enrollment to discuss the ReStart option before submitting a ReStart application. Contact the Undergraduate Program Office to schedule an in-person or telephone appointment.

Returning for Baccalaureate Degrees

Returning for a Second Business Major

Individuals who already hold a BBA degree from the University of Iowa may complete the requirements for another business major, except accounting. Those interested in earning a degree in accounting must apply for admission to the Graduate College in order to earn the Master of Accountancy degree. Students who return to the University of Iowa to complete another business major must meet the requirements for that major; they do not have to meet the Tippie College of Business residence requirement. It is their responsibility to notify the Office of the Registrar once they complete the requirements for the second major so that a notation can be placed on their permanent record. Returning students are held to the requirements that are published in the University of Iowa General Catalog for the session in which they reenter.

Returning for an Additional Bachelor's Degree

Individuals who hold a bachelor's degree from another college at the University of Iowa may return to earn the BBA degree from the Tippie College of Business. They must satisfy all requirements for undergraduate admission to the business college. Once admitted, they must satisfy all requirements for the BBA in their chosen major. Returning students are held to the requirements that are published in the University of Iowa General Catalog for the session in which they reenter.

Returning for an Additional Bachelor's Degree in Accounting

Individuals who hold a bachelor's degree in a non-business discipline from the University of Iowa or from another college or university may be considered for admission to the Tippie College of Business to earn the BBA with a major in accounting. Individuals interested in this option should consult with the Department of Accounting about the BBA program in accounting (undergraduate) and the Master of Accountancy graduate program. Those who already hold a BBA from the University of Iowa or any business degree from another institution may not earn a major in accounting at Iowa.