UNC Kenan-Flagler Undergraduate Business Program: A Comprehensive Overview

The UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School offers a diverse range of programs, consistently ranked among the top in the nation, and is located in a dynamic area for business. The Undergraduate Business Program (UBP) is designed to provide students with a thorough grounding in all areas of business and a broad introduction to the liberal arts.

A Values-Driven Education

At UNC Kenan-Flagler, students learn to lead for a better world. The school's values-driven culture, commitment to real-world learning experiences, and expertise in today’s unpredictable business dynamics prepare students for long-term career success. From day one, students learn from engaging faculty conducting world-class research and work with a driven group of peers who will become lifelong friends and colleagues. The UNC Kenan-Flagler community ensures that there is no expiration date on your success.

Undergraduate Business Program (UBP)

The UBP is an application-based program for current UNC students, admitting approximately 530 majors and 160 minors each year. A degree in business is one of the most flexible and widely applicable courses of study you can pursue as an undergraduate. The program encourages students to find their passions and forge their paths.

Curriculum and Structure

Students are required to complete 27 credit hours of core business courses. The curriculum includes:

BUSI 401: Management and Corporate Communication
BUSI 402: Applied Microeconomics for Business or ECON 410: Intermediate Microeconomics
BUSI 403: Operations Management
BUSI 404: Business Ethics
BUSI 405: Leading and Managing: An Introduction to Organizational Behavior
BUSI 406: Marketing (prerequisite for marketing electives)
BUSI 407: Financial Accounting
BUSI 408: Corporate Finance (prerequisite for finance electives)
BUSI 410: Business Analytics
BUSI 411: Strategy I: Competitive Strategy
BUSI 412: Strategy II: Global Corporate Strategy

In addition to the program requirements, students must:

Earn a minimum final cumulative GPA of 2.000
Complete a minimum of 45 academic credit hours earned from UNC-Chapel Hill courses
Take at least half of their major core requirements (courses and credit hours) at UNC-Chapel Hill
Earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.000 in the major core requirements

Business Electives and Areas of Emphasis (AOE)

Students also complete 19.5 credit hours of business electives. Although not required, students may choose to complete up to two areas of emphasis (AOE) as part of their major electives. All AOEs are 9 credits. AOEs give students the opportunity to customize their major based on their interests and desired career trajectory. Some of the AOEs include:

Consulting
Entrepreneurship
Finance
Health Systems
Managing People and Organizations
Marketing
Operations Management
Real Estate
Sustainability

Each AOE has specific course requirements, combining required courses with electives to provide a focused learning experience.

Courses Outside Kenan-Flagler Business School

Students must complete at least five courses outside the Kenan-Flagler Business School and any additional business or nonbusiness courses needed to complete a minimum of 120 credit hours, including transfer credit, to graduate.

Transfer of Business Course Credits

The UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School will consider for transfer credit business administration courses that meet specific criteria. For upper-level courses, the course must:

Be completed at an accredited institution
Have a final course grade earned of at least a C (not C-)
Have a comparable course available in the Kenan-Flagler undergraduate curriculum
Not be approved for credit in other UNC-Chapel Hill departments
Be completed within the past three academic years
Have substantive coverage of material constituting no less than 75 percent of coverage in the comparable Kenan-Flagler course.

The business school does not award transfer credits in excess of three upper-level courses.

Read also: Empowering Futures

Honors Thesis

The Kenan-Flagler Business School honors thesis offers motivated undergraduate business students the opportunity to work closely with an individual faculty member on a specialized research topic of the student’s choice during the senior year. In the first semester (BUSI 691H), students become familiar with the mechanics, methodologies, and recent literature on topics of major interest. Each student formulates an honors thesis proposal and initiates work on the project. Students who successfully complete the second-semester course (BUSI 692H) will submit to an oral examination on the thesis.

Experiential Learning and Global Opportunities

UNC Kenan-Flagler emphasizes real-world learning through various experiential opportunities.

STAR (Students Taking Action to Achieve Results) Program

One example of interdisciplinary education is STAR (Students Taking Action to Achieve Results), which combines interdisciplinary education when a cross-functional student team partners with businesses to provide real-world solutions to their complex problems. For undergraduates, working with MBA students, seasoned UNC Kenan-Flagler faculty and businesses for a final presentation on ways these businesses can tackle a present-day problem is a highlight. They develop professional skills, including problem solving and teamwork, that prepare them for career success.

Global Immersion Electives (GIEs)

These experiences are faculty-led, staff supported, and student-facilitated experiences that take students across the globe. Students begin by taking a course dedicated to understanding the aspect of business they are going to explore while in a different country. This deep academic dive into the beginning of the immersion experience is also spent building relationships with peers, faculty and staff who are participating in the GIE. At the conclusion of the course, students travel to another country, often partnering with students at another university to explore the business topic discussed in the course (including social impact, sustainability, entrepreneurship and venture capital).

TREBLE (TRicontinental Exchange in Business and Leadership Education)

In March 2024, UNC Kenan-Flagler launched TREBLE, a new tri-continental exchange program. TREBLE begins an exciting new collaboration for UNC with Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) and Copenhagen Business School (CBS) to offer an 18-month immersive cross-cultural business educational experience. Every year, 15 undergraduates from each of the three institutions will spend one-and-a-half years (three academic terms) rotating between three campuses. The 45 TREBLE students will build camaraderie as learn together as a cohort and take a set of specially curated courses at the three partner universities. Courses will be thematically focused on leadership of people, organizations and markets.

Study Abroad

The program offers numerous study abroad opportunities, including Global Immersion Electives, the TREBLE program (application required), semester study abroad programs, and summer study abroad programs. A number of study abroad merit scholarships are available. Almost 75% of the students have globally relevant experiences.

Career Development and Resources

The Undergraduate Business Program provides career development resources and services tailored to business students, such as specialized training and professional development programming, targeted networking and career fair opportunities, function- and industry-specific career clubs, individualized career coaching, and a broad library of online resources. These hands-on experiences provide great venues to develop the critical thinking, teamwork, communication, and technical skills that many employers seek in candidates. The Career Services and Employer Relations team stand out for their personalized and strategic approach to career development and networking. They prioritize hands-on career advising, maintaining a strong advisor-to-student ratio even as the program grows, ensuring each student receives tailored support for internships and full-time opportunities. Career Treks, co-planned with student clubs, allow students to explore various industries across North Carolina, the East Coast, Atlanta and California.

UNC Kenan-Flagler takes advantage of relationships and leverage the complex employee-rich eco-system the state of North Carolina, the Southeast, and the East Coast provides for students. Employers continue to value the talent of UBP students, noting that they are talented and technically on par with their peers from other top programs. Employers also note that students are often quicker to advance in their organizations because of their teamwork and communication skills, key focus areas in the UBP curriculum.

Key Differentiators

Several factors distinguish the UNC Kenan-Flagler UBP from other top undergraduate business programs.

Return on Investment (ROI)

UNC Kenan-Flagler is committed to delivering unparalleled value in education, evident through its consistent ranking as the #1 ROI for undergraduate business programs. The ability to maintain accessible tuition rates allows students to graduate largely debt-free. Class of 2023 graduates reported an average salary of $86,444, or an average income of $432,218 over five years, not taking into account any raises or bonuses. That means UNC Kenan-Flagler in-state grads are bringing in $339,002 more than the cost of the degree after five years on the job.

Focus on Humility

The UBP is guided by six fundamental principles that shape the approach and decision-making as they engage with students. Among these core principles, “Be Humble” stands out as a distinctive trait that distinguishes students in the workforce. This humility reflects UNC Kenan-Flagler graduates’ profound recognition of the importance of ongoing learning.

"Business and…" Mindset

The program develops students with a “Business and….” mindset. Students begin their time in college with a robust grounding in the liberal arts, taking close to 45% of their courses outside the business school. Almost 50% of students earn dual degrees and most graduate with a minor outside the business school, from studio art to quantitative physics.

Student Wellness

Student wellness is a cornerstone of the program culture. Central to the initiative is the principle of resilience - empowering students to navigate challenges with grace and adaptability. The program has two dedicated full-time wellness coaches as part of the Undergraduate Business Program team, a move aimed at creating a nurturing and healthy community within the business school.

Connections to North Carolina and Global Mindset

As the nation’s oldest public university, UNC Kenan-Flagler takes pride in its connections to the state of North Carolina through enhancing access to students from almost 50 counties across the state and low tuition costs. The school combines this local focus with a deep focus on building a global mindset.

Admission to the UBP

Kenan-Flagler’s Undergraduate Business program is an application-based program with approximately 530 majors and 160 minors admitted each year. A student admitted to the Kenan-Flagler Business School typically begins the Undergraduate Business program curriculum in the spring semester of the second year or fall semester of the third year depending on their business prerequisite progression.

Students can apply to the business major or minors after their first year at UNC. Admitted students are notified in October to start in the subsequent spring semester. Admission decisions are contingent upon the successful completion of all in-progress or remaining business prerequisites in the regular term (fall/spring) of that academic year. If students are not admitted sophomore year, they have the option of re-applying at the beginning of their third year. Seniors are not eligible to apply.

A Warm and Supportive Community

UNC Kenan-Flagler defines itself by the meaningful relationships it builds across faculty, staff and students. The classes have relatively small faculty-student ratios, so faculty members get to know each of their students. The program facilitates student belonging through weekly community coffee hours, speed-friending events, and open access to student clubs. The staff takes pride in creating experiences where students learn about themselves as they explore a business curriculum.

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