Welcome to the School of Management’s Finance major!

I’m Professor Ludwig Chincarini, and I’m here to tell you a little bit about this major.

Finance majors at USF have a lot of great courses they can take including Investment Analysis, Corporate Finance, Financial Management, Financial Statement Analysis, and Options and Futures.

Declaring as a Finance major will give you access to great professors and great topics that can prepare students for a career in finance.

Finance is the mechanics of business, and it gives students some great tools with which to approach the world of business.

I look forward to seeing you in one of my Finance classes.

Now I’m going to turn things over to one of our students at the School of Management who will guide you through the online registration process so that you can select your first semester’s courses.

Hi! I’m Sam, a business student, and I’ll help guide you in selecting your first semester’s classes.

Before you register, be sure that you have taken the Math Placement Test, or submitted your SAT or ACT math test scores regardless of previous math coursework that you’ve already taken.

USF students typically register for 16 to 18 credits every semester to stay on track for graduation.

That’s four…4-credit courses and perhaps a 1 or 2 credit elective course.

You’ll need to take at least 16 credits each of your 8 semesters in order to graduate in 4 years with 128 credits.

The first class to add to your schedule is the Rhetoric and Composition course that you placed into.

Rhetoric and Composition is a University Core requirement and a prerequisite for all your business classes.

It is important for business majors to complete the Core A2 requirement as soon as possible.

If you don’t know which course you placed into, please review the Webtrack chapter on Rhetoric and Composition.

If you are a transfer student and you have completed and passed a composition course with a grade of C- or better, you should register for Rhetoric and Composition 310.

For your next course, you should register for either: Economics 111 OR Economics 112.

Both courses are part of the Business Core curriculum and taking either course will fulfill your University Core E social science requirement.

We recommend that you take them consecutively, and not at the same time!

Next, you can register for MATH 106 if your Math SAT is 460 or higher OR your Math ACT is 19 or higher. MATH 106 fulfills your University Core B1 Math requirement.

For your next course, you can enroll in another University Core course that fulfills one of your open required areas such as history, philosophy, theology and more.

(List of University Core requirements displayed)
Core A1: Public Speaking (do not take Public Speaking if enrolled in RHET 130)
Core A2: Rhetoric and Composition (determined by placement)
Core B1 Math (fulfilled by MATH 106)
Core B2: Applied or Laboratory Science
Core C1: Literature
Core C2: History
Core D1: Philosophy
Core D2: Theology
Core E: Social Science (fulfilled by either ECON 111 or ECON 112)
Core D3: Ethics
Core F: Visual & Performing Arts

Note: Academic English for Multilingual (AEM) Program students should take a University Core F – Visual & Performing Arts course if you have room in your schedule.)

One option you have is to enroll in a freshman seminar, or, for transfers, a transfer seminar that fulfills a University Core area.

These seminars have especially small class sizes, are interactive, offer excursions, and are a great way to make new friends.

Once you’ve chosen your 16 credits, you may want to add a 1 or 2 credit course.

There’s a wide variety of fun and interesting choices, but freshman business majors are encouraged to register for Business 100 - Launch into Business during their first year for an overview of USF’s business program.

In this 2-credit course, you will learn many foundational business concepts as well as gain skills in workplace professionalism. 

Once you have selected your courses for the semester, your schedule should look something like this….

(Freshman Student Sample Schedule displayed)
Freshman Student Sample Schedule
RHET XXX – Rhetoric & Composition course that you place into (4-6 credits)
ECON 112 – Principles of Macroeconomics (4 credits)
MATH 106 – Business Statistics (4 credits)
University Core course (4 credits)
BUS 100 – Launch into Business (2-credit optional course)

Or, for transfers, something like this…

(Transfer Student Sample Schedule displayed)
Transfer Student Sample Schedule
BUS 201 – Principles of Financial Accounting (4 credits)
THRS 295 – Transfer Year Seminar (4 credits)
RHET 310 – Business and Technical Writing (4 credits)
PHIL 240 – Ethics (4 credits)
CS 151 – Spreadsheets Computing I (2 credits)

If you are a transfer student, don’t forget to review your degree evaluation to determine which courses you’ve already completed.

If you have any questions about navigating the schedule of classes or the online registration process, you can review the Webtrack chapters “Browse Class Schedule” and "Online Registration”.

Once you have completed the Webtrack quiz at the end of this tutorial, you will be eligible to sign-up for courses when registration opens.  

If you need help, please contact us (phone number displayed: 415-422-4932).

You’ll learn more about your major at Orientation, where you’ll have the opportunity to meet faculty and fellow students, and to ask questions about courses and life here at our school.

From all of us at the School of Management, welcome to USF!