Welcome to USF’s School of Management major in International Business! I’m going to help you with 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 is four 4-credit courses and perhaps a 1 or 2 credit elective course. You will 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 your business classes. It is important for business majors to complete the Core A2 requirement as soon as possible. 

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 Economics 110. This course is part of the Business Core curriculum and will also fulfill your University Core E social science requirement.

Next, you can register for MATH 106, which fulfills your University Core B1 Math requirement and is a business core 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, ethics and more.

Another option is to add a language course to your schedule. Remember, there is a language proficiency requirement for International Business majors.


If you have taken a language in high school and want to continue in that language, be sure to take the placement exam to determine which language level you can take. The third semester of a foreign language counts towards 4 credits of the 8 required International Business elective credits. 


If you are an international student, please check with the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures to determine if you satisfy the language requirement. If you do satisfy the language requirement, you can take 8 credits of International Business elective courses instead.


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


There is a wide variety of fun and interesting choices, but freshman business majors are required to take Business 100 Launch into Business during either their first or second semester 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 110   Introductory Economics (4 credits)
MATH 106 - Business Statistics (4 credits)
University Core course (4 credits)
BUS 100 - Launch into Business (2-credit optional course)

Transfer students, you will hear from Ben Bottorff, Director of Academic Advising for the School of Management, regarding your class schedule.

If you are a transfer student, do not forget to review your degree evaluation to determine which courses you have already completed.

If you need help, please contact us (email address displayed: somundergrad@usfca.edu)

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