Core Should Incorporate Business Classes

In regard to Samantha Costanzo’s Mar. 14 article, “Plan for core renewal expected by the end of April,” it seems timely and appropriate for the administration to be reviewing its core course offerings and requirements.

The reality is that the job market is still significantly harder to navigate than it was prior to the recession—and I feel that a new core should reflect those challenges. While I fully respect Boston College’s mission to educate the whole person, any college’s first priority should be to prepare their students for life beyond campus. In other words, colleges—including BC—need to do more to help their graduates hit the ground running once they enter the workforce. 

I think one of the biggest weaknesses of the current core is that Arts & Sciences students can potentially graduate without ever having taken a business course. In comparison, their CSOM cohorts experience both the University core curriculum and a CSOM core curriculum, so while they might be focused on finance or accounting, they also have a foundation in the liberal arts.

Regardless of one’s preferred career choice, having a basic understanding of how business works represents a significant advantage for graduates. It is better to learn those lessons in school, rather than trying to learn on the fly while also attempting to find and/or successfully transition into one’s first job. 

BC’s administration and the individuals charged with refreshing the core would do well to require all students to take courses such as basic finance, macro and microeconomics, and operations management—courses that this graduate missed out on but ultimately had to learn anyhow.