The Rady School of Management is known for its outstanding graduate programs, but an increasing number of undergraduate students at UC San Diego are taking advantage of the unique educational opportunities available at the school.
Over the past 10 years, students from a large cross section of the undergraduate population at UC San Diego have taken Rady School courses. In the 2016-17 school year, more than 12,000 undergraduate students enrolled in Rady’s undergraduate course offerings and that number is expected to grow to more than 13,000 in the next year. The three minor programs offered at the Rady School- Business, Accounting, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation are some of the most popular on campus. Rady has also collaborated with the International Studies department to provide coursework for the interdisciplinary International Business major track. By the end of the 2017-18 school year, it is anticipated that approximately 1,300 students will have declared the Business minor, 650 Accounting, 150 Entrepreneurship, and 1,100 will have declared the International Business track of the International Studies major.
Undergraduate students from a wide range of academic disciplines are flocking to the Rady School. 35 percent of all 2016-17 UC San Diego  graduates took at least one Rady class during their undergraduate academic career. Students choose Rady courses because of the robust academic experience, outstanding faculty, real world relevance, and because courses were designed to complement a student’s chosen major. Last year, more than 900 students enrolled in the most popular course, Product Marketing and Management (MGT 103), demonstrating that the topic is relevant for all majors- from Communications to Computer Science.
“The Rady School of Management offers UC San Diego undergraduates course work in the areas of business ethics, accounting, social innovation, finance, and entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship. These are learning opportunities that are not broadly available to undergrads elsewhere on campus,” said Gila Zanelli, Undergraduate Program Manager at the Rady School. “The Rady School is an innovative school by nature and we will continue to foster and grow innovative and entrepreneurial programs for undergraduate students. We will continue to expand our curriculum to meet our students’ needs and stay on the frontier of business and accounting subjects.”
Concepts covered in the program align with the Rady School’s values of innovation, impact, collaboration, integrity and risk-taking and processes. Undergraduate courses like Innovation to Market A and B (MGT 121) give students a taste of some core Rady themes. Similar to Rady’s MBA capstone Lab to Market course sequence, MGT 121 students work in teams to evaluate business opportunities, write a business plan, and ultimately present to a panel of industry experts. Other courses like Business Analytics (MGT 153) and New Venture Finance (MGT 187) are reflective of cutting-edge topics taught in Rady’s MSBA and MF programs though adjusted for an undergraduate audience.
“If students are only going to take only one course with us, I recommend Business Project Management (MGT 172) as it is applicable to any career path. Case studies, examples, and readings cover projects as diverse as aircraft design to theatrical productions,” said Clark Jordan, assistant dean of the Rady School of Management. “By bridging academic and industry domains, we believe our programs contribute to student success after graduation. No matter what career goals a student may have, there will always be business aspects.”