Admission to the Business Major

Step 1: Admission to SDSU and the Pre-business (Business Administration) major (freshman and transfer)

In order to be admitted to the Business program you must first qualify for admission to SDSU. Please consult the Office of Admissions for more information about how to apply to SDSU. All potential Business majors should request admission as Business Administration majors. Transfer students must complete certain lower division courses before they can transfer to SDSU. Consult the Office of Admissions for more information.

If you are accepted to SDSU in Business you will be admitted as a Pre-Business Administration major. Students who are admitted to SDSU in a major other than Business may change their major after they have met certain unit and GPA requirements. Please note that the requirements for declaring pre-business are different from those for declaring an upper division major.

Step 2: Admission to the upper division major

Being admitted to the pre-business major is only the first step! To earn a degree in Business you need to qualify to declare an upper division Business major (Accounting, Finance, Financial Services, Real Estate, Information Systems, Management, or Marketing). Only students with a declared upper division major may take upper division courses in the College of Business. Before you are eligible to declare an upper division major you must be a junior, have completed certain classes, and have a specified GPA. These requirements are called the impaction criteria.

Please note: Even if you are admitted to SDSU as a junior or senior transfer student with a major in Pre-Business, you are not considered an "upper division Business major." You must meet the impaction criteria and declare an upper division major before beginning your upper division work in Business.

A note on transferring courses

Students who have taken coursework at other colleges and universities may be able to substitute those courses for required courses at SDSU. Please consult the Transferring Courses page for more information about this procedure.