School of Business

The school of business offers a challenging environment for its students; however, it offers many resources that allow students to rise to the challenge and still succeed. The faculty and staff push students to do their best in their academic studies and extracurriculars as well. They support the students in every way and just want to see us succeed both during our time at Villanova and after we graduate.

Right now our intro to finance class is combined with our intro to accounting class. Our intro management class is also combined with our intro marketing class. each of these classes are 6 credits. I HATED IT. These classes can kill your GPA by no fault of your own. They try to jam too much information into one class that its difficult to digest the information. As a sophomore, everyone hates this and I feel like no one in VSB will listen because they are stuck on the idea being "so brilliant" when it is the worst ever.

The career center has been the most useful resource for me. They attract many big name companies who are almost guaranteed to take students from Villanova every year. I feel like this has given Villanova students incredibly valuable opportunities which would not be as available to them if they had not attended the university.

There could be a wider variety of classes offered in the Finance Program. Spaces fill up quickly and there aren't as many electives as I would have liked. Also, I have heard that transferring into Villanova makes it hard to graduate in 4 years. I transferred internally within the School (from Economics in Villanova School of Liberal Arts and Sciences)- and the school was very accommodating in terms of internal transfers.

The Villanova community is very tight knit and students are always willing to help each other. The program is like a huge team effort for everyone to succeed. We don't try to bring people down for self gain. Also, the professors do everything they can to apply their previous experiences to the course.

There needs to be more management classes offered even though it is a smaller major. There is too heavy a focus on finance and accounting, and sometimes other students seem neglected.

The small class sizes and unique team-building atmosphere are the most effective elements of Villanova's academic curriculum. Nearly all of my classes have involved group projects, which teaches students about interactions within teams. Another part of the curriculum that has helped me is the large number of presentations and public speaking assignments. I have greatly improved my presentation skills as a result of making so many presentations and speeches. Lastly, all of my professors have had exposure to the real world and can actually relate class material to real world situations, which is helpful during the learning process.

For Finance majors specifically, I wish the professors and advisers would have stressed the importance of working to get a great summer internship before my senior year. If I had focused all of my efforts on pursuing an internship at a company with an established analyst program, I could have a full time offer by now.

Villanova's job placement could not be beat. I have been overwhelmed by the efforts Villanova has made to help their students become employed. They are constantly sending out newsletters about job opportunities, interviews, workshops etc. Villanova is on the same page as most college students in that they know, in general, our #1 priority after graduating is to get a good job. I could not see any ways Villanova could improve in this area.

Villanova could teach their students to be a little more tech savvy. There is one class, Strategic Information Technology, that all business students must take, but I do not think that it is sufficient enough for my liking. The world is becoming more hi-tech by the day and Villanova should make more of an effort to have its students keep up.

The finance lab and my experience with the equity society have been instrumental in my education outside of the classroom. Through the equity society I have learned a great deal about investing and valuing companies while meeting high-ranking professionals. VSB has great connections and the alumni want to see success from the current students. I also believe many of the professors teaching upper level courses are outstanding and bring tremendous insight outside of just the textbook.

I feel there is a lot of emphasis on "core" business classes, which leaves very little room to take major classes. It would have been helpful to either take these classes sooner in my college career or to take more of them in order to gain a more in depth of my major.

My schools business program has two six credit courses required of all business students. One combines marketing and management skills and is called Competitive Effectiveness. The class consists of a semester long group (10 students) project in which you work with a real world client (for example, Hershey Resorts and Entertainment) to solve a marketing problem that they present to you. The class culminates in a presentation in front of the client where a winning team is chosen. There are also lengthy management reports discussing the team’s performance and a marketing report discussing the teams finished products.

I personally would like to see more integration with other programs at the school such as the COM specifically the film department. But I know it is a small school and that would be a tough topic to fill a class on. Otherwise I think they do an excellent job with the way they structure curriculum.

The Villanova School of Business has an excellent core curriculum that I feel has given me a very well rounded educational experience. I have been exposed to each area of business and have been challenged to develop my leadership, analytic, and quantitative skills. I am extremely happy with my experience at Villanova and feel that the business curriculum has done well in preparing me for a full time job. The VSB curriculum is unique and leads students to think creatively when applying topics.