Transitioning Non-Traditional Students To An Undergraduate Business Program

Abstract

This paper reports experiences of non-traditional students in a specially designed section of seminar course which was primarily designed for first-year traditional business students. The College of Business’s BSN101, Foundations of Business Administration (FBA), is designed to serves as a course to assist the students with transitioning into the business program. Typical traditional classes have enrollments of about 80 students. The special section for non-traditional students had seven students, 24 years of age or older, who were returning to undergraduate business school. This paper reports results of the implementation of the new program design in the FBA classes. Results are important not only to the College of Business, but also to the other Colleges as interest in first-year seminar courses and better serving the needs of non-traditional student increases. Currently, the University Retention Committee and the First-Year Seminar Sub-Committee are exploring the possibility of implementing a first-year seminar courses in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education and Human Services to be recommended to the Provost. Data collected for the experimental section in the study reported here will support decision-making regarding new seminar courses.