Whatcom Community College
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Business Pathways
Click on each business pathway to view the recommended quarter-by-quarter classes and other recommendations.
These pathways assume:
- You will be a full-time student.
- You will start in the fall.
- You are ready to take 100- and 200-level classes.
If not, you can still complete the pathway! You will just need to make adjustments. Talk with your advisor to customize your plan.
Follow this recommended pathway to earn the Associate in Business (DTA/MRP) transfer degree and prepare for a university major in a business field or combined field such as accounting, business administration, business and sustainability, finance, international business, marketing, and operations management.
Talk with your advisor about adapting this pathway for your individual goals. Click here for a fillable, printable planning worksheet.
| Description | Covers the role of business in modern economy and topics related to internal operations of a business and opportunities in business. Recommended preparation: placement into ENGL& 101. (SS) |
| Enrollment Requirements | None |
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| Description | Formerly BIS 101. This course is an introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel programs used in the business environment. (UE) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of MATH 87 or MATH 097 or concurrent enrollment or permission of instructor. |
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| Description | This course helps students become more effective writers in academic and professional settings. Students learn to enter ongoing academic conversations, analyze and use secondary sources to formulate, develop, revise, and communicate ideas in writing, and shape their message to different purposes, audiences, and media. (CC) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of ENGL 95 or placement in ENGL& 101. |
| Course Attributes |
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Total credits this quarter: 15
Career exploration: Find your people! Attend area-of-study activities and connect with clubs relating to your career goals.
Action item: Meet with your advisor to build your degree plan.
Action item: Have your transfer-in credits officially evaluated.
| Description | This course helps students become more effective communicators through the production of various forms and mediums of writing. Students develop effective rhetorical strategies through analysis of texts and contexts, as well as engaging in independent research as part of meaningful and ethical scholarship. (CC) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of ENGL& 101 with a minimum grade of C-. |
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| Description | This course helps students develop effective methods of research, organization and presentation of findings typical of professional, technical, and scientific writing. Students develop problem-solving and researching skills, including data collection, the critical analysis of sources, documentation, and document design. (CC) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of ENGL& 101 with a minimum grade of C-. |
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| Description | The basic properties and graphs of functions and inverses of functions, operations on functions, compositions; various specific functions and their properties including polynomial, absolute value, rational, exponential and logarithmic functions; applications of various functions; conics. A graphing calculator is required. (QSR,MS) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of MATH 099 or MATH 132 with a minimum grade of C. |
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| Description | Applications of linear, quadratic, exponential, and logarithmic equations; functions and graphs; mathematics of finance; solution of linear systems using matrices; linear programming using the simplex method. Graphing calculator required. (QSR,MS) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of MATH 099 with a minimum grade of C. |
| Course Attributes |
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Total credits this quarter: 15
Career exploration: Compare the different business majors and combined majors at the universities you're interested in.
Career exploration: Meet with the internship coordinator to explore internships for summer.
| Description | Introduction to microeconomics. Presents supply and demand models, consumers and producers choice in the competitive and non-competitive market. Examines the various economic decisions made by firms relating to price, demand, factors of production, and costs. (SS) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of MATH 099 |
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| Description | Limits, derivatives, marginal analysis, optimization, antiderivatives,and definite integrals. Examples taken from management, life and social sciences. (QSR,MS) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of MATH& 141 or MATH 145 with a minimum grade of C. |
| Course Attributes |
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Total credits this quarter: 15
Career exploration: Attend an info session about WCC's Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in Applied Business Management.
Career exploration: Apply for internships or summer jobs.
Career exploration: Apply or plan for student leadership positions for next year in student government, club leadership, etc.
Action item: Check the GPA and other entry requirements for your future major. Are you on track?
| Description | Introduction to the theory and principles of the accounting cycle and accounting concepts. Covers typical general journal transactions, posting transactions to the ledgers, principles of adjusting and closing entries, the process of completing the appropriate financial statements, various inventory valuation methods, and cash policies using both manual forms and computerized methods. Recommended preparation: basic proficiency in Excel. (LE) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of Math 97 or higher |
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| Description | Rigorous introduction to statistical methods and hypothesis testing. Includes descriptive and inferential statistics. Tabular and pictorialmethods for describing data; central tendencies; mean; modes; medians; variance; standard deviation; quartiles; regression; normal distribution; confidence intervals; hypothesis testing, one and two-tailed tests. Applications to business, social sciences, and sciences. (QSR,MS) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of MATH 088 or MATH 099 with a minimum grade of C. |
| Course Attributes |
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Total credits this quarter: 15
Course note: Be sure your humanities courses include at least two different disciplines.
Action item: Meet with your advisor about applying to universities or to the BAS in applied business management. Start your transfer applications.
Action item: Apply for next year's financial aid.
| Description | This course introduces generally accepted accounting principles used in preparing financial statements for a corporation. These principles are learned through various in-class and online exercises, problems, tests and through various Excel for accounting projects. (LE) |
| Enrollment Requirements | Completion of ACCT& 201 with a minimum grade of C. |
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| Description | Introduction to macroeconomics; elementary analysis of the determination of income through national income accounting. Covers macro economic issues including inflation, unemployment, economic growth, recessions, monetary/fiscal policy, and international trade and finance. (SSg) |
| Enrollment Requirements | ECON& 202 |
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Total credits this quarter: 15
Action item: Apply to graduate by week 3 of this quarter.
| Description | This course introduces decision tools that managers use in evaluating business plans, controls, and performances along with basic manufacturing accounting concepts and reports. These tools are learned through various in-class and online exercises, problems, and tests. (LE) |
| Enrollment Requirements | completion of ACCT& 202 with a minimum grade of C. |
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| Description | Principles of law as they apply to business, including history, contracts, law of agencies, rights and duties of employer and employee, negotiable instruments, insurance, personal property, bailments, conditional sales, partnerships, corporations, real property and security relations. Recommended preparation: BUS& 101. (SS) |
| Enrollment Requirements | None |
| Course Attributes |
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Total credits this quarter: 15
Action item: Attend the spring job fair.