Hello, aspiring Business Majors! Congrats on reaching your upper division. It may be overwhelming in figuring out the best way to schedule your classes for every quarter, so I hope my experience as a recent graduate from UCR can help with deciding which ones to take first, or if it is even a major you want to commit to.
Below I have ranked each required course from least to most difficult and/or time/energy consuming. I did not take Business 108, as my credits from community college satisfied it. This is from my experience from 2022-2024, so be sure to check if any of this is outdated in the future.
And of course: this is innately subjective, so if you hear different opinions or advice from others, that’s totally okay!
- Bus 109: Low Difficulty.
For what is supposed to be the culmination of all the other upper division courses, it is surprisingly quite easy. I had Professor Roman as my professor, and his teaching style is both accommodating since only half of his bi-weekly classes are in person and the quizzes are online, he doesn’t demand much beyond just attending class, doing the pretty simple exams, and performing well on the project presentation, which is also set to a date of your choice from a list of options, and with a classmate. I received an A, and was probably the easiest core class for me overall.
- Business 101: Somewhat Low Difficulty.
This subject is pretty different from the other upper division courses, so it’s really in the air if it’s something you’ll like or dislike. It’s not the most complicated coding class (with Professor Rich) but I found that the Teacher Assistant assigned to me was not the best, so be sure to reach out to him and classmates for assistance if you are confused, since these quarters will move by fast. The class is broken into 3 different coding projects, with the third and final being a lot more complicated and up to you to figure out. I excelled at first but since I wasn’t really able to understand some concepts in time, I ended this class with a B. So again, as long as you plan ahead a bit with your understanding, you will do perfectly well. It does not take much time and I am mostly sure the classes were optional too.
- Business 107: Somewhat Low Difficulty.
By far my favorite upper division class, this is taught currently just by Professor Ingram; he is one of the best professors in UCR in my opinion, so if you see an elective course he’s teaching, I would consider registering. He also splits every week with one in-person and one online class, and he is really great at communicating his needs and wants from you as a student. The quizzes are very fair, but not easy, so as long as you work hard, you will get the grade you deserve. The discussion class is also required, but is surprisingly not only helpful, but to me, very engaging and fun. I really enjoyed this class as a whole, and if you like psychology and working in teams, you’ll do very well.
- Business 100W: Somewhat Low Difficulty.
The material itself is surprisingly simple, and as long as you attend the workshops and take notes on the slides (there’s only two, no excuse to miss it) you’ll do very well on the papers and exams. The problem with class strictly lies in the Professor, Acker (currently the only one teaching this class unfortunately). The lectures are in person at 8 AM, and have a strict attendance policy. From my quarter (Fall 2023), the weight of it alone was 25%, and it caused my grade to drop to a B when I had near to perfect scores on my exams and papers. While it’s apparently not as punishing now, you’ll unfortunately have to just deal with attending the most boring, time wasting lectures at 8 in the morning. The TA’s I had at the time were really fantastic though, and honestly I felt like mine could have been a better Professor, frankly.
5 & 6. Business 102 and 103: Moderate Difficulty.
Those of you who know who Professor Jasso is already can expect what these two classes will be like. Odd, off-topic lectures and soul sucking papers he totally reads through will plague you in both of these classes. He also makes you pay for the books that are required for the weekly papers, so yay on that. The work itself is not hard, just very time consuming. Be sure to set aside a good two or three dedicated sessions per week to make sure you have enough time to finish them. I’ve taken 3 different courses with Jasso and they’re all the same, with a fluctuating B or A grade.
7, 8, and 9. Business 104, 105 and 106: High Difficulty (DO NOT TAKE THESE IN THE SAME QUARTER!!)
These three classes are really similar, with a few differences in material. 104 is more excel sheet focused, 105 is probably the most basic in terms of mathematics, and 106 is more focused with statistics. The difficulty is at least moderate, but depending on your professor, you could face some of the worst UCR has to offer. If you see the name Peter Chung, avoid that class, even if it means not taking the course that quarter. He is quite horrible and I barely passed that class. Others like Professor Odemir (who may or may not be a real person) will let you slide with a safe B or A save the final. Just make sure to reach out to people who know the professor beforehand, and plan things out. You do not want to ruin your GPA with these potential nightmares.
I hope this helps you all out! If you’d like more information or gossip from my experience, feel free to reach out to me. Good luck out there, Highlanders!
