Program Description
People skills and knowledge of business fundamentals can position engineers for the creation and delivery of more effective solutions. Teamwork, communication, and collaboration are skills that you'll need as you interface with others—especially when you're tasked with delivering sophisticated solutions to clients or customers.
Understanding how core business functions "work" and how stakeholders measure success will help you gain support and resources to turn your engineering ideas into reality. With the business minor for engineers (BME), you'll begin to understand how managers think and how finance, marketing, accounting, and operations can affect business decisions.
Eligibility
The Business Minor for Engineers is open to students majoring in certain engineering subjects within Cornell's colleges listed below.
All undergraduate majors in the College of Engineering are eligible. However, there is a difference in requirements for students majoring in Operations Research and Engineering (ORIE), so ORIE students must pursue the BME-ORIE option.
- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
- Biological Engineering
- Environmental Engineering
- Information Science
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Computer Science
- Information Science
Academic Policies
A minimum of 12 unique credits (outside of major's core requirements) must be taken to complete any/all minors. Some majors may be required to take an additional course to satisfy this requirement. All courses must be taken for a letter grade, and a grade of C or better is required.
Minor Requirements
Required Credits
This minor requires a total of 16.5 credits to complete, which includes 3 foundation credits and 13.5 core credits. From the total credits, 9 must be taken at Cornell University, and 7.5 must be Johnson College of Business (JCB) courses, which include any course code of AEM, HADM, NBA, or NCC. *Note - in many cases, the Cornell and JCB requirements will overlap (e.g. AEM 2241 Finance: Finance is a JCB course and a Cornell course, so it will satisfy 3 credits for each requirement).
Foundation Course
This minor requires 3 credits in microeconomics. We recommend taking this course before taking the minor's core courses and require it to be completed by your sixth semester. A letter grade of C or better is required.
Introductory Microeconomics (3 Credits)
One of the following courses is required:
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| ECON 1110 | Introductory Microeconomics | 3 |
| ECON 3030 | Intermediate Microeconomic Theory | 4 |
| PUBPOL 2000 | Intermediate Microeconomics | 4 |
Core Requirements
The remaining 13.5 credits must be fulfilled by taking courses in the five areas listed below, which includes 3 credits that are related to your career goals. A letter grade of C or better is required. Please note that 7.5 credits must be Johnson College of Business (JCB) courses.
Introduction to Basic Business Concepts (3 Credits)
One of the following courses is required:
Accounting Principles (3 Credits)
One of the following courses is required:
*Students in the ORIE major must take ORIE 3150 Financial and Managerial Accounting, which will satisfy both a core ORIE requirement and part of the BME accounting requirement. ORIE students are also required to take an advanced accounting course (3 credits). Please refer to the website for advanced course options.
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| AEM 2210 | Financial Accounting | 3 |
| HADM 2230 | Financial Accounting Principles | 3 |
| NCC 5500 | Financial Accounting | 3 |
| ORIE 3150 | Financial and Managerial Accounting (ORIE students only) | 4 |
Finance (3 Credits)
One of the following courses is required:
Capstone Course (1.5 Credits)
The following course is required:
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| AEM 4660 | Business Simulation | 1.5 |
Career Goals (3 Credits)
The remaining 3 credits for the BME should align with your career goals. Given the breadth of Engineering careers, there is a wide range of courses under the topics of accounting, finance, entrepreneurship, management, and marketing that may be relevant to you. You may choose any Cornell SC Johnson College of Business (AEM, HADM, NBA, NCC) upper level course (3000+), for letter grade only. Please note that many of these courses may give preference to Dyson/Nolan/Johnson majors and/or have specific prerequisite courses outside of the minor.
*Note: ORIE majors may not use the following courses to fulfill this requirement
- AEM 3100 Business Statistics
- AEM 4120 Computational Methods for Management and Economics
