Thursday, November 1, 2001

Business school raising requirements for majors
By Jordan Blum
Staff Reporter

The M.J. Neeley School of Business is raising its admissions standards for students admitted to TCU in fall 2001 who apply to be business majors because of rapidly expanding class sizes, said Charles Williams, associate dean for undergraduates for the Neeley school.

He said the new standards apply only to junior transfer students this semester because new freshmen and sophomores won’t apply until 2002 or 2003.

Williams said the new process will accept 75 to 80 percent of qualified applicants and will require aspiring business students to pass three Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) tests in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. He also said students will have to submit a resume and have a professional interview with two Neeley school alumni or two people from the business community associated with TCU.

Williams said changes were necessary because the Neeley school went from 900 business majors to 1,800 majors in seven years. He said it takes away from the “TCU education experience” when the average class size is 42 students.

“The (Neeley school) had upper-level courses last year with 50 or 60 students in a class required for the major,” Williams said. “When that happens we become Texas Christian State University.”

He said it is important to realize the business school isn’t the only academic area with overcrowding problems.

“(The) radio-TV-film and journalism departments have the same faculty resource issues we have,” he said. “TCU isn’t just a business school and there are needs to be met elsewhere on campus. So everyone has to share the university’s available resources.”

Williams said if TCU set an enrollment limit, many overcrowding problems could be solved.

“I think TCU needs to decide what it wants. Every year it seems there’s a larger class (of incoming students),” he said. “If we continue to admit record-size classes more students are going to have larger classes … , which is precisely the opposite of what TCU advertises.”

Chancellor Michael Ferrari said the administration is currently considering capping undergraduate enrollment and reducing the size of future freshmen classes because of limited faculty resources.

Ferrari said that although incoming classes increase slightly each year, there is a need to keep undergraduate enrollment constant at approximately 6,700 to 6,750 students. He also said this action would lead to greater student selectivity in admissions next year.

Andrew Sakalarios, a transfer junior business major currently applying for an accounting finance major, said he understands the need for new standards but said it is unfair that he has to meet requirement students did not have to satisfy last year.

“(The new process) is good because it’ll make classes smaller and improve interaction with professors,” Sakalarios said. “(But) if I don’t get accepted when students with worse grades got in last year, then it’s definitely not fair because I’ve never thought about doing anything other than business all my life.”

Williams said that although he cannot guarantee any specific student will be accepted, he said students who meet the 2.5 minimum GPA, are actively involved on campus and have good communication skills should be accepted.

He also said students can apply more than once and can always pursue a business minor as a fallback plan.

Williams said the new admissions process works with the decision made last semester to restrict business upper-division classes to business majors and minors.

He said after raising the minimum GPA to a 2.5 two years ago proved unsuccessful for limiting numbers, it became necessary to tighten admission standards in order to reduce class sizes.

Robert Lusch, dean of the Neeley school, said a more selective admission process will show demand for the business major and will lead to greater prestige for the Neeley school.

“The tightening of admissions will allow (the Neeley school) to produce more of the graduates that the industry desires,” Lusch said.

Jordan Blum
j.d.blum@student.tcu.edu