Business Honors Program
The Business Honors Program is designed to challenge the most gifted undergraduate Mendoza College of Business students with a rigorous, specialized course of study and programming. The program takes a deeper look at the moral purpose of business and how it can contribute to human flourishing.
With an emphasis on the importance of scholarly research and the development of the whole person, the program prepares you to assume demanding and complex corporate leadership or to pursue a doctorate degree in distinguished national programs.
This program admission is open to all Notre Dame First-Year students pre-admitted to Mendoza as well as to those seeking to transfer into Mendoza. Acceptance is competitive. To qualify, you must clearly demonstrate an interest in advancing business as a force for contributing to human flourishing, as well as a high level of academic achievement and intellectual curiosity.
What You’ll Learn
The Business Honors Program is a rigorous, three-year specialized course of study within the Mendoza College of Business, tailored for aspiring leaders across all business disciplines.
Our curriculum is broad and flexible, leveraging years of practical business experience alongside the academic expertise of our distinguished faculty. Courses are designed to enhance an already comprehensive business education, offering an additional layer of understanding. While many courses focus on applied business practices, others adopt a systemic or normative perspective on the business environment.
18
credits through Honors Courses
25
Honors course options available and growing
4
PhD courses available to qualifying students
BES 30792 Honors Why Business
One of the two required introductory courses, Honors Why Business, takes students on a journey through market economies as seen by its greatest champions and fiercest opponents. The course delves into the foundation of why we practice business and the role of business in a just and humane society. Students emerge from Why Business with a renewed understanding of their honorable calling.
BES 20702 Honors Meaningful Life in Business
The other required introductory course, Honors Meaningful Life in Business asks about the goods that we seek in life. What is happiness? What role does business play in our pursuit of a good life? How are our answers to these questions shaped by faith? Looking at sources, both ancient and new, allows us to reflect fruitfully on these ultimate questions about meaning and purpose.
Four Courses are Required:
- At least one upper-level course must be from the Capstone subcategory.
- At least two upper-level courses must be within the student’s major.
Course Offerings:
- ACCT 30110: Accounting Measurement & Disclosure I (Fall Only)
- ACCT 30160: Sustainability: Accounting (Spring Only)
- ACCT 40160: Accountability in a Sustainable World (Fall Only)
- ACCT 40660/70: Tax Assistance Program I/II
- BES 30310: Business & the Common Good
- BES 33100: Work & the Interior Life (Fall Only)
- BES 43100: Economic Sins (Spring Only)
- BES 43300: Commercial Society and The Common Good: Classic Texts
- FIN 30402: Honors Corporate Finance (Spring Only)
- FIN 40470/ BES 40470: Corporate Governance & Catholic Social Teaching (Fall Only)
- ITAO 30160: Conveying Visual Data Insights (Fall Only)
- MARK 30120: Marketing Research (Spring Only)
- MGTO 40110: Honors Futuring (Fall Only)
Course Offerings:
- ACCT 40840: Information Flows in the Capital Market and Academic Research (Spring Only)
- ACCT 40830: Academic Research in Accounting (Fall Only)
- BES 48000: BHP Capstone Thesis
- FIN 40640: Applied Investment Management (Application Only; BHP students are NOT guaranteed a seat)
- FIN 40830: Academic Research in Finance (Spring Only)
- ITAO 40850: Analytics Capstone Project (Invitation by Department Only; BHP students are NOT guaranteed an invitation)
- ITAO 40860: Early Bridges to Data Science (Invitation by Department Only; BHP students are NOT guaranteed an invitation)
- MARK 40150/ITAO 40575: Pricing Analytics (Spring Only)
- MGTO 43120: Research Methods in Management (Fall Only)
- MGTO 43150: Theory & Research in Organizational Behavior (Fall Only)
- MGTO 43125: Theory and Research in Strategic Management / MGTO 43130: The Upper Echelons Perspective: Theory and Research (Spring Only)
Colloquia
The Honors Colloquium is a hallmark of the Honors experience. On Fridays, speakers from a variety of business backgrounds come to speak to Honors students. Colloquium speakers are selected based on their outstanding success in integrating business, faith, and family. Following their presentations, students and speakers gather for a meal. This gives students the opportunity to candidly meet the speakers.
Honors students are required to take 3 semesters of colloquia. Each colloquium is 1.5 credits.
Application Process
First-year students already accepted into Mendoza for their sophomore year can complete the application in the spring of their freshman year. Incoming transfer students can apply in the fall of their sophomore year.
The application deadline for the Class of 2024 (including first round internal transfer students) has passed.
Students will need to log into their Notre Dame Google account to access the form, and the form needs to be completed in a single session. You should gather this information to successfully complete the form:
A current resume
Your course grades and GPA from the Fall semester prior to your application
Two personal statements (max of 2,000 characters each) in response to the prompts included on the application.
We recommend that you draft your statements separately and then paste them into the web form. The form will strictly limit each statement to 2,000 characters.