Zicklin Undergraduate Honors Program - Zicklin School of Business

The Zicklin Undergraduate Honors Program is the only honors program at Baruch College that is focused exclusively on business education. Its mission is to help the best and brightest Zicklin students become polished professionals who can compete effectively in the job market and go on to become leaders in their fields. To this end, Zicklin Honors offers advanced interdisciplinary seminars, networking opportunities, and skill-building workshops. We have partnered with Executives on Campus to provide each student with an executive mentor. We welcome applications from all Zicklin students with a minimum GPA of 3.6 who desire to work hard, accomplish a lot, and participate actively in our program.

Beginning in the spring of 2023, Zicklin Honors will award up to 5 Zicklin Undergraduate Honors Merit Awards ($1,500 each), funded by the Zicklin Honors Advisory Board. Zicklin Honors students with a 3.75 GPA who have completed 2 Zicklin Honors courses will be eligible to apply.

Zicklin Scholar Graduation

South Africa Service Abroad

Zicklin Scholars interview James A. Forese, President and CEO of Citigroup

Zicklin Honors Alumni Spotlight

Zicklin Honors students—known as Zicklin Scholars—enjoy a small college experience within Baruch College. As part of a cohort of honors students who take small seminar classes, study in their own honors lounge, and network with distinguished executive guests, our Zicklin Scholars are able to make friendships that will last a lifetime. These friendships are evident in our growing network of Zicklin Honors alums who are succeeding in organizations ranging from Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, Accenture, and Greenhill to the New York Federal Reserve. The Program Director, Program Advisor, and mentors work closely with students to guide them in their personal and career development. We help our students to achieve their potential; to become successful professionals with the highest ethical standards.

Contact

For further information, please contact us at Zicklin.Honors@baruch.cuny.edu or (646) 312-3080.

All students in the Zicklin School with an overall GPA of 3.6 are eligible to apply for the Zicklin Undergraduate Honors Program (ZUHP). Applications from qualified transfer students and students from other honors programs at Baruch College are welcome. Students can be members of both the Zicklin honors program and one of the other honors programs at Baruch.

Because the prescribed course sequence requires a minimum of three semesters, students should apply prior to the point at which they achieve Upper Junior status.

A select group of applicants will be invited to an interview. Applicants need not provide letters of recommendation. ZUHP will contact faculty currently teaching students to obtain recommendations.

Apply Now The deadline for Spring 2024 admissions is Sunday, September 17, 2023.

Program Benefits:

First-day registration
Personal attention and advisement
Small, discussion-oriented classes
Individual mentors who guide students throughout their careers in Zicklin
Exposure to successful executives in a variety of business fields
A small community experience within the Zicklin School
Access to the Honors Lounge and study areas
Special skill-building workshops

Past Semester Activities

Zicklin Society Networking Event
Interview Techniques Session
Executive Mentoring Luncheons
- Retired CFO – Lazard Asset Management
- CEO – Leumi USA
- Senior Managing Director – Accenture
Dining Etiquette Training
Training courses at Microsoft
- Excel Training
- VBA Programming
- Financial Modeling
Service Abroad Trip to South Africa

Curriculum

Zicklin Honors’ innovative curriculum is built around the general minor with honors in Advanced Business Analysis, a group of special interdisciplinary seminars designed to work in conjunction with the traditional discipline-based majors. Students are required to take four of these seminars and an honors section of BPL 5100H in order to meet the academic requirements of the Program.

Fall 2023

BUS 4444H – Honors Cases Studies in Business

Professor Gloria Thomas – Wednesdays from 2:30 – 5:25 pm

This is an interdisciplinary case course that gives students a unique appreciation of the complexity of real-world business situations. It features cases taught by a team of faculty members from a variety of disciplines along with an impressive group of business executives. Guests in the spring included Mr. Larry Zicklin who taught cases in business ethics; a networking expert who has authored many books on the subject; and two Wall Street executives who taught a special class that explored the causes underlying the financial crisis of 2008. By teaching students to analyze complex problems and to develop workable solutions, this course helps to prepare students for the real-world problems that they will confront in the capstone courses.

BUS 4093H – Special Topics: Practical Data Analysis for Business (Elective)

Mr. Kenneth Abbott – Mondays from 2:30 – 5:25 pm

While not everyone wants to be a quant, EVERYONE in the business world has to develop quantitative skills. The purpose of this course is to help students from all majors develop applied quantitative skills that are immediately applicable in the workplace. Students will work on a project of their own choosing in which they learn to analyze data to answer a question or solve a problem.

The course will consist of three sections: The first section will address basic exploratory data analysis, the second section will introduce students to key data sources and the extraction of data from these sources (Students will learn to use the Bloomberg terminal and S&P Capital IQ); the third section will introduce the primary data analysis tools available to students. Here, basic regression analysis will be performed in Excel, SAS, Minitab and R.

BUS 4093H – Honors Leadership and Managerial Skills (Elective)

Professor Mary (Molly) Kern Mondays from 11:10 – 2:05 pm

Learn and practice the skills that distinguish great leaders and managers. This course introduces students to the major concepts, theories, and research in the field of organizational behavior related to collaborating, creating, influencing, negotiating, and decision-making. We will engage with multiple cases and exercises to experience and analyze best practices grounded in the latest science.

BUS 4093H -Special Topics: Current Issues in Business Ethics (Capstone)

Mr. Lawrence Zicklin – Wednesdays from 11:10 am – 2:05 pm

This course will focus on ethical issues in business. It will teach students how to incorporate an ethical perspective into their approach to real-world business problems. The course will not deal with “right or wrong:” rather it will deal with the analyzing the complexity and multiple perspectives associated with ethical issues. It will be a case-based seminar format.

Spring 2024

BUS 4444H – Honors Cases Studies in Business

Professor Gloria Thomas – Wednesdays from 2:30 – 5:25 pm

BUS 4093H – Special Topics: Foreign Policy Association – Great Decisions (Elective)

Mr. Noel Lateef – Fridays from 12:25pm – 2:55 pm

This special topics class will be taught by Mr. Noel Lateef, president of the Foreign Policy Association. It will be based on the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions series which varies each year to cover important topics world-wide that impact the business world. Last year’s topics included Greece and the EU; Russia and the Near Abroad; Privacy in the Digital Age; Sectarianism in the Middle East; India Changes Course; U.S. Policy Toward Africa; Syria’s Refugee Crisis; Human Trafficking in the 21st Century; and Brazil’s Metamorphosis. Mr. Lateef invited many important guest speakers including various ambassadors, and a Harvard professor.

BUS 4093H – Special Topics: Essence of Corporate Valuation (Elective)

Professor Jay Dahya – Mondays from 11:10 am to 2:05 pm

Learn how and why we need to understand corporate value, provide an overview on the valuation process and give hands on experience by conducting exercises that require corporate valuation. The course will supplement several concepts introduced in earlier finance classes and be pitched at a level suitable for persons interested in learning about corporate valuation. This course is case-based with lectures on each topic.

BUS 4093H – Special Topics: Strategic Competitive Analysis of Industries (Capstone)

Mr. Owh Kian Ong – Tuesdays/Thursdays from 10:45 am -12:00 pm

This course is intended to focus on the most current, impactful & relevant companies / industries in the U.S. and World Wide. Students will learn to develop & assess competitive strategies of specific companies along with those of strategic importance within their respective industries. Foundational frameworks will also be learned & applied with analysis and “Takeaways”, in order to “Connect the Dots” to competitive strategies. Under the Socratic method, students will actively learn with case discussions and in a communication intensive environment. Advance preparation is essential which better enables communicating with strategic thinking. To increase relevance, students will have the opportunity to determine, as a collective class, a few top companies or industries they would like to study.

The general minor with honors in Advanced Business Analysis consists of 15 credits as described below:

Required Courses (6 credits)

BUS 4444H	Case Studies in Business	3
BPL 5100H	Honors – Business Policy	3

Elective Courses (6 credits)

In addition to the required courses, an Advance Business Analysis minor student must take a meaningful combination of two of the program’s Zicklin Honors electives.

Note: Course offerings vary from semester to semester.

Examples of Special Honors Topics in Business (BUS 4093H) offered in recent years:

Essence of Corporate Valuation
Practical Data Analysis for Business
Foreign Policy Association – Great Decisions
Leadership and Managerial Skills
Business Consulting

Capstone course (3 credits)