Business at Oxy

Studying business is a way of understanding how organizations create value, solve problems, and drive innovation across industries from entertainment to technology, healthcare, and sustainability. At Oxy, if you’re interested in business careers, you have the flexibility to build a foundation that spans multiple disciplines and perspectives.

Whether through courses in economics, music, or philosophy—or hands-on experiences with the student-managed Blyth Fund and the Occidental Consulting Group—you develop the analytical thinking, ethical reasoning, and communication skills essential for business leadership. By combining interdisciplinary coursework with real-world applications, you learn not just how to navigate the business world, but how to shape it responsibly and meaningfully.

Coursework

The economics department offers a major and minor with flexibility to choose business-related elective courses. More generally, Oxy offers many business-related courses across a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to:

• Art and Art History: 
  • ARTH 295 Topics in Art History: Art & Money
  • ARTS 390 Art in Los Angeles
• Core Program: CORE 117 Entrepreneurial Citizenship in the 21st Century
• Economics
  • ECON 233 Accounting and Financial Analysis
  • ECON 302 Industrial Organization
  • ECON 303 Economics of the Internet and Technology
  • ECON 311 International Economics
  • ECON 315 Finance, Growth, and Development
  • ECON 350 Managerial Economics
  • ECON 352 Firm-Level International Trade
  • ECON 351 Monetary Policy and Financial Markets
• Mathematics: 
  • MATH 150 Statistical Data Analysis
  • MATH 214 Linear Algebra
  • MATH 330 Probability
  • MATH 332 Mathematical Statistics
  • MATH 372 Operations Research
• Music: MUSC 245 Introduction to the Music Industry
• Philosophy: PHIL 199 Practical Ethics: Case-Based Reasoning
• Theater and Performance Studies:
  • THEA 244 Stage Management
  • THEA 330 Producing the Live Event
• Caltech Business & Management courses, such as Introduction to Finance or Investments, through the Oxy-Caltech exchange program at no additional charge. 

Ways to Get Involved

• Pursue an internship with support from the Hameetman Career Center.
• Blyth Fund: The Blyth Fund is a premier six-figure, student-managed investment portfolio. It offers students hands-on experience in investment management and broadens interest in finance among some of Oxy’s most promising students. Please contact blythfund@oxy.edu for more information.
• Oxy Consulting Group: Established in 2015, the Occidental Consulting Group strives to improve the local Los Angeles community by providing pro bono management consulting services to businesses and nonprofit organizations.
• Oxy Biztech: Oxy Biztech is a student organization focused on helping students understand the intersectionality between business and technology.
• Occidental Finance Club: Occidental Finance Club provides students with opportunities to explore careers in finance while developing practical skills and professional networks.

Student Outcomes

After Oxy, many students pursue careers with responsibilities that include consulting, finance, administration, advertising, marketing, management, and more. Others pursue graduate school in business analytics or management. Professor Emeritus Woody Studenmund provides excellent business school advice in The MBA Myth.

Oxy welcomes a wide range of employers for on-campus recruiting, such as: