Changing Your Major to Business

Colleges have varying policies when it comes to how applicants gain entrance to their business school. Some schools such as Boston College, USC, or Penn allow you to apply directly out of high school. Other schools require freshmen to first complete certain prerequisite courses, earn a strong GPA, and then transfer internally prior to the start of sophomore year. At universities that do allow high school students to apply directly to a business program, it is still important for applicants to be aware of how challenging it is to transfer into that institution’s College of Business. This knowledge can assist prospective applicants who are a) considering applying to an alternative major and later transferring into business or b) deciding whether they would consider enrolling in a school that rejects them from a College of Business, but offers them a place in the College of Arts & Sciences.

The table below provides this important information for a number of top business programs. Column headers are defined below:

Direct Admit – Indicates whether prospective undergraduates can be admitted directly into a business major.

Prerequisites – Links to the institutional webpage that details requirements for transferring into a business major.

Minimum Progress – Indicates the minimum number of credits, semesters, or quarters needed to transfer into a business major.

Minimum GPA – Indicates the minimum GPA one must possess to be considered for admission into a business major. At most institutions, earning the minimum GPA does not guarantee admission.

Difficulty – An ordinal rating (from “Less” to “Very”) indicating how difficult it is to transfer into a business major.

More Info – Links to an institutional webpage providing more detail about how current students can transfer into a business major. If there is no additional info beyond what is provided in the institutions “Prerequisites” page, links for “Prerequisites” and “More Info” are identical.

*At institutions where there is no direct admission, requirements for declaring/moving into a business major are indicated. 

Table updated September 2025

For institutions with an asterisk (*) , click the + to view additional information about the program.