Getting Down to Business with Gabelli

While this blog has recently focused a lot on the incredible resources and opportunities Fordham's NYC location offers students pursuing careers in business, this entry will give you an inside look at what it's like to be a Gabelli student inside the classroom.

While core curriculum is often a dreaded topic and subject of debate across America, Fordham has reinvented the core for business students into what Gabelli calls the Integrated Business Core. Completed mostly in your sophomore year, the integrated business core turns seven of your foundation business classes into fourteen split-semester classes that you take in a cohort each semester. While that sounds like a lot, let me simplify it for you. Instead of taking Intro to Management first semester and Intro to Strategy second semester, Gabelli splits up the classes into segmented classes Management 1 and Management 2, and Strategy 1 and Strategy 2. This way it allows you to integrate what you're learning in management with what you're learning in strategy, because in the real world all functions of business co-exist at once, so why shouldn't it be taught that way? And while on paper this sounds academically strenuous, the bulk of these classes only meet once a week as opposed to two or three times a week like a traditional class.

I also just mentioned how everything is taken in a cohort. For those of you that don't know, the cohort is your group of classes that you have in common with about 25 other students. So yes, just like in grade school, you'll have every class with the same 25 students in each and every class. While this sounds a bit boring and overwhelming, many of my friends, and myself included, love it.  The community feeling you get from taking a cohorted schedule doesn't compare to anything else you'll ever experience in college. 

My dysfunctional IP Team trying to take a photo (I'm in the vest)

Lastly, the biggest component of the cohort and the integrated core is the integrated project, or IP. The integrated project first semester sophomore year teaches you to work as a team, which is a prevalent setting in the business world. At the start of the semester, before classes even begin, there's a huge kick-off where everyone in your cohort is assigned and Integrated Project team and a Fortune-500 company. This sets the tone for the following semester, as your IP team will have to work together by integrating everything learned in your business classes to identify and create a solution for a problem or opportunity within the company you're researching. To make this more exciting, it's all a competition and the top teams at the end of the semester compete against each other in the "Core Bowl", and the winners take home $1,000 as a reward for conquering the integrated core. The IP and the cohort really emphasize teamwork and looking at a problem from every perspective of business, all part of what makes Gabelli graduates stand out from the rest of the crowd!

Gabelli Is Giving the Sophomores $100,000,000!

In the fall, the other Gabelli sophomores and myself took a series of classes in cohorts. This means that the entire sophomore class was split up into groups of about thirty students who took all of their business classes together. These classes included Marketing, Financial Accounting, Strategy I, Management I, Information Systems I, and Business Communications I. This spring, we are taking the second part of many of these classes. 

My schedule for the Spring semester

For the Integrated Project, the students were then further divided into teams within their cohorts. Each cohort had six teams of five to six students each. Each team was then assigned a company to research throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, each team presented a business plan that they came up with themselves to their company. In March, the six best teams will be competing for first place in the competition with a prize of $1,000! 

Unfortunately, my team did not make it to the final round (even though we had an awesome idea for Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.), but that's okay because with the new semester comes the next Integrated Project! 
 
So, what is this semester's big project?

Like last semester, the sophomores are once again in teams of five or six students within their cohorts. However, each team has been given $100,000,000 (unfortunately, it's not real money) to invest in the stock market. Throughout the semester, each team will be faced with a series of investment decisions, which will involve researching a group of six companies within an industry. After researching the various companies, each team will have to choose which company they will choose to invest in. However, other than having to make these specific choices, the teams are free to invest in any companies they choose, and they may buy and sell as they please.

This project ties in well with a new course that the sophomores are taking this semester. While most of our classes this semester are simply the second part of the Fall semester's courses (i.e. We are taking Management II this semester, but took Management I last semester), the sophomores are taking our first Finance class. Therefore, we will be applying what we learn in Financial Management to our Integrated Project for this semester. Hopefully my team this semester will have better luck than my last team!

My textbooks for this semester!

How Is Gabelli Training Its Sophomores for the Business World?

Fordham's Gabelli School of Business always brags about its integrated core, which include cohorts, but what does it mean to be in a cohort? Coming to Fordham, I did not understand the cohorts at all, but now that I am living through cohort, I understand it a lot better. This is the concept.

During sophomore year, the business students sign up for a cohort instead of individual classes. In signing up for a cohort, students sign up for seven classes, which are taken with the rest of the cohort. The classes include: Financial Accounting, Principles of Marketing, Information Systems, Strategy 1, Management 1, Business Communications, and an Integrated Project class. While this seems like a lot of classes, some of them only meet once each week instead of twice. In addition to the cohort, students sign up for one elective. Personally, I am taking Introduction to Old Testament as my elective because I am working on a theology minor. Below is a picture of my schedule so that you can see how it works!

In each cohort, all of the students signed up for that particular cohort take all of their integrated core classes together (i.e. the seven classes previously mentioned). Although it seems weird to have practically the same schedule as everyone else in your cohort, it really allows you to get to know everyone else! It also makes scheduling meeting times with your Integrated Project team much easier.


The Integrated Project is really the most important aspect of the cohort because it really prepares the business students for the real world of business. Within each cohort, the students are broken up into teams. Each team is then assigned a company. For the entire semester, the team researches the company to identify threats and opportunities for the company, culminating in a final presentation at the end of the semester, which identify a solution to the company's opportunity or threat.

 My Integrated Project Team

While this may sound overwhelming, Fordham really has done an excellent job of preparing this Integrated Project in a way that makes it manageable to the sophomores, who are just starting to learn about the ways of business. Throughout the semester, each team has to complete deliverables, which are handed in to specific professors based on their topics. For example, the deliverable that focuses on the implementation of the team's suggested course of action for the company is handed in to the Accounting professor. However, the deliverable that focuses on the market in which the company competes is handed in to the Marketing professor.

Whenever a deliverable is due, each team then meets with the professor for a 10-minute "speed meeting." During this time, each team is given individual time with their professors in order to discuss the progress that the team is making. The professors also give feedback on any ideas or questions the teams may have. Thus, each team is given real professional advice on their ideas.

This year's companies are Take-Two Interactive Software, Pier 1 Imports, Safeway, Chipotle, Green Mountain, and Under Armour. I have a team of six people, and we were assigned to Take-Two Interactive Software. In case you do not recognize this company, you might be more familiar with their products, mainly the Grand Theft Auto series. Throughout the semester, my team and I have gotten to know each other very well because of our weekly meetings as well as random team bonding moments.

 We celebrated the end of midterms with cupcakes!

Although the Integrated Project is a lot of work, it is an amazing opportunity. Not only is it giving us an experience that will prepare us for the business world after we graduate, but it is also a great thing to put on a resume. When looking for internships, it is great to be able to say that not only are you learning business practices in your classes, but you are also putting them into action!