Academics

Your Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) degree from Rotman Commerce will prepare you to enter your future career with confidence, knowing that you’ve completed a rigorous business education that employers hold in the highest regard. 

Depending on what specialist you choose in your second year, you’ll spend your time with us gaining expertise in Accounting, Finance & Economics, or Management, while mastering the broader fundamentals of business. While each specialist has its own set of course requirements, all of them require you to complete 20 full credits, or an average of 5 credits in each of your four years of study.

Approximately half of your courses will be in business and management subjects such as accounting, finance, marketing, strategic management, operations, and organizational behaviour, which will vary according to your specialist. The other half of your credits will be drawn from the liberal arts and sciences.

Due to the importance of economics in business education, you will take some of these credits through the Faculty of Arts & Science’s world-renowned Department of Economics, but you will also have an opportunity to explore the rest of the university’s extensive offerings in hundreds of other subjects, such as sociology, psychology, history, statistics, geography, and many different languages. 

For your first year at Rotman Commerce, you will enroll in the following courses:

First-Year Required Courses (2.5 credits)

First-Year Recommended Courses (1.5 credits)

First-Year Elective Courses (1.0 credit)

All first year Rotman Commerce students will need to enroll in the first-year required courses above. 

In addition to the required courses, you should also enroll in the recommended courses. These courses are required for your degree. You do have the option to take them in your second year, but we’ve  found that by taking these courses in first year, students gain a deeper understanding of the core business subjects, which helps when it comes time to select a specialist program for second year. 

The electives you choose are entirely up to you! Because our program is within the Faculty of Arts & Science (A&S), you have access to their expansive course offerings, including unique first-year seminar courses. 

You might also want to participate in the highly recommended First Year Foundations: The Ones Program – a combination of courses, seminars, and experiential learning opportunities that are specially designed as an immersive, seminar style learning experience for first-year  students. 

Making the jump from high school to university is exciting and sometimes a little overwhelming. To make it easier, many students choose to participate in our First-Year Learning Communities, or FLCs for short. 

Each FLC has between 25 to 30 members, and provides first-year students with the opportunity to meet classmates, develop friendships, form study groups, and develop academic and personal skills that will help you adjust to university life. 

FLCs also introduce you to the resources, opportunities, culture, and benefits of the campus and its surrounding community – all in a laid-back, student-led atmosphere.

Our FLCs are run by upper-year peer mentors – third and fourth year Rotman Commerce students who have been in your shoes and know what it’s like to be in first year. And to help you make friends in your classes, we try to ensure that your FLC-mates are enrolled in the same required first-year sections with you so you’ll always know people who can support you in your studies! 

After you complete your first year, it will be time to choose your specialist: 

Students choosing the Management specialist have the option to further specialize by completing one or more focus in:

Students in any of the 3 specialists can choose to complete either of the following focuses:

* The Focuses in International Business and Managing in Diverse Economies are part of the UofT Global Scholar program

While each specialist has its own suite of required courses, there’s a common core of required courses that all students take to gain a solid foundation in business fundamentals. 

Throughout your upper-year studies, you’ll also take optional Arts & Science elective courses. Each specialist varies in terms of the balance of business/management and elective courses required. 

Many students – particularly in our Management specialist – choose to complete an Arts & Science minor and/or a Rotman Commerce focus in addition to their Commerce specialist. 

Students completing the Management specialist automatically fulfill the requirements for an Economics minor. Students in the Accounting specialist can complete an Economics minor by electing an extra half (0.5) credit in upper year Economics in their third or fourth year.