nyu shanghai senior thesis

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Business and Finance

The business program at NYU Shanghai is designed to provide students with comprehensive preparation for the modern globalized business world. It builds upon the liberal education designed into the NYU Shanghai core curriculum. Before entering the major, students will have developed an essential set of skills in mathematics, critical thinking, and oral and written communication. They will also have acquired a familiarity with the general cultural and scientific contexts in which businesses operate.

Requirements for the Major

Students can choose to follow the academic bulletin from the year that they were admitted or a more recent academic bulletin. For example, if you were admitted to NYU Shanghai in Fall 2019, you can choose to follow the academic bulletin 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022.

Business and Finance major students may pursue  Business Management, Business Accounting, Business Analytics, and Marketing track . Tracks are not required. Declare your tracks here !

Planning the Major

To declare the Business and Finance major , students must have a final grade of C, or currently enrolled in BUSF-SHU 101 Statistics for Business and Economics.

Faculty Mentors

Faculty mentors are the leading faculty and experts in the major disciplines. Students can reach out to faculty mentors for specific questions about the major, and references for connecting with relevant discipline resources. If you have specific questions about specific fields of study within the major, you can search for faculty through the faculty directory .

Assistant Professor of Global China Studies, GCS Area Head

To advance in today’s global business environment, one must develop an exceptionally broad array of intellectual skills. The modern business environment demands the ability to analyze problems rigorously, to develop innovative and creative solutions, and to work effectively within the context of an organization. That in turn demands an understanding of the customers, the cultural and scientific contexts in which businesses operate, alongside an understanding of the techniques by which firms succeed in a competitive economy. Check out the  Business major info session recording  to learn more about the major! A successful business combines labor and capital to produce a good or service at a price and quality that customers want to purchase. In a complex business, different individuals often take responsibility for different aspects of that endeavor, such as operations management, marketing and sales, information systems management, and financial management. An effective business education should provide students with an overview of all these fields, together with an opportunity to explore some areas in greater depth. 

What knowledge and skills will students acquire by majoring in Business and Finance?

Within the major, students obtain:

• a deeper understanding of the modern global business environment and its economic structure;
• disciplinary skills in economics and statistics;
• a focused introduction to accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and organizational management.

The Business & Finance major helps students develop knowledge and skills in corporate finance, investments management, securities trading, financial markets, and more.

The following courses are the foundational courses for the Business and Finance major. Typically, students who are interested in pursuing a Business and Finance major are recommended to take Microeconomics and Statistics for Business and Economics in the second semester of the first year. 

Business courses are offered at various global locations. Before studying away, students are highly recommended to take the Principles of Microeconomics, Economics of Global Business, Statistics for Business and Economics, Principles of Accounting, Foundations of Finance, and Calculus. Students ideally complete Corporate Finance before studying in New York.

Students who plan to study in New York, should consider the following:

Students should anticipate registering for courses at the Stern School of Business and College of Arts and Science (CAS), among other schools.

Upper-level Stern courses open to non-Stern students after the first five days of registration.

Stern graduate courses are not available to undergraduate students.

Students are not permitted to audit Stern courses.

Center for Business Education and Research

For co-curricular activities and research-related resources in business, please refer to the website of NYU Shanghai Center for Business Education and Research (CBER). The center aims to promote innovative research on China-related business and facilitate collaborations among industry professionals, business faculty, and students.

Business and Economics Honors Program

Business and Finance, Business and Marketing, Economics, and Data Science major students will be invited to apply for the Business and Economics Honors Program based on their academic performance and research interests. The Honors Program offers students an opportunity to work closely with distinguished faculty members in Shanghai and New York as students embark on a meaningful and rewarding year-long research project.

For students who plan to double major in Business and Finance and Economics, they may use the Business and Economics Honors Program to count either the China Business Study requirement (if the topic is China-related) or the Economics capstone, but not both. For students who plan to double major in Business and Finance and Data Science, they may use the Business and Economics Honors Program to count either the China Business Study requirement (if the topic is China-related) or the Data Science capstone, but not both. 

Students are permitted to work on an individual basis under the supervision of a full-time faculty member in the Business discipline if they have maintained an overall GPA of 3.0 and have a study proposal that is approved by a Business faculty member. The results of the study are embodied in a report of a type required by the instructor.

In order to comply with accreditation requirements, NYU Shanghai requires all students to complete either a capstone requirement in the form of a senior thesis and/or a required capstone course in the major(s). This requirement may be completed in two ways:

Student completes required capstone course in major(s)

If the student’s primary major does not require a capstone, student completes a senior thesis paper based on a graded paper/project/presentation work for a required or elective course taken in the junior or senior year for the primary major, or a paper supervised by an NYU Shanghai faculty member in the primary major, and approved as meeting the thesis requirement by the faculty in the major. 

The requirements for the thesis paper will vary by major with a minimum length of 4,000 words and 15 double spaced 12 point font pages. The thesis must address a problem or question in the domain of the major, be written as part of a three or four-credit course required by or elective in the major, and demonstrate the student's research, analytical, and writing skills trained through the undergraduate program. It is strongly recommended that the paper is written individually as issues with word and page requirements and ownership (and thereby plagiarism) arise with group papers.

Seniors Thesis FAQs

When is the senior thesis due date and how is it submitted?

Students may develop their senior thesis from a required or elective course taken in their junior or senior year for the primary major or a paper supervised by an NYU faculty member in the primary major.Students must identify and confirm with their academic advisor the course for which the paper will be written and submit an electronic copy of the paper in early May (The date and link will be provided later via email). 

How and by whom is the senior thesis assessed? 

A major faculty committee will review the thesis and grade the final thesis as Pass or Fail. A thesis which receives a Pass grade will be identified as the capstone project of the student and will meet the graduation requirement. A student whose thesis receives a fail grade will be required to take and pass an oral exam on the major, the record of that exam and the thesis paper will be included for accreditation purposes where applicable. The faculty member who supervised the student on the thesis will be identified as the student's senior thesis faculty mentor.

Who needs to complete the senior thesis paper?

A student only needs to complete the thesis paper process above if their primary major does not have a capstone. They do need to write a thesis paper for the primary major if it does not have a capstone even if their secondary major does have a capstone. They do not need to write a thesis paper for the secondary major regardless of whether it has a capstone or not.

Where are the senior thesis papers stored?

All capstone projects and thesis papers from primary majors will be kept at the library, and will only be accessible for accreditation purposes and then only upon request.

What if the paper requirements for the senior thesis described above (e.g.: paper length) are not met exactly by assignments in the business courses listed?

In those cases, students can work with a thesis advisor to build upon the work in the course and develop it into a senior thesis that meets the requirements specified.

Is there a format I should follow for the thesis?

The paper should include the following:

Must be equivalent or more than 15 written pages or approximately 4,000 words, exclusive of appendices, abstract, figures, and references.

12-point font and 1-inch margins.

Include a cover page ( template )

What kind of resources are available for writing the thesis? 

Students can get support from their faculty mentor, other professors (including NYU professors from other sites), Writing and Speaking fellows from the Academic Resources Center, and the Library.

Is it possible to use a group paper to fulfill the senior thesis requirement?

This is strongly discouraged. Firstly, the point of a Senior Thesis is for an individual student to showcase his or her accumulated knowledge and original thinking of the subject matter. A group paper shields this. Secondly, it is difficult to tease out portions of an individual's work from a larger group paper and have the individual’s work make sense. Lastly, and most importantly, plagiarism issues arise when Senior Theses are run through Turnitin and it is potentially found that portions of the work product are similar or the same as another submission. In this situation, academic integrity issues will arise, which may prevent a student from graduating on time, if at all, depending on the findings. Thus, it is prudent to submit an individual and original work.

Can I use a class I took during my study away semester in my junior year to fulfill the thesis requirement? 

Yes, this is acceptable as long as the course is relevant to the student’s major and all the requirements for a Senior Thesis are met.

Should you have any questions regarding the senior thesis, please reach out to your academic advisor .

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