The C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business is a constituent college of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, United States. The business college offers undergraduate programs, MBA programs, specialized master's programs and doctoral programs. It was founded as the first business school in the American South in 1912. The Terry College has 10 programs that have top 10 public rankings. The Bachelor of Business Administration degree is recognized as a top 25 undergraduate program with a large residential enrollment, and the MBA Program is considered a top 27 graduate business program that has a selectivity rate of approximately 35%.[4]
The Terry MBA is offered as a full-time degree on campus in Athens, as a part-time degree or Executive MBA in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, and a fully online MBA option was added in 2023.[5]
All of the college's programs are accredited by AACSB International – the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.[6]
History
"Next to farming, more men enter business than any other occupation; yet there is not an institution [in the] South...that offers a course for such students."[7]
- Joseph Stewart on the need of business education at the University of Georgia in his Annual Report to Chancellor Walter B. Hill (1904)
The Terry College was founded as the "School of Commerce" in 1912 by the state's Board of Regents. The early years of the school were "fragile" as the program struggled to acquire faculty and funding to serve the several students who had declared their intention to pursue the new Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree.[7] The first such degree was awarded in 1915 to Willis Brazeal Sparks.[7]
The school was known as the College of Business Administration from 1940 until 1991, when it was renamed the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business, honoring the late Herman Terry, and his wife, Mary Virginia, who as benefactors have endowed faculty chairs, research fellowships, scholarships, and funded facility upgrades.[8]
Degrees programs
In Athens, the Terry College offers an undergraduate program, four master's degrees (the Full-Time MBA, the Master of Accountancy, the Master of Marketing Research, and the Master of Science in Business Analytics), and eight doctoral degree tracks. It offers three online degrees: an MBA, a Master of Business and Technology, and the newest online option is a Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcc) for working professionals with non-accounting backgrounds. The Terry College also offers Executive MBA and Professional MBA programs at the Terry Executive Education Center in Atlanta.[9]
Terry MBAs on an International Business program trip to China
Undergraduate majors
The Terry College offers undergraduate majors in accounting, economics, finance, management, management information systems, marketing, real estate, risk management/insurance, and a co-major in international business.[10] All UGA students who plan to pursue a bachelor's degree in business are initially admitted to the Terry College as intended-business majors. Students can apply to a Terry major once they meet all application eligibility requirements, typically during their second year at UGA.[11]
Undergraduates can supplement their degree program with one or more certificates, which are proof of skills development offered in eight areas of specialization: actuarial science, entrepreneurship, FinTech, legal studies, music business, personal and organizational leadership, sustainability, and workforce diversity.[12] There is also an academic minor in business available to UGA undergraduates.
Full-time MBA
The Terry Full-Time MBA is a highly selective program taught on the Athens campus, with staff, team rooms, and classrooms headquartered in Correll Hall. The curriculum is delivered in four semesters. MBA students are encouraged to complete an internship during the summer semester between their first and second year. The MBA Career Management Center assists with internships, job placement, career coaching, and networking events.[13]
The first-year core curriculum provides a solid foundation of management principles and business practices. Students focus their second-year curriculum on a choice of nine market-driven specializations and three additional areas of focus. A total of 61 credit hours are required for graduation, including 1 credit for community service.[14]
Part-time and online MBA
In addition to the full-time program in Athens, the Terry College has three MBA formats designed for working professionals — people who plan to work full-time as they pursue their MBA degrees part-time.
Terry's Executive MBA is geared toward mid- to senior-level managers with a minimum of seven years of work experience. Instruction is delivered 50% remotely and 50% in person on weekends in Atlanta, and the program is completed in 18 months.
Terry's Professional MBA is designed for early- to mid-career professionals. PMBA class schedules are offered on either weekday evenings or Saturday-only in Atlanta. Terry's PMBA program can be completed in 17, 20, or 23 months.
Terry's Online MBA is taught 100% virtually and asynchronously. The OMBA curriculum is very similar to the PMBA program. Terry’s OMBA also can be completed in 17, 20, or 23 months.[15]
Former Viacom executive Jimmy Barge meets with students following his Terry Leadership Speaker Series presentation, January 2010.
The Institute for Leadership Advancement (ILA) in the Terry College of Business was established in 2001. ILA provides students with self-assessments, coaching/mentoring, action learning and feedback focused on the development of greater emotional competence. Two undergraduate leadership programs form the centerpiece of ILA programming: the Leonard Leadership Scholars Program (for Terry College majors) and the Leadership Fellows Program (for students in any UGA major). Completion of either program earns the student a certificate in Personal and Organizational Leadership.[18]
ILA hosts the Terry Leadership Speaker Series, which brings well-known leaders from a variety of organizations to the Terry College of Business. In these student-oriented forums, leaders are asked to discuss their leadership styles and experiences.
Music Business
The Music Business Certificate Program was launched in January 2006 as a response to the growing music and entertainment industry in the state of Georgia. In starting the program, former director Bruce Burch often said Atlanta is now recognized as the "fourth music center" in the country behind New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville, and is growing rapidly as a hotbed for music and film production.[19] Since August 2010, the program has been under the leadership of Athens-based musician and producer/engineer David Barbe.[20]
Students can earn an interdisciplinary certificate in music business by receiving a hands-on education about subjects like music and business fundamentals, copyright issues, creative content, artist management and production and technology. Music and entertainment industry executives are brought in from across the country to speak to classes, providing not only "real world" perspective, but also networking opportunities. Only 100 students are annually enrolled in the program.
Actuarial Science
The Actuarial Science Certificate Program is designed to prepare students for an actuarial career. Actuaries apply mathematical models to assess the financial cost of uncertainty. There is a high demand for actuaries across all industries. This certificate program is open to all undergraduate students currently enrolled at UGA.[21]
Legal Studies
This certificate program prepares students for the complex legal environment of business and helps them also to gauge their interest in pursuing a Juris Doctor degree. To obtain the certificate students must complete 15 course hours with a minimum grade of C (2.00) in those courses. A number of pre-requisite courses are necessary before this program may be undertaken.[22]
Entrepreneurship
Terry Entrepreneurship is housed in the department of MIS and focuses on the four key tasks of entrepreneurship: opportunity identification, resource acquisition and deployment, goal setting and strategy formulation, and implementation. This highly active concentration hosts a multitude of seminars and events on and off the UGA campus, including "UGA's Next Top Entrepreneur Competition" and "UGA Startups."
UGA's Next Top Entrepreneur was dubbed the "American Idol" of business plan competitions. Both a competition and a seminar series lasting the full academic year, it is open to all UGA students. Competitors participate in a series of interactive seminars and individual coaching sessions focused on starting a business. The first year of competition (2008–09) resulted in eight businesses being launched, $212,000 of initial revenue, and procurement of angel funding.
The UGA Startups series was designed for entrepreneurs to have access to some of the most seasoned entrepreneurs in the Southeast. Topics include innovation, funding, opportunity analysis, business communications, purchasing businesses, and franchising. UGA Startups events are held at the Terry Executive Education Center.
Dedicated in December 1990, the Selig Center improves upon its predecessor, the Division of Research, which was established in the late 1940s.[23]
UGA President Emeritus Charles B. Knapp delivers the economic forecast for 2014 to regional business leaders at the Georgia Economic Outlook Series.
Through its range of projects — major economic impact studies, economic forecasts, publications, information services, and data products — the center's efforts help to guide business decisions and public policy directions. In doing so, the Selig Center has become the Terry College of Business's most visible public service unit.
Georgia Economic Outlook Series
Each year the Terry College hosts the Georgia Economic Outlook series in 12 cities throughout the state. The series provides more than 3,000 business and government leaders the foundation to make informed decisions based on economic data from the Selig Center for Economic Growth.[24]
On the University of Georgia’s main campus, the Terry College of Business is housed in the Business Learning Community, which is situated at the center of UGA’s 760-acre campus next to the intersection of Lumpkin and Baxter streets. The Terry College’s state-of-the-art home is a modern, collaborative, learning, teaching and working environment for students, faculty and staff.
Construction of UGA’s Business Learning Community was completed in 2019.
The complex of six buildings was jointly funded through a partnership between the state of Georgia and private donors. Correll Hall was the first building to open in 2015. The next phase, which included Amos Hall, Benson Hall, and Moore-Rooker Hall, opened two years later. The third and final phase of construction was completed in 2019. It features two buildings — Ivester Hall and Sanford and Barbara Orkin Hall — separated by the Coca-Cola Plaza.[36]
One block north of the Business Learning Community at the edge of downtown Athens, Studio 225 is home to the UGA Entrepreneurship Program, which is taught and led by business faculty. Located on West Broad Street, Studio 225 includes a mix of offices and multipurpose educational areas — such as a maker space, a pitch deck and study nooks — where students interested in entrepreneurship can meet, collaborate and form teams.[37]
Pre-dating construction of the Business Learning Community, the Terry College of Business was formerly located in three buildings on the University of Georgia’s historic North Campus: Brooks Hall, Sanford Hall and Caldwell Hall.
Brooks Hall, designed by architect Neel Reid, was originally known as the Commerce-Journalism Building before being renamed in 1974 for Robert Preston Brooks, who was UGA’s first Rhodes Scholar and the School of Commerce’s first dean, serving from 1920 to 1945. Construction of the building was completed in 1928, with a three-story annex added in 1972.[38] The original structure was seriously damaged by fire in 1995 and restored a year later.
Sanford Hall was funded through private gifts and dedicated in 1997.[39] The three-story building opened with 15 classrooms, a student advising center, and a student lounge. UGA alumnus Charles S. Sanford Jr. gave the largest donation for the building that bears his family’s name.
Caldwell Hall was built in 1981.[40] The classroom building is named for Harmon W. Caldwell, a UGA alumnus who served as university president from 1948 to 1964 and chancellor of the University System of Georgia from 1948 to 1964.[41]
The Terry Executive Education Center in Atlanta.
Atlanta
The Terry College of Business has two satellite campuses located in Griffin and Atlanta, Georgia.
The Terry College's "home away from home" in Atlanta is the Terry Executive Education Center, located in the Buckhead business district.
Classes for the college's Executive and Professional MBA programs are taught at the center, in addition to non-degree programs, such as Lean Six Sigma and Financial Planning Certification. The center also serves as a focal point and meeting place for Terry students, alumni, faculty, and staff to interact with Atlanta's business community. The 38,000-square-foot facility located inside Live Oak Square on Lenox Road features tiered executive classrooms, conference rooms, break-out meeting spaces and interview suites.[42]
UGA's Griffin campus, located 40 miles (64 km) south of Atlanta, was established as the Georgia Experiment Station in 1888.[43] UGA Griffin offers graduate degree programs and undergraduate degree completion programs, including a bachelor's degree in general business from Terry.[44]
