Senior Capstone Experience

Capstone courses provide integrative learning experiences that build on knowledge from your previous courses and co-curricular experiences. This process asks you to make connections among ideas and experiences; and to synthesize and transfer learning to new, complex situations within and beyond the classroom.

The integrative learning associated with a capstone course requires you to:

• Explore a topic in depth and develop a rich awareness of how to make connections that deepen your understanding of a field of study.

• Present theories and facts to support a point a view.

• Make explicit reference to previous learning and apply this learning in an innovative way to demonstrate skills and comprehension of concepts.

• Identify multiple approaches for framing and analyzing business situations.

This is accomplished through your understanding of the foundational knowledge of a discipline, the application of this knowledge, and your ability to be a self-directed learner.

Ross capstone courses require you to produce a signature work as a final deliverable. For signature work, you (or your team) produce an assignment that expresses insights, skills, and knowledge acquired from inquiry, synthesis, application, and reflection. Examples of signature work include a senior thesis, a comprehensive action learning report, a business plan, or a learning portfolio.

Currently at Ross, we have three classifications for capstone courses:

Capstone Thesis courses explore the interdependencies between business theories and business functions to understand how to use frameworks for research and policy analysis. 

Professional Capstone courses synthesize learning within a business academic area and make connections between academic learning and the professional world. Professional capstone courses include topics that address complex concepts and explore specific competencies that are relevant for future professional endeavors.

Capstone MAP courses employ action-based learning with the goal of integrating business knowledge for the development of solutions. The action-based learning experience follows a continuous cycle of observation and analysis, conceptualization and hypothesis forming, and experimentation. To be considered as capstone MAP, the course should have a direct client interaction and sponsorship of a real-world project.

Given that the capstone course is an iterative learning experience, you will complete this requirement in your final semester (winter term of your BBA senior year).