Core courses are usually prerequisites to other courses in a discipline. Business schools consider core course work in the curriculum to be the minimum expected academic training needed in each key business function. These required courses lay the foundation for the program and are typically taken at the beginning of MBA study.

The core curriculum in most MBA programs includes the following.

• accounting
• economics
• finance
• human resources/organization management
• marketing
• manufacturing/production
• operations
• statistics/quantitative methods
• technology/information systems
• business strategy

Elective courses help you develop a functional specialty (or concentration) and sharpen your area of expertise. As you look at course offerings, consider the following issues.

• How many electives are offered? If there is a particular course that greatly interests you, will it be offered when you are enrolled? If you are a part-time or EMBA student, will electives be offered when you can take them?
• What is the average number of students enrolled in elective courses? How much access will you have to faculty?
• What is the structure of learning in elective courses?
• Under what circumstances are courses cancelled? How often does that occur?
• What are options for concentrations of study? Are there any special topics, add-on concentrations, or emphases that you should pursue, given your goals?
• When do you need to declare a concentration? Can you get scheduling priority for courses in your concentration? Can you have more than one concentration?
• Is the curriculum flexible? Does it offer independent study? Can you take a course outside the business school but within the larger university and receive MBA credit?
• Can you transfer any credits from previous course work?

• Average enrollment in core classes. The number of students in core courses is usually much higher than in electives. Find out whether a school counteracts a large class size by assigning students to smaller work groups. Find out what your access to faculty will be and what the structure of learning is.
• Course exemptions. Can you be exempt from any required courses? If so, how will this affect your program options?
• Course sequencing. How much input will you have in how your courses are sequenced? (This is important if you hope to take at least one elective in your concentration during your first year.) Because core courses are generally prerequisites to other courses, this issue has major implications for how quickly you can develop a functional specialty and be competitive for MBA internships. For example, someone pursuing a marketing concentration may need a course in marketing research to secure a research internship between the first and second year of a two-year program.
• Individual school strengths and specialties. What does the school view as its strongest curricular attributes? Are there one or more areas in which the program specializes? Or does the program generalize?