Curriculum and Course Selection

Every graduate management program is in the business of teaching business, but no two programs are alike.

To understand a specific program’s approach to a business education, you need to take a look at its curriculum (core courses, electives, and special options), as well as registration and course selection.

Core courses are required of all students and form the necessary foundation for academic training in each key business function. Core coursework is typically taken at the start of your MBA studies.

Core courses in most MBA programs include:

• 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 subject specialty (or concentration) and sharpen your area of expertise. As you look at electives, consider:

• How many electives are offered in your desired field of study? 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 electives? How much access will you have to faculty?
• What is the structure of learning in electives?
• Under what circumstances are courses canceled? 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?
• 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?

Curricular Issues

• Average enrollment in core classes. The number of students in core courses is usually much higher than in electives. Find out whether a school balances out a large class size with smaller student work groups. Also ask about your access to faculty and what the format of the class will be.
• Course exemptions. Can you be exempt from any required courses? If so, how will exemptions affect your program options?
• Course sequencing. How much input will you have in how your courses are sequenced? This issue 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, sequencing has major implications for how quickly you can develop a specialty and compete for MBA internships. Someone pursuing a marketing concentration may need a course in marketing research to get 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 specialty areas in which the program is well known?

Each business school has a different process for managing registration and course selection. To make sure you get the classes you want, ask the following questions.

• How does class scheduling or registration work—by open enrollment, a lottery system, or some other method? What are your chances of getting space in classes when you need them?
• When are course schedules finalized? Can you change your schedule? If so, how, when, and under what circumstances? How does “drop/add” work?
• What is a typical course load? Can you increase the number of courses beyond what is suggested for a term? What is the credit-hour limit per term, semester, and year?
• Will a course be canceled if it doesn’t meet a minimum enrollment number?
• Is there an academic advising system?
• Are course syllabi available before course registration deadlines?