Core Curriculum

The core curriculum consists of a Pre-Program Residential weekend held before classes commence and 7 workshops held throughout the first two years. In addition, 11 specific courses that comprise the common body of knowledge of business administration as defined by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International).

Core courses are prefixed MBAW for the Residential Orientation and workshops and MBAA 6010-6200 represent the core curriculum mostly taken as a cohort.

Core courses are described in the next section. They include the following:

• MBAA 6010 Managing People and Organizations 3 semester hours
• MBAA 6020 Financial and Managerial Accounting 3 semester hours
• MBAA 6030 Global Economic Structures and Systems 1.5 semester hours
• MBAA 6040 Managing Markets and Customer Relationships 3 semester hours
• MBAA 6050 Managing Operations 1.5 semester hours
• MBAA 6060 Strategic Management 3 semester hours
• MBAA 6070 Managing Financial Resources 3 semester hours
• MBAA 6080 Data, Models, and Decisions 3 semester hours
• MBAA 6090 Managing Information Systems 3 semester hours
• MBAA 6100 Managing International Business 3 semester hours
• Business and Society Requirement 3 semester hours

Area of Emphasis/Specialization

Depth in a specialized field of knowledge is obtained by the selection of three courses within one of six designated areas of emphasis. For example, a student who plans on selecting MBAF: Finance as their area of emphasis/specialization, must take 3 MBAF advanced courses to fulfill the area of emphasis/specialization requirement. These specializations and their course designator prefixes are listed below:

MBAC: Marketing
MBAD: Information Technology
MBAE: Human Resources and Organizational Behavior
MBAF: Finance
MBAG: International
MBAH: Entrepreneurship

International Experience

The international experience is designed to draw together the knowledge gained in the MBA program into a combined focus. Two options are available:

Option One: Comparative Management Systems (CMS), MBAI 690  and MBAI 691  

This integrative course requires prep activities in the Fall and Spring semesters prior to the three-week travel taken in the first Summer Session. Prior to departure, students participate in a corequisite advanced elective course, MBAI 690 International Regional Strategies: Cultural and Industrial , during which they perform area studies of the nations to be visited and participate in seminars conducted by area and industry specialists. The industries visited are held constant for each annual CMS Program. Students are grouped by business functional areas and meet with executives from those areas in each firm visited. Group papers and presentations comprise final outputs for the course.

Option Two: Bonn Program, “The European Union,” MBAG 676  and 1 free elective

The program is designed so students can experience an in-depth immersion into the EU, beginning with establishing a baseline historical perspective of the ideas and events that led to its creation. Included are visits to major companies to examine their practices as they compete in EU and global marketplaces. Field trips to EU headquarters in Brussels and to the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt to examine how policy makers at both the EU and the European Monetary Union (countries with the Euro) are influenced not only by economic and political factors but also in many ways by historical events and cultural traditions deeply imbedded in each EU member state. Each year the program is adapted to include the current critical issues facing the EU and the Eurozone.