Course description
The MBA program requires completion of 51 semester units of coursework: 21 units of core courses and 30 units of elective courses. To qualify, you must register and pay fees for both fall and spring semesters in each academic year (a total of four 15-week semesters); there are no courses offered during the summer.
Core Requirements
The core consists of eleven courses. All must be taken in the first year to provide the foundation for the second year's advanced work.
Elective Requirements
Students may select from hundreds of elective courses, both within and outside of the business school, to fulfill the 30-unit requirement. At least 25 of the 30 elective course units must be taken in graduate business classes. The remaining units may be taken as either graduate or upper-division undergraduate courses in other departments on campus. With the permission of the MBA program director, students may take two lower-division undergraduate language courses and apply 60% of the credits earned toward the 30-unit elective requirement.
Cirriculum
Your Haas education is anchored in the fundamentals of general management and the latest theories and best practices in business—from accounting and finance to marketing and strategy. You build a basic framework in qualitative, quantitative, analytical, strategic, and problem solving skills. And the faculty improves and updates the program regularly to reflect fast changes in the business world.
The rigorous curriculum is rooted in the scientific disciplines of the university—economics, mathematics, social sciences such as psychology and sociology, and other areas. Faculty members who are experts in these fields apply them toward increasing our knowledge of successful management, leadership, human behavior, organizational performance, and economic and market functions. As a result, you not only gain knowledge about best business practices, but also learn about the fundamental principles behind them—the "how" and the "why." The Berkeley MBA program is for individuals who like to think deeply and expand their understanding of the world.
Year One
The MBA Program is anchored by 11 required, rigorous and integrated courses that promote a general-management perspective and that provide a framework for the more function-specific courses that follow. The first year of the program is divided into four quarters. Both the fall and the spring semesters contain two separate groups of courses, A and B.
Year Two
You have great flexibility in choosing from a wide variety of electives and dual-degree offerings—from within the Haas School and from the wider university—as well as designing courses of your own in conjunction with a faculty member. Electives, which are introduced rapidly and are updated regularly, reflect the newest ideas, trends, and thinking in business.
