Second-Year Curriculum

In the second year of the MBA program, you will continue to broaden your experience and perspective, deepen your knowledge in a specific discipline, or simply pursue areas of interest.

Customize your MBA experience by choosing from a broad range of electives to strengthen leadership areas, ensure a solid general management foundation, and explore new subjects.

Each year we offer at least 100 courses that change year to year. As an example, here are the electives that were offered in 2019–20.

Courses by Academic Area

Accounting
  • Accounting-Based Valuation
  • Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Alphanomics: Informational Arbitrage in Equity Markets
  • Corporate Taxes and Business Strategy
  • Board Governance
  • Individual Taxes and Financial Planning
Finance
  • Innovating for Financial Inclusion
  • Private Equity Investing Seminar
  • Debt Markets
  • Investment Management and Entrepreneurial Finance
  • Modeling for Investment Management
  • History of Financial Crises
  • Money and Banking
  • Corporate Financial Modeling
  • Advanced Corporate Financial Modeling
  • Financial Trading Strategies
  • Entrepreneurial Finance
  • China’s Financial System
  • Angel and Venture Capital Financing for Entrepreneurs and Investors
  • Private Wealth Management and Personal Investing
  • Private Equity - An Overview of the Industry
GSB General & Interdisciplinary
  • Investing for Good
  • Real Estate Investment
  • Policy Time
  • Creating and Scaling High Potential Ventures in Developing Economies
  • Strategic Communication
  • Reputation Management: Strategies for Successful Communicators
  • Strategic Philanthropy and Impact Investing
  • The Impact of AI on Productivity and Personal Performance
  • Family Business
  • Energy Markets and Policy
  • Negotiation Dynamics in Sports, Entertainment and Media
  • Disruptions in Education
  • The Economics of Higher Education
  • Winning Writing
  • Dynamics of the Global Wine Industry
  • Sports Business Management
  • Fiscal Policy
  • Problem Solving for Social Change
  • Diverse Leadership as an Imperative for Impact
  • Individual Philanthropy: Giving Models, Purpose and Practicum
  • Practical Policy and Politics
  • Civic Workshop
  • The Business of Healthcare
  • Strategic Pivoting for Your Next Chapter
  • Power of You: Women in Leadership
  • Power in Finance
  • Creating and Scaling High-Potential Ventures in Developing Economies
  • Essentials of Strategic Communication
  • Designing Solutions by Leveraging the Frinky Science of the Human Mind
  • Global Trip Leadership Skills
  • Clean Energy Opportunities
  • Technology Licensing
  • Freedom, Democracy, and Capitalism
  • Issues in Leadership
  • Innovation and Management in Health Care
  • The Entertainment Industry - An Intersection of Art and Commerce
  • Political Communication: How Leaders Become Leaders
  • Dilemmas. Decisions.
  • Managing Difficult Conversations
  • The Open Road: Innovation in Cars, Driving, and Mobility
  • How Software Ate Finance
  • The Policy, Politics and Economics for Solving Global Warming
  • High-Stakes Decision Making
  • Designing AI to Cultivate Human Well-Being
Economic Analysis and Policy
  • Health Law: Finance and Insurance
  • The Evolution of Finance
  • Inclusive Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries
  • Economics of Strategy and Organization
Marketing
  • Customer Acquisition for New Ventures
  • Marketing Research
  • Humor: Serious Business
  • Persuasion
  • The Travel and Airline Industry
  • Applied Behavioral Economics
  • Rethinking Purpose
  • Consumer Behavior
  • Monetization
Organizational Behavior
  • Leadership Fellows I
  • Leadership Fellows II
  • Acting with Power
  • Leadership Coaching
  • Leading and Managing Health Care Organizations: Innovation and Collaboration in High-Stakes Settings
  • Leadership Perspectives
  • High-Performance Leadership
  • Interpersonal Dynamics
  • The Paths to Power
  • Conflict Management and Negotiation
  • Lives of Consequence: How Individuals Create Happy, Meaningful and Successful Lives
  • Leadership in the Entertainment Industry
  • Beyond Disruption: Entrepreneurial Leadership within Existing Organizations
  • Leading through Culture
  • The Art of Self-Coaching
  • Insight to Outcome
  • Negotiations
Operations Info & Technology
  • Design for Extreme Affordability
  • Design for Disruption
  • Biodesign Innovation: Needs Finding and Concept Creation
  • Biodesign Innovation: Concept Development and Implementation
  • Data Science for Platforms
Political Economics
  • Finding Spiritual Meaning at Work: Business Exemplars
  • The Business World: Moral and Spiritual Inquiry through Literature
  • Global Business, Religion, and National Culture
  • The Future of Cities: Entrepreneurship, Policy and Business Strategy
  • Energy: Innovation, Policy and Business Strategy
Strategic Management
  • Entrepreneurship from Diverse Perspectives
  • Strategies of Effective Product Management
  • Equity by Design: Building Diverse and Inclusive Organizations
  • Create a New Venture: From Idea to Launch I
  • Create a New Venture: From Idea to Launch II
  • Formation of Impact Ventures
  • Taking Social Innovation to Scale
  • Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital: Partnership for Growth
  • Entrepreneurial Approaches to Education Reform
  • POWer: Building the Entrepreneurial Mindset from the Perspective of Women
  • Building and Managing Professional Sales Organizations
  • Entrepreneurship: Formation of New Ventures
  • Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital
  • Managing Growing Enterprises
  • The Startup Garage: Design
  • Health Information Technology and Strategy
  • The Startup Garage: Testing and Launch
  • Strategic Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations and Social Ventures
  • Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation
  • Leading Strategic Change in the Health Care Industry
  • Systems Leadership for the Digital Industrial Transformation
  • Spontaneous Management
  • Longevity: Business Implications and Opportunities
  • Conversations in Management
  • Protecting Ideas
  • The Yin and Yang of Family Business Transitions
  • Fundamentals of Effective Selling
  • The Industrialist’s Dilemma
  • Marketplaces for Goods and Services
  • Intellectual Property: Financial and Strategic Management
  • Building Strategic Competence: Observations from Battlegrounds Overseas and in Washington DC
  • Entrepreneurial Acquisition
  • Riding the Next Wave in Developing Economies
  • Search Fund Garage
  • Moore’s Law and the Convergence of Computing and Communications; Strategic Thinking in Action
  • Strategic Thinking in Action - In Business and Beyond
  • The Political Economy of China
  • Assessing High Impact Business Models in Emerging Markets

*Based on 2019–2020 course offerings and subject to change

Featured Story

Stefanos Zenios working with students in the Co-Lab | Steve Castillo
February 16, 2018
Written

Startup Garage Celebrates Five Years

At Startup Garage, students learn to create and launch new products. For its fifth anniversary, meet five companies that began as class projects.

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Kenneth Fang MBA '19
Student Spotlight
MBA
2019

The Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program helped me understand my leadership styles and how I can impact others. The theory and practice from the program prepared me to better adapt to a diverse set of situations. I became a more versatile leader and person.

Featured Story

A student with her laptop in a classroom. Credit: Elena Zhukova
October 2, 2019
Written

New Faculty and Electives Introduced for the 2019–2020 Academic Year

The new academic year brings new faculty and electives to expand student perspectives.

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Ivan Rahman MBA '19
Student Spotlight
MBA
2019

Interpersonal Dynamics — or affectionately known as “Touchy Feely” — taught me to listen. I know it may sound simple, but it wasn’t for me. I realized that what I had always thought was listening was capturing only part of the story. True listening — being able to discern both the message and emotions underlying someone’s words — strikes me as a superpower. “Touchy Feely” helped me cultivate that superpower.

Last Updated 14 Jun 2020