The Wharton MBA

In your first year, the intensive core curriculum gives you the foundation of broad management skills to succeed in any industry. In your second year, you select from a wide range of majors and electives that help you develop one or more areas of expertise.

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Focus / Curriculum

Wharton's intensive, cross-functional core curriculum provides the essential management skills to succeed in any career, focusing on leadership, analytical skills, communication, and business fundamentals. In speaking with countless Wharton MBAs post-graduation, they tell us their rigorous training helps them achieve more in the workplace throughout their careers, even ten or twenty years after graduation.

Offered as quarter- or semester-long courses throughout the first year, the core curriculum covers traditional management disciplines – accounting, finance, marketing, management, marketing operations, statistics, and strategy – as well as the leadership, ethics, and communication skills needed in senior management.

You move through the core with your learning team – a group of five or six classmates with whom you work closely on projects and cases. By the end of the year, you have the analytical, financial, strategy, and leadership skills for second-year coursework, and a foundation for future success in any organization or career.

The month-long Pre-Term session provides basic and refresher courses so that all students start the year on the same footing. You can waive certain core classes based on prior academic coursework, credentials (e.g., CPA, CFA), or exam. Approximately 65% of first-year students waive out of at least one course, allowing them to take more electives.

Following is a brief summary of core courses. For complete course listings, including class format, requirements, and prerequisites, visit Core Curriculum in the online MBA Resource Guide.