Are you drawn to business? Thinking about an MBA? With OCW, you can learn alongside the next generation of business leaders studying at MIT!

The MBA program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management starts with a collection of courses known as the first-semester core:

“Through the powerful, shared experience of the first-semester Core, students build the foundation of their MIT Sloan education. Students gain fundamental skills through required coursework in economics, accounting, leadership communication, business statistics, and organizational processes. Students may also choose one elective on marketing management, finance, operations management, or competitive strategy.”

OCW has all five required courses, and most of the elective options, that comprise the first-semester core.

Required Courses

• 15.010 Economic Analysis for Business Decisions
  The core subject in microeconomics builds a working knowledge of the analytical tools that bear most directly on the economic decisions firms must regularly make.
• 15.060 Data, Models, and Decisions
  Use data to make informed management decisions: probability and random variables, statistical estimation, regression, simulation, and optimization techniques.
• 15.280 Communication for Managers
  Learn communication strategies and methods, and develop writing and speaking skills necessary for management, through discussion, examples, and practice.
• 15.311 Organizational Processes
  Take effective action in complex organizational settings, by understanding the political, cultural, and strategic perspectives on organizations.
• 15.515 Financial Accounting
  Understand financial, managerial, and tax reports, emphasizing the relation between accounting data and the underlying economic events generating them.

Electives

• 15.401 Finance Theory I (with video lectures)
  The core theory of modern financial economics and financial management, with a focus on capital markets and investments.
• 15.761 Introduction to Operations Management
  Concepts, techniques, and tools to design, analyze, and improve core operational capabilities, and apply them to a broad range of application domains and industries.
• 15.810 Marketing Management
  An introduction to the theory and practice of marketing: develop effective marketing strategies, assess market opportunities, and design strategy implementation.
• The fourth elective option, 15.900 Competitive Strategy, is not currently in OCW. As alternatives, we might suggest 15.902 Strategic Management, 15.963 Advanced Strategy, or 15.912 Technology Strategy.

Last updated: 26 Jan 2017