Three key pillars highlight the Freeman School's new full-time MBA curriculum:

1. Data-driven real-world decision making – through a five-course data sequence, students learn to understand and apply insights from big data, to understand and appreciate the shortcomings of data, and to collect small focused data sets to precisely and rapidly answer critical questions.
    
2. Cross-functional experiential learning – guided by interdisciplinary faculty, students work in cross-functional teams to solve high-impact community and business problems.
    
3. Preparing managers for the business world of the future – students develop their skills as agile managers who can anticipate and manage crises and who understand the centrality of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in business.

Completed over four semesters, the full-time MBA program requires 61 credit hours. The curriculum encompasses knowledge core courses (20 credit hours), a data course sequence (10 credit hours), two intensive immersion courses (4 credit hours), a consulting practicum (3 credit hours), an impact capstone course (3 credit hours), and elective courses (21 credit hours).

The knowledge core courses, taken throughout the first two semesters, are taught in seven-week sessions. They provide a foundation in all functional disciplines of business. The program provides an opportunity to understand the interrelationships among these disciplines and how they are integrated in the management of successful organizations. ESG issues are woven throughout the knowledge core. 

The data course sequence develops the ability to understand and apply insights from big data, to appreciate the shortcomings of data, and to collect small focused data sets to precisely and rapidly answer critical questions. The sequence includes statistics and analytics courses, an advanced data interpretation course, and two area-specific data core courses.

The intensive immersion courses, focused on negotiations and successful leadership, take place just prior to the start of the spring semester of the first year and the start of the fall semester in the second year.

Through the consulting practicum, a semester-long course in the spring of the first year, students work in teams on cross-disciplinary projects. Core course faculty from different business disciplines oversee and advise student teams. 

The impact capstone semester-long course, taken in the fall of the second year, draws on students' problem-solving skills from different business disciplines to help a local or regional company. Guided by core course faculty, these company projects focus on making a societal impact in the areas of sustainability, social inequities, or climate change. 

Finally, students complete elective courses in their second year through which they may earn concentrations or specializations in business analytics, finance, strategy and marketing, and/or sustainability. The elective set includes approximately 45 course options from the following fields of study:

• Accounting and Taxation (ACCN, TAXN)
• Business and Law (LGST, MCOM)
• Energy (ENRG)
• Finance and Economics (FINE, ECAN)
• Management (MGMT)
• Management Science (MGSC)
• Marketing (MKTG)

In addition, two required career development courses help students identify appropriate career goals, conduct an effective job search and enhance their careers after graduation. The explicit consideration of career issues early in the program will be helpful in the selection of elective courses. A grade of pass in both non-credit career development courses is a requirement for graduation.

Curriculum

An outline of the Freeman School's full-time MBA program, completed in two years over four semesters, follows:

Concentrations & Specializations

Strategy and Marketing Specialization

Sustainability Concentration

Sustainability Specialization