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MBA Curriculum

MBA Curriculum

Through a combination of core courses and self-selected electives, you will deepen your knowledge in a wide range of pertinent business skills and create a customized MBA experience that will help you advance your career.  


Expected Full-Time MBA Schedule

Summer Fall Quarter Winter Quarter Spring Quarter

ONLINE QUANTITATIVE FUNDAMENTALS


CAREER LAUNCH AND WORKSHOPS
 

ORIENTATION

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Business Communications (1 unit)
  • Personal Branding (1 unit)
     

CORE COURSES

  • Accounting (4 units)

CORE COURSES

  • Statistics (4 units)

  • Organizational Behavior (4 units)

  • Finance (4 units)

ELECTIVES (0-4 units)

 

INTERNSHIP SEARCH 
 

 

MBA CAREER FAIRS

CORE COURSES

  • Economics (4 units)

  • Marketing (4 units)

ELECTIVES (4-8 units)

 

INTERNSHIP INTERVIEWS

 

360° LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

CORE COURSES

  • Strategy (4 units)

  • Operations (4 units)

  • Articulation and Critical Thinking (4 units)

ELECTIVES (0-4 units)

 

INTERNSHIP PREP
 

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN 

INDUSTRY IMMERSIONS

Take a transformational deep dive into biotechnology, food and agriculture, sustainable energy or technology finance. Experiential learning courses, extracurricular activities and opportunities are designed to build on UC Davis’ leadership, business expertise and corporate network in these fields, positioning you for a rewarding career.


COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

 

Summer Fall Quarter Winter Quarter Spring Quarter

INTERNSHIP 

Dazzle your internship manager—you just might land your dream job before your second year even begins.

10-WEEK INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT CAPSTONE COURSE 

Work on a 10-week team project for companies ranging from Fortune 500 firms to ultra-fast-paced Silicon Valley startups.
 

ELECTIVES (6 units) 
 

STUDY AROUND THE WORLD 

Study at one of our partner schools. (Students on an international exchange must satisfy an alternative capstone course.) 

ELECTIVES (12 units)

 

INTERNATIONAL STUDY TRIP OPTION

Study a region, then take your lessons learned on a week-long tour, including executive meetings, factory visits and other appointments.

 

ELECTIVES (12 units)
 

ACADEMIC, LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE AWARD CEREMONY


COMMENCEMENT

INDUSTRY IMMERSIONS

Take a transformational deep dive into biotechnology, food and agriculture, sustainable energy or technology finance. Experiential learning courses, extracurricular activities and opportunities are designed to build on UC Davis’ leadership, business expertise and corporate network in these fields, positioning you for a rewarding career.


ADVANCED COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

Course Courses*, Self-Guided Concentrations and Sample Electives

You'll be prepared for a range of careers. You'll also learn how to effectively adapt to the challenges of a continually changing and increasingly competitive global business environment. Through our core courses you will build a foundation of basic knowledge and skills.

You can choose to pursue a self-guided concentration: business analytics, entrepreneurship, finance/accounting, general management, marketing, organizational behavior, strategy or technology management. 

Our specialized elective courses, independent studies and field work can further your knowledge in a particular field and prepare you for the next step of your career.

Core Courses

Financial Accounting
Introduces the concepts and objectives underlying the preparation of financial statements. Topics include understanding the accounting cycle, measurement and valuation problems associated with financial statement components, consideration of the usefulness of financial statements in the analysis of a corporation's operations.

The Individual and Group Dynamics
Examines basic psychological and social psychological processes shaping human behavior and applies knowledge of these processes to the problem of working with and managing others in organizations. Topics include: motivation, job design, commitment, socialization, culture, individual and group decision making and team building.

Organizational Strategy and Structure
Strategic management of organizations, including analysis of industries, firm resources and capabilities and corporate strategy. Strategy formulation, implementation and strategic decision-making. Firm and industry life cycles and change. Analysis of organizational design and structure including differentiation and integration.

Markets and the Firm
Examines the interaction of consumers, firms and government, and the effect this interaction has on the use of resources and firm profitability. Fundamental economic concepts such as marginal analysis, opportunity cost, pricing, and externalities are introduced and applied.

Data Analysis for Managers
Introduces statistics and data analysis for managerial decision-making. Descriptive statistics, principles of data collection, sampling, quality control, statistical inference. Application of data-analytic methods to problems in marketing, finance, accounting, production, operations and public policy. 

Marketing Management
Analysis of market opportunities, elements of market research, development of marketing strategies, market planning and implementations, and control systems. Consumer and industrial markets, market segmentation, pricing strategies, distribution channels, promotion and sales.

Financial Theory and Policy
Covers the fundamental principles of corporate financial management and capital markets. Major topics include general valuation methods for risky cash flow streams, capital budgeting, asset pricing models, risk management, equity financing, debt financing and dividend policy. 

Managing for Operational Excellence
Explores operations in manufacturing and service sectors from both inside and outside a company. Quantitative methods and their organizational implications are also examined.

IMPACT - Articulation and Critical Thinking + Integrated Management Project

Articulation and Critical Thinking  
Develop competency in business writing and oral presentations. Build critical thinking skills. Topics include behavioral economics, false claims, deductive and inductive reasoning, correlation/causality, business ethics.

Integrated Management Project
Applies classroom learning to solve complex business challenges for real world clients. Student teams learn practical consulting skills while their clients benefit from the student's experience, insights and work product.

Self-guided Concentrations

  • Business Analytics and Technologies
  • Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  • Finance/Accounting
  • General Management
  • Marketing
  • Organizational Behavior
  • Strategy
  • Technology Management

Sample Electives

New Product Development
Why do some companies consistently outperform other companies in developing successful new products and services? Why do so many new products fail in the marketplace? This course introduces students to the major activities involved in developing new products and services. Emphasis is on learning practical skills and techniques that can help students be successful in a product development environment. As part of the course, students may work on a new product development project.

Business Law 
Covers the study of the legal environment of business. Subject matter includes an introduction to the American legal system, legal reasoning, contracts, agency, business organizations, and government regulation. Provides students with a basic understanding of the significant legal issues that confront managers and executives.

Power and Influence in Management 
Most social scientists define power as "the capacity to get what you want over the resistance of others" and influence as "the translation of power into action". Power and Influence in Management examines the bases of subunit and individual power in organizations and the means by which subunit and individual power is translated into influence.

Negotiation in Organizations
Designed to help students develop the ability to effectively negotiate in a competitive business environment. Focuses on negotiation skill-building in the areas of individual conflict management, team management, performance appraisal, corporate impression management and inter-organizational project management.

Marketing Strategies
Examines process by which organizations develop strategic marketing plans. Includes definition of activities and products, marketing audits, appraising market opportunities, design of new activities and products, and organizing marketing planning function. Applications to problems in private and public sector marketing

Entrepreneurship Clinic
Provides the necessary analytical and design tools to create and evaluate business ideas and refine potential business models based on emerging technologies. Students learn to work closely in small, interdisciplinary teams to synthesize technical, strategic, and marketing needs and resources into designs for new ventures.

Management of Innovation 
Focuses on the management of technology-based innovation, including the impact of new technologies on industries, dominant designs, incremental and transformative innovations, and the life-cycle of products. Examines the organization of highly innovative firms, and the relationship of core competencies to both innovation and rigidity. Addresses the relationship of innovation to management practices such as leadership, competitive strategic planning and teamwork by using cases and field studies. Students perform an innovation audit of an area firm.

Healthcare Analytics
Designed to give students an understanding of the U.S. healthcare system and application of advanced analytics for data-driven insights in various healthcare domains towards improving patient and provider experience, improving care quality, and reducing healthcare cost. Introduces students to advanced analytics framework, key artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts.

Digital Marketing
Course equips students for a career in digital marketing and social media. Topics include online advertising, search engine optimization, interactive marketing, online privacy issues, e-commerce, social influence, social network theory, measurement of social influence and integrating social and traditional media.