MBA Majors

You can select from 19 majors to pursue your goals. Most majors consist of five CUs—usually four CUs in addition to the core curriculum. Courses may count toward more than one major, giving you the option to pursue a double major. You may customize your learning further by taking additional electives in other areas to round out the curriculum.

Accounting

This major focuses on the uses of accounting data. Courses stress concepts, procedures and applications for how accounting information is generated and its reliability in analysis.

 

Actuarial Science

The actuarial science major prepares students for professional certification as an actuary. Curriculum includes general business courses important for developing a strong, general understanding of the business environment, as well as quantitative courses in economics, accounting, computer science, and finance.

 

Business Analytics

The new Business Analytics major gives students state-of-the-art tools and techniques for solving business problems with real-world data. Students explore such areas as optimization,computational heuristics, machine learning, data acquisition and preparation, agent-based modeling and other forms of simulation, visualization, multiobjective decision making, decision analysis, data mining, and text mining (including information retrieval).

 

Business Economics and Public Policy

This major brings theoretical tools and practical experience to bear on the relationship among business, government, and society. Areas of faculty expertise include deregulation and privatization, technology, public and urban finance, and international industrial policy.

 

Entrepreneurial Management

The entrepreneurial management major combines theory with practice, providing opportunities to test the theories, models, and strategies learned in the classroom. Students create real business plans, work on other field projects, and gain access and insight from entrepreneurial business community leaders.

 

Environmental and Risk Management

This major centers on the confluence between environmental management and “triple bottom-line” reporting, which has become so important in balanced scorecard approaches to accounting and investor relations.

 

Finance

Finance majors focus on the analytic and theoretical tools required to master practical issues in Finance. While some attention is given to the descriptive, institutional, and historical aspects of the field, primary emphasis is on the analytical foundations, emphasizing theory and methods of analysis and making extensive use of relevant techniques of economic analysis, mathematics, and statistics.

 

Health Care Management

The health care management major differs from many other majors at Wharton in blending specific coursework and professional development opportunities. The major draws on a rich variety of electives across the university, including courses in the behavioral and applied social sciences, biomedical sciences, and social policy. It is closely associated with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI), which facilitates research and education in health services financing and delivery. You must apply for admission to this major at the time of your initial Wharton application.

 

Information: Strategy and Economics

This major emphasizes the use of information for strategic advantage. Its interdisciplinary approach speaks to the manner in which information is now valued and used.

 

Insurance and Risk Management

The insurance and risk management major examines the techniques corporations, organizations, and individuals use to reduce the potential financial losses arising from exposure to risk. These techniques range from traditional insurance products to current advances in corporate and insurer risk management. Topics include risk and insurance regulation, global risk management, estate planning, and related public policy initiatives.

 

Management

The management major helps managers in the changing global economy view the total enterprise and understand the forces that shape a firm’s direction, policies, and goals. The course also helps managers exercise personal leadership in managing employees. You will apply basic social science disciplines and research methods to management and leadership problems in the public and private sectors.

 

Marketing

Marketing investigates fundamental approaches to understanding markets, competitors, and portfolios of product offerings and operating technologies. Wharton has one of the largest sets of marketing courses and faculty.

 

Marketing and Operations (Joint Major)

Marketing and Operations is the only official joint major at Wharton, comprising seven credit units of coursework.

 

Multinational Management

The multinational management major focuses on multinational management complemented by functional electives in the areas of finance, marketing, accounting, legal studies, public policy, real estate or health-care management.

 

Operations, Information and Decisions

This major aims to improve the quality and productivity of enterprises by discovering, developing, and validating new principles, theory, and methods. Rooted in process management, decision making and information.

 

Organizational Effectiveness

The organizational effectiveness major is designed to educate students in leading edge theory and practice associated with employee management and the organizational design. This major spans topics from understanding individual and group behavior to designing management systems and structures to support business strategy.

 

Real Estate

One of two industry-focused majors at Wharton, the real estate major consists of three required courses (real estate law, development, and finance) and two electives, including real estate economics, urban fiscal policy, the relationship between government policy and private development, international real estate markets, and the aesthetic and technical considerations of architecture. Coursework provides the quantitative and qualitative tools necessary for leadership.

 

Statistics

The statistics major teaches students to develop a systematic and effective approach to data, draw inferences and conclusions, and communicate results. This major widely applies across industries because its quantitative approach offers important insights for general decision making. Courses range from a rigorous training in the fundamentals of statistical theory to applications of popular methodologies, such as regression analysis and forecasting. Courses also provide exposure to computer software for implementing key techniques.

 

Strategic Management

The strategic management major has a deep grounding in the basic logic of competitive advantage, premised on a careful analytical treatment of the distinct qualities and positions of individual firms and an understanding of broader competitive dynamics.