Elective courses at Goizueta prepare students for ‘Day One Readiness’
A significant advantage that I have noticed about Goizueta compared to other MBA programs is the intentional structure placed behind our academic curriculum.
When you visit Goizueta and hear from our students, faculty and staff, we put a significant emphasis on “Day One Readiness.” This means students can rest assured that on the first very day of their summer internships or at the start of a new job after graduation, they will be equipped with a powerful skillset to create a tangible impact and deliver lasting results for their organization. This is an asset that should not be understated given the competitive economic environment that MBAs will encounter when they enter the workforce.
To prepare students for “Day One Readiness,” our core curriculum is mainly concentrated in the first semester of business school coursework. I won’t go too much into detail here about the core because those resources are available in the prospective student section of the website; however, the important fact is that Goizueta students have ample opportunity to then take elective coursework that is directly related to their interests and relevant to their professional pursuits in the semesters following the core.
For example, a student wanting to work on Wall Street might take electives in the spring semester like Mergers and Acquisitions or Venture Capital and Private Equity. On the other hand, students like myself in the Goizueta Marketing Association who have secured an internship in brand management might opt to take Data Driven Market Intelligence or the very popular class Product and Brand to develop the competencies of a brand manager that extend beyond just traditional marketing frameworks.
For those students with a more entrepreneurial lean or with their sights focused on securing a coveted position with a top tech company (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.), Goizueta has unique course offerings like Entrepreneurial Practicum, where students form teams and work to advise actual startups at the Atlanta Tech Village on real-world problems these small businesses are facing. For the data junkies out there, Goizueta has done a terrific job of addressing the desire of students to develop hands-on data expertise which can be applied in courses like Intro to Business Data Analytics, essentially an introductory data mining techniques course.
With almost two dozen individual concentrations and unlimited combinations of electives that you can take, Goizueta offers the academic breadth for you to develop proficiency in your areas of interest and to help you be successful on “day one” of the job. I believe that it is this academic breadth, combined with the hard work of our students, talent of the faculty and support of the energetic staff that sets the Goizueta MBA experience apart.
