The First Semester

The Fall Core

All students are required to attend Orientation, which kicks off the semester in late August. This program is designed and delivered by faculty, program staff, and second-year student mentors (Core Mentors). It provides incoming students with a welcoming introduction to the MIT Sloan experience and helps to set the stage for what to expect in the next two years.

All entering MBA students are required to complete the Fall Core subjects in their first term. Waivers and/or substitutions for the Fall Core subjects are not allowed. The Fall Core subjects are coordinated and sometimes involve joint assignments. One of the fundamental principles of the Core curriculum is to provide a common experience and foundation for all MBA students. Because of this, students with prior experience in a particular area are encouraged to take a more active role in the educational process of their cohort and team. All students are expected to adhere to academic honesty standards.

The Fall term of the first year consists of six required Core courses, one of four elective courses, and an optional Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Finance, or Enterprise Management Certificate Seminar. First year MBAs are not permitted to register, including as a Listener, for any courses beyond those listed below.

Required Core Courses

  • 15.002 Leadership Challenges for an Inclusive World
  • 15.010 Economic Analysis for Business Decisions
  • 15.060 Data, Models, and Decisions
  • 15.280 Communication for Leaders
  • 15.311 Organizational Processes
  • 15.515 Financial Accounting

Core Elective Classes

First-year MBA students enroll in one introductory-level elective course during their first semester at MIT Sloan.

  • 15.401 Managerial Finance
  • 15.761 Introduction to Operations Management
  • 15.814 Marketing Innovation
  • 15.900 Competitive Strategy

15.002 Leadership Challenges for an Inclusive World

During LEAD week, first-year MBA students in 15.002 engage in a series of interactive workshops over three consecutive days in the middle of the Core semester. Each day, students participate in two three-hour workshops evenly distributed across three key topics: Leadership, Ethics, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and taught by MIT Sloan's faculty. To ensure focused immersion in this course, all regular academic activities at Sloan are suspended throughout LEAD week.

This course is graded P/D/F and is an MBA degree requirement.
LGO students participate in one Ethics workshops only for 15.002.

Career Core

The MIT Sloan Career Development Office (CDO), in partnership with 15.280 (Communication for Leaders) and 15.311 (Organizational Processes) faculty, delivers several career development classes as part of the Core experience. These sessions provide a research-based, theoretical, and practical framework for the MBA career journey. Students will gain valuable perspectives on storytelling, personal branding, strategic networking, persuasive communications, managing the recruiting process, and interviewing. In addition to the collaborative Core classes, the CDO conducts specialized career sessions once a week to provide students with timely guidance on job search topics as well as opportunities to ask questions and engage more deeply with class material.

MBA Core Semester Attendance Policy

Students are required to fully attend all classes. Attendance and participation enhance the quality of learning in the MBA Core through the sharing of lived experience and perspective of class participants. Because it may occasionally be necessary for a student to miss a class session due to (a) illness/medical, (b) career activity, or (c) personal emergency, MBA Core semester faculty will allow students up to 2 excused absences per course (1 for courses that meet only once per week), in addition to religious holiday observance absences. Absences beyond this will be considered unexcused and will impact a student’s grade. Note that class participation is an important component in evaluating student performance and cannot be replicated due to an absence. Please refer to your course syllabus for course-specific attendance tracking practices, any makeup work expectations, and grading policies. Students whose attendance is impacted by recurring illness/personal emergency should notify their faculty/TAs of absences immediately and meet with their program advisor to discuss.

The following class sessions are mandatory and excused absences will only be granted for illness or religious holiday observance:

  • 15.280/15.311/15.CDO Career Day: 9/8/23
  • 15.311 Team Day: 9/15/23
  • Midterms and Final Exams in all Core semester courses
  • 15.002 LEAD Week
  • Other course-specific sessions as indicated in each Core semester class syllabus

Core Teams

Entering MBA students are assigned to one of 66 small groups made up of six to seven people, known as Core teams. These teams are combined into six larger sections, called cohorts or oceans, for the first-year Fall Core subjects. Students take all of the Core subjects in the same assigned section, which facilitates cohort integration and the formation of study groups. Note that Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) students are assigned to MBA cohorts and Core teams but do not take 15.060 in the Fall semester. LGO students also take additional electives in engineering during the Fall semester.

Cohort Advising

Each cohort will be assigned an advisor from the MBA Program Office. Cohort advisors are available to students for any academic or personal issues or questions that may arise during the two years of the MBA program. Advisors also help students plan their course of study and choose classes in subsequent semesters after the first semester Core.