Recommended Courses for Common Career Paths
Columbia Business School’s core curriculum is comprehensive enough and its electives flexible enough that in just two years students can gain deep expertise in a particular business discipline. While the School does not note concentrated areas of study on transcripts, many students choose to indicate the fields they focused on in their résumés. Students may choose electives as they please, or follow a series of recommended courses for common career paths. Many of these courses are affiliated with a research center or student club, which offer interested students additional opportunities, such as networking events, special lectures, and advising.
All Columbia Business School students gain a foundational understanding of accounting principles through the core curriculum, and students interested in further refining their expertise in accounting may take electives offered by the Accounting Division, such as Earnings Quality and Fundamental Analysis and Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation.
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Columbia Business School’s renowned Decision, Risk, and Operations Division offers a range of courses for students interested in pursuing careers in both operations management and decision and risk analysis, including Supply Chain Management, Operations Consulting, and Turnaround Management.
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The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center offers many resources for budding entrepreneurs to gain hands-on experience with new ventures, including popular Master Classes like the Entrepreneurial Greenhouse Program, which helps students prepare their businesses for investment, and Private Equity and Entrepreneurship in Africa, where students travel to Africa to consult with local firms and entrepreneurs.
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The School’s Program for Financial Studies recommends a series of courses for career functions such as asset management; investment banking and corporate finance; sales, trading, and research; financial consulting; and risk management.
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Courses in the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program at Columbia Business School are taught by faculty experts and seasoned practitioners from the healthcare industry, and include classes such as Strategy and Competition in Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, Healthcare Industry in the 21st Century, and Healthcare Investment and Dealmaking.
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In addition to sponsoring research, events, and orientation programming, the Bernstein Center on Leadership and Ethics offers a series of electives that explore the challenges faced by business leaders. Courses include Personal Leadership and Success, Finance and Sustainability, and High Performance Leadership.
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In addition to the management courses in the core curriculum, the School’s Management Division recommends interested students design their elective schedules to include courses that span management functions, such as Top Management Process and Managerial Negotiations.
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For students interested in pursuing careers in marketing, the School’s widely acclaimed Marketing Division offers a wealth of electives, including New Product Development, Social Media and Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Consumer Insights.
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The Media Program at Columbia Business School recommends that students pursuing careers in media not only take courses taught by the School’s faculty experts like Media and Information Management or Mergers and Acquisitions in Media, but also explore electives across the University, such as the Business of Film (Film School), Law and the Music Industry (Law School), or the Social Impact of Mass Media (Journalism School).
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Students interested in careers in private equity can deepen their knowledge in the field through a number of courses offered by the School’s Private Equity Program, including Private Equity in Emerging Markets, Venture Capital: Risk/Opportunity, and Private Equity: The Credit Markets and Leveraged Buyouts.
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The Paul Mistein Center for Real Estate recommends that interested students begin taking real estate electives in their second semester and offers advice on building a schedule that focuses on real estate electives such as Global Real Estate Investment and Real Estate Transactions.
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The Retail and Luxury Goods Club at Columbia Business School, in addition to providing networking opportunities for students and hosting an annual conference, recommends courses such as the Master Classes Design and Marketing of Luxury Products or Creation of a Retail Enterprise to students interested in careers in retail and luxury goods.
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The Social Enterprise Program assembles faculty expertise from across disciplines to provide students with the holistic education needed to pursue socially beneficial practices in any industry. Recommended courses include High Performing Nonprofits, The Business of Sustainable Energy, and Markets for the Poor.
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The Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing at Columbia Business School recommends that students interested in value investing pursue a series of courses that includes Applied Value Investing, Applied Security Analysis, and Legends in Value Investing.
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