Pre MBA Courses

What are the Most Important Pre MBA Courses?

Congratulations, you’ve received and accepted an MBA offer!  Now what? Let’s look at the most important pre MBA courses.

MBA programs can be very challenging, especially if you’ve been out of school for several years and are struggling to remember back to your Accounting 101 days.  Or perhaps you didn’t study accounting or finance at all in your undergrad degree, and this will all be new material.

In any event, it’s very important to be prepared by taking pre MBA courses.  In this article, we’ve outlined the courses that are most commonly considered helpful to take before heading back to the classroom.  The courses fall into three categories (as illustrated below) consisting of (1) accounting, (2) finance, and (3) financial modeling.

Pre MBA Courses – Accounting

Accounting is usually one of the least intuitive and most frustrating courses for MBA students.  To help ease the transition, CFI has designed several 100% free accountancy courses to get you ready for class!  The pre MBA courses we specifically recommend that all incoming MBA students take are:

1. How to Read Financial Statements
2. Accounting Fundamentals

Pre MBA Courses – Finance

For many people, finance is not necessarily any easier than accounting, and even if you have a background in it, you may still want to do a quick refresher on important concepts.  CFI has developed a series of online courses to make sure you’re all set to go.  Before you matriculate, be sure to take some or all of these important courses:

1. Math for Corporate Finance
2. Financial Analysis

Pre MBA Courses – Financial Modeling

If you’re feeling more ambitious and want to consider really standing out from your class, then you may want to consider some pre MBA courses on financial modeling.  If you have a background in investment banking or private equity, then these classes will not be necessary, but if you’re planning to work in those fields after your MBA, then you should definitely take financial modeling courses before or during your degree.  CFI’s most popular modeling courses include:

1. Free Excel Crash Course
2. How to Build a Financial Model
3. Sensitivity Analysis

More Finance and Accounting Resources

We hope you’re excited to go back to school and embrace your inner student.  We’re confident that if you take our course in advance, then you’ll be in great shape (although we can’t speak for your marketing and organizational behavior classes!).

If you’d like to keep preparing for your MBA with more pre MBA courses, these free CFI resources should be of great value:

• Interactive Career Map
• Case Competition
• How to Be a Great Financial Analyst
• Finance Interview Questions
• See all career resources