MBA Two-Year Programme Plan Template

MBA Programme Plan: [Your name, school and class year]

A term-by-term plan for the whole MBA: courses, clubs, recruiting, leadership roles, an exchange, money and wellbeing, with the trade-offs made on purpose instead of by default. It is written for the two-year full-time programme (four terms with a summer internship between the years) and shows how to adapt it to a one-year or an executive MBA. It is for admitted students before day one and current students re-planning at the end of each term. Source basis: the programme structure common to leading international MBA programmes (core year, summer internship, elective year), the experiential learning cycle of Kolb (1984) for the term reviews and the time and energy trade-offs students report across programmes. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example. This is a planning aid, not financial or legal advice, and it is not affiliated with any school.

Contents

1. Document control
2. Goals for the programme
3. Principles for making trade-offs
4. Programme structure and the term grid
5. Courses
6. Clubs and community
7. Recruiting calendar
8. Leadership roles
9. Exchange and global experience
10. Finances across terms
11. Weekly time budget
12. Wellbeing and relationships
13. Term review and re-planning
14. Adapting the plan: one-year and executive MBA
15. Risks and contingencies
16. Quality checklist
17. Common mistakes
18. Self-test
19. Sources and further reading
20. Answer key
21. Revision history
22. Standard and licence note

Document control

Goals for the programme

Write three to five goals that you could check at graduation. Each goal names what you will have, not what you will try. Goals change during the programme, and that is fine; the plan records the change and the reason.

The "will not do" list. Write three things you will deliberately not do, even if they are attractive, because they would take the hours your goals need. Example: "I will not join more than three clubs. I will not run for a club president role in the first term. I will not recruit for investment banking, because it is not my goal."

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Principles for making trade-offs

MBA students often describe the programme as a choice among academics, recruiting, social life and sleep, with time for only some of them in any given week. The principles below make the choice deliberate.

1. Goals before options. Every new commitment must serve a goal in the table above or replace something that does. If it serves no goal, it goes on the "will not do" list.
2. Recruiting has a calendar; the rest can flex. Recruiting deadlines for internships are fixed and, in some industries, early in the first year. Plan academics and clubs around them, not the other way round.
3. Depth beats breadth. Two clubs in which you do real work and one leadership role give you stories and skills; eight memberships give you a calendar.
4. The core is the foundation. Core courses are the base for every elective and every interview. Do not let recruiting push core preparation below the level needed to contribute in case discussions.
5. Protect the non-negotiables. Sleep, health and the people closest to you have a floor. Write it down in the weekly time budget.
6. Re-plan by term, not by week. Weekly changes are normal; changing the whole plan every week is not. The term review is the place to change direction.
7. Opportunity cost is real. Each hour and each dollar has an alternative use. When you add something, name what it replaces.

Programme structure and the term grid

The Example below assumes a two-year programme with four semesters (T1 and T2 in the first year, T3 and T4 in the second) and a summer internship between the years. Quarter or module systems have more, shorter terms: add columns.

Courses

Questions to answer before you fill the electives:

• Which core courses can you waive by exam or prior degree, and is waiving wise if the course is also where your section learns together?
• Which electives are popular enough to need a bid or lottery, and how many points or priorities do you have?
• Which electives build the skills your target employers test in interviews or expect in the first year?
• Where can you balance a heavy quantitative elective with a lighter one in the same term?
• Is a concentration or major required, useful on the resume, or only a constraint?

Clubs and community

A rule of thumb many students use is two career clubs plus one interest club in the first term, then fewer and deeper roles in the second year. Count the hours in the weekly time budget; club hours rise sharply around conferences and treks.

Recruiting calendar

Recruiting timing is the least flexible part of the plan. In two-year programmes the summer internship is the main route to a full-time offer for many students, so most internship recruiting happens in the first year. Some industries move earlier than others: investment banking networking often starts before or at T, consulting applications commonly fall in the first two terms, and technology and many other industries recruit later and more continuously. Check your career centre's calendar for your class.

For consulting add mba/mba-case-interview-prep, mba/mba-market-sizing-drills and mba/mba-case-practice-log; for banking and private equity add mba/mba-banking-technical-prep and mba/mba-paper-lbo.

Leadership roles

Questions: Which role will give you a story for the interviews you will have in the future? Which role would you do even with no title? Who will give you honest feedback on how you led (mba/mba-leadership-360-reflection)?

Exchange and global experience

Plan the detail with mba/mba-exchange-semester-plan and mba/mba-global-immersion-plan. International students: check whether an exchange term affects visa status or work authorisation, on official sources and with the international student office, before you commit.

Finances across terms

The Example below is a fictional budget for a two-year programme at School A, in USD, computed term by term. Living costs use USD 3,300 a month (1 month pre-term, 4 months in T1, 5 in T2, 3 in the summer, 4 in T3, 5 in T4).

Excel set-up (items in rows 2 to 7, terms in columns B to G): total cost for a term =SUM(B2:B7); total for a row =SUM(B2:G2); net need =B8-B11 where row 8 is total cost and row 11 total income; cumulative net need in C13 =B13+C12 with B13 =B12.

Reading the Example:

• Tuition and fees are 64.3% of total cost (179,000 of 278,400); living costs are the second largest item.
• The summer internship turns the net need negative for that period (-13,100), but it does not cover a term.
• Net need over the programme is USD 191,400. With USD 60,000 of savings the remaining gap is USD 131,400. As of October 2026, new US federal borrowers in a graduate (non-professional) programme are limited to USD 20,500 a year and USD 100,000 in total in Direct Unsubsidized Loans (within a USD 257,500 lifetime limit), and Grad PLUS is closed to new borrowers from 1 July 2026 (US Department of Education; check https://studentaid.gov before you rely on it). A gap of this size therefore raises questions for the funding plan: other loan sources and their terms, more scholarship, sponsorship, lower costs. List them in mba/mba-funding-scholarship-plan; this template does not recommend any of them.
• Spending peaks in the terms with treks and trips (T2, T4); decide early which of those you will do.

Money rows for the term grid:

Weekly time budget

The Example below shows how one student's average week shifts across terms. Each column sums to 168 hours.

Academic hours (classes, preparation and team work) fall from 38 in T1 to 28 in T4, while clubs and leadership rise from 4 to 7 and peak at 8 in T3. Check in Excel with =SUM(B2:B10), which must return 168 for each column.

My weekly time budget:

Wellbeing and relationships

Know where the school's student support, counselling and health services are before you need them, and note emergency contacts in the plan. Use personal/habit-tracker and personal/weekly-review for routines and mba/mba-learning-journal for reflection.

Term review and re-planning

The review follows Kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. In practice:

Record each review in the revision history with the term name.

Adapting the plan: one-year and executive MBA

Risks and contingencies

Quality checklist

• Three to five goals, each with evidence at graduation.
• A "will not do" list with three items.
• Every row in the term grid links to a goal.
• Recruiting dates come from the career centre calendar for my class, not from memory.
• The time budget sums to 168 hours in each term column.
• The budget covers the whole programme and is checked against the school's published cost of attendance.
• The funding gap, if any, has a list of questions in mba/mba-funding-scholarship-plan.
• Wellbeing floors are written and someone else knows them.
• Exchange and visa questions have been checked with official sources and the international student office.
• A term review is scheduled for the last week of each term.

Common mistakes

Self-test

1. Why does the plan start with goals and a "will not do" list?
2. In the Example budget, what share of total cost is tuition and fees?
3. What is the net need for the summer in the Example, and why is it negative?
4. With USD 60,000 of savings, what gap remains in the Example, and what dated fact makes that gap worth examining?
5. Name the four steps of the term review and the model they come from.
6. How many hours must each column of the weekly time budget sum to, and what Excel formula checks it?
7. Which part of the plan is least flexible, and why?
8. Name two differences between this plan for a two-year and an executive MBA.

Sources and further reading

• Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice Hall.
• US Department of Education, Federal Student Aid. Loan limit changes effective 1 July 2026, https://studentaid.gov and https://fsapartners.ed.gov (checked 2026-10-28).
• Your school's published cost of attendance, academic calendar, course catalogue, career centre calendar and student support pages.
• Further reading (by name only): Newport, C. (2016). Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Grand Central Publishing, on protecting time for demanding work.

Answer key

1. Every option is attractive in the first weeks; goals give a test for each commitment and the "will not do" list protects the hours the goals need.
2. 64.3% (USD 179,000 of USD 278,400).
3. USD -13,100: internship net pay (27,000) exceeds summer costs (13,900), so the summer reduces the cumulative net need from 106,500 to 93,400.
4. USD 131,400 (191,400 minus 60,000). As of October 2026, new US federal graduate (non-professional) borrowers are limited to USD 20,500 a year and USD 100,000 in total in Direct Unsubsidized Loans, with Grad PLUS closed to new borrowers from 1 July 2026; check studentaid.gov.
5. Experience, reflect, conclude, act: Kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle (concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, active experimentation).
6. 168 hours; =SUM(B2:B10) for each term column.
7. Recruiting, because internship and full-time recruiting deadlines are set by employers and the career centre and, in some industries, fall very early in the first year.
8. Any two: no summer internship; study alongside a job; employer sponsorship and repayment clauses; recruiting mostly inside the employer; a strategic project for one's own organisation; family time as the main wellbeing risk.

Revision history

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with the programme structure common to leading international MBA programmes and with Kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle; loan facts checked on US Department of Education pages in October 2026. The text, plan structure and fictional examples are original. No school has endorsed this template and it is not affiliated with any school. Check your school's current calendar, cost of attendance and the official loan pages before you rely on them. Template licence: MIT.