MBA Electives Roadmap Template

MBA Electives Roadmap: [Your name, programme and class year]

A map of the second-year MBA electives in this library: which career tracks need which electives, which core cards to finish first, how to sequence guides and cards across terms and recruiting, and where each of the 42 elective templates fits. It is for first-year students choosing a track, second-year students planning their last terms, and working professionals who want an elective-level path in one area (deals, investments, marketing analytics, supply chain, strategy and technology). It complements mba/mba-elective-concentration-plan (your school's requirements, bidding and registration) and mba/mba-two-year-plan (the whole programme); this roadmap is about content and sequence. Source basis: the elective structures common to leading international full-time programmes, described in general terms, the AACSB Global Standards for Business Education (ratified 20 April 2026) for the competency view, and the primary works cited in each card. Course names, prerequisites and rules differ by school and change between years: always check your school's current catalogue and programme office. This is a planning aid, not academic, career or investment advice. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

Contents

1. Purpose and how the electives build on the core
2. Career tracks and the electives they need
3. Prerequisites: core cards to finish first
4. The 42 elective templates by group and reading order
5. Sequencing across terms and recruiting
6. Worksheets: track scoring, readiness, term map
7. Structured workbook
8. Standards and facts that change
9. Timeline
10. Quality checklist and common mistakes
11. Self-test, notes, sources, answer key

1. Purpose and how the electives build on the core

The first-year core gives every MBA student the same toolkit: accounting, corporate finance, economics, data analysis, marketing, operations, strategy, leadership and ethics (mba/mba-core-curriculum-map). Electives take one area further, to the level at which a new hire in that function is expected to work from the first week. In this library each elective card builds on a named core card and links to it instead of repeating it. For example, mba/mba-lbo-model-card starts where mba/mba-paper-lbo stops, mba/mba-term-sheet-card starts where mba/mba-venture-finance-cap-table-card stops, and mba/mba-new-product-diffusion-card extends the diffusion section of mba/mba-marketing-guide.

Three principles shape the roadmap:

1. Depth over breadth. Recruiters for specialised roles (deals, investing, marketing analytics, supply chain) test technical depth. Four to six electives in one group, plus one or two in a complementary group, usually serve better than one course in each of ten areas.
2. Prerequisites first. An elective card assumes its core card. A student who starts mba/mba-accretion-dilution-card without being fluent in mba/mba-three-statements-card and mba/mba-dcf-valuation-card spends the elective relearning the core.
3. Timing against recruiting. Technical depth helps most before the interviews that test it. For many tracks, internship recruiting happens in the first year, so the first elective cards in this library are worth reading before the matching course is offered, alongside the recruiting preparation templates.

The diagram shows the flow from the core to the elective groups and on to the tracks they serve.

2. Career tracks and the electives they need

The library groups the same material into five elective kits: mba-deals-electives (M&A, buyouts, venture), mba-investments-risk (investments, portfolio, derivatives), mba-marketing-analytics (measure, model, brand), mba-supply-chain (design, source, resilience) and mba-strategy-technology (strategy, platforms, governance). Open the kit for your track to see the templates in order.

3. Prerequisites: core cards to finish first

4. The 42 elective templates by group and reading order

Count check: 1 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 3 + 6 + 2 + 6 + 4 + 3 = 42 templates (=SUM(1,4,4,4,5,3,6,2,6,4,3)).

5. Sequencing across terms and recruiting

Sequencing rules.

1. Read each group's guide before its cards: the guide gives the course map, the mini-case and the vocabulary.
2. Corporate finance before deals. M&A, PE and VC cards assume valuation, WACC and capital structure. Within deals, M&A and PE come before VC for most students, because the VC term sheet borrows the vocabulary of preferred equity and control rights.
3. Investments before derivatives. Portfolio theory and fixed income come before futures, swaps and VaR.
4. Regression before models. Factor models, marketing mix models and experiments rely on mba/mba-regression-for-managers-card.
5. Operations core before supply chain. Inventory and process analysis come before the bullwhip effect, network design and resilience.
6. Strategy core before corporate strategy. Business-unit strategy (five forces, resource-based view, competitive advantage) comes before multi-business and international strategy.
7. Interleave once the basics are in place. After the first two cards in a group, alternating between two related groups (for example investments and derivatives) helps you tell similar problems apart, as the retrieval and interleaving evidence in mba/mba-concept-flashcards explains.

Term grid (Example, a two-year programme with six terms).

Self-study load (Example): about 6 hours per guide and 3.5 hours per card, so the private equity core of the track (1 guide, 3 cards) takes about 16.5 hours (=1*6+3*3.5), the marketing analytics core with all five of its cards about 23.5 hours (=1*6+5*3.5), and all three deal groups (3 guides, 9 cards) about 49.5 hours (=3*6+9*3.5). Replace the hours with your own pace after the first two cards.

6. Worksheets: track scoring, readiness, term map

6.1 Track scoring

Score each candidate track from 1 to 5 on four criteria and weight them. Career relevance means how much the track matters for your primary target role; skill gap means how much you would learn; readiness means how many prerequisites you already meet.

Excel, with the weights in B1:E1 and scores in B2:E2: =SUMPRODUCT($B$1:$E$1,B2:E2). A gap of less than about 0.5 between the top two tracks means the scores do not decide for you: talk to people in both roles before choosing.

6.2 Prerequisite readiness

6.3 Term-by-term elective map

Credit check (Example): 24 elective credits required, 6 taken, 18 left (=24-6), so six more 3-credit courses (=18/3). Use mba/mba-elective-concentration-plan for your school's actual rules.

7. Structured workbook

1. Target role. What role do I want 12 months after graduation, in which industry and region? What will I be asked to do in the first month? [Answer]
2. Evidence. Which three conversations, projects or internships support this target? What would change my mind? [Answer]
3. Technical bar. Which elective cards cover the technical questions that recruiters for this role ask? Which of them have I already worked through? [Answer]
4. Gaps. Which core cards am I not yet fluent in, and when will I review them? [Answer]
5. Backup. If the primary track does not work out, which backup track shares the most electives with it? [Answer]
6. Stretch. Which one elective outside my track would make me a better manager, and why? [Answer]
7. Application. Where will I use each elective: a club project, a case competition, a field project (mba/mba-field-project-sow), the internship or the capstone? [Answer]
8. Review. On what dates will I review this roadmap, and with whom? [Answer]

8. Standards and facts that change

The cards in this roadmap carry their own dated facts. The table lists the main ones by group, with what was checked for this roadmap on 2026-10-28. Check the official page before you rely on any of them.

None of these rows is legal, regulatory, accounting or investment advice. The cards give the questions to ask and the worksheets; decisions on real transactions need the current official texts and qualified advisers.

9. Timeline

10. Quality checklist and common mistakes

Quality checklist.

• One primary and at most one backup track, each with written evidence.
• Every core card for my track rated 3 or higher, or a dated review planned.
• Guides read before their cards.
• Technical cards that recruiting tests read before the interviews.
• Term map matches my school's actual elective offerings and requirements (checked YYYY-MM-DD).
• At least one elective applied in a real project, competition or internship.
• Dated facts in the cards I rely on checked on the official page.
• Roadmap reviewed after recruiting and after the internship.

Common mistakes.

1. Choosing electives by professor fame or friends. Courses chosen without a track rarely add up to depth.
2. Skipping prerequisites. Starting the LBO model card without the paper LBO and capital structure cards turns an elective into remedial core.
3. Reading the technical cards after the interviews. Depth helps most before the interviews that test it.
4. Too many tracks. Three tracks at once usually means none is deep enough to show in an interview.
5. Breadth for its own sake. One course in each of ten areas impresses neither a recruiter nor a future employer.
6. No backup. If the primary track's recruiting fails, a backup that shares electives saves a term.
7. Ignoring quantitative foundations. Investments, derivatives and marketing analytics electives depend on regression and statistics; weak foundations show early.
8. Treating dated facts as permanent. Governance codes, risk frameworks and reporting templates change; a card's date matters.
9. Confusing the library with the school. The cards are reference material; your school's syllabus, cases and grading rules decide your course.
10. Never applying the material. An elective not used in a project, case competition or internship fades fast.

11. Self-test

1. Which core card should you be fluent in before mba/mba-lbo-model-card, and which before mba/mba-term-sheet-card?
2. Why read a group's guide before its cards?
3. Name the four templates at the core of the private equity track.
4. Which elective group should come before derivatives and risk, and why?
5. Weights 0.5, 0.3 and 0.2 and scores 4, 2 and 5: what is the weighted track score, and the Excel formula?
6. Which three tracks share the most electives with the corporate strategy group?
7. Why does timing against recruiting matter more for some tracks than for others?
8. Name two standards in section 8 that a governance or risk elective should date.

My notes and next steps

Sources and further reading

• AACSB International. Global Standards for Business Education (ratified 20 April 2026), aacsb.edu.
• Budish, E., Cachon, G. P., Kessler, J. B., and Othman, A. (2017). Course Match: a large-scale implementation of approximate competitive equilibrium from equal incomes for combinatorial allocation. Operations Research, 65(2), 314-336.
• Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., and Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.
• Financial Reporting Council. UK Corporate Governance Code (January 2024), frc.org.uk.
• Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Minimum capital requirements for market risk (January 2019), bis.org.
• CFA Institute. GIPS Standards for Firms (2020), gipsstandards.org.
• Bank of England. Transition to sterling risk-free rates from LIBOR, bankofengland.co.uk (checked 2026-10-28).
• OECD (2023). G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance 2023. OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/ed750b30-en.
• Library templates: mba/mba-elective-concentration-plan, mba/mba-two-year-plan, mba/mba-core-curriculum-map and the 42 elective templates listed in section 4.

Answer key

1. mba/mba-paper-lbo (with mba/mba-capital-structure-card) before the LBO model card; mba/mba-venture-finance-cap-table-card before the term sheet card.
2. The guide gives the course map, the vocabulary and a mini-case that shows how the cards fit together, so each card is read with a purpose.
3. mba/mba-private-equity-guide, mba/mba-lbo-model-card, mba/mba-pe-fund-economics-card, mba/mba-pe-value-creation-card.
4. Investments (portfolio theory and fixed income): pricing, hedging and risk measurement use returns, volatility, correlation, yields and duration.
5. $0.5 \times 4 + 0.3 \times 2 + 0.2 \times 5 = 3.6$; =SUMPRODUCT(B1:D1,B2:D2).
6. Consulting and general management (its core), technology and product (digital transformation, platforms) and investment banking and corporate development (governance, synergies); private equity also uses governance and value creation.
7. Where recruiting tests technical knowledge early (banking, private equity, some asset management roles), the cards must be read before first-year interviews; where recruiting tests problem solving and fit (consulting, general management), the timing is more flexible.
8. Any two of: UK Corporate Governance Code 2024 (Provision 29 from 2026), G20/OECD Principles 2023, the Basel market risk standard (expected shortfall), LIBOR cessation and the risk-free rates, GIPS 2020.

Revision history

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with the elective structures common to leading international full-time MBA programmes, described in general terms, and with the AACSB Global Standards for Business Education (2026) for the competency view. Dated facts were checked in October 2026 on the official pages named in section 8 or taken from the cards named there. The text, worksheets and examples are original; no school's catalogue, syllabus, case or requirement is reproduced, and the template is not affiliated with or endorsed by any business school, accreditor or standard setter. Check your school's current catalogue and the official texts before you rely on them. Template licence: MIT.