The MBA curriculum typically consists of a "core" set of foundation courses such as finance, management, economics, statistics, operations, and marketing. Students may then choose between a multitude of specializations through their elective courses. Students can choose from a sometimes dizzying array of courses, from advanced derivatives trading to global economics to negotiation strategies.

Finance

Covers all the stuff related to financial markets and trading of securities. The basic course will cover topics such as market structures, risk/reward, modern portfolio theory, asset allocation, equity valuation, fixed-income valuation, options trading and pricing, arbitrage, and futures. Advanced courses will drill into these subjects in more detail.

Management professors will tell you this is the most important subject in business school. The intro course typically covers different organizational structures and strategies, and employe a case methodology (examining real-life business cases to see how companies manage for success and failure). Advanced courses may cover topics such as strategy, negotiation, and entrepreneurial management in more detail.

Strategy is all about what markets companies choose to be in, and how they compete in those markets. The basic concepts are straightforward, but there's a lot of jargon to learn.

Ah, the dismal science. Supply and demand. Market theory. Game theory. It's pretty basic stuff, and usually intuitive. Upper-level courses may get more theoretical, global, or specialized.

Actually, probability and statistics. The point of this course is to give you the basic statistical tools for more interesting courses. You'll learn about different probability distributions, methods of statistical analysis, statistical significance, etc. If there's any one subject you could learn on your own, this is it. Advanced courses will get into how you can actually use this stuff to figure out whether, say, somebody is a good loan risk.

Learn how to analyze any operating processes, find production bottlenecks, and manage projects. Why? So you can make businesses run efficiently. Why? So they don't go out of business! Interesting stuff, and useful for any business.

How do you sell those widgets that you're producing so efficiently? And how can you understand your market? And be responsive to customers? And get good data? And analyze that data? And become a household name (i.e. "branding"). Take the class and find out.