Classroom at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School
MBA students flock to New York City for a reason. There is the energy and culture, always something to do and people to meet. More than that, there are the opportunities. The leader in finance, media, and advertising, the Big Apple just has a gravitational pull. Every industry – and all the big-name companies – have a presence there.
As the saying goes, the world is at your fingertips in New York – and MBAs are just a 15-minute subway or cab ride away from all of it.
In some cases, MBAs don’t even need to leave campus to be around thought leaders and difference-makers. Sometimes, these people come right to them. Look no further than New York University’s Stern School. Here, MBAs can take the Digital Media Innovation elective. The professor? Greg Coleman, the former president of Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post – not to mention an executive at AOL Time Warner, Yahoo, US Magazine, and Reader’s Digest.
Talk about experience!
An Olin MBA classroom.
CELEBRITY CEOS JOIN THE FRAY
A ’78 Stern MBA alum and adjunct professor for nearly 15 years, Coleman doesn’t just dissect the most cutting-edge digital strategies from leading industry players. He also brings their leaders into his class. Those connections, says ’25 grad Julian Sutton, made Digital Media Innovation a “once-in-a-lifetime experience that you won’t see anywhere else but business school.”
“Each session is an in-person, in-depth interview with some of the country’s most incredible business leaders,” Sutton adds. “We got to hear from CEOs and other chief-level executives from companies like YouTube, X, Spotify, TikTok, the NBA, and many more. Mark Cuban even dropped by!”
Celebrity classroom guests don’t just pop up in New York City business Schools. At Washington University’s Olin School, Danielle Sarraf took the Women in Leadership course taught by Dr. Hillary Anger Elfenbein. Along with teaching cases and theories involving women in the workplace, Dr. Anger Elfenbein invites female executives to her classes in St. Louis. The result, says Sarraf, was “thought-provoking” discussions and unforgettable insights.
“I still reference the advice imparted by the leaders,” Sarraf adds. “For example, Maxine Clark, former CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, emphasized the importance of curiosity and critical thinking. She explained that when she started Build-A-Bear, she didn’t need to know everything – she just needed to ask the right questions. I plan to carry this lesson, and others from the course, throughout my personal life and professional career.”
Looking for other career-changing classes that MBA students have taken at top business schools? As part of selecting this year’s Best & Brightest MBAs, Poets&Quants asked the Class of 2025 to share the best course they took in business school and how it made an impact on their careers. From negotiations to organizational behavior to spreadsheet modeling, here are the classes that graduates say gave them the biggest returns.
“Organisational Behaviour. My approach to developing interpersonal skills was probably similar to many others: trial-and-error, conversations with mentors and coaches, and listening to podcasts. However, Organisational Behaviour was the first course to expose me to the immense wealth of knowledge available through academic research. Who knew charismatic speeches could increase work output by 17%, or that virtually anyone could learn charisma through brief training? Previously, leadership often felt like navigating countless personal opinions and perspectives, but this course introduced me to the remarkable insights available in scientific literature, fundamentally changing how I approach leadership development.”
Thomas Maddison, Asia School of Business
“Managing People & Organizations (MP&O) was my favorite course because it brought leadership and organizational change to life in an engaging, hands-on way. It taught me how to navigate complex transitions, like a CEO change or the adoption of a new platform, by identifying key stakeholders, securing buy-in, and combating bias in group decision-making. Every class was a surprise—we could be role-playing as managers and direct reports one day, analyzing case studies the next, or even building Legos to illustrate team dynamics. What made this course stand out was the constant learning from my peers’ firsthand experiences in their previous roles. As a core class in the first quarter, it was one of the first opportunities I had to really know my classmates. MP&O certainly kept me on my toes (as cold calling was the norm), making each class a dynamic and thought-provoking experience. Sitting in on the class a year later as a TA only deepened my appreciation, as each new cohort brought fresh perspectives and insights that continued to expand my understanding of how organizations adapt to change.”
Brianna Roque, Boston College (Carroll)
“Sustainable Business & Environment, taught by Professor Nicholas Muller. This course reinforced my belief that sustainability isn’t just an ethical responsibility—it’s a competitive necessity for businesses navigating an evolving global economy. We explored how financial markets, carbon pricing, and ESG investing are shaping corporate strategy, analyzing real-world applications like green bonds, carbon offsets, and risk-adjusted environmental impact pricing. The course challenged me to think beyond traditional operational metrics, demonstrating how businesses that integrate sustainability into decision-making don’t just mitigate risk—they unlock profitability, resilience, and long-term value creation. As a future COO, I want to lead organizations that embrace sustainable innovation, operational efficiency, and strategic foresight—because the best-run companies won’t just adapt to sustainability; they will leverage it as a strategic advantage.”
Vinicius Santos Avelar, Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
“My favorite course is called Action Leadership-Gobi Module. This EMBA course offers some slots to MBA students. Professor Xiujuan LI uses the Gobi Desert as a natural classroom, incorporating various simulated business, organizational management, and leadership tasks to deliver a genuine action leadership experience. Over 3 days, our team trekked 100 kilometers across the desert, completing 15 challenging tasks focused on goal-setting, teamwork, communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, cultural cohesion, and agile responses to changes. Through this hands-on experience, we gained insights into the brutal realities of the business world and reflected on self and leadership under extreme pressure.”
Miya Huimin Ding, CEIBS
“In my first quarter, Entrepreneurial Discovery (taught by Prof. Mark Tebbe) put me on a team with four 1Ys with completely different backgrounds and challenged us to build a new business idea from scratch. The course completely transformed my understanding of the entrepreneurship process. While my investing experience primed me to skeptically poke at business ideas, the course forced me to shift my perspective dramatically from “What could go wrong?” to “How could this work?”. I learned to balance my healthy skepticism with optimism that perhaps some ideas could, with time, change industries and people. Through the process, I learned that I am perhaps more creative than I give myself credit for, and perhaps more willing to experiment with new ideas than I’d previously thought.”
Yana Kaplun, University of Chicago (Booth)
The Leader’s Voice: Communication Skills for Leading Organizations. Ironically, in the moment, it was far from my favorite—it was anxiety-inducing. Every week, we had to get up in front of the class and deliver a two-minute story. I remember my first speech vividly: I was overthinking everything. What if I forget my words? What if I trip? What if my voice cracks? But week-by-week, something changed. While the nerves never fully disappeared, I also realized my worst fears never came true. By the end of the course, speaking in front of a room full of people felt almost second nature. Since taking the class, I’ve spoken at events with 100+ attendees. While I still get nervous, I now have the tools and confidence to navigate those moments effectively.”
Serena Moss, Columbia Business School
“NBA 6430 – Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling was by far my favorite course. While many MBAs may not want to admit it, Excel is an essential tool in almost every post-graduation role, and mastering it is essential. This course provided a strong foundation in shortcuts, hotkeys, macros, and database functions—skills that employers expect but many MBA graduates lack. I came in with a strong knowledge of Excel but learned a ton of new tricks that made a huge impact on my productivity. Professor James Minas is amazing and delivers a highly structured curriculum, ensuring students master advanced Excel functions that streamline workflows and enhance efficiency in the workplace.”
Douglas Scandrett, Cornell University (Johnson)
“Emily Blanchard’s Cooperation and Competition in the 21st Century Global Economy, hands-down. Her course zeroes-in on hot business topics centered around the theme of cooperation and competition between governments, firms, and international bodies. We discussed everything: aggressive trade policies through tariffs and export restrictions; national security implications regarding global supply chains and the post-COVID near-shoring; tech firms aggressively aggregating more data to power their AI models; and the growing demand by governments and firms for a larger share of the world’s critical minerals.
Classes alternated between interactive lectures and “flipped classroom” sessions. In these sessions, student teams would brief the class on current issues—for example, debating whether carbon tariffs can effectively reduce global emissions. Two teams would each prepare a position, arguing for or against carbon tariffs using data, current events, academic literature, and extensions of the core economics curriculum to make their case. The course structure encouraged us to not just debate passionately, but to thoughtfully anticipate and respond to counterarguments. The combination of theory, current events, and the diversity of student perspectives made it incredibly engaging and changed the way I now think about many complex global issues.”
Berk Atillasoy, Dartmouth College (Tuck)
“My favorite class at Fuqua has been Business and Common Purpose with Professor Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji, who is now the head economist at OpenAI. Professor Chatterji created this class to prepare us for the final job we’ll ever have — where, as business leaders, we are no longer just running a company but also engaging with the political and societal forces shaping that company.
Professor Chatterji’s approach was refreshingly nonpartisan, challenging me to think beyond the surface-level debate and consider the second- and third-order effects of business decisions. More than any other class, it forced me to reconsider my views on the evolving role of business in society.”
Tanner L. Morgan, Duke University (Fuqua)
“Principled Leadership with Professor Rod McCowan is a transformative class focused on developing leaders that not only understand how to get work done, but how to build effective teams with values that allow them to make difficult decisions. The class is centered around case situations that highlight “crucible moments” in a leader’s career – moments where reactive actions without thoughtful rumination could lead to failure. Throughout the class, Rod pushed us to slow down and look at problems from a reflective, collaborative perspective, prioritizing communication and vulnerability above pure action. Only by being an open and empathetic leader can you develop authentic teams that believe in the message or vision you are sharing.
Alexander Banoczi, Emory University (Goizueta)
“My favorite course as an MBA was Financial Modeling. It may seem I selected this course as my favorite because I am pursuing a career in Finance, but in reality, this course was taught in a manner that allowed you to analyze your own life when building financial models. Our professor would help us build models that actually impacted us – define the opportunity cost of an MBA, a model on a life event (like a wedding), and even a model on the future value of your career now that you have the MBA.”
Wesley Varughese, Georgetown University (McDonough)
“Economics for Business Leaders with Dr. Santanu Chatterjee was my favorite course. His ability to bring economics to life through real-world scenarios made the subject come alive. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned from Dr. Chatterjee is that humans are not rational actors, which matters not only in a business context but also helps in life generally. I loved his lectures on behavioral economics, showing how cognitive biases, emotions, and social influences shape decision-making in ways that classical economic models fail to predict. I used a lot of material from these lessons to craft my team’s final presentation in his class on the Economics of Online Sports Gambling, which has huge ramifications in our society today. It was fascinating to see how these insights apply not just in business strategy but in everyday choices, from consumer behavior to financial markets. The course fundamentally changed the way I think about incentives, risk, and how people and businesses actually operate in the real world.”
John Dannehl, University of Georgia (Terry)
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