New MIT Sloan Majors Draw Students

Professor Jim Orlin

Professor Jim Orlin

MAIN FINANCE CLASSES MODIFIED FOR NEW MAJOR

The finance major is set up a little differently. Students will take two main finance classes: Managerial finance and corporate finance. The other required courses include accounting, microeconomics, probability, and statistics.

Aside from the required subjects, finance students will also take seven “restricted electives,” which are classes selected from a list of approved electives. At least five of these classes should be directly related to finance.

Though the finance classes were offered at Sloan before, for business majors with a concentration in finance, the two main classes have been modified quite a bit, Orlin says, and now include two new, substantial class projects.

MANAGEMENT: THE MOST FLEXIBLE DEGREE

The management major was meant to be the most flexible degree, allowing students to either pursue a subject other than finance or business analytics.

The core requirements are managerial communication, managerial psychology, accounting, microeconomics, probability, and statistics. Beyond that, they take two electives from a restricted list, and then may choose five others from a concentration of their choosing.

This option is also ideal for MIT students hoping to double major in business. Orlin says one of the challenges that Sloan is always facing is that most MIT students arrive wanting to major in engineering or science. Double majors are usually declared at the end of junior year, so Orlin says the next challenge is making sure students know about the new options at Sloan.

EVERYONE AGREED IT WAS TIME FOR A CHANGE

Orlin says the effort to introduce new majors began two years ago, in 2014-2015. MIT takes new majors seriously, so there were a number of committees he presented the reorganization to, he says.

“I think it’s a great process,” he says. “When we create new majors, we don’t do it at all casually. The committees had recommendations and we made modifications and that led to improvement.”

But Orlin notes that every time he presented, the committees would agree it was a good time to reorganize. “I didn’t have to work too hard to convince them,” he says. “They would say, ‘Yes, that makes sense for students.’”