First year classes

Many schools offer the option to waive out of classes if you have a background in them and also you can take turbo classes if you want a challenge. Even schools that dont have a solid core require you take classes in specific subjects to build a strong base for the advance classes to build on.

I know Haas and UCLA have set core classes. At Haas we have 12 core classes that take up 40% of the 2 year program. Fall semester is ALL core classes (and it's pretty crazy right now). Spring semester is half core and half electives, and 2nd year is all electives.

HKUST its all core courses in the first semester, and some core and mostly electives after that,

If you have a background in some of the cores, then you can exempt them and take an elective instead.
Hence, first semester is very very intense.

that's pretty crazy to cram all the core in one semester... I'm kind of glad it's spread out to the 2nd semester for me.

Darden's system is extremely similar to the system at Haas as described by Kryzak.

Just correcting, is not whatever you want, it's a bid system, and even though it is extremely flexible there are some requirements, you can skip basic courses though and take more advanced ones to fill these requirements. Courses content may also change a little with the professor one's taking the class, so at the GSB one gets to choose the Course and the Professor. There are 6 bids phases, and the system is new, so prices are a little crazy right now. Anyway, it's a market and you use your points to get the classes and professors you want. I know some people who bidded for classes only from Tuesdays to Thursdays, so that they have a longer weekend, some people got it, but had to pay much more for that, I decided to spare my points for next quarters when I will bid for some REALLY expensive courses.

About the requirements for instance, every GSB student is required to make 3 foundations courses: Stats, Accounting and Microeconomics. I am, for instance, taking Financial Accounting (which is the basic one), Microeconomics (I'm taking the basic one but with the professor known to ask more from students), I decided to take Stats next quarter, though a mode advanced level (Applied Regression Analysis), and decided to 2 more advanced courses: Competitive Strategy and Investments.

The GND policy at the GSB makes people challenge themselves, really, I could have played safely thinking about only my GPA otherwise, but I decided to get an extra course and try to learn more even if this can in the future translate in a lower GPA.

At Kellogg there are 9 core classes (and one half credit pre-term before 2nd year) but they grant waivers for (I believe) 6 of them if you meet certain requirements. Personally I am a fan of a core now that I am in one. I decided not to waive out of classes I could have waived out of because I took them so long ago I think there is a much bigger benefit to take them than to waive out. I have 4 core classes right now and will have another semester of all core this winter. I think a school is going to know better than a brand new student what classes are necessary to build a foundation of knowledge needed for more advanced classes. If you have the background you waive out and take more electives otherwise they are subjects that every MBA should learn. Another advantage of our core is that we dont bid for classes 1st semester. This is great because lots of the core professors are ones that bid for huge points in other classes later in the year. One marketing professor for example you can get for no points in a core class in the fall but her classes in other semesters go for roughly half of all the points you get for a year.

Personally I think wherever you go you are going to get a great education. You will take lots of classes that will be very helpful in your future career.

I have to second RR's comment about the core classes being great for someone without much business background. At Haas, the 12 core classes (we're divided into 4 half semesters in the first year) are:

Fall A: Microecon, Stats, Org Behavior, Leadership Communication
Fall B: Marketing, Accounting, Finance
Spring A: Strategy, Operations
Spring B: Macro Econ, Ethics, Leadership Comm (part two)

I'm currently learning a LOT from all my classes and am glad I didn't try to waive of of them. But Haas lets you waive out of both econs, stats, finance, accounting, and operations. so you can waive 6 out of 12 classes.

OB is SO relevant that I'm glad they make everyone take it. Leadership Comm is really helping my speech giving skills a lot. I'm looking forward to the other non waive-able classes like Strategy, Ethics, and Marketing.

We have 15 core courses :-

Fall A :- Managerial Problem Solving, Introductory Statistics for Business, Financial Accounting Foundations, Marketing Strategy and Policy, Fundamentals of Information Technology Management
Fall B :- Managerial Accounting Foundations, Managerial Microeconomics, China in the Global Economy, Corporate Finance, Operations Management

Spring A :- Management of Organizations, Managerial Communication
Spring B :- Business Law and Ethics, Developing Business Plans, Strategic Management

It's all crammed in because the course is either 12 or 16 months depending on whether you want to do an internship or not.

If you have studied some of them before you can drop it and take an elective instead. Altogther you can drop 7 of the 15 core courses

WE have the core system here at UW. I agree it is nice for non-business background folks (in terms of getting up to speed for internships), although it does provide quite a heavy workload.