Enrollment in MBA Electives For Non-MBA Graduate Students

This section helps students understand eligibility, expectations, and preparation steps before and while the request process opens.

Before submitting a request for a Haas MBA elective, students should:

1. Review The Elective Course List

• Check the list of available MBA electives for each semester.
• Review course descriptions, meeting times, dates, and units.

2. Confirm Eligibility

• Non-Haas Graduate students must be currently enrolled as UC Berkeley students.
• Enrollment is subject to availability, with MBA students given priority first.

3. Check for Schedule Conflicts

• Ensure the MBA course does not conflict with your current schedule or waitlisted courses.
• MBA courses often meet various times during the week.

4. Understand The Course Format
   Haas MBA courses may include:

• Case Discussions
• Group Projects
• Cold Calling and Class Participation
• Presentations
• Courses Dates & Times

5. Plan to Attend The First Class

• Students interested in the course(s) should attend all class meetings.
• Students can ask the professor or the GSI  to add them to bCourses in the “Observer Role” until the outcome of the requests.

This section explains exactly what to do during the enrollment period.

Step-by-Step Request Process

Step 1: Submit the Non-Haas Enrollment Request

• Submit your request through the Non-Haas Enrollment Request process during the request window.
  • Submitting a request does not guarantee enrollment.
  • You will rank the courses in the system by priority.

Step 2: Keep Up in the Course
Non-Haas students interested in the course(s) should attend the first class meeting to confirm interest and review course expectations.

Keep up with the course while you wait for the outcome of your request(s)

• Students interested in the course(s) should attend all class meetings.
• Students can ask the professor or the GSI  to add them to bCourses in the “ Observer role” until the outcome of the requests.

Step 3: Watch out for Notification of Outcome

• Students will be notified via email if their request has been approved or declined, as noted in the Important Dates section.

If Your Request Is Approved

1. Ensure Space for MBA Course(s)

• The Haas Registrar will transfer the courses from our local system to CalCentral. Please allow 48 hours for the course to show up in CalCentral and bCourses.
• Review the CalCentral schedule to make sure you have enough space to take the MBA course(s)

Please note that waitlist courses are included in the overall 20.5 units.

• Review and clear any hold(s) in your CalCentral account.

2. Dropping an MBA Course You Don’t Intend to Take 

• Students have 5 days to drop a course through our local system after receiving the outcome of their request(s).
• After the 5 days have passed, if students need assistance with dropping the course or adjusting their schedule, they should contact their Academic Advisor within their department for support.

3. Complete the Course

• As an enrolled student, you are expected to complete all course requirements.

If Your Request Is Not Approved

Due to high demand and limited seating, not all requests can be accommodated.

Students may:

• Request another MBA elective in a future semester.
• Explore other graduate courses offered across UC Berkeley.

You can request to enroll in an MBA elective provided:

• You are a graduate student in another UC Berkeley department.
• You are registered for the current semester (i.e. you must be enrolled in at least one course and have paid your fees).
• You meet the prerequisites, if any, for the course. Check the course description for details.
• There are open seats in the course at the end of the second week of each semester.
• Your home department or school does not offer an equivalent course(s).

To request all other Haas MBA classes, you will instead use our MBA Request site:

• Go to https://mbarequest.haas.berkeley.edu  and log in to submit your request.
• Requests are not treated as first-come-first-served, so you just need to submit them by the deadline.
• You may enroll in up to a maximum of 3 MBA courses each semester. The system will allow you to rank orders up to 5 choices so that you can select backup courses. Order them according to your preference, then indicate the maximum number of courses you wish to be enrolled in (enrollment limit).
• There is no “submit” button. The system will save your entries once you are done.
• Once you enter your requests, you can edit them up until the deadline for submitting your request.

Keep in mind that submitting a request does not guarantee enrollment. If a course still has open seats once the MBA add/drop period concludes, then we will add non-MBAs to the course. If there are more requests from non-MBA students than available seats, the system will run a randomized lottery to determine who gets into the courses.

Please note our courses may be recorded for various purposes. You will need to agree to our Privacy and Recording Notice before you can submit requests for MBA courses. You will be prompted to review and agree to the notice when you log in to the MBA Request site.

The elective schedule for fall semester will be available in June. The elective schedule for the spring semester will be available in November. This list will be updated periodically, and course details might change, so we recommend checking back. Click on the course numbers to view course descriptions.

We are not able to offer every MBA course for Non-MBA enrollment. This is often the case when a course is full, was enrolled via a selection process that has already ended, relies extensively on an MBA core prerequisite, or the faculty has asked to exclude their course from the process due to client or pedagogical constraints.

Most MBA courses will have a bCourses site as well as a course reader hosted on Study.net (which you can access through bCourses). An instructor can add you as a bCourses as an “Observe”r even while you are awaiting the outcome of your request – it is recommended that you ask them to do so to enable you to keep up with course assignments and slides.

Some courses will have recordings available to you for the first two weeks of class for you to use to keep up with materials and assignments should you get a seat. Recording links will be added to the list of electives once classes begin. Course recording and bCourses access will be removed if you do not get a seat in the course.

If the course is using a Study.net reader, you will eventually need to purchase access to the “Non-Haas” labeled version of the reader through their site. We recommend that you wait until you hear the outcome of your request to purchase the reader as they are non-refundable.

We recommend reviewing the course description (access these by clicking on the course number on the elective spreadsheet above) carefully to evaluate whether the course is a good fit with your learning objectives and experience.

Please see the important dates above for this semester’s timeline. You will receive an email from the Academics Team to your UC Berkeley email address to let you know when you can view the outcome of your request. We cannot let you know if you got into the course before this date.

Please pay close attention and ensure you finalize your requests before the deadlines.

The outcome for requests is after the 2nd Friday of instruction. Any student-initiated changes in CalCentral after this date are usually subject to fees. Refer to the campus enrollment calendar for specific deadlines.

Once the enrollment period closes, the FTMBA Academics Team will no longer be able to take any more MBA requests.

Once the MBA enrollment period has ended (generally one week after the notification email), drops must be processed in CalCentral. Refer to the campus enrollment calendar for deadlines for the last day to drop (with a fee). Non-Haas students are strongly recommended to connect with their Academic Advisor and request approval before dropping the course(s) in CalCentral. The FTMBA Program Office will not waive any late fees incurred by student-initiated drops in CalCentral.

Due to the Law School having its own Registrar’s Office, Law students who decide to drop a Haas course during the Haas process or through CalCentral should also email the Law School Registrar’s Office directly for approval and CC the FTMBA Academics Team.

The FTMBA Program does not use CalCentral to manage its course enrollments, except for MBA209F: Fundamentals of Business (Fall and Spring) and MBA296: Navigating Life’s Financial Decisions (Spring).

MBA209F – Business Fundamentals: An Introduction to Business for Graduate Students | 3 units | Fall & Spring 

Business Fundamentals is a course specifically designed for graduate students in schools other than Haas (and will serve as an elective course for their degree programs). The purpose of the course is to introduce non-business students to the vocabulary of business and to understand how business people analyze problems and determine strategies.  It’s not quite a “survey” course.  Rather, we cover a selection of topics in some depth +appropriate for graduate students.

Students can enroll directly via CalCentral. Spring 2026 CC TBA

MBA209P- Navigating Life’s Financial Decisions | 2 units | Spring
This is a course that deals with major life financial decisions (e.g., career choice, consumption v. saving, investments, mortgages, insurance) and how decision-making biases (e.g., overconfidence, present bias, limited attention) can lead to suboptimal choice. The main learning objectives for the course are:

• Understand the major financial decisions that you will face during your life.
• Develop the tools needed to make choices that are best for your situation.
• Analyze products and services that would improve your personal finance choice outcomes.

It is a hybrid course that combines short online videos and live classes. Potential students can preview many of the videos at https://www.youtube.com/c/MakingSmartFinancialDecisions.
Students can enroll directly via CalCentral. Spring 2026 CC TBA

If you do not see your enrollment in CalCentral, please check that

1. You have removed all registration holds.
2. Need to reach your unit limit/have enough units for all your MBA courses. (Waitlisted units count towards your unit limit.)

For example, if your unit limit is 20.5 and you are currently at 17 units. You get into a 3-unit and a 1-unit MBA course. The system will enroll you in the 3 unit course (20 total) and ignore the 1 unit. You will need to drop units or request your department advisor increase your unit limit. Please notify [email protected] of any changes so the enrollment can be re-processed.