Beginning in the Fall Semester of 1997, the Department of Finance introduced a new undergraduate business curriculum---The Financial Analyst Program (FAP). Currently under the direction of Professor Kelly Kamm, this one-and-a-half year program provides an opportunity for a select group of outstanding finance undergraduates to work closely with finance faculty and industry professionals to develop their skills and experience as analysts. Students are offered intensive, "hands-on" experience in applying the concepts of business analysis and valuation to decision contexts similar to those in the business world

In the spring, the student analysts enroll as a cohort in a security analysis course (FIN 377.3) designed exclusively for them. Cases are used to present practical problems and issues in investments, corporate finance, and financial services and to develop the students’ oral and written skills. Students learn to assess the operating, financing, and investing performance of a company as well as make financial projections, relative to both the company’s recent operating history and its peer group of competitors. During the fall semester, the students serve as analysts for the $15 million MBA Investment Fund in order to increase their practical experience in the fundamental analysis and valuation of companies and their industries. Specifically, the student analysts are responsible for studying and presenting their opinions on different equity investments (domestic and ADRs) to the Fund’s MBA student managers and investment advisors. In the final spring semester, an independent study under the supervision of a finance faculty member permits each student to fashion an individual-specific project that further enhances his/her financial skills in a particular area of interest such as credit evaluation, industry structural analysis, or business valuation.

Skills developed in the program include:

• measuring financial performance using financial statements, cash flows, and related market data;
• developing pro forma forecasts of sales, earnings, dividends and financial statements;
• estimating investment risk and quality;
• analyzing capital expenditures projects;
• estimating the cost of capital;
• valuing financial assets such as common stock