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Students take 36 hours over 10 months, 26 hours of required core + 10 hours of electives
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The summer consists of 3 required courses (6 credit hours) in 5 week summer session after completing an intensive week-long bootcamp
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Students take 15 credit hours during the fall and spring semesters, including a practicum class that spans fall and spring (1 credit hour each semester)
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Fall and spring are split into two 7-week sessions to provide additional flexibility and spread out material.
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In the fall there are 4 required courses (8 credit hours) the first 7-weeks and 3 required courses (6 credit hours) the second 7-weeks plus the required 1 hour practicum class
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In the spring there are 2 required classes (4 credit hours) plus the required 1 hour practicum class in the first 7-weeks; each student also selects 10 hours of electives from the 14 options offered in the spring
Summer Term
6 credit hours
Financial Accounting
BA S 284T | 2 credits | core course | 1st half of semester
Introductory Financial Accounting provides an overview of the accrual accounting model, how corporate financial statements report particular economic events, and the economic incentives of corporate managers as they exercise their judgment to prepare financial statements. By the end of the course the students will feel comfortable reading the financial statements in published annual reports, and will be able to come to a reasoned conclusion about a company’s financial health.
Financial Management
BA 385T | 2 credits | core course | 1st half of semester
Major topics in the corporate core class include time value of money, project selection methods (NPV and IRR), and the basics of capital markets and pricing risky capital, all with a heavy emphasis on the use of excel spreadsheet models. On completion of the core corporate class students will be able to calculate the present and future value of cash flow streams, model projects and calculate project selection metrics such as NPV and IRR, and estimate discount rates for use in project analysis and valuation.
Valuation I
FIN 286 | 2 credits | core course | 2nd half of semester
The valuation course focuses on the valuation of businesses using Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) modeling and comparable company multiples, and includes rigorous assignments involving estimating a firm’s cost of capital using comparable company returns and financial data, and constructing a complete DCF model and valuation for a publicly traded company of their choosing. On completion of the valuation course students will be able to construct and use rigorous valuation spreadsheet models for valuing businesses or major investment projects, estimate costs of capital and firm value using comparable company analysis, and consider real-world adjustments in value related to control premiums or liquidity discounts.
Fall Term
15 credit hours
Investment Theory & Practice
FIN 397.1 | 2 credits | core course | 1st half of semester
Major topics in Investment Theory & Practice include modern portfolio theory, asset allocation and the valuation and use of equities, fixed income, derivatives and mutual funds. On completion of this course, students will understand the relationship between risk and return, how decisions are made with respect to putting together a portfolio and how investors select and use different types of securities.
Statistics for Financial Applications
BA 286T | 2 credits | core course| 1st half of semester
The course focuses on the use of data analytic, probability and statistics tools in financial applications. The main topics of the course are probability, conditional expectation, basic estimation concepts and regression analysis. Upon completion of the course, students will master basic statistics and learn how to use regression models to analyze real, applied problems. Emphasis is placed on analysis of actual datasets and the use of appropriate computational tools necessary for the analysis.
Managerial Economics
BA 380S | 2 credits | core course| 1st half of semester
Managerial Economics focuses on the microeconomics and macroeconomic forces that influence an organizations decisions, including interest rates, business cycles, financial systems, input demand and supply, industry factors, market structure, and externalities.
Practicum in Finance
BA 191 | 1 credits | core course | 2nd half of semester
The Practicum is an intensive program that spans the last half of the fall semester and the first half of the spring semester. Students work directly with sponsoring companies on a wide variety of finance problems.
Students may indicate an area of interest for their practicum project in early fall. Students work in small groups under the supervision of the MSF program director to complete the project, earning practical experience and developing a strong relationship with corporations and potential employers.
The MSF program director and Finance Department faculty work with various finance-related organizations to design projects that are valuable to MSF students and benefit the sponsoring group. Projects are designed to be accomplished within the Practicum time frame and culminate in a written report and presentation of work to the sponsoring company and program faculty.
Advanced Valuation and Modeling
FIN 294.17 | 2 credits | core course| 2nd half of semester
Advanced Valuation and Financial Modeling covers a range of topics in the field of financial economics, each of which requires extensive modeling skills. Topics include loan amortization schedules, style analysis, optimal portfolio selection, valuation and takeovers, fixed income derivatives, and equity derivatives. Course work is based on cases studies, academic research, and practitioner research. This is a hands-on course that requires students to analyze data and participate in class discussions.
Advanced Corporate Finance I
FIN 394.1 | 2 credits | core course| 2nd half of semester
Advanced Corporate Finance I examines key issues in capital budgeting, including the analysis and calculation of the cost of capital, project valuation, firm valuation, and real options analysis. The course also explores the fundamentals of capital structure, focusing on the choice between debt and equity financing, the impact of taxes and bankruptcy costs, and the trade-off theory. In addition, we analyze how financial decisions convey information to the market and study the design of corporate securities—such as convertible bonds—to address information asymmetries between managers and investors.
Intermediate Accounting I
ACC 280K | 2 credits | core course| 2nd half of semester
This course focuses on issues in financial reporting of publicly held companies and builds upon the accrual accounting model developed in prior courses. By the end of the course, students will have developed a deeper understanding of the accrual accounting model and will have extended their ability to analyze the financial reporting implications of events that lead to scrutiny by equity investors, investment advisors, and the financial press.
Spring Term
15 credit hours
Practicum in Finance
BA 191 | 1 credits | core course | 1st half of semester
The Practicum is an intensive program that spans the last half of the fall semester and the first half of the spring semester. Students work directly with sponsoring companies on a wide variety of finance problems.
Students may indicate an area of interest for their practicum project in early fall. Students work in small groups under the supervision of the MSF program director to complete the project, earning practical experience and developing a strong relationship with corporations and potential employers.
The MSF program director and Finance Department faculty work with various finance-related organizations to design projects that are valuable to MSF students and benefit the sponsoring group. Projects are designed to be accomplished within the Practicum time frame and culminate in a written report and presentation of work to the sponsoring company and program faculty.
Financial Statement Analysis
ACC 280K.7 | 2 credits | core course| 1st half of semester
Financial Statement Analysis I is a case and discussion-based class that provides an overview of the use of qualitative and quantitative financial information to first understand the business and context behind the numbers to then to evaluate and assess performance and consider motivations for future performance. The class follows famed investor Charlie Munger’s advice for business schools for hands-on learning from successful and unsuccessful companies, including numerous contemporaneous examples. The class weaves in the why, how and what next of financial information, including an emphasis on slowing things down to best understand commonly used/misused metrics and jargon. Class discussions are the most important aspect of the class. The goal is to help students become informed users of financial information from a variety of sources and apply this skill to analyzing specific businesses.
Advanced Corporate Finance II
FIN | 2 credits | core course| 1st half of semester
Advanced Corporate Finance II explores key financial decisions faced by firms, including the initial public offering (IPO), dividend and share repurchase policy, and the valuation and financing of mergers and acquisitions. The course also addresses corporate governance, with a particular focus on managerial incentives and executive compensation. In addition, students will examine corporate risk management strategies, including the use of derivative securities to hedge financial risk.
Financial Statement Analysis II
FIN 172 | 2 credits | elective | 2nd half of semester
Financial Statement Analysis II is also a case and discussion-based class that extends and builds off of the first Financial Statement Analysis class. It adds a few more areas related to assessing risk, taxes and other slightly more technical applications. We tie things together with by focusing on how relevant and representative financial information can be used to motivated for thoughtful forecasts (i.e., not mindlessly using CAGRs) and cover the need to understand accounting information to motivate thoughtful estimates for company value. We end with an opportunity for students to apply the class lessons from both classes with an interactive stock pitch deliverable. Class discussions are again the most important aspect of the class. The goal is to help students become informed users of financial information and apply this skill to analyzing, forecasting and valuing specific businesses.
Intermediate Accounting II
ACC 280K | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
This class focuses on issues in financial reporting of publicly held companies and builds upon the accrual accounting model introduced in fall semester’s financial accounting course. Topics include red-flag events that lead to one-off financial reports that lead to news releases and analysis in the financial press — e.g., reporting the effects of prior years’ errors, forecasting the effects of changes in the tax code, issuing and retiring debt securities, issuing and retiring equity securities, removal of assets from the balance sheet via securitization to avoid recognizing related liabilities. By the end of the course, students will have developed a deeper understanding of the accrual accounting model and will have extended their ability to analyze the financial reporting implications of events that lead to scrutiny by equity investors, investment advisors, and the financial press.
Commercial Real Estate
BA 291.3| 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
This course provides an overview of the commercial real estate industry. The classes will be a mix of lectures and guest speakers. Our primary out of class activity will be short writing assignments based on current real estate topics.
The following topics will be discussed:
- Commercial real estate careers
- The commercial real estate cycle
- Real Estate as a “side hustle”
- Equity and debt financing
- Real estate development
- Investment due diligence
Private Equity
FIN 294.11 | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
The objective of this course is to provide you with a structural understanding of private equity (“PE”) markets, the primary participants in these markets, and the financial strategies that they employ. This class will explore private equity as a major source of capital for new, growing and established private and public firms. As investors have been attracted to PE markets, funds have developed specialized strategies and targeted specific market segments. In addition to LBO and venture funds, there are growth, mezzanine, middle market buyout, infrastructure, and energy funds, among others, that have become attractive investment vehicles for institutional investors, particularly as yields from other investments have declined over the past several years.
Fixed Income Analysis
FIN 297.5 | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
One of the important aspects of this course is to convey the role of market prices as a means of communicating information to market participants to address questions like:
What are the debt financial-markets metrics which quantify the depth and intensity of economic and political crises? What is the current level of nervousness relative to crisis periods? What are the metrics by which the debt markets quantify future inflation and changes in interest rates?
These broader questions will facilitate investigation of a variety of topics, including
- Empirical Regularities of Global Fixed Income Markets
- Understanding the fundamentals of bond valuation, including forward rates of interest
- Understanding the design, valuation and uses of: Bullet bonds;
- Make-whole bonds; CPI-linked securities; Callable and putable bonds
- Eurodollar Futures and Interest Rate Swaps
- Duration and Convexity; Hedging interest rate exposure
- Interest-Rate Volatility
- Modeling and Implementing Default Models
Sustainable Finance
FIN 297.10 | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
Portfolio Management & Security Analysis
FIN 397.2 | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
Portfolio Management & Security Analysis addresses modern practices in managing investment portfolios, portfolio optimization methods, asset management for individual and institutional investors, and valuation of equity securities.
Energy Technologies
FIN 294.8 | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
Energy Technologies Offers an introduction to the legal, engineering, business, and financial aspects of energy development and operations.
Financial Risk Management
FIN 297.4 | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
This course will introduce concepts and theories of modern risk management and addresses the various risk mitigation techniques used in private enterprises, public corporations, financial institutions and multinational firms.
Financial Technology
FIN 294.5 | 2 credits | elective
This course is focused on three main FinTech areas in which technology is driving changes in the way financial services are provided: (i) Lending/Banking services, (ii) wealth management (iii) Trading. The course is going to provide specific coverage and examples of developments from (1) payments (2) peer-to-peer lending (3) robo-advising (4) algo/quantitative trading. In each of these areas, we start by analyzing the marketing place, the incumbents, and the business case and strategies of the incoming technology players. We then turn to understand the role data and analytics plays in driving the technology-based services. Guest speakers augment the discussion by offering their perspective on future trends in each of these areas.
Valuation of Energy Investments
FIN 294.13 | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
This course is primarily focused on the evaluation and financing of energy investments with a focus on upstream oil and gas projects. This topic provides students with an opportunity to further develop their financial modeling skills, from detailed discounted cash flow models to advanced option pricing models utilizing a variety of computational approaches. The first half of the course will focus on valuation of projects in a deterministic setting, while the second half will involve stochastic models of project cash flows and managerial decision making (real options).
Advanced Valuation II
FIN 294.21 | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
The objectives of this course are to introduce students to the application of advanced valuation concepts, principally in a consulting role. The course is recommended for students who have continued interest in valuation, particularly as applied to financial reporting, mergers and acquisitions, and other investment purposes. Topics covered include valuation of specific intangible assets, differences in valuing private as opposed to public companies, and measuring the value of synergies in mergers and acquisitions.
wealth management
FIN | 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
This course provides an exploration of wealth management principles and practices within the context of the rapidly evolving financial landscape. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of wealth management. We will cover the essentials of financial planning, risk management, estate planning, retirement savings, tax planning, and family business governance. We will discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by changing demographics, technological advancements, and regulatory developments in the wealth management industry.
AI-Powered Fund Management
FIN| 2 credits | elective| 2nd half of semester
This hands-on elective integrates AI into every aspect of the course—from in-person discussions to assignments and evaluations. Students will learn to use AI tools to analyze and visualize data, financial statements, portfolios, and trading strategies. No coding experience required—you’ll learn how to code in English by describing what you want and letting AI handle the rest.
MS Finance in Real Life
Assoicate Professor Patrick Badolato and Master of Science in Finance student Chris Mercaldo talk all things finance in this interview! Learn more about the MSF program and listen in on an informative conversation about Netflix’s upcoming changes.