Degree Requirements

At least 36 hours of management course work beyond prerequisite courses is required, including 12 hours of basic business core courses and 24 hours of graduate finance courses.  The M.S. is Finance is designed for students with or without previous educational background in finance.  Many students will select the Financial Management option which allows them to design a program to their needs.  For students wanting a more focused program, three concentrations are available Investment Management, Financial Analyst, or FinancialRisk Management.  The Investment Management concentration is designed for students interested in pursuing an investment career and completing the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) examinations.  The Financial Analyst concentration is designed for students interested in corporate finance, investment banking, venture capital, private equity, or corporate restructuring and turnarounds.  The FinancialRisk Management concentration is designed for students with the quantitative ability to pursue a career applying quantitative methods to investment and risk management problems. Because these concentrations have been designed to prepare students for certain certifications, students are recommended to complete all the course work in a particular concentration in order to prepare for its associated certification.

Prerequisites

Calculus, basic statistics, and competence in personal computing are required as prerequisites. Candidates that have not taken equivalent courses will need to take MATH 5304 to meet the calculus requirement; OPRE 6301 to complete the basic statistics requirement, and BA 3351 to complete the personal computing requirement. 

Basic Core Courses (12 credit hours)

All students enrolling in the Master of Science in Finance program must complete the following Basic Business Core courses, or their equivalents.  Please see the catalog for further prerequisite information.

ACCT 6305  Accounting for Managers or ACCT 6201 and ACCT 6202
MECO 6303  Business Economics
FIN 6301  Financial Management
FIN 6306  Quantitative Methods in Finance

Concentrations:

Investment Management (CFA) Concentration (24 hours):

ACCT 6344 Financial Statement Analysis
FIN 6311 Valuation Models and Practices
FIN 6310 Investment Management
FIN 6314 Fixed income securities and their derivatives
FIN 6350 Advanced Financial Management
FIN 6360 Options and Futures Markets
FIN 6364 Advanced Investment Management

And one of following four courses:

FIN 6320 Financial markets and institutions
FIN 6325 Macroeconomics and the Financial System
FIN 6330 Behavioral Finance
FIN 6380 Practicum in Investment Management

Financial Analyst Concentration (24 hours):

ACCT 6330 Intermediate Financial Accounting I
ACCT 6332 Intermediate Financial Accounting II
FIN 6311 Valuation Models and Practices
FIN 6350 Advanced Financial Management
FIN 6355 Corporate Finance and Policy

And three of the following four courses:

FIN 6316 Private Equity Finance FIN 6352: Financial Modeling
FIN 6356 Mergers and Acquisitions
FIN 6357 Corporate Restructuring and Turnarounds

Financial Risk Management Concentration (24 hours):

FIN 6310 Investment Management
FIN 6314 Fixed Income Securities and Their Derivatives
FIN 6360 Options and Futures Markets
ECO 6311 Statistics for Economists or OPRE 7310 Probability and Stochastic Processes
MECO 6312 Applied Econometrics and Times Series Analysis or ECON 6306 Applied Econometrics

And three of the following four courses:

FIN 6370 Theory of Finance or
FIN 6381 Introductory Mathematical Finance
FIN 6383 Financial Engineering and Risk Management
ECON 6305: Mathematical Economics

Financial Management Option (24 hours):

Students must complete eight courses; of which at least one course must come from category A and at least five must come from category B.  Students may do an internship (FIN 6V98) as part of this option.

Category A: ACCT 6330, ACCT 6332, ACCT 6341, ACCT 6342, ACCT 6344, ACCT 6345, ACCT 6346, ACCT 6351, ACCT 6342, ACCT 6380.

Category B: ECON 6305, ECON 6306, ECON 6311,FIN 6308, FIN 6310, FIN 6311, FIN 6314, FIN 6315, FIN 6316, FIN 6320, FIN 6321, FIN 6323, FIN 6325, FIN 6330, FIN 6340, FIN 6350, FIN 6352, FIN 6355, FIN 6356, FIN 6357, FIN 6360, FIN 6364, FIN 6366, FIN 6370, FIN 6381, FIN 6383, FIN 6384, FIN 6V98, MECO 6312, OPRE 7310, REAL 6305, REAL 6310, REAL 6320.