Program Description:
The finance major offers four (4) finance related concentrations. The finance major includes a core of courses that covers all aspects of the theory and practice of financial management and investments. Following this core, students should select from one of four concentrations: financial management, investments, real estate, and business analytics. Financial management involves managing the financial affairs of businesses and other organization. The curriculum includes courses in accounting, financial analysis and decision making, international financial management and managerial finance. Among the many job opportunities open to the graduate with a finance major and a financial management concentration are financial analyst, cash manager, credit analyst, loan officer and financial manager.
For students selecting an investments concentration, the curriculum includes a concentration in more investments specific courses like financial derivatives, fixed income securities analysis, and the analysis of corporate financial information. This concentration closely mirrors the candidate body of knowledge (CBOK) required to prepare for the Chartered Financial Analysts exams and is part of the University Affiliation Program of the CFA Institute ® for containing more than 70% of the requisite body of knowledge. Graduates pursuing this concentration can look forward to various positions in investment management including: securities analyst, portfolio management, relationship manager, trust officer among others.
Students selecting a concentration in real estate will complete a curriculum that includes the three courses necessary for real estate licensing and are encouraged to understand the role real estate plays in the economics of the region by including urban economics, urban geography and urban development courses as their electives. Graduates of this concentration can pursue jobs as: real estate brokers/agents, property managers, real estate development, real estate loan officers, among others.
For students selecting a concentration in business analytics, the curriculum includes a general finance curriculum including financial management, investing, international finance, and accounting courses in addition to courses in business analytics that include: Introduction to Quantitative Finance, Econometrics, Forecasting, Introduction to Business Data, Data Visualization for Business and other data analytics courses. Students with this concentration could look forward to jobs such as: data analyst, credit analyst, research analyst or perhaps quantitative securities trader.
There is a general finance path for the student who would like to design their own finance concentration and students should work with the department to discuss this possibility.
Students with an interest in both finance and accounting may wish to consider a dual major in finance and accounting. Interested students should contact an academic advisor.
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