CURRICULUM
The 无码专区 MSF curriculum balances foundational courses with the opportunity to explore your interests through a wide variety of related electives. The curriculum is designed to enable you to gain the exposure and skills most relevant to your intended career path within finance.
Incoming Summer 2025 Students:
The program will begin during the Summer 2025 Semester in-person on July 28, 2025.
Summer 2025 Courses:
- MSF 8600 Foundations of Finance (3 credits) - Tools of financial decision-making including time value of money, bond and equity valuation, risk and return, asset pricing, capital budgeting, financing decisions and cost of capital, and dividend policy.
- MSF 8645 Coding Applications for FIN I (1 credit) - Examination of contemporary issues and topics which relate to development in the field of finance. Topics vary from semester to semester and will be announced prior to registration. Pre-requisites vary depending on topic offered.
- Accounting and Statistics Primer (self-paced, pass/fail)
MSF CURRICULUM
EFFECTIVE STARTING SUMMER 2025
MSF 8620: Advanced Corporate Finance (3 credits)
Building on Foundations of Finance, course will further explore topics important to corporate finance decision-making including but not limited to: capital budgeting, cost of capital, capital structure.
MSF 8612: Investments鈥�(3 credits)
Introduction to fixed income markets and securities. Techniques of valuation, interest rate determination and modeling, interest rate risk management, and bond portfolio management and strategies.
MSF 8615: Derivatives (3 credits)
A comprehensive introduction to the markets for options, forwards, futures, swaps, and other related derivative instruments. The course is designed to develop an understanding of how derivatives markets operate, how derivatives are priced, and how they are used.
MSF 8647: Coding Applications for FIN 2 (1 credit)
Examination of contemporary issues and topics which relate to development in the field of finance. Topics vary from semester to semester and will be announced prior to registration. Pre-requisites vary depending on topic offered
MSF 8650: Professional Development Program I鈥�(0.5 credits)
Topics cover the many facets of the process of career decision-making and goal-setting process, and adopt the positive understanding that career planning is a lifelong process; students gain knowledge of how to articulate skills and talents in a way that employers value.
Students select between the following courses to complete their Fall schedule:
MSF 8640: Portfolio Theory and Application鈥�(3 credits)
A hands-on class where students manage real-dollar portfolios using various investment styles. Graduate students provide the operational management of the funds while undergraduates are the analysts. All students are members of the investment committee that makes all investment decisions. Each fund must be managed in compliance with its investment policy statement.
Or
MSF 8611: Financial Markets (3 credits)
Liquidity, market structure, and trading in financial markets; alternative market structures and their economic and operational underpinnings; tactical trading decisions within different market structures using simulation software and real-time data services.
MSF 8651: Professional Development Program II (0.5 credits)
Topics cover the many facets of the process of career decision-making and goal-setting process, and adopt the positive understanding that career planning is a lifelong process; students gain knowledge of how to articulate skills and talents in a way that employers value.
Elective credits
Students must take 12 elective credits, at least 6 credits must be from MSF Spring course offerings and 6 credits can be from approved MBA course offerings.
MSF 8660: MSF International Immersion (1.5 credits)
Global project, focusing on international finance, in which student will incorporate a variety of knowledge gained in the MSF program. Immersion may be international or domestic.
MSF 8610: Financial Institutions鈥�(3 credits)
An advanced, graduate-level course surveying the key topics relevant to financial institutions and the process of intermediation through a risk management lens. Students will apply the theories learned in this course to numerous problems facing today's financial institutions and markets.
MSF 8626: Alternative Investments鈥�(3 credits)
This course exposes students to the growing market for investments in non-traditional asset classes such as private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, commodities, natural resources, and real estate. The course will examine the risk-return characteristics of alternative investments, their correlation with conventional asset classes, and their use within diversified portfolios.
MSF 8641: Portfolio Theory and Application II鈥�(3 credits)
A hands-on class where students manage real-dollar portfolios using various investment styles. Graduate students provide the operational management of the funds while undergraduates are the analysts. All students are members of the investment committee that makes all investment decisions. Each fund must be managed in compliance with its investment policy statement. Restricted to MSF Students.
MSF 8646: Quantitative Finance (3 credits)
The course provides a framework for understanding quantitative asset management by first overviewing pertinent quantitative equity research then by replicating and backtesting existing research insights to provide hands-on experience for financial model building, valuation and quantitative performance attribution. The class aims to develop student skills that are best suited for quantitative asset management, valuation and advisory, data analytics, risk management, and statistical arbitrage roles, while providing students with insights into the asset management industry landscape that are particularly relevant to quantitative equity researchers.
MSF 8611: Financial Markets (3 credits)*
Liquidity, market structure, and trading in financial markets; alternative market structures and their economic and operational underpinnings; tactical trading decisions within different market structures using simulation software and real-time data services. Note: this course may only be taken once but is open to students who did not complete this course in the Fall term.
MBA 8162: Big Data: Theories & Practices (1.5 credits)
Numerous factors contributed to increasing the volume, velocity, and variety of data, resulting in the 鈥榖ig data鈥� phenomenon to become an unavoidable IT challenge. This course examines big data from both theoretical and practical perspectives in a condensed 2-weekend format.
MBA 8350: Analyzing and Leveraging Data (3 credits)
The course begins with a review of descriptive statistics, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. These tools will be extended into regression analysis geared towards analyzing large data sets in order to make informed business decisions.
MBA 8529 Programming in R (1.5 credits)
The statistical programming language R is rapidly becoming the language of choice for business analysts due to its full array of software capabilities for data preparation, analysis, and graphical display. This course covers the fundamentals of the usage of R as a programming language, with emphasis on applications in business. Students will learn how to use the software environment of R to efficiently source, manipulate and analyze data.
MBA 8453 - International Financial Markets (1.5 credits)
Global monetary system; balance of payments; foreign exchange markets; currency interest rates; credit derivatives and swaps; international financing; Euromarkets; and international portfolio management.
MBA 8444: Multinational Financial Management (1.5 credits)
Globalization and the multinational corporation; foreign direct investment and political risk; international parity conditions; foreign exchange market; currency derivatives market; foreign exchange risk management; foreign trade financing; managing the multinational financial system.
Please note that this sample list is neither comprehensive nor final, as non-MSF electives are subject to scheduling and availability through other graduate programs.
MSF CURRICULUM
FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2024-2025
Accounting primer (self-paced 鈥� pass/fail)
(1 credit)
Examination of contemporary issues and topics which relate to development in the field of finance. Topics vary from semester to semester and will be announced prior to registration.
(3 credits)
A survey course in corporate finance with applications to investment banking. It develops an understanding of fundamental concepts and theories in finance and applies them to a wide range of practical business problems including those related to the financial services industry.
(3 credits)
Introduction to fixed income markets and securities. Techniques of valuation, interest rate determination and modeling, interest rate risk management, and bond portfolio management and strategies.
(3 credits)
A hands-on class where students manage real-dollar portfolios using various investment styles. Graduate students provide the operational management of the funds while undergraduates are the analysts. All students are members of the investment committee that makes all investment decisions. Each fund must be managed in compliance with its investment policy statement.
(3 credits)
A comprehensive introduction to the markets for options, forwards, futures, swaps, and other related derivative instruments. The course is designed to develop an understanding of how derivatives markets operate, how derivatives are priced, and how they are used.
(0.5 credits)
Topics cover the many facets of the process of career decision-making and goal-setting process, and adopt the positive understanding that career planning is a lifelong process; students gain knowledge of how to articulate skills and talents in a way that employers value.
(1 credit)
Elective credits
Students complete 12 elective credits. At least nine credits must be taken from Group I (MSF electives), with the option to take up to 12 credits in Group I. Students can take up to 3 credits from Group II (non-MSF electives). Please see below for a sample of elective offerings. Please note that this sample list is neither comprehensive nor final, as non-MSF electives are subject to scheduling and availability through other graduate programs.
(0.5 credits)
Topics cover the many facets of the process of career decision-making and goal-setting process, and adopt the positive understanding that career planning is a lifelong process; students gain knowledge of how to articulate skills and talents in a way that employers value.
(3 credits)
An advanced course that surveys the key topics and inter-relationships between financial markets, financial institutions and market microstructure design. Students apply the theories learned in this course to numerous problems facing today鈥檚 financial institutions and markets.
(3 credits)
This course exposes students to the growing market for investments in non-traditional asset classes such as private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, commodities, natural resources, and real estate. The course will examine the risk-return characteristics of alternative investments, their correlation with conventional asset classes, and their use within diversified portfolios. (not updated)
(3 credits)
A hands-on class where students manage real-dollar portfolios using various investment styles. Graduate students provide the operational management of the funds while undergraduates are the analysts. All students are members of the investment committee that makes all investment decisions. Each fund must be managed in compliance with its investment policy statement. Restricted to MSF Students.
Quantitative Finance
The course provides a framework for understanding quantitative asset management by first overviewing pertinent quantitative equity research then by replicating and backtesting existing research insights to provide hands-on experience for financial model building, valuation and quantitative performance attribution. The class aims to develop student skills that are best suited for quantitative asset management, valuation and advisory, data analytics, risk management, and statistical arbitrage roles, while providing students with insights into the asset management industry landscape that are particularly relevant to quantitative equity researchers.
MBA 8139 Topic: Programming Business Model
This course is an introduction to programming that focuses on the design of computer applications, modern software engineering principles, object-oriented design and systems thinking. The course emphasizes good programming style with strong testing skills and the use of application programming interfaces to interact with real-time financial data. The course is explicitly designed for business students seeking to enhance analytical talents by developing stronger problem-solving skills, learning how to more easily manipulate data and gaining an appreciation for the integration of business systems. The Python programming language will be used.
(1.5 credits)
This course examines contemporary risk management frameworks, overviews common regulatory reporting requirements and provides practical insights on effective business risk management to help students navigate today's dynamic marketplace.
(3 credits)
The course begins with a review of descriptive statistics, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. These tools will be extended into regression analysis geared towards analyzing large data sets in order to make informed business decisions.
MBA 8529 Programming in R
The statistical programming language R is rapidly becoming the language of choice for business analysts due to its full array of software capabilities for data preparation, analysis, and graphical display. This course covers the fundamentals of the usage of R as a programming language, with emphasis on applications in business. Students will learn how to use the software environment of R to efficiently source, manipulate and analyze data.
(3 credits)
Provides an overview of economic and cultural integration, trade problems, and tariff barriers, and highlights the conflicts anhd compromises between the executive policies and national objectives of various countries. Emphasis is on the development of marketing strategies and the problems concerning overseas investment and financing.
(1.5 credits)
Globalization and the multinational corporation; foreign direct investment and political risk; international parity conditions; foreign exchange market; currency derivatives market; foreign exchange risk management; foreign trade financing; managing the multinational financial system.