Part-Time MS in Finance

Study at a Flexible Pace

If you're currently working in finance in the Boston area and you want to build a stronger, deeper foundation in financial theory and practice—plus get up to speed on pressing issues facing the industry—this program was designed for you. You'll learn see, and hone your leadership and communication skills, preparing you to lead in a global context.

As you're learning, you'll set the pace. Evening classes run Monday through Thursday, and you can choose from 5:20 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. class times. You can finish in 21 months, or you can work with your academic advisor to accelerate your curriculum. If you need to go slower in order to accommodate your work and family commitments, longer terms are possible as well.

Your Part-Time MS in Finance classmates will challenge you and support you, becoming part of your permanent professional network and your Northeastern family. Many of our graduates tell us this is the most rewarding part of the program.

Required Courses

If you want to pursue the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, your coursework will help you prepare for the exams.

Highlights the role of financial management as a source of value creation in a competitive global environment characterized by rapid technological, personal, and market changes. Offers students an opportunity to develop tools and techniques of financial analysis and valuation to support financial decision making. Presents future managers with actual business problems to learn to apply the tools of financial analysis to strategic decisions faced by the firm, such as capital budgeting and capital structure.

FINA 6200 | 3 Hours

Introduces the domestic and international financial system and the institutions within it. Develops data and quantitative analysis tools utilized for economic and financial modeling and analysis. Emphasis is on regression analysis and its application, including how to build and interpret statistical models. Topics include the major types of financial institutions that operate within the global economy and the financial instruments employed by them; how exchange rates, interests rates, and security prices are determined and how they affect the global economy; and how governments and central banks impact economic and financial conditions.

FINA 6202 | 3 Hours

Familiarizes students with domestic and international financial markets and the securities traded therein. Discusses a variety of techniques for valuation of financial assets and relies heavily on quantitative methods. Critically analyzes such qualitative concepts as market efficiency, intrinsic value, and risk. The contents of this course, descriptive, theoretical, and applied, should provide students with the ability to build unique valuation models to suit the particular investment alternative they wish to scrutinize. Also provides students with an understanding of how investment theory and investment practice relate.

FINA 6203 | 3 Hours

Develops specific concepts, policies, and techniques for the financial management of the multinational firm. Topics include operation of the foreign exchange markets, foreign exchange risk management, sources and instruments of international financing, foreign direct investment and the management of political risk, multinational capital budgeting, and financing control systems for the multinational firm.

FINA 6204 | 3 Hours

Develops financial, analytical, and communication skills necessary to develop and implement a financial strategy consistent with firm value creation in a dynamic environment. Stresses the impact of ethical and legal considerations, global markets, and technological innovation on efficient economic outcomes. Emphasizes written and oral communication skills. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to identify and analyze a firm's strategic opportunities and propose a suitable financial strategy that is consistent with firm value creation.

FINA 6205 | 3 Hours

Structures discussion of current topics in the finance literature. Students read and present the works of leading researchers. Topics are broad and may cover various areas of corporate finance, investments, and institutions. Students also complete an original project emphasizing current methodologies of analysis.

FINA 6206 | 3 Hours

Electives

Select 12 credits from the following:

Introduces financial modeling applications in the fields of risk management, statistics applied to finance, investments, and portfolio management. Financial modeling is used for performing financial analysis facilitating business decision making in virtually any business. Excel is the most widely used electronic spreadsheet program in the world. Offers students an opportunity to develop strong Excel proficiency needed to effectively and efficiently understand and implement the quantitative aspects of financial topics covered in the various financial courses taught in the MBA and MSF programs and to learn how to use a variety of spreadsheet tools and techniques to enhance their overall analytical skill set.

FINA 6207 | 3 Hours

Provides an overview of all of the hedging markets and hedging instruments. Explores specific hedging use of options, forwards, futures, swaps, and options on futures. Focuses on advanced financial risk management of interest rates, currency rates, equity returns, and fixed income returns. Students use readings and case problems to study when and how to use hedging instruments to alter a portfolio's risk exposure.

FINA 6211 | 3 Hours

Exposes students to theory, applications, and evidence concerning highly sensitive interest rate products. Discusses recent developments in pension fund management, asset/liability management, duration matching, “gap” management, concurrent interest rate and exchange rate management, and other important issues now confronting domestic and international financial and corporate management. Studies how to customize a risk management program.

FINA 6212 | 3 Hours

Explores the environments that have recently given rise to a large number of corporate mergers and the business factors underlying these corporate combinations. Examines the financial, managerial, accounting, and legal factors affecting mergers. Focuses on three aspects of the merger and acquisition process: the strategic decision to acquire, the valuation decision of how much to pay, and the financing decision on how to fund the acquisition.

FINA 6214 | 3 Hours

Concentrates on the diagnosis, prescription, and implementation of actions pertinent to business turnarounds, troubled companies, workouts, bankruptcies, and liquidations. Case studies and readings guide the student through the maze of financial, ethical, legal, general business, and strategic aspects of turnarounds, culminating in the student evaluating and developing a turnaround plan.

FINA 6215 | 3 Hours

Focuses on cash-flow oriented models of the valuation of the firm. Topics include enterprise value, free cash flow, economic value added, and risk/reward analysis. Explores recent developments in financial management and financial analysis through the use of modern finance theory to make capital allocation decisions that lead to long-run value maximization for the corporation. Focuses on applications and financial model building, risk analysis for valuation applications, and business strategies to measure and manage corporate value and value creation. Topics are relevant to value consultants, corporate managers, and securities analysts.

FINA 6216 | 3 Hours

Provides students with a comprehensive understanding of real estate finance. Emphasizes factors affecting real estate investment. Topics include valuation (appraisal), market analysis, development, taxation, ownership types, short-term financing, mortgage markets, and investment strategies. Designed for students interested in a general overview of real estate finance, as well as those intending to pursue a career in the real-estate field.

FINA 6217 | 3 Hours

Develops portfolio construction, revision, and performance measurement. Highlights portfolio construction in an efficient capital market. Topics include risk-return analysis, the effects of diversification on risk reduction, and the costs of inflation, taxes, and transaction costs on fixed income and equity security portfolios. Examines financial models of capital asset pricing as the basis for the analysis of portfolios from the institutional investor's viewpoint.

FINA 6219 | 3 Hours

Implements financial management and economic principles to analyze real-world healthcare issues. Emphasizes and encourages problem solving and creative thinking through the use of texts, cases, and models of the healthcare industry. Students are exposed to financial, managerial, and risk management strategies unique to the healthcare industry.

FINA 6220 | 3 Hours

Covers qualitative and quantitative aspects of entrepreneurial finance, such as venture capital and angel financing. Introduces students to valuation aspects in entrepreneurial finance, including valuation of startups, using real options to value innovation-intensive firms, and valuation in staged financing. Emphasizes the practical aspects of qualitative and quantitative issues related to venture capital financing, entrepreneurship, and innovation from the perspective of the financier and the startup firm. Also covers many issues related to the venture capital industry, such as the limited partnership structure of the venture capital/private equity industry, venture capital term sheets and contracts, exit of portfolio firms, and international investments. May be repeated without limit.

FINA 6260 | 3 Hours

Examines current, specialized, and advanced topics in the areas of corporate finance, investments, risk management, valuation, private equity, venture capital, and other areas as appropriate. Course content, pedagogy, and prerequisites vary by topic and instructor.

FINA 6292 | 3 Hours

Introduces a variety of operating documents typical to an active mutual fund. Offers students an opportunity to apply lessons from investment and portfolio management classes by presenting investment recommendations to a panel and communicating with peers in a thoughtful and forceful manner. Investment decisions are made based on student analysis and recommendations that include knowledge of macroeconomic expectations, corporate financing issues, dept-repayment concerns, and employee and technological changes. May be repeated up to three times.

FINA 6360 | 1 Hour

Builds on FINA 6360. Designed to provide students further analytical knowledge, including exposure to and opportunity to perform managerial tasks related to the management and operation of mutual funds. Included in these tasks are reconsideration of the fund's investment policy statement and asset allocation plan as well as preparation of accounting statements, dealing with compliance issues, addressing ethical concerns, measuring and managing risk, and performing marketing and fund-raising activities. May be repeated up to three times.

FINA 6361 | 1 Hour

The following is a sample curriculum and is subject to change. Enrolled students should reference the academic catalog for current program requirements.

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