Full-Time MS in Finance – Quantitative

Build your quantitative finance knowledge by studying full-time

Technology and innovation are transforming the financial industry at a dramatic pace. Employers tell us they don't just need leaders with financial expertise—they're looking for advanced mathematical and technical skills as well.

That's why we've designed our Full-Time MS in Finance curriculum to deepen your financial knowledge—but also to give you the background in financial technology and business analytics that will make you a valued asset to any company that hires you. You'll study a challenging curriculum that integrates finance with other disciplines, such as economics, mathematics, and computer science. You'll also hone your interpersonal skills and learn how to operate in the U.S. business environment through dedicated coaching and a career management class.

When you complete the program, you'll be ready to excel in a financial world that can change overnight.

F-1 visa compliant and STEM designated

Our Full-Time MS in Finance is F-1 visa compliant and STEM designated, which means it meets strict curriculum guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. If you complete the program as an international student, you'll be able to apply for a STEM extension to your Optional Practical Training (OPT), allowing you to work in the United States after graduation for up to 36 months instead of just 12.

Curriculum

Optional Courses

Begins with an introduction to the career planning process and to the services of the Graduate Career Center. Topics include resumé writing, videotaped practice interviewing, job search strategies, interview preparation, salary negotiation, marketing communication, and visa issues for international students seeking employment in the United States. May include additional topics depending on student interest. May be repeated once.

BUSN 6200 | 0 Hours

Provides eligible students with an opportunity for work experience. May be repeated up to five times.

BUSN 6954 or BUSN 6964 | 0 Hours

Offers graduate students an opportunity to participate in flexible, professional work experiences through micro-internships, an alternative to a traditional corporate residency or co-op. Students demonstrate and enhance their career readiness competencies, explore career paths, and expand their network. These project-centered experiences are primarily remote, involve 10 to 40 hours of work, and are deadline-driven instead of set during specific hours.

BUSN 6970 | 0 Hours

Required Courses

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

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

Introduces the basic framework of corporate finance and financial decision making. Topics include capital budgeting; capital investment decisions; complex valuations; security issues; dividend policy; static and dynamic capital structure; real option analysis; restructuring; bankruptcy; corporate control and governance; and the legal, ethical, and regulatory environment of financial management.

FINA 6331 | 3 Hours

Introduces the essential fundamental mathematics needed for the study of modern finance: probability, stochastic processes, statistics, and regression analysis. Also focuses on theory and empirical evidence useful for investment decisions. Topics include financial risk factors, financial models, financial markets and equilibrium models of security prices, market efficiency, and the empirical behavior of security prices.

FINA 6332 | 3 Hours

Introduces Python and its use as a financial data analytics tool. Python has become one of the most widely used open-source, cross-platform programming languages. Covers the basics of programming in Python and key libraries (NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, etc.) used in data analytics, then focuses on implementing various financial models in Python. Topics include single and multifactor portfolio models, portfolio theory and the efficient frontier, algorithmic trading, options and futures, and value at risk.

FINA 6333 | 3 Hours

Examines statistical methods used to analyze financial data and test financial theories. Offers students an opportunity to learn how to access various sources of financial data, design empirical tests, and apply basic programming skills to analyze the data and arrive at conclusions. Specific topics include regression analysis, time-series analysis, event study methodology, panel data analysis, and limited dependent variable models.

FINA 6334 | 3 Hours

Introduces derivative assets, financial engineering, and risk management. Explores specific hedging use of options, forwards, and futures. Focuses on the determinants of forwards, futures, options and swaps, and various exotic derivatives pricing using computer-based numerical methods in a Monte Carlo setting and in closed form using elements of stochastic calculus. Also explores risk-management strategies using positions in derivative securities, static hedging, and dynamic hedging in continuous time.

FINA 6335 | 3 Hours

Electives

In consultation with advisor, complete 12 graduate-level semester hours for which they meet the prerequisites. Choose from the following courses.

Introduces the fundamental problems, theories, and algorithms of the artificial intelligence field. Topics include heuristic search and game trees, knowledge representation using predicate calculus, automated deduction and its applications, problem solving and planning, and introduction to machine learning. Required course work includes the creation of working programs that solve problems, reason logically, and/or improve their own performance using techniques presented in the course. Requires experience in Java programming.

CS 5100 | 4 Hours

Introduces relational database management systems as a class of software systems. Prepares students to be sophisticated users of database management systems. Covers design theory, query language, and performance/tuning issues. Topics include relational algebra, SQL, stored procedures, user-defined functions, cursors, embedded SQL programs, client-server interfaces, entity-relationship diagrams, normalization, B-trees, concurrency, transactions, database security, constraints, object-relational DBMSs, and specialized engines such as spatial, text, XML conversion, and time series. Includes exercises using a commercial relational or object-relational database management system.

CS 5200 | 4 Hours

Offers an intensive study of econometric techniques applied to cross-section, time-series, and panel data. Applies the fundamentals of econometrics to analyzing structural economic models, forecasting, and policy analysis. Computer applications and an empirical research project are an integral part of the course.

ECON 5140 | 4 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

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

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

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

Exposes students to theory, applications, and evidence concerning highly sensitive interest-rate products. Designed for students seeking to develop understanding of fixed-income valuation and hedging methods and familiarity with major markets and instruments. Emphasizes tools for quantifying, edging, and speculations. Topics include duration; convexity; approaches to modeling the yield curve; interest-rate forward; futures, swaps, and options; credit risk and credit derivative; mortgages; and securitization.

FINA 6336 | 3 Hours

Studies various computational methods in finance. Analyzes market data and build trading strategies. Uses interpolation, solver, and optimization methods to calibrate discount curve and volatility surfaces to market prices. Analyzes market data and applies dimension-reduction techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA). Applies time-series analysis and PCA to implement and back test trading strategies.

FINA 6337 | 3 Hours

Emphasizes assets and portfolios that fall into the category of alternative investments, which includes nontraditional assets—such as structured products and other types of derivatives—and managed portfolios—such as private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds. Offers students an opportunity to obtain a fundamental understanding of the securities and products that are traded in this space. Focuses on in-depth analyses of case studies, outside speakers, focused discussions, quantitative analyses, and current developments in the industry.

FINA 6338 | 3 Hours

Examines the history and evolution of the ways banking has changed following the 2008 financial crisis. Changes impacting the banking industry include major changes in the regulatory environment, changes in market liquidity, negative interest rates, shifts in Fed monetary policy, LIBOR transition, and technological innovation (blockchain, digital currency, automation, and artificial intelligence). Analyzes the history and evolution of these changes and the impact on the financial services industry, with a specific focus on the banking sector. Discusses the management of various banking functions (risk management, governance, profitability, liquidity management, auditing, and regulation) in today's regulatory and market environment as well as the evolution of payment systems and the expected impact of technological advancements, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, on the industry.

FINA 6340 | 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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