Courses and descriptions

Master of Finance students will take six required core courses and select four elective options, with at least two electives coming from List A, to round out your 10 courses.

Core courses

Corporate Finance (FIN:9300) (Previously Corporate Investment & Finance Decisions)
Underpinnings and optimization of corporations’ investment and financing decisions; firm-wide and project-specific cost of capital, optimal capital structure decisions; in-depth capital budgeting methods, including real options techniques; corporate investment module of the class includes simulation analysis using Crystal Ball; cost of capital, valuation techniques, advanced capital budgeting, capital structure and dividend policy, option pricing models applied to corporate finance. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisite: MBA:8180 

Corporate Financial Reporting (MBA:8140)
Provides a framework for understanding contemporary financial reporting practices in the United States. Emphasis is placed on how alternative accounting treatments affect the usefulness of financial information in applied decision settings. (3 s.h.)

Data and Decisions (MBA:8150)
This course introduces analytical techniques for making business decisions. Utilizing Excel, students apply descriptive and predictive analytical tools to solve practical business problems using real-world data. To deal with uncertainty in decision making, the course first introduces formal probability concepts and statistical methods for describing variability through topics such as decision trees, random variables, and hypothesis testing. Students then learn the practical application of techniques such as linear regression, Monte Carlo simulation, and linear optimization to model, explain, and predict for operational, tactical, and strategic decisions. (3 s.h.)  (This course was also previously offered under BAIS:9100.)

Derivatives (FIN:9210)
Examination of the wide range of derivative securities that cover the financial landscape; the market place, trading, and investors; different derivative securities in existence, their relationship with the underlying securities, and pricing; applications of derivative securities to risk management and speculation; application of principles to fixed income, international finance, real estate, and securitization. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisites: MBA:8180 and FIN:9200

Managerial Finance (MBA:8180)
Topics include time value of money and applications of present value techniques; stock and bond valuation; capital budgeting; cost of capital calculation; portfolio formation and efficient market analysis; financial statement analysis; pro-forma analysis; hedging financial risks. For off-campus students, MBA:8140 or an undergraduate-level course in financial accounting or finance is recommended prior to taking MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)

Portfolio Management (FIN:9200)
Introduction to fundamental elements of modern portfolio theory, application to investment analysis; investment environment, instruments, types of investors; concepts of risk and return, broad perspective on historical risk and return of various asset classes; asset allocation decision, risk and return dynamics of a multiple securities portfolio; varied asset pricing models, how capital markets work for investors and users of capital. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisite: MBA:8180 

Elective courses

List A (Select at least two of the four electives from this list)

Corporate Financial Strategy (FIN:9310)
Major strategic decisions within the corporate form; risk management, including why firms engage in it, their methods for doing so, and exercises in the simulation of uncertainty; dividends and repurchases under the payout policy decision; corporate governance topics, including executive compensation, board structure, and institutional monitoring; merger and acquisitions analysis, including regulation, valuation, anti-takeover devices, payment method, and LBOs; divestitures and other restructuring topics, including corporate diversification, spin-offs, carve-outs, private workouts, and Chapter 11. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisites: MBA:8180 and FIN:9300

Financial Modeling and Firm Valuation (FIN:9150)
How to model firm value from a discounted cash flow perspective; identify a company’s key value drivers, create spreadsheet valuation models; projected financial valuation integrates projected pro forma accounting statements; forecasting, free cash flow estimation, industry competitive analysis. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisite: MBA:8180

Quantitative Finance and Deep Learning (FIN:9160)
Quantitative techniques in investment and trading with focus on machine learning approaches; introduction to quantitative approaches already popular in investment and trading including quantitative security selection, portfolio construction, statistical arbitrage, and algorithm trading; emerging machine learning techniques in financial industry including advanced regression methods, news sentiment analysis, and deep learning with applications in price forecasting and high frequency trading.  (3 s.h.)

Real Estate Finance and Investments (FIN:9230)
In-depth understanding of concepts and techniques of real estate financial analysis, equity investment decision making; real estate investing from analysis of developments through the securitization of mortgages; mortgage markets and pricing, real estate finance and investments, mortgage-backed securities, development process, real estate valuation, tax effects, securitized real estate, real estate cycles, application of derivative instruments, strategic asset allocation. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisite: MBA:8180

Wealth Management (FIN:9350)
Rapid growth of the field of wealth management over several decades, driven by general increase in personal wealth and increased responsibility for individuals to manage their own wealth; knowledge and tools to enter the financial services industry; financial planning industry, client characteristics, tax shield structures, insurance, asset allocation plans, estate planning, behavioral finance. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisite: MBA:8180

 

List B

Corporate Risk Management and Insurance (FIN:9130)
Introduction to corporate risk management and the risk management process; how insurance can be used as a risk management tool; standard commercial property and liability insurance contracts and their applications; fundamentals of insurance company operations and their distribution channels, rate making, underwriting, and claim settlements. (3 s.h.)

Enterprise Risk Management (FIN:9140)  (Previously Corporate and Financial Risk Management)
This course studies the analysis and treatment of risks faced by businesses. It analyzes how risk management creates value in corporations, includes the development and implementation of the risk management process, and explores the application of various risk management techniques to identified exposures. Case studies are utilized to study how businesses manage risk and how insurance and other risk management tools help reduce the cost of risk. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisite: MBA:8180

Data Programming in Python (BAIS:6040)
Introduction to principles and practices of handling, cleaning, processing, and visualizing data using the Python programming language; basic data programming skills that can be applied to software development in any high-level programming language, data types, control structures, functions and modules, and other useful libraries for data manipulation and machine learning applications in Python. (3 s.h.)

Data Science (BAIS:6070)
Underlying concepts and practical computational skills of data mining tools including penalty-based variable selection (LASSO), logistic regression, regression and classification trees, clustering methods, principal components and partial least squares; analysis of text and network data; theory behind most useful data-mining tools and how to use these tools in real-world situations; software for analysis, exploration, and simplification of large high-dimensional data sets. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisites: {MBA:8150 or BAIS:9100} and BAIS:6040

Text Analytics (BAIS:6100)
Concepts and techniques of text mining; the practice of using statistical tools to automatically extract meaning and patterns from collections of text documents. Topics include document representation, text classification and clustering, sentiment analysis, and topic modeling. (3 s.h.)  Prerequisites: BAIS:6040 and BAIS:6070

Entrepreneurial Finance (ENTR:9200)
Financial aspects of launching and growing entrepreneurial ventures; topics include financial feasibility, financial forecasting and cashflow management, business valuation, sources of venture financing, deal structure, financing growth, and exit strategies. (3 s.h.) Prerequisite: MBA:8140