Autumn Quarter
Core Curriculum
Business Finance
4 credits
This course is designed as a “boot camp,” equipping students from diverse academic and professional backgrounds with the fundamental concepts, theories, and analytical tools used throughout the program. Topics include the time value of money, risk and return, financial statement analysis and accounting principles, cash-flow analysis, and an introduction to capital structure. [Students with an undergraduate degree in finance may take a pre-course exam to demonstrate proficiency and waive the attendance requirement]
Investments
4 credits
This class provides an understanding of capital markets and asset classes, advanced measures of risk and the relationship between risk and return, portfolio theory, the CAPM and multi-factor models, advanced bond pricing and the term-structure of interest rates.
Corporate Finance
4 credits
This course discusses key issues in financial management using both analytical and case study illustrations. Topics include the valuation of public and private companies; cost of capital estimation; investment complications, such as taxes, inflation, risk, project interdependencies, and financing-investment interactions; leasing; mergers; spin-offs and carve-outs.
Financial Modeling Lab
4 credits
This course develops the ability to construct financial models from primary source documents, with students building from raw filings rather than completing pre-formatted templates. Coverage centers on the integrated three-statement model and the driver-based corporate operating budget, followed by discounted cash flow and comparable company analysis and a closing introduction to leveraged buyout and merger structures. Assessment emphasizes timed builds under interview conditions and professional construction standards, and each student completes the course with a portfolio of models built on real public companies.
Career Development Workshop
1 credit
This workshop is a career-focused seminar designed to support students’ professional development and career readiness. It features speakers from academia and industry who share insights on leadership, business ethics, the financial services industry, and, most importantly, career development, including career paths, professional skills, networking, and navigating the transition from graduate study to the workplace.
Winter Quarter
Core Curriculum
Data Analytics in Finance
4 credits
This course provides a practical foundation in empirical methods for analyzing, modeling, and estimating a broad range of financial problems. Using Python and real-world financial data, students develop hands-on experience with simulation, regression, time-series modeling, forecasting, optimization, machine learning, and natural language processing. The course equips students with a versatile toolkit they can confidently apply across the program and in their future finance careers.
Advanced Corporate Finance
4 credits
This course studies the theory of corporate finance and its application to firms’ financial decision-making. Students learn how capital markets function and how to evaluate companies and major corporate decisions using financial models. Topics include mergers and acquisitions, corporate buyouts, IPOs and other forms of external financing, capital structure, payout policy, financial distress and bankruptcy, management compensation, and ownership structure. Through lectures and case studies, students develop the skills needed to evaluate proposed transactions and form informed opinions about their financial and strategic implications, using financial theory as the primary lens.
Elective Courses (choose one)
Alternative Investments: Hedge Funds and Private Equity
4 credits
This course provides an examination of the market for alternative investments. Topics include the investment strategies employed by hedge funds and private equity firms, the risk-return tradeoffs of those strategies, and the legal and economic environments in which alternative investment firms operate.
Real Estate Finance
4 credits
This course introduces students to the valuation, financing, and investment analysis of real estate, with an emphasis on the features that distinguish real estate from other asset classes. Topics include real estate valuation techniques, lease structures, mortgage and other financing options, equity partnerships, risk management, securitization, and taxation.
Spring Quarter
Core Curriculum
Advanced Investments
4 credits
This course provides an advanced treatment of investment analysis and portfolio management, focusing on the valuation of securities, the measurement and management of risk, and the construction and administration of portfolios. Topics include asset pricing, equity and fixed-income valuation, portfolio optimization, performance evaluation, and derivatives, including options, futures, and their applications in hedging and risk management. The course emphasizes the practical application of financial theory and analytical tools to investment decisions and the management of total wealth.
ML and AI in Finance
4 credits
This course examines the application of artificial intelligence to finance, covering rule-based systems, supervised learning, generative AI, and autonomous agents. Students learn to build and evaluate AI systems using financial data, with an emphasis on distinguishing genuine economic signals from model error, overfitting, data leakage, and misleading backtests. The course also explores how AI can be applied to investment analysis, forecasting, risk management, and other financial decisions, while addressing model risk, governance, and the responsible use of AI in financial institutions.
Capstone Project
2 credits
Designed as a hands-on capstone experience, this course provides students with the opportunity to synthesize and apply core program concepts to real-world corporate and financial challenges. Working in collaborative teams with local industry partners, students execute high-impact client projects, bridging academic theory with professional practice while building valuable network connections. Throughout the quarter, teams apply advanced technical methodologies and critical problem-solving to deliver actionable strategic solutions, culminating in a comprehensive final report and professional executive presentation.
Elective Courses (choose one)
Competing in Global Economy
4 credits
This course prepares future leaders to navigate today’s hyper-connected marketplace by examining the strategic differences between domestic and cross-border operations, from complex supply chains to the rise of digital conglomerates. Using a real-world, case-based approach, students will explore the practical realities of the “think global, act local” philosophy while learning to identify international opportunities and mitigate regulatory risks.
Emerging Technologies and the Financial System
4 credits
This course explores emerging technologies and innovations transforming the financial sector and the institutions through which financial services are delivered. Topics include digital payments, cryptocurrencies and blockchain, decentralized finance, smart contracts, stablecoins, digital lending and credit, financial exchanges and market infrastructure, asset tokenization, and prediction markets. Through real-world cases, students examine how these technologies create new opportunities and risks and how they are reshaping financial markets, institutions, and the broader digital economy.
Autumn Quarter
The Arrhythmia of Finance
4 credits
This class provides students the opportunity to develop and practice analytic skills (principally non-quantitative) to help them think clearly about the value of financial assets and the underlying sources of volatility in financial asset prices, focusing on balance sheets and risk. The course approaches the practice of finance as principally involving problems of decision making in uncertainty. The course is organized around five key challenges we all face in understanding: (1) the role of chance, distinguishing probability from uncertainty; (2) the central but elusive idea of risk, distinguished from volatility; (3) economic or intrinsic value through the lenses of double-entry bookkeeping, distinguished from accounting value and market value; (4) the sources of volatility mismatches within balance sheets, particularly for financial intermediaries, as central to value in finance, and (5) how frequently we face the limits of our understanding when we estimate financial values (and in life).
Practicum
2 credits