BS in Finance
The Department of Finance offers a Bachelor of Science in Finance and prepares students to actively participate in the finance industry. Not only do students have ample opportunities to interact with finance professionals from the department’s many partnerships, but they also have the opportunity to learn in the Market Training Lab, giving them hands-on experience. The program offers a variety of elective courses, allowing students to delve into specific areas of interest, including corporate financial analysis, investments and portfolio management, banking, international finance, trading, and risk management. Our research faculty provides students with innovative educational programs that help students apply new insights to critical business problems.
Requirements, Syllabi and Policies Heading link
Featured Courses Heading link
FIN 419
FIN 422
Alternative Investments: Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Hedge Funds
Aims to help students understand the investment opportunities available in venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds, both from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective, using a combination of lectures and case discussions. Course Information: Credit is not given for FIN 422 if the student has credit in FIN 445. Prerequisite(s): FIN 300; or FIN 301 and FIN 302. Recommended background: FIN 310 and FIN 320.
FIN 423
Financial Modeling, Analysis, and Decision Making
Teaches financial modeling and firm valuation skills using a set of case studies. Using financial data from real firms, students compute and forecast cash flows to evaluation day-to-day business decisions. Course Information: Extensive computer use required. Prerequisite(s): FIN 300; or FIN 301 and FIN 302.
FIN 424
FIN 425
FIN 445
Financing Entrepreneurship
Helps students understand the opportunities and challenges faced by entrepreneurs seeking to finance high-potential ventures by raising venture capital or other forms of private equity or debt. Course Information: 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Credit is not given for FIN 445 if the student has credit in FIN 422 or ENTR 444. Recommended background: FIN 300; or FIN 301 and FIN 302; or FIN 500.
FIN 480
Securities Markets and High Frequency Trading
How securities are traded in modern financial markets; design, operation, and regulation of trading processes; real-time algorithmic trading exercises and high-frequency trading strategies. Course Information: 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Recommended background: FIN 310 or FIN 510.
Faculty
Finance Waitlists Heading link
CME Group Foundation Market Training Lab Heading link

Funded with a grant from the CME Group Foundation, the Market Training Lab provides tools, data and educational services to enhance the learning experience in finance and to better prepare students for skills demanded by the market.
Software in the Lab:
- Bloomberg Professional
- R
CME Training Lab Tutorials:
Registration: We are currently not requiring students to register for tutorials linked to courses. You are welcome to attend those tutorials even if you are not in the course; however, students from the courses have priority if space is limited. If you would like a class added, please contact John P. Miller, Director of the CME Training Lab.
Resources: Each tutorial has hyperlinks to resources that will be used. To download the material you will need to login using your NetID and password.
Current offerings:
- R Tutorial I: The Basics (Slides, rt1.txt, stockdata.csv)
- R Tutorial II: Estimate a CAPM Model (Slides, rt2.txt)
- R Tutorial III: Plotting (Slides, rt3.txt)
- Introduction to Bloomberg (Slides)
Other resources: Students who have no previous programming experience are encouraged to work through the tutorials offered by either DataCamp or R Tutorial.
- DataCamp: Introduction to R tutorial. Go to DataCamp, register a free account, then work through the guided tutorial. This is a great resource that allows beginners to become familiar with the R programming language at their own pace. DataCamp also offers tutorials on more advanced topics in R.
- R Tutorial: R Introduction tutorial to begin working through the tutorial – no registration required.
- An Introduction to R is a detailed tutorial covering many aspects of R. This is a good reference for users that are already familiar with R.