Invest in the future you want
Tippie's Master of Finance curriculum is designed to accelerate careers and develop deep finance expertise with a strong emphasis on communication.
Our program offers a combination of rigorous coursework and hands-on experiential learning opportunities. Focus on fixed income, learn to trade equities, work as a consultant, or take your quant chops to the next level with a dual degree in finance & business analytics. It's your opportunity to develop the expertise you need to stand out in a competitive job market.
Core courses in finance
Your Master of Finance degree requires at least 45 semester hours of core and elective course credit to complete. Core coursework is used to lay the foundation, with critical thinking and communication skills essential to success in the finance discipline. A range of electives helps you further develop additional expertise in areas of finance that are of particular interest to you. Some courses may be waived depending on your undergraduate academic work; see details below.
Effective communication to become a successful business professional and leader; strengthen ability to speak and write confidently, competently, and effectively, regardless of venue; varied team and individual presentation coaching, applied exercises. Masters in Finance students are required to take this course for two semesters. (1 s.h. each semester)
Contemporary financial reporting practices in the United States; how alternative accounting treatments affect the usefulness of financial information in applied decision settings. (3 s.h.)
May be waived for Tippie accounting or finance majors with a 3.33+ major GPA or students who have passed the CPA or Level 1 CFA.
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. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
Introduction to analytical techniques for making business decisions; utilizing Excel to apply descriptive and predictive analytical tools to solve practical business problems using real world data; dealing with uncertainty in decision making; formal probability concepts and statistical methods for describing variability (decision trees, random variables, hypothesis testing); application of techniques (linear regression, Monte Carlo simulation, linear optimization) to model, explain, and predict for operational, tactical, and strategic decisions. (3 s.h.)
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. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
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. (2 s.h.)
Conceptual framework and tools to undertake the valuation of fixed income securities and the management of fixed income portfolios; varied fixed income instruments and the markets in which they trade; introduction to basic building blocks of fixed income analysis, including concepts of duration, convexity, and term structure of interest rates; application of concepts in bond portfolio immunization strategies; use of interest rate derivatives in portfolio hedging applications. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
Basic determinants of aggregate output, employment, wages, unemployment, consumption, investment, international trade flows, interest rates, exchange rates, prices and inflation in open economies; sources and nature of economic growth; effects of domestic and foreign monetary, fiscal policies; effects of trade, exchange rate policies. (3 s.h.)
Time value of money, 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. Requirements: MBA:8140 or an undergraduate-level course in financial accounting or finance. (3 s.h.)
May be waived for Tippie accounting or finance majors with a 3.33+ major GPA or students who have passed the CPA or Level 1 CFA.
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. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
Preparation for postgraduate careers; how to grow a professional network and build depth of knowledge and breadth of business acumen; focus on helping students investigate various finance roles, land summer and postgraduate employment, and demonstrate professionalism in business. Masters in Finance students are required to take this course for two semesters. (1 s.h. each semester)
Experiential electives in finance
All students will complete at least one of these experiential courses.
Hands-on practical experience in corporate finance or investments; work in teams on a corporate finance project or an investment project for a corporate or institutional client; partner companies identify financial issues, challenges, and opportunities for students to help solve; students work with the companies and a faculty member to provide an analysis of the situation and proposals of actions to be taken. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
Manage a fixed income fund portfolio, learn the legal environment in which the fund operates, analyze and recommend fixed income investments, and implement controls to monitor the fund's performance. Decisions and investment recommendations are made by students in this class. Each student will be assigned a specific fixed income asset class (i.e., high-yield debt) to monitor, analyze, and predict future investment returns. Students will employ historical and predictive analytics to estimate short term and long term returns for the asset classes and collectively determine the mean variance portfolio. Prerequisites: MBA:8180 and FIN:9220. (3 s.h.)
Manage the Henry Fund portfolio, learn the legal environment in which the fund operates, analyze potential investments, implement controls to monitor the fund's performance. In this class, decisions and investment recommendations are made by students. Each student analyzes an economic sector and geographic region (i.e., utilities analyst and specialist in South East Asia). Prerequisites: MBA:8180. This is a two-semester course: FIN:9250 and FIN:9260 (6 s.h. total)
Work with a faculty mentor on independent research in finance. Write and publish original research in the topic of your choice. To enroll in this course students must identify a faculty sponsor.
Extended electives in finance
The Master of Finance program provides a rich array of electives that let you tailor your focus to areas of finance that interest you. We continually evaluate and change the electives offered based on student interest, census, and faculty availability. Here are examples of possible electives. Talk to your advisor about which electives would be right for you.
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. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
Analysis and treatment of risks faced by businesses; how risk management creates value in corporations, includes development and implementation of the risk management process, and explores the application of various risk management techniques to identified exposures; use of case studies to study how businesses manage risk, and how insurance and other risk management tools help reduce the cost of risk. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
Introduction to structure and functioning of global financial markets; currency market, international equity markets; use of derivatives in currency risk management for corporate and investment needs; corporate investment decisions in an international context. Prerequisite: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
How investment banks fill critical roles in maintaining well-functioning financial markets and provide access to capital and strategic advice to companies and governments; recent global financial crisis; how banker's role as intermediary between companies and markets adds value and creates conflicts and risk. Prerequisites: FIN:3100 and FIN:3300 and FIN:3000. (3 s.h.)
Your introduction to quantitative investment and trading approaches. Includes quantitative security selection, portfolio construction, statistical arbitrage, and algorithm trading, plus 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.
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. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
Effect of taxes on business decisions, including investment strategies, capital structure decisions, compensation policies, international business, mergers and acquisitions, and financial reporting. (3 s.h.)
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. Prerequisites: MBA:8180. (3 s.h.)
Course waivers
Students who have earned a BBA in finance or accounting from the Tippie College of Business may be eligible to waive some Master of Finance core courses. Additionally, some core courses may also be waived for students who have successfully passed the CPA or level 1 of the CFA.
To learn if you qualify for a waiver, talk with your advisor.
Master of Finance and Master of Business Analytics Dual Degree
With the addition of a single semester of study—just 16 more weeks—you can earn two MS degrees instead of one and enter the job market with two in-demand credentials.
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