Cox Career Management Center

Finance

Curriculum

Two options are available in this major:

  1. Finance and
  2. Finance with a specialization in Alternative Asset Management.

General Education Curriculum

Students graduating from Southern Methodist University must successfully complete courses in written English, quantitative reasoning, information technology, and science and technology.  In addition, recognizing the rapidly changing sources of knowledge, students are asked to take courses in both disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies.  Finally, our students must choose a major field of study offered in one of the four undergraduate schools.

Total General Education Curriculum Hours: 41 hours

  1. Fundamentals
  2. Rhetoric (written English) - 6 hours
  3. Mathematical Sciences - 3 hours
  4. Information Technology - 3 hours
  5. Wellness - 2 hours
  6. Science and Technology - 6 hours

(Students must take two courses in Science and Technology; at least one must be in the field of biology, chemistry, geological sciences, physics, or ENCE 1331, and no more than one may be from the other Science and Technology category.)

  1. Perspectives - 15 hours
  2. Cultural Formations - 6 hours
  3. Human Diversity - 3 hours (co-curricular hours)

Business Core Courses

Each SMU BBA major consists of an eleven course business core and an additional major-specific component.

  1. Fundamentals of Accounting I (ACCT 2301)
  2. Fundamentals of Accounting II (ACCT 2302)
  3. Managerial Statistics (ITOM 2305 or STAT 2301, 2331, 4340 or 5340)
  4. Information Systems for Management (ITOM 2308)
  5. Business Communication and Leader Development (BLI 3302)
  6. Financial Management (FINA 3320)
  7. Operations Management (ITOM 3306)
  8. Legal Environment and Ethics (BL 3335)
  9. Management of Organizations (MNO 3370)
  10. Fundamentals of Marketing (MKTG 3340)
  11. Strategic Management in a Global Economy (STRA 5370) or Entrepreneurship - Starting a Business (CISB 5397)

Finance Core

  1. Advanced Financial Management
  2. Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management
  3. Speculative Markets
  4. International Finance
  5. Intermediate Accounting I
  6. Intermediate Accounting II

Finance Electives - select six hours from:

  • Money and Capital Markets
  • Management of Financial Institution
  • Doing Business in a Globalized World
  • Advanced Concepts in Financial Management
  • Honors Practicum in Portfolio Management
  • Alternative Assets I
  • Alternative Assets II

Two Business Electives.  Recommended Business Electives for Finance Majors: 

  • Practicum in Financial Statement Analysis (ACCT 5321)
  • Principles of Risk Magagement (RM 3360)
  • Real Estate Fundamentals (RE 3381)
  • Real Estate Finance (RE 4389)

Finance with a Specialization in Alternative Asset Management

Investments in alternative assets - including hedge funds, venture capital, private equity, real estate, and oil and gas - have increased dramatically in the past five years. The Alternative Asset Management specialization is part of the Finance major and  EnCap Investments and LCM Group Alternative Asset Management Center at SMUCox.  Cox undergrads who are interested in alternative assets apply for admission to this specialization during their junior year at SMU.  The program includes two specific courses in alternative assets and a summer internship. 

Finance Core

  1. Advanced Financial Management (FINA 4325)
  2. Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management (FINA 4326)

Alternative Asset Management Specialization:

  1. Intermediate Accounting I (ACCT 3311)**
  2. Alternative Asset Management I (FINA 5340)
  3. Alternative Asset Management II (FINA 5341)

One advanced Finance selected from:

  • Financial Statement Analysis (ACCT 5321)
  • Speculative Markets (FINA 4327)
  • Honors Practicum in Portfolio Management (FINA 5332 and FINA 5232)

Students in this program are also strongly encouraged to take Intermediate Accounting II (ACCT 3312).

Career Paths

Career areas to explore include:

  • Commercial Banking: Possible job opportunities in commercial banking include credit analyst, loan officer, branch manager, trust officer, or mortgage banker. In addition, there are opportunities in commercial card operations, securities transfer, wire operations, private banking, cash management services, installment loans, loan servicing, and other areas such as accounting, marketing, human resources, operations and communications.
    To learn more about this career path, visit: www.careers-in-finance.com/cb.htm
     
  • Corporate Finance: Possible job opportunities in corporate finance include controller, investor relations officer, financial analyst, treasurer, credit manager, cash manager, benefits officer,  or real estate officer. The finance department in a corporation generally has objectives such as: designing and implementing financial policies, executing the financing programs, managing the cash resources and interfacing with investors and the finance community.
    To learn more about this career path, visit: www.careers-in-finance.com/cf.htm
     
  • Financial Planning: Financial planners and wealth managers help individuals plan their financial futures.  To learn more about this career path, visit: www.careers-in-finance.com/fp.htm
     
  • Hedge Funds: The typical path for a hedge fund manager is to first work in investment banking.  To learn more, visit: www.careers-in-finance.com/hf.htm
     
  • Investment Banking: Undergraduates are generally hired into the bank as analysts while MBAs generally begin as associates.  Both the analysts and associates work within specialized groups.  These groups include: capital markets, corporate finance, industry coverage, mergers and acquisitions, project finance, trading, structured finance, derivatives, advisory, equity and fixed income research, emerging markets, public finance, private client/stockbroker, ratings analyst, information systems, and institutional sales. To learn more about each group, visit Investment Banking Job Options (http://www.careers-in-finance.com/iboptions.htm).
     
  • Money Management: Money managers hold stocks and bonds for institutional clients. Possible job options in money management include: mutual fund analyst, portfolio manager, portfolio management marketing, hedge fund trader, investment advisor.  For more information on careers in money management, view: www.careers-in-finance.com/mm.htm.
     
  • Private Equity: Undergraduates begin careers in private equity as analysts.  For more details on this career option, visit: www.careers-in-finance.com/pe.htm.

In addition to the career options listed above, you may also want to explore opportunities in Financial Consulting, Real Estate Finance,  and/or Risk Management and Insurance.
 

Employment Outlook

The 2010 average starting salary for a new college graduate in finance is $49, 160 according to information published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

Employment of financial analysts is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations. However, keen competition will continue for these well-paid jobs, especially for new entrants. For more details, visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics online employment projections in the Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos301.htm .)

Resume-Building Activities

  • Participate in the Finance Job Shadow program.

The Cox School of Business at SMU has partnered with the Dallas Chapter of Financial Executives International (FEI) in a pilot program to expose accounting and finance students to the financial organization of a business enterprise.  This will be accomplished by allowing selected students to spend a day with or "shadow" an FEI financial executive at his or her place of work. Understand that this is a learning opportunity, and you should have no expectations of securing a summer internship or full-time position.

Undergraduate juniors or seniors interested in corporate finance and accounting will have a unique opportunity to observe the inner workings of the finance function of a corporation and interact with a CFO, VP of Finance, Controller or other finance executive.  The shadow days generally take place in October.

Eligibility Requirements

  1. Applicants must be classified as a junior or senior majoring in business with special interest in pursuing a career in finance/accounting.  
  2. Students must have a grade point average of 3.0 or greater.
  3. Student must be registered as a full time student carrying at least 15 credit hours at SMU.
  4. The program, targets students who do not have previous experience in an office setting.

Expectations of Participants

Research the host organization (web sites, publicly available information about the company, etc).
Complete the program application, which will be given to the executive in advance and communicate areas of interest to the student, what he/she hopes to accomplish during the day, and specific questions he/she wants answered about life as a financial executive. Complete a post-event satisfaction survey.

For more details on the Job Shadow Program, contact an SMU finance professor.

Participate in the Cox Finance Club. 

Resources