Chicago Booth Announces New Master in Finance Degree

The new program, beginning in fall 2024, strategically prepares students to master the transformative innovations disrupting the finance industry

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business today announced that it has created a new Master in Finance Program, with the inaugural cohort of students beginning their studies in fall 2024.

Booth’s new program is designed for accomplished recent college graduates in quantitative fields of study who are searching for a master’s degree that builds on their analytical aptitude, and allows them to start a career in finance with a competitive advantage over their peers. The program includes immersive orientation programming focused on career exploration and advising, opportunities to specialize in an area that will help ensure that students standout in the job market, and the option to choose to complete the program in 15 months (the standard track) or 10 months (the accelerated track).

“Chicago Booth’s finance faculty are the best in the world. They developed modern finance theory and have shaped the course of financial knowledge and markets for more than 100 years,” said Madhav Rajan, Booth Dean and George Shultz Professor of Accounting. “We are excited to bring our transformative approach – and the latest innovations in finance – to talented, analytical college graduates, jump-starting their careers and putting them at the frontier of this rapidly advancing field.”

Students in Booth’s Master in Finance Program take four core courses – Investments, Corporation Finance, Data Analytics and Financial Accounting – as a cohort, along with nine electives for a total of 13 courses. There are five finance elective requirements, and students choose the remaining four electives from a large subset of MBA courses. Students also have the option of tailoring their finance electives to match their career goals by choosing one of four areas of specialization: Asset Management, Investment Banking, Fintech or Research in Finance.

Career development is also woven throughout a student’s time in the program – starting even before classes do – and experiential opportunities such as internships and a Booth-sponsored Leaders in Finance Speaker Series, which will allow students to network with and connect to hiring managers at top financial firms.

Upon completion of the Master in Finance Program, students will emerge equipped with not only a profound understanding of this dynamic and rapidly evolving industry but also a diverse set of skills that go beyond the theoretical realm.

“One of the great features of this new program is that students can take courses that are really at the cutting edge of the technologies and advances that are disrupting the financial industry,” said Ralph S.J. Koijen, AQR Capital Management Distinguished Service Professor of Finance and a Fama Faculty Fellow. “The option to take courses that delve deep into topics such as A.I., machine learning, big data, blockchain technology, fintech and current topics in investment banking – among many others – will give students an advantage in the market after they graduate.”