2023-2024 Catalog 
    
    Dec 13, 2024  
2023-2024 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Finance Major


Major Lead: Frank Ohara

Finance is an important field within business administration and management. It focuses on valuation and the optimal allocation of capital.

Advances in modern financial theory and practice make the field exciting and offer many opportunities for a well-prepared student. Furthermore, the field of finance incorporates an international outlook, which is one of the hallmarks of the McLaren School of Management.

The approach to teaching finance at the University of San Francisco emphasizes analytical (quantitative and qualitative) proficiency and the use of “hands-on” applied cases and exercises. The multidimensional nature of the finance as well as the background, diversity and quality of our faculty and students, makes our Finance major an intellectually challenging experience.

Please visit the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA)  department page for more information.

Program Learning Outcomes


It is expected that Finance majors upon graduation will be able to:

  • Use discounted cash flow (DCF) to value a proposed project
  • Analyze a company’s financial statements and perform ratio analysis in order to interpret its performance
  • Construct an optimized investment portfolio
  • Calculate and interpret portfolio performance measurements
  • Use derivatives to immunize against foreign exchange transaction risk
  • Evaluate an international capital budgeting project

Major Requirements (72 units)


Business Core


The business core and foundation courses cover the basic business topics needed for a career in business. Consistent with the direction of business today, the business core at the McLaren School of Management highlights issues related to the global business environment, diversity and ethics. Oral and written communication, quantitative reasoning, information literacy, and critical thinking are also stressed throughout the curriculum.

All Business majors must complete a set of business foundation and core courses, as well as the required University Core Curriculum . Students admitted to the McLaren School of Management’s Honors Program take the Honors Program core. Please see School of Management Honors Program . The required foundation courses are also used to satisfy University Core Curriculum requirements (see faculty adviser). Students must maintain at least a 2.0 cumulative grade point average in their foundation and business core coursework.

Finance Requirements (20 units)