Curriculum

The M.Fin. curriculum consists of required fundamental and advanced subjects, restricted electives, a proseminar and general electives. Students have an option of writing a 24-unit thesis, which may replace one or more of the program’s general electives.

Many of the required and elective M.Fin. courses carry 9 or 12 units of H-level credit. Thus any M.Fin. student who satisfies the program requirements will easily meet the Institute requirement of 66 units of credit, including a minimum of 42 H-level units, in order to receive the Master's degree.

M.Fin. students may take a maximum of 66 units per semester; no more than 54 of those units may be from Sloan (15.xxx).

Required Fundamental Subjects:

Title	Course #
Finance Theory I (15)	15.415
Corporate Financial Accounting (12)	15.516

15.415 Finance Theory is an intensive Summer session offered only to M.Fin. students. MIT students who take both 15.401 and 15.402 prior to enrollment in the M.Fin., and earn a minimum B average in the two courses, may be permitted to waive the Summer session.

M.Fin. students are expected to register for Accounting under 15.516, for graduate level course credit. The undergraduate course number (15.501) will be acceptable if the course is taken as part of an MIT undergraduate degree program.

Required Advanced Subject:

Title	Course #
Analytics of Financial Engineering (9)	15.450

15.450 covers the mathematical, statistical, and computational methods used in advanced quantitative financial analysis. All topics are presented in the context of financial applications.

Restricted Electives:

Four from:

Title	Course #
Entrepreneurial Finance (9)	15.431
Investments (9)	15.433
Advanced Corporate Finance (9)	15.434
Options and Futures Markets (9)	15.437
Security Design and Corporate Financing (9)	15.522
Mergers and Acquisitions (6)	15.545
Valuation (9)	15.963

Students are expected to take two Restricted Electives in the Fall term and two in the Spring. At least one Restricted Elective is required each term.

Proseminars:

One from:

Title	Course #
Proseminar in Financial Engineering (6)	15.451
Proseminar in Financial Management (6)	15.452

The proseminars are project-based subjects where students work in teams on current problems set by finance professionals.

General Electives:

M.Fin. students must take a minimum of three General Electives, or a minimum of four if 15.501 was taken while an undergraduate at MIT.

At least one of the General Electives must carry 9 or more credit units. A maximum of two non-Sloan electives will be counted toward the M.Fin. requirements. As of July 2010, at least two of the General Electives must carry 9 or more credit units. Remaining General Electives must carry at least 6 units of credit.

General Electives may include any of the Restricted Electives or the Proseminar not already taken for program credit.

In addition, any course from Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (6.xxx), Economics (14.xxx), Sloan (15.xxx), or Mathematics (18.xxx) is acceptable, provided that it meets the following criteria:

must carry graduate level credit (either G or H)
must be taken for letter-grade credit if an option is available

Courses labeled “with permission” are typically intended for doctoral students. In such cases, the student is responsible for contacting the instructor to request approval to enroll. The M.Fin. program cannot guarantee enrollment in any course.

Recommended Schedule

Summer Session

15.415

M.Fin. Fall Term

15.516
Two Restricted Electives from 15.431, 15.433, 15.434, 15.437
Proseminar from 15.451, 15.452
General Electives — one subject

M.Fin. Spring Term

15.450
Two Restricted Electives from 15.431, 15.433, 15.434, 15.437, 15.522, 15.545, 15.963
General Electives — two subjects or one Elective plus Thesis

There will be many variations of this schedule. An MIT student entering the M.Fin. program can take 15.401 and 15.402 in the Fall and Spring of the senior year, respectively, and then follow a schedule similar to the one outlined above once enrolled full-time in the M.Fin. program.