Master of Science in Finance

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Master of Science in Finance (MSF) is a Master's degree designed to prepare graduates for careers in financial analysis, investment management and corporate finance. It is, generally, a one-year, non-thesis degree.

In the typical curriculum, core courses, such as corporate finance, financial management and managerial accounting, are preceded by more fundamental courses in economics, accounting, and quantitative methods. The program concludes with advanced topics such as portfolio management and financial modeling.

Although there is much overlap with an MBA, an MSF focuses on finance and financial markets and is usually shorter in duration. The MBA, by contrast, is more diverse, covering general aspects of business - such as human resource management and operations management - not dealt with in the MSF. Note that an MBA without a specialization in finance, will not have covered many of the topics dealt with in the MSF (breadth), and - often even where there is specialization - those areas that are covered, will be in less depth.

The MSF curriculum may also cover financial economics and financial risk management (and sometimes quantitative finance / computational finance) as advanced topics. Here, the exposure will likely be limited to the generalist level; these areas are usually studied as disciplines in their own right, via specialized degrees in economics and applied mathematics.

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification is sometimes compared to a Master's in Finance, and in fact, several universities have imbedded a significant percentage of the CFA Program "Candidate Body of Knowledge" into their degree programs. In general, though, the CFA program is focused on portfolio management and financial analysis, and provides more depth in these areas than the standard MSF, whereas as regards other areas of finance, the CFA coverage is in less depth.

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