This page is not intended as a substitute for the catalog.
Please consult with your advisor and the catalog for the year in which you were admitted.
JMU’s finance major belongs to the selective CFA® Institute Affiliation Program. Our rigorous curriculum incorporates a significant portion of the CFA® Institute Program Candidate Body of Knowledge, including the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
One of the many benefits of CFA® Institute Affiliation Program is the ability to award scholarships to students to take the CFA® Level I exam. Students may apply for these competitive scholarships during their senior year.
Students interested in finance may also want to learn about the quantitative finance major.
*CFA® is a registered trademark owned by CFA Institute.
Any student admitted to JMU can declare any major offered by the College of Business. However, students must make satisfactory progress in order to be formally admitted into the College of Business. Requirements to continue pursuing a B.B.A. degree, often referred to as progression standards or formal admission, can be found in the undergraduate catalog.
Students are encouraged to develop their individualized academic plans in consultation with an academic advisor, taking into account unique skills, interests and goals.
Major coursework topics include: analytical methods in finance, financial policy and management and principles of investments.
For specific course listings, please refer to the program of study in the undergraduate catalog.
To officially pursue the B.B.A. Finance with any of the concentrations listed below, students must declare the concentration within MyMadison. Those who declare a concentration at least two weeks before initial registration will have the opportunity to register for concentration-specific classes during that enrollment period (pending course availability and the meeting of pre-requisite requirements).
Financial Analysis Concentration
The financial analysis concentration helps prepare students for the Chartered Financial Analyst exam and for analysis within the financial management of a firm.
Focused course topics include: financial and fixed income analysis, elemental and derivative security analysis and financial modeling.
Financial Technology and Analytics Concentration
The changing landscape of finance requires increased knowledge of technology. The financial technology and analytics concentration will prepare students to be agile in financial information systems and expose them to various analytical and visualization tools.
Focused course topics include: financial data science, portfolio management, financial modeling and risk analysis, database design and application and data mining for business analytics.
Risk Management Concentration
A focus in risk management is designed for finance majors pursuing a more in-depth review of the issues facing organizations and the tools needed to address those uncertainties. In the risk management concentration, students focus on the theory of risk management, risk identification, risk measurement and applications in the form of risk modeling techniques such as Value-at-Risk and Monte Carlo simulations.
Curriculum in this concentration covers 80 to 85 percent of the curriculum for the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) Part I exam, sponsored by the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP).
Focused course topics include: financial modeling, risk analysis and management.
- Business Analytics
- Computer Information Systems
- Math
- Statistics
- Economics
- Bloomberg
- Excel
- Statistical Analysis System (SAS) and Python
- Finance Databases such as CRSP and Compustat
Karen deBrun
(540) 568-6518
debrunkm@jmu.edu
Advising and Support Center
Doreen Liccione
(540) 568-5012
licciodl@jmu.edu
Advising and Support Center