Why you should study Finance at TCNJ...

The Faculty

Members of the finance faculty have had extensive "real world" experience. Prior to joining the finance faculty, one faculty member has worked for Morningstar, the mutual fund rating service, another has been valuing closely held companies for over twenty-five years, and a third worked for over 15 years in treasury hedging, commercial lending and bank regulation. Another faculty member was a commercial loan officer for a major New York bank. Another faculty member has held financial planning seminars for Fortune 500 companies such as Pzifer and CBS. Each of these instructors brings their professional experiences to their classes.

The Program

The finance programs builds on a basic core of accounting, economics, and statistics. After completing an introductory course in the area, each major completes a course in investments and a year cycle of courses in corporate financial management. The investment class uses materials that are part of the professional certified financial designation (CFP). The corporate financial management courses use MBA level texts and combine financial theory, cases, and Excel applications. The program's electives let the individual student pursue personal interests within the field of finance.

The Courses

Investments exposes the student to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and risk management. Outside experts participate in the class and lead students through investment decision making. This course in investments is popular with all majors with the School of Business.

Working Capital covers short and intermediate-term financing and investment decisions. The course is primarily taught through the use of problems and cases with an emphasis on real world financial decisions.

Capital Budgeting covers long-term investment decisions, capital structure, and mergers. Like the working capital course, capital budgeting employs extensive problem solving with an emphasis on the use of Excel.

International Finance extends domestic finance and other business disciplines into an international focus for  the multinational firm. Students learn about the international financial markets, managing currency exposure, financing the firm internationally and multinational capital budgeting. The course is taught using problems, cases and practioners to expose the student to the real world decisions facing the multinational firm today.

Financial Institutions focuses on the banking industry and uses the Stanford Bank Management simulation. Student teams make many of the decisions required of bankers and then experience the consequence. The course culminates with mock stockholders' meetings.

Business Valuation requires each student to value a privately-held company and complete a professional quality valuation report. Valuation professionals make presentations to the class. Few undergraduate finance programs have a course in valuation. Several students who have participated in the course are hired every year by firms that specialize in the process of valuing companies for possible mergers, buyouts, and liquidations and for estate tax purposes.

Portfolio Analysis and Derivatives extends that first course in investments with an emphasis on options, risk management strategies, and asset allocation. Practitioners in securities analysis and selection, technical analysis, and portfolio planning periodically participate in the class.

Senior Thesis in Finance provides the individual with the opportunity to do original research on a particular topic within the discipline of finance. The course also serves to meet one of the college's writing requirements. The student works one-on-one with a faculty member to develop the topic and organize the paper. Several theses have been subsequently published in professional and academic finance journals. The Senior Thesis is also a mean for TCNJ finance majors to differentiate themselves from majors from competing colleges when searching for finance positions after graduation.

The Student Investment Fund

Students may participate in the student investment fund. The fund is not a "mock stock market game" but the actual management of portfolio valued at $177,000 as of July 2007. Students make buy and sell decisions designed to increase returns or improve the fund's asset allocation and risk management. The fund was initially created by a gift from a faculty member and contributions from alumni.

Internships

Finance majors may participate in a variety of internship opportunities. For example, the Johnson & Johnson internship is housed within the finance program. Students who accepted into the internship earn eight credit hours and are paid a weekly salary while working on a meaningful project with one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. Other companies that have recently provided internships include Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg Financial Services, Morgan Stanley, American Express Financial Advisors, and Goldman Sachs.

Alumni

Finance alumni actively support the finance program by being guest lectures and participating in cases with classes. These alumni are often a source of data and information for class projects, and provide internship and employment opportunities. Finance faculty members keep in frequent contact with finance alumni who graciously give back to the program.

Career Placement and Graduate Degrees

Finance majors have been very successful in obtaining relevant full-time positions after graduation through the efforts of the Office of Career Services, the finance faculty and alumni. Finance majors have successfully earned the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP) professional designation. Many finance majors subsequently continue their education through graduate programs in as law, health services, statistics, public service, accounting, and business. Alumni have been accepted into graduate programs a variety of schools that includes The London Business School, University of Pennsylvania, Wake Forest, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Duke, University of Miami, Villanova, Notre Dame, Cornell, NYU Stern School of Business, MIT, and Harvard.

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