University of Chicago Announces Master of Finance Degree

Finance is a lucrative and fast-growing field — and a top business school plans to debut a master of finance program to position students for jobs in that key sector.

The University of Chicago (UChicago) Booth School of Business will debut its new master of finance program in fall 2024, according to a press release from the school. The program is geared toward “accomplished recent college graduates in quantitative fields of study who are searching for a master’s degree that builds on their analytical aptitude,” according to the release.

The program will be available in Booth’s standard 15-month track or an accelerated 10-month track. Core courses will include investments, corporation finance, data analytics, and financial accounting, as well as nine electives to total 13 courses.

The master of finance program is only Booth’s latest innovative development: Booth recently announced a joint master of business administration (MBA) and master’s in data science program, positioning students for jobs in a wide swath of industries as employers grapple with an ever-growing trove of data.

Ralph S.J. Koijen, the school’s AQR Capital Management distinguished service professor of finance, underscored the importance of emerging technologies interwoven into the new master of finance curriculum.

“The option to take courses that delve deep into topics such as A.I., machine learning, big data, blockchain technology, fintech and current topics in investment banking — among many others — will give students an advantage in the market after they graduate,” Koijen said.

Those emerging fields, like fintech, are increasingly important in the financial sector. Fintech, or financial technology, is a broad term that applies to technologies that augment or automate both consumer and business finances.

Fintech is set for explosive growth over the next decade, according to the Boston Consulting Group, which projected last year that fintech revenues will grow from an already titanic $245 billion to roughly $1.5 trillion by 2030. Mobile apps, the rise of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI), and other factors are contributing to that sector’s meteoric growth.

A growing number of business schools are incorporating those burgeoning technologies into their curriculum. The Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts announced fintech degree programs last year, and Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business recently launched a microcredential in that area.

Career development is set to be an important aspect of Booth’s new master in finance program, according to the release, with internships and networking with hiring managers built into the experience.

Demand for financial experts is high and is projected to grow over the next decade.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that employment of financial managers alone will grow by 16% between 2022 and 2032 — much faster than the average growth rate for all occupations. The median annual wage for financial managers as of May 2022 was $139,790, according to the BLS.

Students can apply to the new Booth master of finance program online. Application deadlines for rounds one and two are Jan. 25, 2024, and March 29, 2024, respectively. Decision notifications for rounds one and two are the weeks of March 4, 2024, and April 29, 2024, respectively.

“We are excited to baring our transformative approach — and the latest innovations in finance — to talented, analytical college graduates, jump-starting their careers and putting them at the frontier of this rapidly advancing field,” Madhav Rajan, dean of UChicago Booth and the George Pratt Shultz professor of accounting, said in the school’s release.