Finance is among the most versatile of majors—what organization wouldn’t benefit from optimizing the investment of its monetary resources?
A B.S. in Finance prepares you for careers in every segment of our economy, from private corporations to government to financial services to banking to academia and the nonprofit sector. Your options are wide open, but you also have the ability to target a more specific career path by adding a Penn State Behrend certificate—your choices include Financial Planning, Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics, Financial Controllership, Financial Risk Management, and Financial Services Sales—or a second major. The two degrees most often added to Finance are the B.S. in Accounting and B.S. in Business Economics.
Why the Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend?
Choose Penn State Behrend for the most realistic finance education available. You’ll have unique opportunities here:
Experience real risk and reward by investing actual dollars in the stock market as a portfolio manager for our Intrieri Family Student Managed Fund.- Work in our simulated trading floor using the same Bloomberg information services as professional traders and investors. Students also can earn Bloomberg certification.
Graduate from one of only three Pennsylvania colleges accepted into the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) Institute University Recognition Program. This status is granted to degree programs that incorporate at least 70 percent of the CFA® Program Candidate Body of Knowledge (CBOK), offering you excellent preparation for the CFA exams. - Earn a Certificate in Financial Planning. Because Behrend’s certificate is a Registered Program with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, you’ll be eligible to sit for the national CFP® Certification Examination.
Access programs and curricula developed by the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association. Now that Behrend's Finance program is a CAIA Academic Partner, students can apply for scholarships to earn the CAIA Charter designation and also access the CISDM-Morningstar Hedge Fund Database.- Take energy finance electives. These prepare you for work in the growing energy sector and for earning the Energy Risk Professional credential.
- Compete! Behrend students have won the regional Chartered Financial Analyst Institute Research Challenge, or “investment Olympics”—twice!—and the Oh-Penn For Business and Erie Innovation Collaborative business plan competitions.
Accreditation Matters
The Black School of Business is accredited by AACSB International, the highest standard of achievement and a designation earned by less than 5 percent of business schools worldwide
Want to learn more?
Check out the Black School of Business Finance Newsletter!
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the trademarks CFP ®, Certified Financial Planner™ and Certified Financial Planner ® in the U.S., which it awards to individual who successfully complete CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements. Penn State does not certify individuals to use the CFP ® , Certified Financial Planner™ and marks. CFP ® certification is granted solely by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. to individuals who, in addition to completing an educational requirement such as this CFP Board-Registered Program, have met ethics, experience and examination requirements.