Degree Requirements

The doctoral program in finance will prepare you to do world-class finance research and enable you to secure a university faculty position.

Highlights

• Two years of doctoral coursework, which includes:
  • 18 credit hours of finance doctoral courses:
    • F600 Asset Pricing Theory
    • F605 Corporate Finance
    • F625 Empirical Asset Pricing
    • F635 Market Microstructure
    • F644 Topics in Finance (e.g., Fund Management, Banking, etc.)
    • F798 Research Seminar in Finance (analysis of the weekly outside speaker paper)
  • 9 credit hours of methods/analysis course (e.g., econometrics, statistics, etc.)
  • 9 to 15 credit hours of a minor, such as economics, accounting, math, etc.
  • A summer literature review on a finance topic of your choice
• A comprehensive exam on the finance doctoral courses
• An original research paper, which is developed over four months and presented to all of the finance department faculty
• A dissertation proposal, which is typically three research essays within an overall theme
• A completed dissertation, which is defended to a faculty committee
• A job market search to find a new faculty member position, which includes: 
  • Interviews at both the American Finance Association conference and at Financial Management Association conference
  • Travel to various universities to present your job market research paper and visit with many of their faculty members
  • Review of job offers and a decision on which one to accept