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MBA in Corporate Finance & Investment Banking

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Become a Strategic Finance Leader

Build dynamic skills to lead finance in any industry. Learn to shape companies from a financial perspective and transform business with strategic know-how and creative insights.

Select one of three in-demand career pathways to meet your exact career goals

Consult with real companies to gain applied skills and corporate connections

Immerse yourself in the Nicholas Center’s network of finance leaders

Customize Your Path to Meet Your Career Goals

Choose from three specialized paths to create your ideal finance MBA.

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Strategic Corporate Finance

Understand the complexities of corporate finance. Use finance tools and skills to play a key role in strategic business decisions.

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Investment Banking

Prepare for a career at a leading investment bank. Learn how to analyze and manage complex financial deals and communicate with corporate clients and investors.

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New Venture Finance

Become enmeshed in the entrepreneurial and startup investor worlds. Gain a set of tools to successfully launch and evaluate new ventures.

Benefit From a Pipeline to Top Employers

141,180
average total compensation
119,930
average starting salary
21,250
average signing bonus
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Amazon logo
Robert & Baird logo
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Grow Your Skills With Specialized Curriculum

Start by gaining a strong foundation in general management and finance. In year two, deepen your expertise and gain a competitive advantage by selecting one of our three pathways.

Finance MBA Core

  • Business Valuation
  • Corporate Finance Theory and Practice
  • Applied Corporate Finance (Projects with top-level firms)
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Multinational Business Finance
  • Credit Analysis and Trading

View general MBA curriculum

Courses

  • Financial Reporting
  • Advanced Risk Management
  • Financial Statement Analysis

Recommended electives*

  • Project Management
  • Real Estate Finance & Investment
  • Change Management
  • Strategic Management of Innovation
  • Corporate Governance
  • Fixed Income or Derivatives
  • Negotiations
  • Pricing Strategies

Courses

  • Financial Reporting
  • Financial Statement Analysis
  • Investment Banking
  • Fixed Income or Derivatives

Recommended electives*

  • Project Management
  • Corporate Governance
  • Advanced Risk Management
  • Negotiations

Courses

  • Financial Reporting
  • Applied Ventures Entrepreneurship
  • Tech Entrepreneurship
  • Entrepreneurial Finance

Recommended electives*

  • Project Management
  • Change Management
  • Strategic Management of Innovation
  • Negotiations
  • Pricing Strategies

Be Supported by Finance Experts

Benefit from the guidance of the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking—WSB’s knowledge center dedicated to the advancement of the finance field.

Jim Chanos

Authentic connections with people who will change your life

  • Work with experts who open up doors to vital professional networks and give you resources to grow your career
  • Learn from luminary advisory board members who are currently shaping the finance industry
  • Be mentored by visionary alumni and guest speakers who provide an insider’s look at finance

Advisory Board Spotlights

Kristi Peterson

Kristi Peterson

Executive Director and Corporate Controller, SC Johnson

Peterson is the Executive Director and Corporate Controller for SC Johnson. In her role, Kristi leads global financial reporting processes, business planning and analysis, and technical accounting.

Adam Trigg

Adam Trigg

Head of Chemicals Investment Bank, RBC Capital Market

Trigg is the Head of Chemical Investment Banking at Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets. He was previously an Executive Director in the Natural Resources Group at UBS Investment Bank, and focused on providing financial advisory services to clients in the chemicals sector globally.

Faculty and Leadership Spotlights

Brad Chandler

Brad Chandler

Teaching Faculty, Finance

Chandler applies broad experience as an investment banker and former managing director at Morgan Stanley.

Barb Bolens

Barbara Bolens

Director, Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking

Bolens has extensive experience using her strategy, finance, risk management, and governance expertise to help organizations expand. As a former vice president and chief strategy officer, she is passionate about mentoring students in finance and connecting students to applied learning opportunities, internships, and employment at graduation.

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Gain Career-Ready Experiences

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Consult with top companies

Consult on real-world projects for Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs and engage with key business leaders. Students deliver recommendations directly to the client’s senior-level management.

Brad Chandler teaching a lesson to students in a computer lab

Use cutting-edge technology

Make WSB’s Finance and Analytics Lab your MBA home: 45 computers loaded with business tech like Bloomberg Terminal, Capital IQ, FactSet, and a host of research databases.

Meet Our Alumni

Angela Lee
"Diving into classes in my specialization in year one offered a great advantage. One of my favorites was Finance 765: Contemporary Topics, taught by Brad Chandler. He provided constructive step-by-step modeling skills and knowledge around a merger and acquisition deal. It exposed me to the investment banking world and improved my Excel modeling skill."
Angela Lee (MBA ’20)
Treasury Accounting Analyst at Ebay
Michael Hilfiker
"Our class consulted with Amazon on how to value recently enacted U.S. tariffs vis-à-vis Amazon’s value chain. I developed a proprietary model in R and Excel that informed our strategic recommendation. Amazon later pursued the model for in-house use."
Michael Hilfiker (MBA ’19)
Manager at Cornerstone Research
Aisha Hurston
"Through the program, I've gained in depth financial expertise, and I've also had great mentorship to succeed at a multinational fortune 50 company."
Aisha Hurston (MBA ’22)
Senior Marketing Manager at Dow Chemical Company
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Your MBA. Your Career Success.

High staff-to-student ratio means you get unlimited support—and exceptional connections—as you step into your ideal career.

Learn more about our career-launching results

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