The major in finance offers courses relating to the financial organization, operations, and problems of the economy at large and stressing issues of financial management in business firms, financial institutions, and units of government. While some attention is given to the descriptive, institutional, and historical aspects of the field, primary emphasis is placed on the analytical foundations of the discipline, making extensive use of the relevant techniques of economic analysis, mathematics, and statistics. By stressing theory and methods of analysis, the department provides the student with the tools for dealing with important practical issues.

Graduates have professional careers with positions in financial departments of general businesses, investment banking firms, broker-dealer firms, management consulting firms, various departments of commercial banks and other financial institutions, central banks, and international financial institutions.