Master in Finance

Finance, taught the way it’s practiced.

Most MSF programs teach you finance. This one trains you to think, communicate, and perform like a finance professional before you graduate. The difference shows up on day one at work.

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25

Countries represented in the cohort — you collaborate across a global class

9 or 16

Months — an intensive or extended track to fit your background and goals

$100K+

Among 45 graduate degrees with average pay above $100K (U.S. News)

CFA

Curriculum aligned to the CFA Institute Candidate Body of Knowledge

Why MS in Finance at Questrom

Most programs teach
finance. We develop
professionals.

The difference is how you learn: by doing, and alongside a sharp, collaborative cohort — in Boston, one of the largest financial centers in the U.S. Three things set the experience apart.

Watch Aishik’s story

Aishik Das (Questrom ‘26) shares why the MSF was the right fit for him, from the applied learning framework to the opportunity to plug into Boston.

Applied

You learn by doing

You learn finance by practicing it — real problems, real data, real stakes, from the first weeks. The hands-on work isn’t bolted on around the courses; it runs through them, so you graduate having already done the job.

Collaborative

Built around your cohort

Finance is a team sport, and so is this program. You work in small teams in and outside the classroom, sharpening your thinking against peers who push you — and building the professional network you carry into the industry.

Day One

Ready the moment you start

Every piece — coursework, coaching, and teamwork — is engineered backward from the job you’ll start. You arrive ready to contribute, not to ramp up. That’s the whole point of the program.

Curriculum

Roles this degree prepares you for:

Financial Analyst

Portfolio Manager

 Risk Manager

Corporate Finance

Credit Analyst

Investment Banking

Asset Management

Wealth Management

Careers

Is MSF Right for You?

For finance majors and career-changers alike.

The program recruits two kinds of students: those with a finance background who want to deepen their expertise, and those coming from other fields who want to break into finance. Flexible electives and two track lengths make room for both.

You’ll thrive here if you want…

Hands-on, team-based learning

Learn finance by doing it. Work closely with classmates on team projects centered on real problems, and applied assignments that mirror how finance gets done in the workplace.

A focused path, with room to make it yours

Build toward finance roles in focused areas like investment analysis, corporate finance, risk, or credit while using electives to shape the degree around your goals and interests.

Experience in a global financial hub

Study in Boston, one of the world’s leading centers for finance, investment, technology, and innovation. Build experience and connections in a city filled with major firms, startups, and Questrom alumni.

Dedicated career support from day one

Get focused career coaching built into your MSF experience, from refining your goals and preparing for interviews to connecting with employers and positioning yourself for the roles you want.

Class Profile

Choose Your Path

One degree.
Two ways to earn it.

The MSF curriculum is the same 33 units either way. What changes is the pace — and whether you build in a summer internship. Pick the track that matches your background and timeline.

Intensive Track

9 months

Fall start · spring finish

Ideal for students who already have a finance background and want to sharpen their skills and enter the job market quickly. Using flexible elective options, you complete the degree and accelerate your way to a finance role.

  • Best fit for finance majors
  • Fastest, most cost-efficient route to the degree

Extended Track

16 Months

Adds a summer + lighter final term

Built for career-changers and anyone who wants a little more time to hone their technical and professional skills. The extended structure opens a summer window to gain real industry experience, a longer job-search runway, and time to pursue CFA certification.

  • Requires the QST IM 888 Financial Industry Practicum — an opportunity for all students to work on an internship or project, including CPT for international students
  • Part-time final semester for an extended job search
Tracks

Academics

A curriculum built to
deploy, not just study.

Leading finance teams seek graduates who are “day one-ready” and prepared for tomorrow’s uncertainties. The MS in Finance program’s unique approach equips you with skills that set you apart and empowers you to make an immediate impact from day one.

Through an integrated curriculum that builds a comprehensive toolset and hands-on experience in financial strategy, research and data analysis, teamwork, and effective communication, you’ll graduate with the versatility to navigate complexity and adapt in the professional world.

Become a Chartered Financial Analyst®

The curriculum is aligned with the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) certifications, offering a solid foundation for those aiming to pursue CFA® qualifications.

CORE

Finance Fundamentals

Core courses in the essentials professionals need — corporate finance, investments, financial reporting, and risk.

Corporate Finance

Investments

Risk

Electives

Finance Deep Dive

Electives let you build real depth and context in the specific area you intend to work — and add value there immediately.

Fixed Income

Private Equity

Valuation

Hands-on

Data & Analysis

Access, wrangle, and draw insight from financial data through quantitative methods, data management, and AI.

Statistics

Data Analytics

AI Tools

Soft skills

Teaming & Communication

Build a shared financial language and learn to share critical thinking clearly — in teams and to decision-makers.

Communication

Teamwork

Careers

Want the full course list? The complete curriculum — including electives and semester sequence — is on the official program page.

View Full Curriculum →

Applied & Collaborative

Learning that works
before you graduate.

You work in small teams in the classroom, in corporate partner-sponsored events, and in case competitions fusing theory with real data and learning the way a desk actually operates. In or out of the classroom, where you invest in your applied learning is up to you. See some examples:

FE840 Finance Practicum

Small teams develop and present an analysis of a specific industry and portfolio implications to a panel of portfolio managers.

FE555 AI for Financial Analysis

Small teams deploy AI platforms to uncover risk factors and risk management strategies within hundreds of mutual funds prospectus documents.

FE850 Private Equity

Students make the business case for a leveraged buyout investment to take a real world company private.

ES610 Communications in Finance

Students develop and present a plan to finance the strategic initiatives of a rapidly growing start up company.

Graduate Finance and Investment Club

Students manage a portion of a real-life $1.2 million stock investment fund and compete to boost portfolio returns.

Annual Battle of the Boutiques Case Competition

Students from across Questrom programs work with their mentor for a real company and its challenges.

Practice the Work Before You’re Hired

Learn to excel in finance’s dynamic, team-oriented world through practical, hands-on experiences that fuse theory with real-world data.

Work individually and in small teams in the classroom, corporate partner-sponsored events, and case competitions to build both the hard and soft skills that financial employers crave.

Live Capital

Manage a Real $1.2M Investment Fund in the Grad Investment Club

Through the Graduate Finance & Investment Club, students manage a portion of a real $1.2 million stock investment fund — making and defending allocation decisions and competing to boost portfolio returns with actual money on the line.

It’s the kind of pressure no classroom model can replicate, and exactly the experience that separates candidates when employers are hiring.

Portfolio Management

Real Capital

Student-Run

Financial Practicum

FE 840: Pitch to Real Portfolio Managers

In the Financial Practicum, small teams develop a deep analysis of a specific industry and its portfolio implications, then present their recommendations directly to a panel of working portfolio managers — the way relative-value analysis actually happens on a desk.

It’s one of several action-learning experiences, alongside the Battle of the Boutiques case competition and the Rotman market simulation.

Industry Analysis

Live Panel

Case Competitions

Careers & the Feld Center

Day-one ready and
prepared for what’s
next.

Leading finance teams want graduates who can contribute immediately. MSF pairs an integrated curriculum with one of the most hands-on career operations in graduate business education, anchored in Boston’s financial community.

Tailor electives toward a career path

Corporate

Finance management inside corporate settings.

Markets

Portfolio management and investment analysis.

Risk

Risk and credit management roles.

Advisory

Investment banking and advisory services.

$100k+

MS in Finance is among 45 graduate degrees with average pay after graduation above $100K.

Source: U.S. News & World Report. Starting salaries of MS in Finance graduates working in finance run roughly $20K above business-graduate averages (NACE).

Careers

MSF welcomed its first cohort in Fall 2025, so program-specific placement data is not yet available. The figures above are sector and Questrom-wide benchmarks. This full-time program is also STEM-eligible, qualifying eligible graduates for extended OPT.

Your Dedicated Career Team

A career coach dedicated to MS in Finance starts working with you the summer before you arrive, and stays with you for six months after you graduate. Career management is built into the degree, not bolted on.

Dedicated MS in Finance career advisor

Work with a career advisor dedicated specifically to the MS in Finance student experience.

Summer online career course before you arrive

Begin structured career preparation online during the summer before the program starts.

Weekly calendar of finance-industry events

Tap into an ongoing calendar of events focused on finance careers, employers, and industry connections.

Nine Feld Center industry advisors

Connect with the Feld Center’s network of nine industry advisors for additional career guidance and perspective.

An Unsurpassed Financial Network

36K+

BU Connects, an online network of 36,000+ BU alumni

500

Finance firms visits to Questrom each year

79

finance and accounting faculty

14

Finance-oriented student clubs

2

Sister programs in Quantitative Finance and Business Analytics

Case Competitions

Solve a Real Business Challenge in Battle of the Boutiques

In the Battle of the Boutiques, student teams take on the role of boutique consulting firms, working with a real company to analyze a business challenge, develop a strategic recommendation, and present their solution to experienced consultants and hiring managers.

Teams have just seven days to form, storm, norm, and perform, putting their problem-solving, teamwork, and presentation skills to the test in a fast-paced consulting environment.

Consulting

Real-world business challenges

Strategy

Teamwork

Seize the AI Opportunity

AI is a force to
leverage, not fear.

The AI-savvy financial professional works in new, more iterative ways — using their financial judgment to prompt AI, and AI’s reach to synthesize information and wrangle data. MSF builds that skillset directly into the curriculum.

A dedicated AI course

FE 555, AI for Financial Analysis, teaches best practices, ethics, and practical workflows for using LLMs — ChatGPT, Claude, and Colab with Gemini — across valuation, portfolio building, and hedging.

AI inside the data courses

AI tools are incorporated into the Data & Analytics courses and the Storytelling-with-Data course, so they become part of how you handle financial information — not a separate elective.

Iterative AI in action learning

Action-learning projects use iterative human-and-AI workflows: you prompt with your financial understanding, then judge whether the output makes sense and guide it from there.

Built for the curious.

FE 555 — AI for Financial Analysis

Beyond the basics, students apply factor models, mutual-fund return attribution, and natural language processing — running topic modeling and document analysis on earnings-call transcripts, regulatory filings, and fund prospectuses to pull insight from unstructured data.

The throughline is an iterative loop between human and machine: financial knowledge sharpens the prompts, and AI sharpens the analysis.

LLMs

NLP on Filings

Factor Models

Portfolio Optimization

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BSBA-to-MSF program

graduate holding diploma with sun shining over their cap

A Fifth Year of Intensive Finance Study

The BSBA-to-MSF program is designed for well-prepared Questrom students who wish to obtain a master’s degree in Finance by adding a fifth year of intensive study. The program provides a streamlined path for Questrom undergraduates to continue directly into the MS in Finance program, reducing both time and costs.

Allowed 500-Level Finance Electives


While in the BSBA program, students should complete at least two of the following 500-level Finance electives: FE 550, FE 555, FE 562


Certain eligibility criteria must be met to participate in the BSBA-to-MSF program.


Students who complete two of these 500-level courses can apply up to 8 units taken during the BSBA program towards 6 units of MSF courses.


They may substitute MSF core foundational courses, as follows:

  • FE550 or FE562 can be used to waive FE723 Introduction to Corporate Finance (must be replaced with an MSF program elective approved by the student’s advisor).
  • FE555 can be used to waive FE740 (must be replaced with an MSF elective approved by the student’s advisor).

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Apply for an MS in Finance Degree

Ready to apply? Follow the link to learn more about the application process. Once you’ve submitted your materials, we’ll start the review process. We’re happy to answer your questions along the way.

Apply for Fall 2026
Request information
Talk to an admissions advisor

Application Deadlines

Round 1 | October 20, 2026

Round 2 | November 24, 2026

Round 3 | January 13, 2027

Round 4 | February 23, 2027

Round 5 | March 19, 2027

Round 6 | April 27, 2027

All deadlines & details