Master in Finance Degree Boosts Marketability and Mobility

Do you work in the field of finance today? If so, you already know it’s a diverse, fast-moving industry with nearly unlimited options for where you work and what you do.

Your employer could be a financial planning firm, a bank or an investment management company. Or you could work in a corporate or nonprofit setting in the finance department.

Because finance-focused roles can be found in almost every organization, working in the field offers unparalleled job mobility over the lifetime of your career. Your future in finance can be continually re-defined as new opportunities to move to higher-level roles or make lateral moves to new areas and positions open up.

A Graduate Degree’s a Differentiator

Even with the unlimited roles and employers in the world of finance, you’ll still need to be motivated and marketable to get the most from your career. One way financial services professionals demonstrate their drive and capabilities — whether their goal is to get a raise, score a coveted position or compete for a job in a new industry — is by having an advanced degree.

Today, a master’s degree in finance is a door-opener and a differentiator. Listing your completed or “in-process” degree on LinkedIn and your resume is an effective way to catch the attention of human resources recruiters and hiring managers with stacks of resumes in front of them.

Top-Ranked Online Education

If you work full time in financial services, quitting to focus on your master’s degree is likely off the table for consideration — but studying while you work is highly doable with a program designed for working adults.

The 100% online Master of Science (MS) in Finance from the University of Cincinnati Online (UCO) is that type of program. It allows you the opportunity to work toward an advanced degree, blending your education commitment with your professional and personal demands, at a full- or part-time pace.

For more than two decades now, UCO’s focus on online learning has been a top priority for our university. We were one of the first institutions to offer online courses. Today, UCO is well-known and highly rated throughout the Midwest and across the US, offering nearly 100 degrees — from undergraduate to doctoral.

Meet Program Director Mike Neugent

Michael Neugent, Associate Professor – Educator of Finance, is the Academic Director for UCO’s MS in Finance program. He’s been on staff at the University of Cincinnati (UC) since 2009 and has overseen the on-campus finance master’s degree program since 2012.

Michael is excited about the newest version of the MS in Finance degree, which students complete online, and its connection to UC’s heritage program. “We built the program from what we learned in the long-running and successful campus degree — keeping the best features while structuring the program for online learners,” Michael says.

Students will appreciate the program’s flexibility and how the instructors’ lectures, study material, communication tools, our renowned business library and other vital resources are available 24/7. “Our online courses are asynchronous to fully meet students’ needs,” Michael says. “This means you can study and access the course material and tools at four o’clock in the morning if you need to.”

MS in Finance Curriculum

The master’s in finance program curriculum includes 23 semester credit hours of program courses and 5–6 elective hours you customize to your liking.

Courses include Data Analysis, Econometrics for Finance and Financial Statement Analysis, along with classes that focus on equity, fixed income and options and futures — what Michael calls foundational topics that are core to understanding the financial markets. “We want to give students something tangible from what they learn in the program, so they can confidently walk into an interview and compete for a job in finance,” he says.

You can further personalize your master’s studies by taking courses to gain distinction in one of four focus areas, Corporate Finance, Investments, Risk Management and Real Estate. This is a decision you can make about midway through the program, so there’s no pressure to have a preference on your first day of class.

The MS in Finance courses prepares you for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA), Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) examinations. If your career goals include attaining one of these designations, the significant head start toward earning the accreditation is something to appreciate.

Additionally, our master of finance degree curriculum qualifies it as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)-designated program.