Finance
About the Finance Program
Within the Gainey School of Business, the finance major educates students in all aspects of personal financial planning, corporate finance and investments. Students will learn various methods of allocating capital when considering factors such as age, income and personal situations. Finance majors will also become acquainted with international finance centers and will be exposed to key members of the international financial community. They will also examine the latest methods in international arbitrage and investment opportunities.
Why should you choose the SAU finance program?
The finance faculty are qualified professionals with over 30 years of combined teaching experience and many years of corporate and consulting expertise. The faculty can help you design your course work to fit your specific needs.
The finance major will help you get a position with a reputable financial firm or prepare you to go into your own business. The corporate finance emphasis can prepare you to find a career as a corporate analyst or other corporate financial positions.
TRUE Community Credit Union Trading Center
Our academic building, The Poling Center for Global Learning and Leadership, includes the TRUE Community Credit Union Trading Room, which trains students for corporate and personal finance careers. The trading center features:
- 20 computers for students
- An electronic wrap-around ticker
- A large LED financial data board
- A large LCD screen for teaching
- An LCD screen for business news
- A bank of seven international clocks
- A specialized teaching bunker
- Continuous financial news feeds
The trading room enables our students to take a step forward in their entrepreneurial skills. The students receive “on the job” experience, practice and knowledge in trading technology, an enhanced level of confidence and familiarity with the latest financial technology.
Courses, Course Descriptions & Four-Year Plan
The courses for the 48-hour finance major include such subject areas as cost and managerial accounting theory, statistics, individual and organization taxation, business law, cost and managerial accounting practice, personal finance, and money and banking.
View the course requirements and layout, course descriptions, a sample four-year plan as well as learn more about the finance program at Spring Arbor University in the undergraduate catalog.
Career Opportunities
Money and finance touch almost every aspect of business and life. That’s why finance is a wise career choice for anyone with broad business interests. The function of finance involves decisions on how to best use money. Financial planning binds together all functions of an organization, and it takes special skills to deal with the complexities of keeping a firm profitable. Some of the careers available to our graduates are:
- Benefits manager
- Capital budgeting analyst
- Commercial banker
- Corporate investment specialist
- Credit manager
- Currency manager
- Financial analyst
- Financial planner
- Investment banker
- Investment relations manager
- Loan officer
- Mergers and acquisitions analyst
- Portfolio manager
- Property management
- Real estate sales and appraisals
- Research and ratings analyst
- Risk and insurance specialist
- Securities sales
- Stockbroker
- Trust supervisor
To learn more about how Spring Arbor helps its graduates prepare for a career, visit our career development section.
On-Campus Opportunities
Within the Gainey School of Business, there are a wide range of opportunities for students to get involved, apply what they’re learning in the classroom in a practical way, and meet students who have similar passions. Here is a list of just some of the opportunities available:
- ENACTUS: ENACTUS is an international organization that encourages students to use the skills they are developing to pursue business-related projects that will improve their respective communities. Students from a wide range of majors and academic departments participate in ENACTUS projects. This is sponsored through the Gainey School of Business.
- Let’s Network (event): This event is designed to help students find summer internships or jobs after graduation. Students have the chance to connect with small businesses, human resource organizations, corporations and local companies that are looking for talented, skilled people.
- Social Etiquette Dinner (event): As students look to graduation, they are invited to participate in the Social Etiquette Dinner that happens every February, where an expert leads students through a formal dinner, instructing them on the dos and don’ts of dining in a professional setting. This is a service offered through the Career Development office.