George Washington University: Seventy Percent of Coursework Focuses on Practical Applications

By Janice Rosenberg

A curriculum focused on real world situations and up-to-the-minute skills gives graduates of The George Washington University (GWU) master of science in finance (MSF) program everything they need to succeed.   

“When they leave the MSF program, our students should have all the quantitative and computational skills needed to solve any financial problem they may face; they understand how the market works and are comfortable with code and data,” says program director, George M. Jabbour. “Both the breadth and depth of our program make our students well-trained and ready, technically speaking, to work on any assignment or project anywhere in the industry.”

Highlights

Several basic aspects of GWU’s MSF program distinguish it from those offered by other universities:

First, the program provides a well-balanced combination of finance, math and computer skills, with an emphasis on finance using quantitative and computational skills. It covers all aspects of finance including derivatives, banking, international financial markets, portfolio management, corporate finance, real estate, fixed income securities, financial modeling, valuation and regulations.

“I wanted a combination of quant skills and financial knowledge and I think GWU offers a perfect combination of the two,” says student Helen Li. She also appreciated the flexibility of the program that allowed her the option of attending at a slower pace and finishing in two years.

The program consists of 12 four-credit courses which allows time to cover more material and topics than typical programs that require only 30 credit hours.   

“Our students who take the CFA, and recently the PRM exams, feel they have been well prepared for them,” Jabbour says.

Second, courses are taught by full-time GWU faculty. Each instructor teaches in his or her primary field of research. Faculty members are drawn from several GWU departments including finance, international business, management science, economics and law.

Third, because of GWU’s location “next-door” to key Washington, D.C., institutions – the White House, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve, to name just a few – students benefit on a regular basis from lectures by industry and government leaders. These lectures also help faculty and students keep up with changes and innovations in the marketplace and incorporate them into the curriculum.

“One important reason that I came here was the location,” says Steve Young, a 2000 graduate and now director and head of the counterparty and credit risk analytics group at Wachovia in Charlotte, North Carolina. “The other reason was the program’s reputation. It’s been around since the early 1990s and, in contrast with some of the newer programs, it has a strong curriculum and has worked out the kinks.”

Fourth, GWU students are highly competitive and come from all over the world. Their backgrounds are well diversified, so that they learn not only from the faculty, but also from each other. The 2006 entering class included students from twenty countries, with an average of more than five years of full-time work experience. A large portion of the students already hold masters degrees, including an MBA or Ph.D. in a quantitative discipline.

At a minimum, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university with six hours in economics; six hours in mathematics, including calculus; and three hours each in financial accounting, managerial finance and statistics.

Fifth, GWU has created a computer lab available exclusively to MSF students that includes large financial data sets and access to WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services). This allows students who are working on research projects to apply what they learn to real data. In addition, the school of business has a trading lab available to all students that uses the same software employed on real-world trading desks.  

Degree Details

At GWU, coursework emphasizes risk management and valuation, in general, and structured deals that nowadays can be complex, in particular, as well as interest rate modeling, Jabbour says. Students learn how the building blocks of finance evolved and how they are applied in the real world.

Faculty members show students how – in terms of performance and risk – to combine cash markets with futures, options, swaps and forwards to achieve specific financial goals. In the process, students work hard to acquire all the necessary quantitative and programming skills.

“We emphasize SAS and MATLAB, and we also use Visual Basic and Crystal Ball,” Jabbour says. “Depending on the students’ needs and goals, sometimes we offer workshops on C++ and/or Java.”

The program is mostly applied – approximately 30 percent theoretical and 70 percent practical. The focus is on real-world situations with students working to find solutions that would meet the objectives of actual managers and administrators. For example, in the banking class students are required to analyze a specific bank, assess its risk and its asset/liability issues, then write a report and present it orally. These presentations help enhance students’ communication skills. The instructor then forwards the best report to the CEO of the bank.

Other reality-based class work requires students to apply financial modeling to value mergers and acquisitions, forecast a yield curve, value a structure or a derivative instrument, allocate funds in a portfolio and apply hedging techniques.

Courses leading to the MSF are available exclusively to MSF students. Management topics are not covered, Jabbour says, but management issues such as corporate governance, ethics and competitive positions may come up when students and faculty discuss specific cases or situations.

In past years students were required to write research papers. Now a structured course in research methods is offered as an option to accommodate students whose student visas do not allow them enough time to write papers. The course requires students to complete 10 assignments using the types of state-of-the-art research methods applicable in modern finance.

In 2005 GWU put a joint MBA/MSF degree program into place. Students who enroll take all of the MBA’s core courses and all 12 MSF courses.

“We have only three people doing that,” Jabbour says. “All are international students from countries where the MBA is better known than the MSF. They want the MSF because it gives them higher technical skills and the MBA to help them get ahead back home.”

While not required, internships are highly recommended and encouraged. For the most part companies offer GWU interns jobs once they have graduated. These institutions have included Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve and World Bank.

“I did an internship at a top-three global investment bank during the summer and that’s where I am currently employed,” says Stephen Cropper, a January 2006 graduate now working in dollar rate options trading.

Into the Real World

Changes in the needs of employers affect coursework in most financial engineering programs and GWU is no exception. The school works hard to learn which skills employers currently require to address their financial situations. Continuing contact with graduates and employers, and information from faculty members who are active in consulting keep GWU well informed. The program incorporates the skills required to fulfill employers’ needs so that students are always up-to-date.

“Our curriculum has changed to incorporate more math such as continuous time, stochastic processes and advanced econometrics in addition to new structures and exotic deals,” Jabbour says.

Dramatic changes in the financial world and the increased need for finance specialists have led to high demand for GWU graduates. Concomitantly the number of applications GWU receives every year has dramatically increased. Class size has grown from 80 to 130 students in just a few years, and plans to expand the program further currently are under consideration.

The industry’s need for graduates is reflected in GWU’s excellent placement record for all those who have attended its program and were actively seeking new employment. This increased demand also has translated into higher salaries.

Graduates have found positions in the most influential finance institutions in the country, Jabbour says. These include Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, First Boston, Credit Suisse, Legg Mason, Citibank, Metlife, Bear Stearns, Prudential Financial, AIG, Wachovia Bank, PARIBAS, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, FBR, Federal Reserve, International Finance Corporation, The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The focus of their work also varies widely including commercial banking, investment banking, risk management, valuation, structured products, trading, portfolio management, hedge funds, fixed income products, real estate, consulting, financial engineering, corporate finance and finance software development.

The variety of opportunities for graduates draws students from all over the world. Orlando E. Ferreira came to Washington, D.C., in 1999 to represent Paraguay at the IDB. He held masters degrees in both economics and business, but wanted more specific training in finance. GWU’s concentration on the quantitative aspects of the discipline drew him to the program.

After graduating Ferreira remained at the IDB for more than two years, then moved on to a number of positions elsewhere in financial management areas related to Latin America. He currently works as Principal Corporate Advisor at the Inter-American Investment Corporation, in Washington, the area of the IDB that deals exclusively with the private sector.

“My MSF degree is extremely helpful,” Ferreira says. “I don’t think any of this would have been possible without a degree of this quality. It opened doors for me and made it possible for me to get this job.”

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