Finance

Finance professor writing on blackboard

What is Finance?

LMU's Finance major helps students understand that finance is the lifeline of business – from small entrepreneurial enterprises to multinational corporations. Students learn concepts in financial planning, financial policy, real estate, mergers and acquisitions, and investment in both U.S. and international markets.

The Finance major, part of LMU's undergraduate business program, provides the academic and professional training necessary to developing well-rounded individuals with critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills. Graduates are prepared to manage complex organizational functions in an economically and culturally diverse global setting.

What do Finance majors do?

LMU's Finance major helps students prepare for careers in the private and public sectors. Students develop skills in the application of the finance concepts, techniques, practices, and decision making essential to sound investing and personal and corporate financial planning. Additional advanced finance courses look at real estate and mergers & acquisitions.

Finance majors also learn how to assess firm performance, value a stream of cash flow, determine the relationship between risk and return, estimate capital costs, identify the importance of a firm's capital structure, and analyze methods of working capital management. Students also put theory into real-life practice via the . 

Is this major right for you?

You might be a Finance major if you:

  • Are interested in Wall Street
  • Stay current with business news
  • Are fascinated by money
  • Plan on a career in banking
  • Are an investor 

About our faculty

Our faculty members are experts in fields such as international economic development, mergers and acquisitions, alternative restructuring strategies, alternative valuation methods, international finance and emerging markets, mutual funds, corporate governance, interest rate risk, security pricing, market efficiency and anomalies, commercial banking, corporate bankruptcy, economic and financial factors in urban development, and Third World development.

Faculty members have authored textbooks such as Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring Activities and written for publications such as Advances in Financial Education, Journal of World Business, Journal of Third World Studies and Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education

About our students and graduates

LMU students majoring or minoring in Finance gain analytical skills and knowledge that are valuable to many kinds of organizations. Graduates are prepared to work in domestic and international corporate finance, the securities industry, real estate, insurance, banking, health care, and the public sector.  

Representative courses

Our courses have included:

  • Financial Planning and Control
  • Tax Law and Planning
  • Investments
  • Financial Policy
  • Real Estate Finance and Investment and Entrepreneurship
  • Capital Markets
  • Multinationals and the Third World
  • International Finance
  • Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Introductory Statistics
  • Managerial Accounting
  • Calculus
  • Entrepreneurial Finance
  • Internship
  • Independent Studies 

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