Finance

Undergraduate Information
Graduate Information

OFFICE: Student Services East 3428
TELEPHONE: 619-594-5323 / FAX: 619-594-3272
WEBSITE: https://business.sdsu.edu/finance

A member of AACSB International-The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The Personal Financial Planning Certificate is registered with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.

Undergraduate Information

Faculty

Emeritus: Badrinath, Block, Bost, Cherin, Gitman, Graf, Hippaka, Houston, Nye, Omberg, Reints, Sachdeva, Salehizadeh, Short, Song, Sterk, Vandenberg, Warschauer, Wilbur
Chair: Haddad
Professors: Do, Ely, Haddad, Kim, Varaiya
Associate Professors: Gubellini, Juneja, Lachance, Tang
Assistant Professors: Brincks, Lotfaliei, Mehrotra, Pierzak, Smith, Xi

The Majors

The Department of Finance offers three majors: Finance, Financial Services, and Real Estate.

Finance. All forms of human endeavor involve finance to some degree. Within our economic system, finance is concerned with capital, which is money or property owned or used in business. Finance majors study both the sources and the uses of capital. The finance curriculum revolves around the valuation process in a free market system. Once an individual or company can value various alternatives, the allocation of resources and the decision process in business becomes much simpler.

Students who are interested in business should have a thorough understanding of the financial process. Upon graduation, students accept a wide variety of positions with business in general. The curriculum of the finance major is designed to give the student breadth in a variety of fields in addition to finance and business.

Employment prospects for graduates with finance majors are very good and forecasts remain encouraging. Graduates are typically found in six types of employment: large and small industrial firms (manufacturers of automobiles, steel, household appliances, and electronic equipment); service oriented firms (electric power, real estate and retail firms); financial institutions (banks, state and federally chartered savings and loan associations, and insurance companies); nonprofit enterprises (universities, labor unions, and foundations); and private businesses.

The diversity of entry level positions obtained by finance majors makes it difficult to describe a typical position. A major in finance does not limit career potential to banking or to any single area of business. A large number of individuals go to work for industrial companies in a variety of entry level positions that allow them to develop into top decision-making positions with those companies. A significant number of chief executive officers and other top officers of corporations have followed the “finance path” to the top.

Financial Services. Although the financial services major is based on many of the same analytical skills and theoretical foundations as the finance major, it is designed specifically to prepare students for careers in one of the segments of the financial services industry: securities, banking, insurance, real estate finance and personal financial planning. It is very common for single firms to own subsidiaries in each of these areas, so it is important for graduates entering these fields to be familiar with all aspects of these important financial sectors.

Graduates can look forward to analytical, managerial or sales careers in the financial services industry. Sales careers include insurance and securities sales. Analytical careers include loan and security analysis and personal financial planning. Managerial careers include management in each of the component industries.

Real Estate. The vision of the real estate program at SDSU is to create a ready-day-one educational program for students who aspire to become future leaders and professionals within the multifaceted real estate industry. This vision and the changing nature of today’s real estate market require that graduates receive a complete education that provides both breadth and depth in this field. Majors in real estate receive a solid foundation in business and real estate through required courses and depth in a particular sub-profession through one of three specialty tracks: real estate development, mortgage banking, and real estate investment advising. Graduates will also be prepared to continue learning, develop leadership, and contribute to communities as a result of their total degree program experience.

SDSU’s program in real estate provides students with analytical skills, technical competence to perform market analyses, and an understanding of the tools necessary to perform in today’s complex real estate industry. This means each graduate from the real estate program should be able to join any real estate organization and make an impact/contribution from their first day of employment. Graduates should be capable of making a wide variety of management decisions concerning real estate including the ability to apply new economic concepts and up-to-date analytical tools to the process of real estate decision making. This is in addition to the conventional knowledge required for a license.

Real estate is one of the most dynamic business sectors and largest asset classes in the economy. It is in the midst of a transition from being primarily locally based to being integrated into the national and global economies. Important public and private decisions must be made every day about the use, management, and disposition of vast real estate resources. This, and the changing nature of the financial environment in which real estate markets operate, has created demand for new real estate experts, people not only with basic real estate training, but also with good general business and financial skills. This means that job opportunities for the real estate major are available in a wide variety of areas even in times of economic uncertainty. Jobs are found in areas such as development, financing, brokerage, property and asset management, valuation, market analysis, and corporate real estate. SDSU’s real estate program recognizes this changing real estate environment and prepares majors for these diverse opportunities. It is the goal of the real estate program at SDSU to provide a high level of education, and thus prepare its graduates for job opportunities in a variety of organizations, large and small, public and private.

Business Honors Program

The Business Honors Program offers excellent upper division business students the opportunity to explore issues in our local, regional, and global business environments focusing on the social and ethical responsibility that business has to the community and society. Honors students will enroll in a one unit business honors seminar each semester. During their enrollment they will participate in activities to promote their academic and personal growth, documenting their work in a written portfolio.

Generally, students should apply to this program at the time of application to upper division business. Applicants must submit an essay with their application. Applicants must have a 3.6 cumulative GPA or good standing in the Weber Honors College. Students not meeting these requirements may petition for admission to the program. Successful completion of the Business Honors Program will be recognized at graduation. Contact Dr. Robert A. Judge, Department of Management Information Systems, for more information about this program.

Statement on Computers

Before enrolling in upper division courses in the Fowler College of Business, students must be competent in the operation of personal computers, including word processing and spreadsheets. Business students are strongly encouraged to have their own computers capable of running word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, e-mail, and Internet applications such as those found in packages sold by major software publishers. Availability of on-campus computing resources can be limited due to increasing demand across the University.

Retention Policy

The Fowler College of Business expects that all business students will make reasonable academic progress towards the degree. Business premajors who have earned 60 units but have less than a 2.9 may be removed from the premajors and placed in undeclared. Upper division business majors earning less than a 2.0 average in their major GPA for two consecutive semesters may be removed from business and placed in undeclared.

Business Passport

All majors in the Fowler College of Business will be introduced to the Business Passport in B A 310 , and complete the Business Passport in the capstone course (B A 404 , B A 405 , or B A 458 ). Contact the Fowler Center for Student Success (EBA-448), 619-594-5828, for more information.

Transfer Credit

Lower Division: Courses clearly equivalent in scope and content to San Diego State University courses required for minors or as preparation for all business majors will be accepted from regionally accredited United States institutions and from foreign institutions recognized by San Diego State University and the Fowler College of Business.

Upper Division: It is the policy of the San Diego State University Fowler College of Business to accept upper division transfer credits where (a) the course content, requirements, and level are equivalent to San Diego State University courses and (b) where the course was taught in an AACSB International-The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accredited program. Exceptions require thorough documentation evidencing the above standards.

Impacted Program

The majors in the Department of Finance are impacted. Before enrolling in any upper division courses in business administration, students must advance to an upper division business major and obtain a business major code. To be admitted to an upper division business major (accounting, finance, financial services, real estate, information systems, management, or marketing), students must meet the following criteria:

Complete with a grade of C (2.0) or better: ACCTG 201 , ACCTG 202 ; ECON 101 , ECON 102 ; FIN 240 (or an approved business law course); MIS 180 ; MATH 120 (or an approved calculus course or an approved three-unit finite mathematics course); RWS 290 (RWS 290 is not required for the accounting major); and either STAT 119 or ECON 201 . These courses cannot be taken for credit/no credit (Cr/ NC);
Complete a minimum of 60 transferable semester units;
Have a cumulative GPA of 2.9.

Students who meet all requirements except the GPA may request to be placed on the waiting list. Students on the waiting list will be admitted on space-availability basis only. Contact the Fowler Center for Student Success (EBA-448), 619-594-5828, for more information.

To complete the major, students must fulfill the degree requirements for the major described in the catalog in effect at the time they are accepted into the premajor at SDSU (assuming continuous enrollment).

Major Academic Plans (MAPs)

Visit http://www.sdsu.edu/mymap for the recommended courses needed to fulfill your major requirements. The MAPs website was created to help students navigate the course requirements for their majors and to identify which General Education course will also fulfill a major preparation course requirement.

Graduate Information

Faculty

Kamal M. Haddad, Ph.D., Professor of Finance, Chair of Department (Graduate Adviser)
Swaminathan G. Badrinath, Ph.D., Professor of Finance
Andrew Q. Do, Ph.D., Professor of Finance
David P. Ely, Ph.D., Professor of Finance, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Fowler College of Business
Jaemin Kim, Ph.D., Professor of Finance, Director of Undergraduate Programs, Fowler College of Business
Moon H. Song, Ph.D., Professor of Finance (Graduate Adviser)
Nikhil P. Varaiya, Ph.D., Professor of Finance
Stefano Gubellini, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Finance
Januj A. Juneja, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Finance
Marie-Eve Lachance, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Finance
Ning Tang, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Finance
Babak Lotfaliei, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Finance
Patrick S. Smith, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Finance