The Penn State Smeal Master of Corporate Finance is a new specialized master program just announced by the Pennsylvania State University. This is the second MSF program offered by the university, but the first one offered at their flagship campus (the other being in Grand Valley). This is very exciting as Penn State is a well-known and respected school, with passionate alumni all over the country. What I like most is that the program is launching with all the right tools already in place, something that has taken other programs time to fully incorporate. There is something to be said about being patient when rolling a program out.
Program Overview
The program is one year in length (31 credit hours), starting in the summer with online classes (great for anyone working or for students looking to intern after graduating undergrad). Students can also combine this master’s degree with other graduate programs and/or certificate programs, allowing for a wide variety of customized educational outcomes. The Master of Corporate Finance degree is also STEM certified, something that nearly all specialized masters programs have right now and of utmost importance to international students as STEM programs allow for additional time under the OPT program once they graduate.
The degree is designed for business and non-business undergraduates, with coursework that will be challenging for students at all levels. The program will offer classes in foundations in finance, global finance, financial engineering and portfolio management, to name a few. The goal of the program is to provide students with analytical skills as well as an understanding of the theory of corporate finance.
Admissions is pretty straight forward. The program requires transcripts, letters or recommendation, an essay (What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How does your past experience enable you to achieve these goals? How do you see your MCF experience fitting into this plan? ), and a video application response (not fully sure what that means). It appears that GMAT or GRE is NOT required. This is great since it not only saves students’ time, but time studying what (in my opinion) isn’t a good gauge of a student’s ability.
Application deadlines have been posted, with the first two having passed. The two upcoming are as follows:
- Final International Deadline – March 1st
- Final Domestic Deadline – April 1st
Students submitting by these deadlines should hear back by the first or second week in April.
I am happy to see another program launched, especially one that comes to the market being STEM certified, offering customization with additional degrees or certificate programs, as well as having an online component in the summer so students can intern while doing the program. All of these things, plus Penn States alumni base should make this very popular with anyone considering a specialized program. I will reach out to the school and try and get more information on this program as I am sure it will be one that all of you reading this site will be interested in. Check back regularly!
Here is a link to the Penn State Smeal Master of Corporate Finance Program
