I realized recently that it has been forever since I last wrote about the University of Iowa MSF program. As I was checking out the schools website to see all the great things that they’ve been doing, I came across a new joint degree that is being offered. Students can now pursue both a masters in finance as well as a masters in business analytics. I’ve never seen this before and with the growth in interest in the business analytics field, as well as the natural overlap with the MSF, I think this is a brilliant new addition.
Program Overview
- Duration – 2 years
- Credit Hours – 63
- Tuition – Iowa residents – $11,371.75 per semester – Non-residents – $17,634.75 per semester
- Note – this program has what looks like 4 semesters so the total tuition would be more $45,487 for Iowa residents and $70,539 for out of state students
- This is as of 4/1/21
- STEM Designated
This program is incredibly cost effective if you are an Iowa resident. The school has a page that discusses what it takes to become a state resident as well. Even if you are not, $70K for two degrees is still a relatively good deal when you consider some MSF programs cost nearly that much on their own.
I would also imagine this program will be very attractive to international students, providing two degrees, an extended college experience as well as the STEM OPT extension.
Admissions
- Bachelors Degree (business major is not required)
- GMAT/GRE – Optional
- TOEFL/IELTS – Minimum TOEFL cores are 100 iBT, 600 CBT, and 7.0 IELTS with no sub-score below 6.0. There is also a waiver option for those who qualify
- GPA – Cumulative 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale, or foreign equivalent
I think the admission criteria is pretty fair and I love seeing the standardized testing being option as well as the school accepting both GRE and GMAT. My advice to students when they see this is to take a hard look at their profile and decide if doing well on the GRE/GMAT will help their application. It is nice that these option is there and for some applicants, these tests can help show a quantitative ability or possibly offset a weakness in somewhere else in your package.
Curriculum
Over the course of 4 semesters, students will take a mixture of MSF and analytical classes. Programing in R and Python is included, something that is very marketable right now. You can also take a number of electives, allowing the ability to customize your studies with more analytical classes or more specialized finance classes. Very nice feature.
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The final round of admissions for domestic students is June 15th. I would encourage anyone interested in this degree option to reach out to the university and speak with someone. Since this is a newer joint degree option there could be some flexibility when it comes to the deadlines. Definitely speak with someone and get your questions answered. I will try and connect with the admissions team and learn more about this and work to keep all of you updated on this program.
Here is a link to the University of Iowa MSF Joint Degree Program
