Just saw a cool article on the Villanova University MSF program featuring a recent graduate. Business Because is a great site for business school information and featured Julia Messina, a 2025 graduate of the program. Article discusses how the MSF helped launch her career as well as some insight on the program itself. Below are some snippets as well as a link to the full article.
How a Master’s in Finance helped launch my investment career
“The program helped me develop skills in financial statement modeling, business writing, and presenting stock pitches”. “Although I had experience through my accounting major, the program helped me tune those skills up and really apply them in valuing companies, which has been helpful with my role now in working on models.”
As part of the Villanova MSF, students can work on the Haley Large Cap Fund—a student-managed fund that runs as part of the portfolio management class.
“We were given the opportunity to choose which sector and industry we wanted to cover, then we started analyzing companies within these sectors to eventually do a stock pitch,” explains Julia. “These companies would then represent our industries within the fund.”
“My advice would be to be open to learning and finding something new to learn everyday,” Julia says. “Everything you learn will be added to your toolbox [which] you can bring with you in your career, so I really recommend using your time to add to that.
“From networking with professors and others in the field to hearing about what the day-to-day looks like to watching YouTube videos on how to sharpen my Excel skills, I tried to make sure I was using my time in a way that would help me learn.”
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I loved the article and was glad to see many of the elements I experienced when I want to Villanova still resonating with students. The Student Managed Fund classes were some of the highlights of my time there. Many of the classes have grown in importance as my career has evolved and the breadth of materials taught during the year at the university have become incredibly valuable. It is wonderful seeing this student have success upon graduation and I hope reading this can help some of you.
Here is a link to the Villanova University MSF Program
