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Financial Analysis and Corporate Performance Certificate

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Online Certificate Program

The Financial Analysis and Corporate Performance online certificate program offered by Our Lady of the Lake University's School of Business and Leadership will provide students with expertise in several areas of applied finance such as corporate finance, financial institutions, financial analysis, fixed income analysis, derivatives and portfolio management. Students completing the program will have acquired the necessary data-analytic skills for conducting advanced level analysis and interpretation of complex financial data and financial instruments. 

This is a non-degree seeking program.

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Degree Plan

This 15-credit hour, non-degree certificate program is designed to meet the needs of financial and corporate practitioners and professionals. Upon completion of the program, students can transfer courses toward the Master of Science degree in Financial Analysis.  Students have up to one year after they have completed their last certificate course to transfer credits into a related graduate program.

Courses

This course provides students with a comprehensive background in statistical theory, methods and models used in the study of modern corporate finance. This course covers discrete and continuous statistical techniques for the analysis of financial market data, securities and option pricing. Time series methodologies will be explored. 

This course provides students with a comprehensive background in the mathematical topics required for learning quantitative finance, business analytics and data science. The mathematical topics covered include calculus, differential equations, linear algebra and probability statistics. Broad familiarity with linear algebra, statistics, stochastic process, finance and economics is helpful but not required.

This course seeks to extract, analyze and interpret information from sources of financial communication between corporate managers and outsiders. The analysis includes the detailed footnote disclosures in a company's annual or quarterly report to determine its accounting policy for a particular type of transaction and how that policy choice affects its primary financial statements and reflects the underlying economics of the firm. The course will explore financial statements, voluntary disclosures and interactions with information intermediaries.

This course covers the tools, methods and theory of managing corporate financial decisions. The optimization of investment, financing, and dividend policies requires the understanding of risk and return, capital budgeting and capital structure. The tools of regression and time-value of money are explored. 

This course covers the key quantitative methods that are employed in modern finance, such as financial econometrics and statistical inferences. The course emphasizes financial applications through the use of dynamic optimization, Monte Carlo simulations, structured and unstructured data, random effects models and Bayesian techniques. Applications in the areas of predictive analysis (trading), sentiment analysis, financial fraud, credit rating, pricing and consumer segmentation will be explored. The course will also include guest lectures from practitioners in the finance industry.

See Financial Analysis and Corporate Performance certificate program and course descriptions in the OLLU Graduate Catalog.

Admission Requirements

Students with non-business majors and students with business majors who received their degrees more than five years ago are required to take the following leveling courses:

  • Business Math and Statistics
  • Financial Accounting
  • Corporate Finance

The leveling courses can be waived for the following groups:

  • Business majors who graduated less than five years ago
  • Non-business majors who graduated less than five years ago and passed a related course with a B or better grade
  • A year of experience in a relevant position (e.g. one year of experience in accounting-related position would potentially waive the "Financial Accounting" leveling course).

All candidates for admission to any graduate program must fulfill the following general admission requirements:

  • An earned bachelor's degree in a related discipline from a regionally accredited institution. 
  • A grade point average of 2.50 for all undergraduate work or 3.00 for the last 60 semester hours of undergraduate work.
  • English proficiency: Applicants educated in a primary language other than English must present a TOEFL score of at least 550 on the paper test or 213 on the computer based test, or 79 on the Internet-based test (iBT). Score reports cannot be more than two years old, and official score reports must be sent directly to OLLU from ETS. Contact international admissions at international@ollusa.edu for alternatives to the TOEFL.

In addition to the requirements for graduate admission to OLLU, applicants will provide:

  • A personal statement of one to two, double-spaced pages describing long-range professional and scholarly interests
  • Two letters of reference from persons knowledgeable about the applicant's professional and academic background
  • Résumé highlighting educational and professional backgrounds
  • After a review of the completed admissions files, selected applicants will be invited to a face-to-face or Skype interview with the program head and/or committee that allows the applicant to share his/her passion for the field, his/her accomplishments and his/her enthusiasm for the school.
  • Conditional acceptance is granted on the merits of each case. In some circumstances, applicants who do not meet all the requirements for regular admission may be admitted conditionally, providing they fulfill the conditions listed in their letters of conditional acceptance within the period of specified time.
  • If conditional acceptance is given because of missing official credentials, the period to provide those documents will not extend beyond the first term of acceptance.
  • The decision of the committee regarding conditional admission acceptance cannot be appealed.
  • Students who do not have sufficient background knowledge in business are required to take certain leveling courses. These leveling courses will allow students to integrate into the program earlier and will help to improve their learning experience. If conditionally admitted, students must complete these leveling courses before starting the program. 

Courses taken at other institutions do not transfer toward the completion of the certificate program. If a student has taken and completed a certificate course as an elective or non-degree at OLLU, those courses can be transferred toward the program provided the student is admitted to the program.

 

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