Finance

About

The purpose of the Certificate in Finance is to provide MBA students with advanced financial knowledge and skills for a professional career in the finance industry. The curriculum is based on financial theory and empirical data skills practiced by professionals in corporate finance, portfolio management, asset pricing, banking, risk management, and investment companies. The program aims to produce MBA students with outstanding preparation for financial jobs such as financial analyst, corporate treasurer, credit analyst, portfolio manager and more. In addition, the certificate provides community members exposure to finance for those interested in refreshing their knowledge and skills or in testing the waters before committing to an MBA program.

Students completing the certificate will demonstrate the ability to identify financial risk in uncertain environments and make strategic and tactical plans for them.
Students completing the certificate will demonstrate the ability to analyze, interpret and use data to make effective financial decisions.
Students completing the certificate will demonstrate the ability to use financial tools such as discounted cash flows in spreadsheet software (e.g., Excel, Sheets), portfolio construction, and risk management.
Students completing the certificate will demonstrate the ability to communicate financial data and recommendations via oral and written presentations.

Requirements

Entry Requirements

Eligible Degrees: Bachelor's degree.

Required Academic Documents: Degree certificate and transcript (record of subjects taken and marks earned) If your academic record is not in English, an English translation must accompany all academic documents. Academic documents must be university issued and sealed.

GPA Equivalency: a GPA of "B" or higher is required for graduate study 70 - 79

English Requirements

PTEMin 59
IELTSMin 6.5
TOEFLMin 80

Fee Information

Application Fee 70

How to Apply

Before Applying

Spend time reviewing your desired program's information
Note your program deadline for application. Applications are due by 9:00 pm the day of your application deadline. Refer to the lists below to determine your application deadline.
Review the minimum university requirements for admission for domestic or international students.
Gather your transcripts, test scores, and additional program materials that can be uploaded online. At this time, you may use unofficial copies, however, official copies will be required for formal review.
International students should also gather uploadable versions of their TOEFL or IELTS scores.
Provide notice to your recommenders prior to completing your application.

Submitting Your Application

Go to the Cal State Apply portal, select semester from dropdown menu, create an account or login with account credentials
Upload and attach all required materials under the four quadrants
Once you have submitted names and emails for recommendations, recommendation requests are automatically generated.
Complete payment for application: $70. All fees are non-refundable and non-transferrable.
Once your application and payment have been submitted, you cannot add documents.

Cal State Apply

San Francisco State Graduate program applications are submitted through Cal State Apply. Cal State Apply is a Centralized Application Service (CAS) that simplifies the process of applying to CSU programs. You will only submit one application for the university and the graduate program.

Quadrant I: Personal Information

Complete all of the required fields in the 7 sub-sections
Fields noted as optional may be skipped

Quadrant II: Academic History

Colleges attended: Add all previous institution information and dates attended
Standardized tests: Standardized tests will be reported under Program Materials, click on "I am Not Adding Any Standardized Tests"
GPA entries: Graduate Studies will calculate your GPA from your previous institution transcripts, click on "Don't have a GPA to add"

Quadrant III: Supporting Information

Experiences: You may opt out of all supporting materials, unless your intended program instructs you to use these fields. Select "I Am Not Adding Any Experiences" in this section of the application.

Quadrant IV: Program Materials

Program materials is composed of 4 separate tabs. Carefully read the Home tab as the program lists all required materials and important information on this tab.
Questions: All required questions must be answered
Documents: All required documents must be uploaded. Attach documents that are legible. You may need to resize any scanned PDFs so that you do not exceed the MB limit for each document.
Recommendations: Once you have submitted names and emails for recommendations, recommendation requests are automatically generated.
Do not wait for recommendations to be returned. Continue with the application process in order to meet your deadline.

After Submitting

Applications will be sent electronically to the program once all materials have arrived and evaluators have evaluated the minimum requirements are met.
The program reviews applications and makes their recommendations to the Graduate Division.
You will receive an email notifying you that a decision is ready.
Log into your Student Center to review the acceptance checklist. If you have not already arranged for submission of official copies of transcripts, test scores and degree certificates, you will need to make these arrangements.