History
Claremont McKenna College ("CMC"), one of the nation's most prestigious, selective liberal arts colleges, is located in Claremont, California and has a curricular emphasis on economics, leadership and public affairs. CMC is a member of The Claremont Colleges, which is a cluster of autonomous colleges, including Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont Graduate University and Keck Graduate Institute. CMC's mission is to educate students for responsible leadership roles in business, government and the professions, a unique and important position in American higher education. These outward-looking fields attract students who are pragmatic in the way they approach their education and who seek to make a difference in today's world.
In 2007, alumnus Robert Day ('65) made a $200 million gift to establish the Robert Day Scholars Program, which sponsors generous fellowships and co-curricular activities for both undergraduate and graduate students who pursue coursework in economics, accounting, finance, and leadership studies. As a result of the gift, the economics and accounting departments at CMC were renamed The Robert Day School of Economics and Finance ("RDS"). Today, in addition to the School's undergraduate programs in economics and economics-accounting, The Robert Day School is home to the undergraduate Robert Day Scholars Program and the Master's Program in Finance.
Programs
RDS offers both graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue coursework and research in economics, finance, and accounting. Students interested in economics and finance attend CMC because it boasts the largest economics faculty of any liberal arts college in the nation and because it is home to ten research institutes, including the Financial Economics Institute, Berger Institute for Work, Family and Children, Kravis Leadership Institute and Lowe Institute of Political Economy, all of which allow students to conduct real world research alongside faculty.
Undergraduate Programs
Degree Programs and Course Sequences
Economics Majors - The economics curriculum is designed to give students an understanding of economic behavior and institutions, along with the development of specific analytic skills. Emphasis is on developing the analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills of individual students. Students majoring in economics are required to take the following: (i) three core courses in economics; (ii) a statistics course; (iii) six economics elective courses; and (iv) complete a senior thesisThe Robert Day Scholars Program
Economics-Accounting Majors - The economics-accounting curriculum is designed to offer students an opportunity to learn accounting as the language of business within a liberal arts setting. Emphasis is on developing the analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills of individual students. Students majoring in economics-accounting are required to take the following: (i) three core courses in economics; (ii) three major-required courses; (iii) an econometrics course; (iv) a statistics course; (v) four accounting elective courses; and (vi) complete a senior thesis.
Financial Economics Sequence - For students interested in gaining more knowledge about finance, RDS offers a specific sequence of courses in financial economics, which has a rigorous quantitative focus and consists of the following: (i) prerequisite courses in mathematics, statistics and economics; (ii) two financial economics courses; (iii) three elective financial economics courses; and (iv) an independent research project that addresses a financial economics topic with an oral defense.
Leadership Sequence - For students interested in the scholarly study and practice of leadership, the Kravis Leadership Institute offers a specific sequence of courses in leadership, which consists of the following: (i) an ethics course; (ii) two core courses in government and psychology; (iii) a breadth course in economics, government, history, literature, military science or religious studies; and (iv) an experiential course in government, military science or psychology.
The undergraduate component of the Robert Day Scholars Program takes juniors from all five Claremont Colleges through a sequence of courses in finance, accounting and organizational behavior, along with a rich program of co-curricular activities. The selection process for this program is highly competitive and seeks to identify students with significant leadership aptitude and strong analytical skills. Robert Day Scholars are required to complete the following: (i) two courses in finance; (ii) two courses in accounting; (iii) two courses in organizational behavior; and (iv) a series of co-curricular activities, including Training the Street (a financial modeling and valuation workshop), oral and written communication workshops, and a case competition.
Master's Program in Finance
Overview
The goal of the one-year Master's Program in Finance at RDS is to provide exceptional students with demonstrated leadership potential a rigorous year of finance-focused academics and co-curricular activities. Although the Program focuses on quantitative and analytical work, it does not seek to produce classes of managers and financial modelers. Instead, the Program is committed to discovering tomorrow's business leaders and providing them with the skills essential to succeed in today's world. Our students come from a variety of backgrounds and are interested in a wide range of careers both inside and outside the financial services industry, including banking, sales and trading, risk management, asset management, forecasting, and applied research.
To be considered for the Master's Program in Finance, students must have completed coursework in economics, econometrics, accounting, finance, multi-variable calculus and organizational behavior. The Program does not require prior work experience and most applicants are recent gradates of prominent colleges and universities. The Program begins with a two-week lab course that provides an intensive review of the mathematics of finance and an introduction to computing with various languages in a PC/Workstation environment. The fall semester focuses on finance, economics and econometrics, giving students the advanced understanding they need to navigate markets, manage investments portfolios and design an organization's capital structure through courses in Corporate Financial Management, Investments, Financial Economics and Financial Econometrics. In the spring, students delve into valuation of assets and more complex financial instruments, while experiencing a cross-disciplinary approach to how organizations operate, through courses in Asset Pricing and Derivatives, Portfolio Management, Advanced Accounting Analysis, and Economics, Strategy and Organization.
However, graduate students at RDS have much more than a purely academic experience. The co-curricular activities provide students with multiple opportunities to practice their skills outside of the classroom through workshops covering such topics as valuation, financial modeling, and oral and written communication. Additionally, graduate students enjoy intimate interaction with faculty, alumni and guest speakers through networking events, the RDS Distinguished Speaker Series, and the Economics Seminar Series.
The Difference between the Master's Program in Finance and an MBA or Financial Engineering Program
The Master's Program in Finance can be easily differentiated from MBA and financial engineering programs. Unlike an MBA program, the Master's Program in Finance narrowly focuses on finance and the related prerequisite disciplines (such as statistics, accounting, etc.). This allows students to deeply delve into the intricacies of finance and to incorporate all of the interdisciplinary aspects of modern finance, such as financial mathematics, financial econometrics, computational finance, behavioral finance and corporate finance. For this reason, the Master's Program in Finance consists of more quantitative courses when compared to a typical MBA program. Additionally, unlike financial engineering programs, the Master's Program in Finance emphasizes a multidisciplinary and practical approach to finance, which is not specifically focused on mathematics, and provides opportunities to apply financial theory to real-world situations.
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