Finance - Business Administration

Why earn a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a finance concentration at Coe College?

Studying finance can lead to a variety of interesting career possibilities — and can also provide the background needed to help you make good decisions about your own financial future. In the finance concentration, you can take traditional finance courses plus a variety of special topics courses and finance-related courses in other disciplines within the Business Administration & Economics Department. The Birkey Investment Fund provides an opportunity for hands-on learning. Depending on your goals, you might combine a business major and finance concentration with a second major or a minor in economics, accounting, data analytics, or computer science. 

• Class sizes are small, allowing for individual attention and learning. Classrooms are highly interactive, promoting opportunities for critical thinking, discussion of real world examples and hands-on learning.
• Coe has the #22 Most Accessible Professors in the nation, according to The Princeton Review.
• Students benefit from taking a broad core of courses in business administration along with additional courses in finance that provide an opportunity to sharpen quantitative and analytical skills. Students interested in more specialized areas of finance might add coursework in economics, accounting, data analytics or computer science.
• Following graduation, some students continue to graduate school, pursuing an advanced degree in finance, economics, accounting, law or other fields. 
• The Cedar Rapids area provides excellent opportunities for job shadowing, volunteering, and interning to gain real experience in finance. Coe has ranked as a Top 25 Best Private Schools for Internships for 6 of the last 7 years according to The Princeton Review.

Careers for finance students

Nearly 100% of reporting Coe graduates are employed or in grad school within nine months of graduation. Finance courses can help prepare you for a variety of jobs, including:

• financial analyst
• financial planner
• securities trader
• portfolio manager
• loan officer
• insurance agent
• actuary

Course requirements

• BUS-350: Principles of Finance
• BUS-472: Advanced Topics in Finance
• BUS-495: Investment Analysis
• Two of the following:
  • ECO-225: Money and Banking
  • ACC-301: Intermediate Accounting I
  • ECO-375: Econometrics
  • ECO-435: Time Series Analysis
  • BUS-454: Research in Business—Birkey Investment Fund
  • ECO-457: U.S. Economic History
  • BUS-472: Advanced Topics in Finance (if the topic is substantially different from when taken to fulfill requirement #2)