Bachelor of Science in Finance

The Bachelor of Science in Finance degree provides students with a depth of knowledge in finance and a solid foundation in business fundamentals and quantitative and analytical skills.  Finance courses provide an overview of economic principles for business and managerial decision-making, concepts of microeconomics, macroeconomic principles, asset pricing theory, capital investments and cash flows, shareholder value, pricing and risk management of derivative securities, as well as other topics in finance.

Stuart School of Business is a global leader in bridging technology and business, offering distinctive education that provides students with the knowledge and skillsets to become outstanding professionals in economics, finance, analytics, marketing, business, public administration, operations, and management.

Finance and Economics at Illinois Tech have a prestigious history that dates back to the late 1890s, with some of the nation’s first courses in “Family and Consumer Science” (including “Home Economics” and “Household Management”) being offered by the Lewis Institute, Stuart’s original home, and the Institute’s subsequent formation of the university’s Department of Business and Economics in 1926. Combined with the merger of the Lewis Institute with the Armour Institute, and the earlier pioneering works of Philip D. Armour, a merchant financier, Julia A. Beveridge, a librarian turned public administrator, and Frank W. Gunsaulus, an entrepreneurial preacher in the 1880s, the Department Business and Economics ultimately grew into a separate school at Illinois Institute of Technology – the Stuart School of Business, in 1969, with a gift from Lewis Institute alum and renowned financier Harold Leonard Stuart. Harold L. Stuart himself was a national leader in the field of investment banking in the first half of the 20th century, and his Chicago investment bank played a pivotal role in establishing the city as a global financial hub.

Over a period of more than 125 years, harnessing curricular innovations by Julia A. Beveridge and George N. Carman, and incredible scholarly works by trailblazing Illinois Tech scholars Herb A. Simon (author of Administrative Behavior, later awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics), Karl Menger (developer of the St. Petersburg paradox in economics) and Abe Sklar (developer of the Copula in financial modeling), the Stuart School of Business has refined education in the disciplines of economics, finance, business and public administration, analytics, marketing, and management.

A long-standing leader in curricular innovation, in 1990, building on the foundational works of numerous Illinois Tech scholars, and Harold L. Stuart’s own contributions to finance and the broader business community, the Stuart School of Business established quantitative finance as an academic discipline, with a world’s first postgraduate Master’s program in Financial Markets and Trading – a program that highlighted a new model for embedding into a postgraduate academic program the emphases on career readiness and connectedness with the business community, and transformed business school education.

Today, the Stuart School of Business continues to be a frontier innovator in accredited education, offering academic programs and co-curricular opportunities that place students on the path to self-actualization and career success. Leadership, entrepreneurship, experiential learning, positive societal impact, and connectedness to the business community, combined with a human-centered approach to student development, and an unyielding focus on student success, continue to be core pillars at Stuart. Stuart is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) – an accreditation achieved by fewer than 6% of business schools worldwide.

The Bachelor of Science in Finance builds on Stuart's prestige in finance and tradition of rigorous undergraduate education. The program requires the successful completion of 126 credit hours. 

Required Courses

Core Business Courses (51)
BUS 100Introduction to Business and Economics3
BUS 102Computing Tools for Business Analysis3
BUS 211Financial Accounting3
BUS 212Managerial Accounting3
BUS 221Business Statistics3
BUS 301Organizational Behavior3
BUS 305Operation and Supply Chain Design3
BUS 311Strategic Cost Management3
BUS 321Optimization and Decision-Making3
BUS 341Business Law3
BUS 351Financial Decision-Making3
BUS 361Entrepreneurship 3
BUS 371Marketing Fundamentals3
ECON 382Business Economics3
BUS 480Strategic Management and Design Thinking3
ECON 151Microeconomics3
ECON 152Macroeconomics3
Finance Courses (18)
BUS 452International Finance3
BUS 454Investments3
BUS 455Corporate Finance3
BUS 457Financial Modeling 3
BUS 458Financial Derivatives3
ECON 251Introduction to Econometrics3
Mathematics Course (5)
MATH 151Calculus I5
or MATH 191 Business Calculus
Natural Science and Engineering Requirements (10)
See Illinois Tech Core Curriculum, section D10
Humanities and Social Science Requirements (21)
See Illinois Tech Core Curriculum, section B and C21
Computer Science Requirement (2)
CS 105Introduction to Computer Programming2
or CS 110 Computing Principles
Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) (6)
See Illinois Tech Core Curriculum, section E6
Free Electives (13)
Select 13 credit hours13
Total Credit Hours126

Bachelor of Science in Finance Curriculum

Year 1
Semester 1Credit HoursSemester 2Credit Hours
BUS 1003BUS 1023
ECON 1513BUS 2213
MATH 1515ECON 1523
CS 1052Science Elective4
Humanities (200 Level Course)3Social Sciences Elective3
 16 16
Year 2
Semester 1Credit HoursSemester 2Credit Hours
BUS 2113BUS 2123
BUS 3013BUS 3413
BUS 3213BUS 3513
Science Elective3Humanities Elective (300+ Level Course)3
Social Sciences Elective (300+)3Science Elective3
 15 15
Year 3
Semester 1Credit HoursSemester 2Credit Hours
BUS 3113BUS 3053
BUS 3613BUS 4523
BUS 3713BUS 4583
BUS 4553ECON 3823
ECON 2513IPRO Elective I3
 15 15
Year 4
Semester 1Credit HoursSemester 2Credit Hours
BUS 4543BUS 4573
IPRO Elective II3BUS 4803
Social Sciences Elective (300+ Level Course)3Humanities Elective (300+)3
Humanities or Social Science Elective3Free Elective3
Free Elective3Free Elective4
Free Elective3 
 18 16
Total Credit Hours: 126