Students graduating in 2024 will earn a Certificate in Finance, while students graduating in 2025 and beyond will have a Minor in Finance. Certificate students can find details of the program below.

Certificate Requirements

Students who fulfill all the requirements will receive a certificate from the University upon graduation, issued by the Registrar.

To complete the Certificate in Finance, students must complete a total of five courses, including two core courses and three electives, at level 300 or higher, and independent work in finance. Students must earn a minimum grade of C+ averaged over the two core courses, the three elective courses, and the independent work. All courses and independent work must be completed by the end of a student’s senior year.

Core Courses

The two core courses are:

Independent Work Requirement

The preferred way to satisfy the independent work requirement of the certificate is for a student’s senior thesis, in their chosen concentration, to include significant finance content, meaning that a substantial component of the thesis (at a minimum, a separate chapter of the thesis) involves issues or methods drawn from finance.

If there is no possibility of including finance content in a student’s senior thesis, a separate, shorter piece of independent work is required. Students should consult with the BCF Academic Administrator Melanie Heaney-Scott to discuss this possibility and receive approval to satisfy the IW requirement in the form of either:

• A junior paper, written in the student’s department, which contains significant finance content.
• An independent paper, completed during the student’s senior year, which must be about a finance topic. Please contact the BCF Academic Administrator Melanie Heaney-Scott  to be paired with an advisor. Independent papers should be at least 15 pages long.

Students may use the same independent work, including senior thesis,  junior paper, or independent paper, to fulfill the finance certificate independent work requirement plus one other (department’s requirement, or a different certificate’s requirement), but not more than one other. View senior theses submitted in previous years.

Electives

In addition to the two core courses of the certificate, students must complete three courses chosen from the two lists below. All require a letter grade. Pass/fail is not allowed.

Courses not listed in the pre-approved lists here but which form part of a coherent program of study in finance, and which are approved in advance by the Director of Undergraduate Studies, may be used to fulfill the electives requirement. Courses must be at the level 300 or higher. 

Requests must be made by email to the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Yacine Ait-Sahalia.

Please check this page for updates regarding new courses eligible as elective courses for the Certificate or removals of previously-listed courses from the eligibility list. Not all courses may be offered every year. Please check with the relevant departments to confirm their offerings in any given year.

When you select your elective courses, keep in mind that:

• ECO and ORF students must take at least 2 of their 3 elective courses from List 1
• Other concentrators must take at least 1 of their 3 elective courses from List 1

Study Abroad and Earn Credit Toward Your Certificate

Many students ask if they can use a course from study abroad. The answer is yes! After the usual approval forms have been signed prior to your departure, the course grade will automatically appear in your DPR for the Certificate. We only accept regular semester courses (no summer session or online courses) that are deemed equivalent to a Princeton course.

Questions

If you are a current Certificate student and have any questions regarding the program or your requirements for completion, please contact Academic Administrator, Melanie Heaney-Scott.