All forms of human endeavor involve finance to some degree. Within our economic system, finance is concerned with capital, which is money or property owned or used in business. Finance majors study both the sources and the uses of capital. The finance curriculum revolves around the valuation process in a free market system. Once an individual or company can value various alternatives, the allocation of resources and the decision process in business becomes much simpler.

Students who are interested in business should have a thorough understanding of the financial process. Upon graduation, students accept a wide variety of positions with business in general. The curriculum of the finance major is designed to give the student breadth in a variety of fields in addition to finance and business. The diversity of entry level positions obtained by finance majors makes it difficult to describe a typical position. A major in finance does not limit career potential to banking or to any single area of business. A large number of individuals go to work for industrial companies in a variety of entry level positions that allow them to develop into top decision-making positions with those companies. A significant number of chief executive officers and other top officers of corporations have followed the "finance path" to the top.

• Required Upper Division Courses
• Finance Goals and Learning Outcomes

Although the financial services major is based on many of the same analytical skills and theoretical foundations as the finance major, it is designed specifically to prepare students for careers in one of the segments of the financial services industry: securities, banking, insurance, real estate finance, and personal financial planning. It is very common for single firms to own subsidiaries in each of these areas, so it is important for graduates entering these fields to be familiar with all aspects of these important financial sectors. Graduates can look forward to analytical, managerial, or sales careers in the financial services industry. Sales careers include insurance and securities sales. Analytical careers include loan and security analysis and personal financial planning. Managerial careers include management in each of the component industries.

• Required Upper Division Courses
• Financial Services Goals and Learning Outcomes

The major objective of the real estate program at SDSU is to prepare its graduates as well-rounded professionals with a specialty in the multifaceted field of real estate and land market analysis. The changing nature of today's real estate market requires that graduates from university real estate programs receive a complete and broad approach to this field.

Graduates with a major in real estate should be capable of making a wide variety of management decisions concerning real estate and related land resources. This includes the ability to utilize new economic concepts, understand changing social concerns, and apply up-to-date analytical tools such as computers to the process of real estate decision making. SDSU's program in real estate provides students with analytical skills, technical competence to perform market analyses, and a better understanding of the tools necessary to perform in today's complex real estate and land markets.

• Required Upper Division Courses
• Real Estate Goals and Learning Outcomes

Visit the Personal Financial Planning web site.

The purpose of this program is to provide a strong educational basis for persons desiring careers in the field of personal financial planning. Two categories of students are admitted:

• Matriculated students who have been admitted to an upper division College of Business Administration major
• nonmatriculated students who work in the financial services industry who may take the courses on a space-available basis

This certificate is a program registered with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. Additional information may be obtained on the Personal Financial Planning web site.