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College of Sciences
Financial Mathematics Graduate Program
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Interdisciplinary Electives

Students are encouraged to use electives to customize their curriculum in order to broaden their understanding as well as learn new skills.

Core Courses

We have 21 credit hours of core courses, visit our Degree Requirements to learn more.

Track Electives

With up to 15 credit hours for electives, students also have the option to focus their skills by taking a career track.

As part of our program’s interdisciplinary approach, we encourage students to explore beyond the academic rigors of financial mathematics. Our students can grow their knowledge and skill sets to be adaptive in the face of financial uncertainty. A minimum of 15 credit hours in electives is required for our masters program, which students can select a la carte from the list below or based on a specific career track.

Interdisciplinary Electives

College of Sciences

Students looking to expand their math and quantitative skills even further can look to electives in Mathematics, Operational Research or Statistics.

Mathematics

Math based electives are best for students looking to develop their quantitative skills for opportunities in quantitative and risk analysis, quantitative finance developer and quantitative research as well as model validation analyst.

  • FIM/MA 549 Financial Risk Analysis
  • MA 515 Analysis I
  • MA 520 Linear Algebra
  • MA 523 Linear Transformations and Matrix Theory
  • MA 532 Ordinary Differential Equations I
  • MA 534 Introduction To Partial Differential Equations
  • MA 540 Uncertainty Quantification for Physical and Biological Models
  • MA 544 Computer Experiments In Mathematical Probability
  • MA/ST 546 Probability and Stochastic Processes I
  • MA 555 Introduction to Manifold Theory
  • MA/BMA 573 Mathematical Modeling of Physical and Biological Processes I
  • MA/BMA 574 Mathematical Modeling of Physical and Biological Processes II
  • MA 584 Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations–Finite Difference Methods
  • MA 587 Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations–Finite Element Method
  • MA 715 Analysis II
  • MA 723 Theory of Matrices and Applications
  • MA/ST 746 Introduction To Stochastic Processes
  • MA/ST 747 Probability and Stochastic Processes II
  • MA/ST 748 Stochastic Differential Equations

Operational Research

Electives in operational research are suited for financial mathematics students looking towards careers in product controller, operational risk analyst, and risk architect.

  • OR/ISE 501 Introduction to Operations Research
  • OR/MA 504 Introduction to Mathematical Programming
  • OR/ISE/MA 505 Linear Programming
  • OR 506 Algorithmic Methods in Nonlinear Programming
  • OR/E/MA 531 Dynamic Systems and Multivariable Control I
  • OR/MA 719 Vector Space Methods in System Optimization
  • OR/ISE 772 Stochastic Simulation Design and Analysis
  • OR/BMA/MA/ST 773 Stochastic Modeling

Statistics

Adding electives from statistics courses develops a student’s understanding of probabilistic methodologies that can easily be applied in their careers in finance upon graduation, such as fixed income analyst, investment and portfolio manager.

  • ST 503 Fundamentals of Linear Models and Regression
  • ST 505 Applied Nonparametric Statistics
  • ST 512 Experimental Statistics For Biological Sciences II
  • ST 552 Linear Models and Variance Components
  • ST 555 Statistical Programming I
  • ST 556 Statistical Programming II
  • ST 563 Introduction to Statistical Learning (available soon)
  • ST 564 Statistical Thinking and Big Data (available soon)

College of Engineering

Our students may consider elective courses from Computer Science or Industrial Engineering to round out their background in financial math.

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Computer Science

Students interested in risk analysis and management, machine learning, and data analysis would benefit from taking electives in computer science.

  • CSC 505 Design and Analysis Of Algorithms
  • CSC 522 Automated Learning and Data Analysis
  • CSC 540 Database Management Concepts and Systems
  • CSC 541 Advanced Data Structures
  • CSC/MA 580 Numerical Analysis I
  • CSC/MA 583 Introduction to Parallel Computing

Industrial Engineering

Although we only recommend a few electives in industrial engineering, these will work well for students interested in developing their programming or quantitative skills when combined with other electives elsewhere.

  • ECG/ST 753 Microeconometrics
  • ISE 519 Database Applications in Industrial and Systems Engineering
  • ISE 712 Bayesian Decision Analysis For Engineers and Managers

Poole College of Management

Electives in Business Administration or Economics offer additional insight and skills to our financial mathematics students.

Business Administration

Financial mathematics students taking MBA electives develop a broader understanding for key business administration concepts and tools that can be applied to private financial sectors, such as in portfolio and investment management as well as product controller.

  • MBA 515 Enterprise Systems
  • MBA 518 Enterprise Risk Management
  • MBA 521 Advanced Corporate Finance
  • MBA 524 Equity Valuation
  • MBA 526 International Finance
  • MBA 529 New Firm Financing

Economics

Students interested in portfolio and investment management may want to consider electives in economics.

  • ECG 701 Microeconomics I
  • ECG 702 Microeconomics II
  • ECG/ST 750 Introduction to Econometric Methods
  • ECG/ST 751 Econometric Methods
  • ECG/ST 752 Time Series Econometrics
  • ECG/ST 753 Microeconometrics

Course Catalog

Click to learn more about our graduate level Financial Mathematics (FIM) courses.

Open Catalog
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About Adding Electives

  • Electives must be approved by the Financial Mathematics graduate program academic advisor.
  • Only 2 MBA classes can be used as electives.
  • If a course does not appear on this list, seek approval from the Financial Mathematics graduate program academic advisor before enrolling.
  • Students can also take classes through the NCSU Exchange Program
  • Financial Mathematics masters students must request permission to enroll in non-FIM courses