Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Mathematical Finance

Director: Jin Ma, Ph.D. (Mathematics)

Co-director: Michael Magill, Ph.D. (Economics)

Staff Contact: Nicole Carr

Minor in Mathematical Finance

Staff Contact: Cynthia Mata-Flores (Undergraduate)

This interdisciplinary minor was created for students in business, economics and mathematics, whose majors already require some of the introductory course work. Students in other programs are welcome but should expect the minor to require more units than it does for students in those programs.

As with all minors, students must include at least four upper-division courses and four courses dedicated exclusively to this minor (which may be the same four courses). Finally, students must select four courses outside their major department. Economics majors must choose four courses outside of economics; math majors must choose four courses outside of math; business majors must choose four courses outside of the Marshall School of Business. These may be the same courses used to meet the first two conditions.

Students majoring in business administration, economics or mathematics can meet many of these requirements with course work that also satisfies their majors. In addition to those classes, students in those majors must complete the following requirements:

• Business majors satisfy 24 units with course work that is also required for the major and need to complete only 18 units in MATH, ECON and ITP or CSCI
• Economics majors satisfy 20–24 units with course work required for the major (including one major elective), needing only 18–22 units in BUAD, FBE, ITP or CSCI and MATH
• Mathematics majors satisfy 16 units with course work required for the major, needing only 26 units in BUAD, ECON, FBE and ITP or CSCI

Progressive Degree Programs in Mathematics

See Mathematics for progressive degree requirements.

Master of Science in Mathematical Finance

The objective of this master of science program is to produce graduates with a rigorous foundation in the economic theory and mathematical modeling of financial markets. The program creates an integrated curriculum spanning four disciplines: economics, mathematics, econometrics/statistics and computational/numerical analysis. The program is designed for recent graduates in the fields of applied mathematics, physics and engineering — or for graduates in economics, business and finance with strong mathematical backgrounds — who wish to pursue high-tech finance careers in financial institutions, industry or government.

Admission Requirements

Refer to the Requirements for Graduation section and the Graduate School section of this catalogue for general regulations. All applicants must take the GRE General Test. Complete transcripts of undergraduate and any graduate level courses are required, as well as a statement of purpose and three recommendation letters. A substantial undergraduate background in mathematics is required, which should include one semester of real analysis or advanced calculus, one semester of linear algebra and one semester of advanced probability/statistics. Candidates with weaker backgrounds may be required to take mathematics classes prior to admission to the program. An undergraduate knowledge of microeconomics and of macroeconomics, and partial differential equations is helpful, although it is not required for admission. Some experience in Matlab and C/C++ programming is also useful.

Foreign Language Requirement

There is no foreign language requirement.

Course Requirements

Thirty units of course work are required, six core courses and four to five elective courses. Students are required to satisfy a summative experience for degree completion. This will be in the form of registration in 1 unit of MATH 590 Directed Research with a summative report at the end of the term. Topics of research will be determined by the program director. The program consists of:

PDF version of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences section