Finance Degree Program

Explore the Finance degree program

As a business leader, you need to spend money to make money. To succeed at this, you need strong analytical skills to evaluate financial data, and you’ll need to make strategic decisions based on that analysis. You need to manage cash flows, allocate capital efficiently, and raise capital in a cost-effective way, while considering risk and prevailing business conditions.

At Wayne State, you can develop a solid understanding of these concepts, along with the tools and terminology needed for financial analysis in today’s challenging business world. You’ll also gain an understanding of financial markets, securities, and trading. This knowledge can be useful in a variety of careers, or in your personal life for making investment decisions. Career opportunities in finance may include positions in investment banking, corporate finance, financial planning, risk management, accounting, and more.

Because finance is a broad field, a Finance degree can open the door to many high-paying careers in a variety of industries or professions, whether you want to work in the private sector, government, or a nonprofit setting.

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Fast facts

Degree options:

B.A. or B.S. in Business Administration/Finance
Minor in Business Administration

Delivery format: On campus (Wayne)

Program credit hours: 69

Business foundation (21 credit hours)
Business core (27 credit hours)
Finance concentration (21 credit hours)

Note: Students must also take 30 credit hours of General Studies courses. A total of 120 credit hours are needed to graduate from WSC. Additional majors or minors can be added to help meet graduation requirements.

School: Business and Technology

Department: Business and Economics

Prepare for your future

Opportunities and outcomes

Finance topics covered

Financial analysis and forecasting
Investment strategies and security analysis
Legal and ethical standards of business
Mergers, leasing, and multinational finance
Monetary theory, policies, and banking
Principles of real estate
Working capital management and budgeting

Student learning outcomes

Demonstrate an understanding of the core areas of business, which includes accounting, economics, management, quantitative business, finance, marketing, legal environment, information systems, and international
Demonstrate effective skills in written and oral communication in business settings
Work effectively in a team environment
Apply ethical frameworks to formulate management decision alternatives

Career Scholars Program

Students majoring in Finance are eligible to take part in the Career Scholars Program. The Career Scholars Program offers a generous scholarship package while you embark on a unique cooperative education journey starting your freshman year at Wayne State. During your time here, you’ll participate in career readiness activities, job site visits, job shadowing, and more - all while learning the fundamentals of professional practice. After three years on campus, you’ll complete your senior year by working at a paid job in your chosen field. Job locations include Norfolk or Grand Island, Neb., where you'll live in community housing with fellow Career Scholars students.

Career Scholars Program

Finance internships

Our outstanding Career Services Office is available to help you find finance internships and career opportunities. Students recently completed internships at the following locations:

Compeer Financial
First National Bank of Omaha
Foundation Wealth Advisors
HBE, LLP
Midwest Bank
Wells Enterprises

Career services and internships

Graduates of the Finance degree program work in their chosen field using the skills they learned while at Wayne State College. Each year, eager employers welcome WSC graduates into their organizations.

Jobs of recent graduates:

Bank Examiner – Office of the Comptroller of Currency (Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Credit Analyst – NEBCO (Lincoln, Neb.)
Deputy Treasurer – City of Sioux City (Sioux City, Iowa)
Financial Advisor – Prudential Financial (Omaha, Neb.)
Financial Planning Assistant – Ameriprise (Norfolk, Neb.)
Financial Trading Specialist – Retirement Plan Consultants (Norfolk, Neb.)
General Accountant – Behlen Manufacturing (Columbus, Neb.)
Insurance Agent – Bank of Bennington (Lincoln, Neb.)
Loan Administrator – Elkhorn Valley Bank & Trust (Wayne, Neb.)
Mortgage Processor – Midwest Bank (Norfolk, Neb.)
Universal Banker – BankFirst (Wakefield, Neb.)

Public disclosure of student achievement

job or grad school placement rate
within six months of graduation
Data based on most recent
employment outcomes survey

After graduating from Wayne State College, recent grads pursued advanced degrees at the following schools:

Business Administration (MBA) – Wayne State College (Wayne, Neb.)
Law (J.D.) – University of Nebraska-College of Law (Lincoln, Neb.)

Cost of attendance

Most Affordable College in Nebraska

- College Affordability Guide, 2024

Wayne State is considered the most affordable four-year college or university in Nebraska. With same rates for in- and out-of-state students, our tuition guarantee, and our generous scholarship packages, it is clear to see how WSC earned the title. In fact, the average remaining annual cost of attendance for 2024-25 is $2,268 for undergraduate students after financial aid and scholarships.

Credits: 3
Description: Development of critical communication skills used in business and industry. Emphasis on assisting Business students to become more effective and efficient writers. Includes instructions, reports, memos, and letters.
Prerequisite: ENG 102 Composition Skills
Credits: 3
Description: Introduction to the study of law, the law of contracts, agency and employment, negotiable instruments, personal property and bailments, and the laws governing the sale of goods.
Credits: 3
Description: A study of the following statistical tools as applied to the business and economic milieu: collection and presentation of data, distributional measurements, probability and sampling, statistical inferences, linear regression and correlation, analysis of variance, and selected nonparametric statistics.
Prerequisite: MAT 105 Intermediate Algebra, or General Studies math requirement
Credits: 3
Description: A study of the role of accounting in the business environment. Emphasis is on applying basic terminology, concepts, processes, and outputs of the modern accounting system; development of an understanding of the nature and purpose of the major financial statements; and development of the ability to evaluate financial accounting information in problem-solving and decision making.
Credits: 3
Description: Continuation of BUS 240 Accounting I. Emphasis is on further study of items reported within major financial statements and development of the ability to evaluate managerial accounting information in problem-solving and decision making.
Prerequisite: BUS 240 Accounting I
Credits: 3
Description: In this course, the principal macroeconomic measurements of national production; unemployment and inflation will be introduced. Theories of how these measures interact and how they are influenced by activity in households, businesses, the federal government, and the Federal Reserve System, as well as the impact of international trade, will also be studied.
Credits: 3
Description: In this course, the principal microeconomic market model of supply and demand will be studied. Additional topics introduced to add to our understanding of the basic model will include resource allocation concepts, production and cost theory, consumer theory, and market structure conditions.

Business core courses (27 credits)

Credits: 3
Description: Develops the management art and science of planning, organizing, actuating, and controlling through people to make ideas materialize within economic constraints of a business enterprise. Develops ability to construct policy, to make scientifically sound decisions within that policy, and to establish ethical procedures to insure organized productive effort to intended objectives. Develops a management attitude, outlook, and ability.
Credits: 3
Description: Survey of the problems and opportunities involved in conducting business operations across national boundaries. Analysis of the concepts, tools, institutions, and environmental factors controlling international flows of money, personnel, information, goods, and services.
Credits: 3
Description: This course facilitates students in conquering the essential concepts of product, price, promotion, distribution, segmentation, ethics, and social responsibility, while addressing the evolving digital and social media influences. The fundamentals will be stressed allowing for useful decision processes by managers while encouraging the development of the marketing specialist as one of the key decision makers in a firm. Marketing is critical to implementing strategy, gaining competitive advantages, and ensuring positive organizational results.
Credits: 3
Description: A study of the financial function within a business enterprise. Areas addressed include financial analysis, working capital management, capital budgeting, sources and forms of long-term financing, financial structure, and cost of capital.
Prerequisites: BUS 226 Business Statistics, and BUS 241 Accounting II or BUS 142 Survey of Accounting
Credits: 3
Description: Successfully managing operations is vital to the long-term viability of every type of organization. This course provides a broad overview of issues in operations and supply chain management emphasizing a strategic orientation toward design and improvement issues. Specific topics include competitiveness; operations strategy; quality management; statistical process control; design of products, services, processes, and facilities; forecasting; supply chain management; logistics; project management; inventory management; lean production; and scheduling.
Credits: 3
Description: This course will examine theoretical structures that shape or influence Western thought and review specific professional codes of ethics relevant to business majors. Students will learn a decision-making framework for examining and articulating well-reasoned positions on ethical issues in business.
Credits: 3
Description: This course focuses on public, administrative, and regulatory law, and the relationship of business to the legal structure. Topics include employee and consumer protection, environmental regulation, labor law, monopolies, price-fixing, and the regulation of domestic and international trade.
Credits: 3
Description: Involves analysis of cases in which knowledge from basic courses in marketing, accounting, finance, management, and economics is integrated and applied. Demonstrated interrelationship between the functions of business, complexities of business problems, and strategic management models are addressed.
Prerequisites: BUS 270 Principles of Marketing, BUS 322 Managerial Finance, BUS 352 Operations and Supply Chain Management, or instructor approval; and completion of 105 semester credit hours
Credits: 0
Description: This course requires students to demonstrate or report their level of achievement of the student learning objectives developed for the Business Administration major foundation, core, and concentration courses. Various assessment measures such as surveys, comprehensive exams, and capstone projects will be used to gather student data. Completion of this course is a graduation requirement. Graded S/N.
Prerequisite: Completion of 100 semester credit hours
Credits: 3
Description: Emphasis is on providing breadth of knowledge in the organizational concepts and considerations surrounding the use of information systems technologies such as computer systems and communications systems. Topics include role of information systems in managerial functions, general systems theory, design and implementation of Management Information Systems (MIS), decision support systems, expert systems, and artificial intelligence.

Finance concentration courses (21 credit hours)

Credits: 3
Description: Students who have completed introductory studies in accounting, economics, business law, statistics, and managerial finance will apply these concepts to the problems of financing business organizations. The following topics will be covered: theory of capital budgeting, cost of capital, capital structure, working capital, and such special topics as mergers, leasing, and multinational finance.
Prerequisite: BUS 322 Managerial Finance
Choose one:
- BUS 344 Financial Accounting and Analysis (3 credits) – Further study of accounting measurement and reporting practices underlying financial statements. Topics include measurement and reporting of financial statements’ components, usefulness and limitations of financial statements, adjustment of financial statements to enhance their economic content for analysis, procedures for analysis, use of financial disclosures in analysis, and interpretation of analysis results. Prerequisite: BUS 241 Accounting II
- BUS 348 External Financial Reporting Standards (3 credits) – In depth study of accounting theory and practice with particular emphasis on researching and applying accounting standards to various business situations. Coverage of reporting for current liabilities, bonds, equity, leases, deferred income tax, and post-employment benefits. Includes application of international accounting standards. Prerequisite: BUS 347 External Financial Reporting Standards
Credits: 3
Description: Advanced development of the finance specialization with major emphasis on the theoretical issues. Topics include risk and return, forecasting techniques, capital budgeting, and financial structure. Theory will be combined with application using case analysis.
Prerequisite: BUS 324 Intermediate Managerial Finance
Credits: 3
Description: Topics include types of securities, security prices and markets, economics of personal selection of securities, outlook for specific industries.
Prerequisites: BUS 322 Managerial Finance
Credits: 3
Description: A study of the historical evolution of the United States money and financial institutions, their current status, regulation and its impact on the whole economy. Topics include regulatory functions of the Central Bank and their relationships to sectoral, regional and aggregate output, price level and employment, an introduction to monetary theory and policies.
Prerequisite: ECO 202 Principles of Macroeconomics
Choose two of the following courses:
- BUS 223 Business Law II (3 credits) – The law of partnerships and corporations, real property and leases, insurance and security devices, bankruptcy, trusts and estates, and government regulations.
- BUS 327 Principles of Real Estate (3 credits) – A study of the character of land, real estate markets, ownership, interests, legal instruments, contracts, closing transfers, financing, brokerage, and management. Prerequisite: sophomore standing
- BUS 427 Bank Management (3 credits) – This course studies banking from a commercial bank perspective. Topics include bank asset-liability management; policies and practices for reserves, loans, and investments; new problems and innovations; and internal factors. Prerequisite: BUS 322 Managerial Finance
- ECO 430 International Economics (3 credits) – A study of the principles and theories of international trade, finance, foreign investment, barriers to trade, and international economic cooperation. This course provides the necessary tools to interpret, evaluate and analyze the changing international economy. Prerequisite: 3 hours of economics

Popular pairings

Many students at Wayne State will add a second major or a minor to complement their program of study or to focus their studies on a specific topic. Students who recently majored in Finance at Wayne State also paired this major with one or more of the following programs:

View all majors and minors

Related programs

Students interested in the Finance program may also be interested in:

Accounting (B.A. or B.S.)
Economics (B.A. or B.S.)
Professional Accountancy (B.A. or B.S.)

Meet the professors

Business and Economics Department faculty

Explore the Finance degree program

Fast facts

Opportunities and outcomes

Finance topics covered

Student learning outcomes

Career Scholars Program

Finance internships

Jobs of recent graduates:

2024-25 Estimated Annual Cost of Attendance

Most Affordable College in Nebraska