Traditional Universities

investment banking coursesFor many students, a university degree program is the ideal setting for investment banking training. The traditional university educational format lends itself to a gradual and progressive survey of investment banking, wherein the student starts out with a broad introduction to challenges and opportunities offered by the field of finance. Over the course of a degree, the student has the opportunity to take on increasingly specialized investment banking and financial modeling courses, acquiring a rich and detailed skill set from instructors with broad knowledge and experience in the field. By bringing together students, professors, and industry professionals, university courses provide an environment conducive to learning, allowing students to share insights and benefit from the presence and assistance of other individuals interested in or expert in the same field.

Traditional university courses also offer a high degree of structure, both in the context of individual classes and in that of the degree program. Courses are instructor-led, providing both guidance and responsive feedback to questions. Class schedules, assignment deadlines, and regular examinations to assess learning progress help the student to remain focused and provide direction for the budgeting of time and resources in the learning process. The structure of course offerings themselves can also serve as a guide to learning, offering a progression of successively more advanced and more specialized courses to build upon investment banking fundamentals and provide the student with exposure to potential career directions. The Finance MBA programs of the University of Wisconsin and New York University are examples of degree programs structured this way, offering courses that provide exposure to the specialties and sub-fields available in the industry.

Taking classes in a traditional university setting provides the further benefit of helping the student to make connections both with future co-workers and with potential employers. The business schools at many universities, such as Cornell and Yale School of Management, include career development as a part of their degree programs. Universities offer networking events, interview preparation, internship placement, and hiring recommendations in order to give their graduates the best possible chance of finding employment. These additional career services provide students who take investment banking training and financial modeling courses in a traditional university setting with a decisive edge over other candidates when competing for preferred positions with investment banking companies.

The traditional classroom setting can be beneficial to the learning process by placing the individual in a shared learning context where questions can be asked and answered immediately, and where one can gain understanding of the material from contact with fellow students. However, many working professionals have difficulty in adapting work and family schedules to classroom-based course offerings, prompting many universities such as New York University to make courses and course materials available online. While online courses may lack the immersive quality of a classroom-based course, the ability to take courses from any location is a significant advantage for many prospective students. As demand grows among working professionals for greater flexibility, more business institutions are working to provide additional options to fit a wider range of schedules and circumstances.

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