Study Finance in Arizona

Arizona is home to some of the largest universities in the nation. Both the University of Arizona and Arizona State University are state schools with huge enrollments both on campus and online. But Arizona also has private school options with large enrollments, including the University of Phoenix and Grand Canyon University.

Having so many large schools in the state means one thing for you as a prospective college student in Arizona – lots of choices. Whether you want to start your college studies with a bachelor’s degree or enhance your existing degree with a master’s program, Arizona’s universities have just what you’re looking for, all online.

Below are some of the popular undergraduate and graduate programs you might consider for the next step in your educational journey.

Best Accredited Online Finance Degrees in Arizona - Finance Bachelor's, Master's and MBA Programs in AZ

Online Finance Degrees in Arizona

Listed below are some of the popular schools offering online finance degrees in Arizona:

  • University of Arizona
  • Arizona State University
  • University of Phoenix
  • Grand Canyon University
  • Regent University
  • UMass Global
  • Pepperdine University
  • Walden University
  • Southern New Hampshire University

University of Arizona – Global Campus

Online Bachelor of Arts in Finance

The University of Arizona Forbes School of Business and Technology offers a Bachelor of Arts in Finance that’s accredited by the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE). Throughout the program, you’ll focus on gaining skills related to the efficient use of financial resources in various business settings.

You’ll use the knowledge you acquire to perform many different types of duties. On the one hand, you’ll be able to solve critical financial problems. On the other hand, you’ll be able to apply financial theories to analyze organizations’ financial statements. Other skills you’ll gain related to appraising financial practices, evaluating regulatory and legal issues, and devising long-term financial plans.

You’ll develop these and other skills over the course of a four-year curriculum. You must earn 120 credits to graduate, with 43 of those credits in the general education category. These courses are required for all majors, and they explore essential topics in fields like natural science, history, communications, and math, among others.

The bulk of the program focuses on 45 major-area credits. Some of these courses are very broad lower-division classes in areas like Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Principles of Accounting I and II. However, most of these credits are upper-division courses that explore highly specific business and finance topics.

For example, you’re required to take Business Law I, which explores the legal environment of conducting business in the United States. You’ll study concepts like contracts, international trade, administrative law, and the U.S. Constitution. You’re also required to take Ethics for Finance Professionals, which examines classic ethics cases and more recent cases to help you build a solid understanding of what ethical practice in this field should look like.

As you progress through this program, your business and finance classes become more and more advanced. For example, most students take courses like Statistics for Managers, Financial Management of Entrepreneurial Businesses, and Principles of Finance during the program’s third year. Again, other specific courses are required, such as Principles of Investments, International Finance, and Personal Financial Management.

The final required business course is a finance capstone experience. This class occurs during the last semester of the program and serves as an opportunity to synthesize what you’ve learned to implement capital budgets for corporate mergers and acquisitions in a summative assignment.

Each class in this curriculum is in an accelerated five-week format. You take just one class at a time, though, so you aren’t overwhelmed with fast-paced coursework.

The remaining program credits are electives. You need to complete at least 35 general and major-area electives to reach the 120-credit threshold to graduate. As it pertains to major-area electives, you can choose courses within business, accounting, finance, management, and related fields. You can also choose to add an area of emphasis. The University of Arizona offers more than twenty emphases, including the following:

  • Business Economics
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Financial Planning
  • Health Care
  • Supply Chain Management

The admissions requirements are as follows:

  • Have a high school diploma or its equivalent.
  • Submit official high school transcripts or equivalency scores.
  • Submit official transcripts from every college or university you’ve attended.
  • Provide evidence of English language proficiency if English is not your native language.

Arizona State University

Online Bachelor of Arts in Business and Financial Planning

The online Bachelor of Arts in Business and Financial Planning from Arizona State University is a 120-credit, four-year program that requires you to complete 40 courses. Each class is in an accelerated 7.5-week format, allowing you to concentrate more on each class without a full slate of classes at any given time.

While this program focuses specifically on financial planning, you can use it to explore other career options. For example, you might pursue employment as a credit counselor or a financial manager. Graduates of this program have also gone on to become loan officers and insurance agents. The options are wide open!

This degree is offered by ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business. The school is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which only accredits the top business schools in the world. As such, you’ll learn from esteemed faculty (including Nobel laureates) with real-world experience in business and finance.

The first two years of this program are spent completing general education classes and lower-division major-area courses. As described above, general education classes focus on liberal arts fields like English composition, mathematics, humanities, and social sciences. You’ll also take courses in natural sciences, communications, and art, to name a few.

Lower-division business coursework focuses on classes like Macroeconomic Principles, Microeconomic Principles, and Uses of Accounting Information. Likewise, you’ll take upper-division classes like Fundamentals of Finance, Business Writing, and Personal Financial Management.

The final two years of your studies are primarily in upper-division business and finance courses. For example, you’ll take a Marketing and Business Performance class that examines the role of marketing within business and organizations, as well as society as a whole. You’ll also take an Estate Planning Strategies class that covers issues and concepts related to personal estate planning and methods for maximizing an individual’s wealth.

Another interesting upper-division class you’re required to take is Personal Portfolio Management. This class teaches you how to manage a portfolio via the investment process. You’ll learn how to value stocks and bonds, how to manage risk, and explore tax and inflation considerations as well.

Other required upper-division major-area courses include the following:

  • Personal Finance Cases and Modeling
  • Senior Career Transition Management
  • Personal Tax Management and Planning
  • Principles of Management and Leadership
  • Business Law and Ethics for Managers

This program also requires you to complete a capstone project in which you assume the role of a general manager or business owner and explore ways to create more value for your company.

The undergraduate application for admission to ASU takes just 30 minutes to complete. You must meet the following requirements when applying as a first-year student:

  • Complete a high school curriculum or its equivalent in which you take the following sequence of classes:
    • Four years of math
    • Four years of English
    • Three years of lab sciences
    • Two years of social sciences
    • Two years of the same second language
    • One year of fine arts or career and technical education
  • Be in the top 25 percent of your high school graduating class or have a 3.0 GPA or higher in all competency courses or score 22 or higher on the ACT (non-residents must score 24 or higher) or 1120 or higher on the SAT (non-residents must score 1180 or higher).
  • Submit official transcripts from every college or university you’ve attended (you must have 12 or fewer college credits to apply as a first-year student).

University of Phoenix

Online Bachelor of Science in Business

The University of Phoenix’s online Bachelor of Science in Business includes a financial planning certificate that’s earned as you complete your degree requirements. Better still, earning the financial planning certificate doesn’t require you to complete additional classes. Instead, you’ll earn the certificate and your degree by finishing 120 credits, which typically takes four years of full-time studies.

Just like the previous two bachelor’s degrees on this list, this program requires you to take a host of introductory general education courses. You’ll begin with a Foundations for University Success class that teaches you essential strategies and skills for managing the workload of a full-time undergraduate program. From there, you’ll take courses like Elements of Health and Wellness, the Psychology of Learning, and English Composition I and II. Other required general education courses include the following:

  • Critical Thinking in Everyday Life
  • Principles of Environmental Science
  • Everyday Economics and Finances
  • Quantitative Reasoning I and II
  • Teamwork, Collaboration, and Conflict Resolution

In all, you’ll complete 12 general education courses in math, humanities, sociology, psychology, and other critical fields.

The core courses for this degree include a broad range of studies in specific business, accounting, economics, and finance fields (among others). For example, you’ll take a Business Communications course that teaches you interpersonal communications skills, how to communicate information in presentations, and how to use ethical and cross-cultural language to communicate ideas effectively.

You’ll also take a course entitled Organizational Behavior for Managers. This class prepares you to understand the relationship between behavior, leadership, and management. You’ll learn how to behave as a manager, how to improve organizational behavior through effective leadership, and you’ll also explore the interrelationship between job fit, job satisfaction, and job performance.

Finance for Business is yet another required core course. This class explores critical topics in finance, such as financial markets, financial management, and risk and return. You’ll expand on your knowledge of these and other finance topics in a Strategic Financial Management class that improves your problem-solving and financial decision-making skills.

Other core courses include the following:

  • Introduction to Computer Applications and Systems
  • Foundations of Leadership
  • Communication Strategies for Leaders
  • Principles of Accounting I and II

The final component of the curriculum is a sequence of 14 elective courses. Naturally, you can choose what classes to take (within some parameters, of course) so you can tailor your degree to your interests and career goals.

Of the 14 electives you take, eight are in degree-related areas, and six are within the financial planning certificate program. The University of Phoenix offers many different electives you can choose from, including Leadership Through Change, Organizational Project Management, and Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. Meanwhile, the financial planning certificate requires you to complete the following classes:

  • Finance for Decision-Making
  • Personal Financial Planning
  • Strategic Financial Management
  • Financial Institutions and Markets
  • Investment Fundamentals and Portfolio Management
  • Retirement and Benefit Planning

You can start your application to the University of Phoenix at any time. There is no application fee to apply. You must meet the following requirements to be considered for admission:

  • Complete the online application.
  • Have a high school diploma or its equivalent.
  • Provide transcripts from every college or university you’ve attended.
  • Provide details about your work history.
  • Provide evidence of English proficiency if English is not your native language.

Grand Canyon University

Online Master of Business Administration in Finance

The Master of Business Administration in Finance from Grand Canyon University is a faith-based program emphasizing ethical decision-making in the business world. You’ll gain vital business and finance skills alongside general soft skills like improved communication and problem-solving abilities, all the while exploring ways to work with integrity and promote integrity among your peers.

In fact, GCU’s Colangelo College of Business devised this program according to the following tenets:

  • Business is a force for good, especially when conscious capitalism is practiced.
  • The free market economy provides opportunities for prosperity and long-term success for all stakeholders.
  • Business serves as a ministry where you can care and support your coworkers and employees while guiding them using Christian principles.

This degree requires you to complete 54 credits to graduate. The entirety of the program comprises core business and finance studies. The first class you’ll take is Introduction to Graduate Studies in the College of Business, which helps prepare you for the rigors of graduate-level work. You’ll then move on to take a Leadership and Organizations class that instills in you the key qualities of effective leadership and examines the science of organizational behavior.

You’ll take accounting courses, too. For example, the Accounting Practices course reviews essential features of business accounting, including financial accounting, balance sheets, and financial statement analysis. You’ll also take a Managerial Accounting class, which discusses major accounting concepts, such as cost systems, performance evaluation, and internal reporting.

Management is a central theme in this program, too. You’ll take an Operations Management course to gain familiarity with managerial techniques for various types of business environments. You’ll learn how to streamline production, eliminate inefficiencies, and improve supply chain integration and performance as well.

Two other management courses are required: Leadership and Organizations and Strategic Management. The Leadership course introduces you to key concepts of leadership and how you can develop into an inspiring business leader. The Strategic Management course, on the other hand, is a capstone experience in which you prepare a strategic analysis of a publicly traded firm. You’ll use actionable intelligence to make suggestions for improving management and creating additional value for the company.

Other required coursework touches on the following topics:

  • Finance Principles
  • Applied Business Probability and Statistics
  • Economics
  • Quantitative Methods
  • Marketing Management

Of course, you might not need to complete all of these classes if you started a similar graduate degree at another accredited institution. Grand Canyon University allows you to transfer previously earned credit to count toward your degree, which can significantly reduce the time it takes to finish this program.

One of the other interesting features of this program is that it doesn’t just rely on traditional lecture-based learning. Instead, you’ll have opportunities to engage in class discussions online with your professors and classmates. Many courses also incorporate online group work to help you build connections with your peers.

To be considered for admission, you must be at least 16 years old and have a high school diploma or its equivalent. There is no application fee to apply, nor does GCU require you to report ACT or SAT scores.

Regent University

Master of Business Administration in Finance and Investing

Regent University offers a 42-credit ACBSP-accredited online Master of Business Administration in Finance program designed to prepare you for a variety of roles in financial institutions and wealth management settings. Through this program, you’ll learn to provide financial planning services, evaluate global and domestic financial markets, and allocate capital to enhance financial gains.

The program typically takes two years to complete. Before starting the main coursework, you must take one graduate introductory course. You can choose between Foundations for Business and Leadership or Information Research and Resources. The Foundations class covers essential topics to help you become a more effective business professional and leader. The Information Resources course, however, introduces modern technologies to examine financial markets and make informed financial decisions.

After completing your introductory course, you’ll proceed to 30 credits of core coursework. These classes range from an MBA orientation, which helps you acclimate to the program, to a Corporate Accounting class that teaches both basic and advanced principles of financial accounting for businesses.

Additionally, you’ll take courses such as Corporate and Personal Ethics to understand your role as an ethical financial professional. The Managerial Economics requirement helps you develop better decision-making skills based on economic data. The Managing People course equips you with leadership tools for business or organizational settings.

Other core courses required for this degree include:

  • Innovation and Technological Success
  • Marketing Management
  • Strategic Management of Organizations
  • Corporate Finance
  • Operations and Supply Chain Management

Moreover, a Business Planning and Launch class is required to help you understand the process of starting a business from the ground up.

The finance concentration courses make up the final component of this program. You’ll take four classes, totaling 12 credits, in finance, including:

  • Data Analysis for Decision-Making
  • Financial Planning
  • Financial Analysis
  • Portfolio Analysis

Through your studies, you’ll acquire a range of valuable skills that enhance your employability. For instance, you’ll learn to develop portfolio and investment strategies that maximize clients’ financial returns. You’ll also be able to analyze business performance and market trends to determine the suitability of investments in companies.

Furthermore, you’ll gain the ability to make ethical decisions, collect and analyze financial data, and conduct financial research, all of which will help you perform your job at a higher level. With a master’s degree, you can pursue higher-paying jobs with greater responsibilities than those typically available to individuals with a bachelor’s degree.

You can apply to Regent University’s graduate school online at any time of the year. To apply, you must complete the following steps:

  • Submit your application for admission.
  • Have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
  • Provide official transcripts from every college or university you’ve attended.
  • Submit a copy of your government-issued ID.

Is the Math Hard in Finance?

The difficulty of math in finance can vary depending on the specific area of finance you are studying and your background in mathematics. Here’s a detailed look at the types of math used in finance and how challenging they might be:

Basic Mathematics

At the foundational level, finance involves basic arithmetic, algebra, and the ability to work with percentages and ratios. This level of math is generally not very difficult and includes tasks like calculating interest rates, financial ratios, and basic statistical measures. Most students find this level manageable with practice.

Intermediate Mathematics

As you progress, finance requires a stronger understanding of intermediate-level math. This includes topics such as:

  • Statistics and Probability: Used for analyzing data, understanding market trends, and risk assessment. Topics include descriptive statistics, probability distributions, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis.
  • Financial Mathematics: Involves time value of money concepts, present and future value calculations, annuities, and amortization schedules. These are essential for tasks like bond pricing, loan amortization, and retirement planning.

While these topics can be more challenging, they are generally taught comprehensively in finance courses, and with adequate practice, most students can grasp these concepts.

Advanced Mathematics

Advanced finance, particularly in areas like quantitative finance, financial engineering, and investment analysis, involves more complex mathematics, including:

  • Calculus: Used for understanding changes in financial models and for certain areas like options pricing and continuous compounding.
  • Linear Algebra: Important for portfolio optimization and certain types of financial modeling.
  • Advanced Statistics and Econometrics: Used for sophisticated financial modeling, risk management, and empirical finance research.

These areas require a higher level of mathematical proficiency and can be quite challenging. Students with a strong background in mathematics or those who are willing to invest time in learning these advanced concepts can succeed in these areas.

Practical Application and Software

In practical finance roles, much of the complex mathematics is handled by financial software and tools like Excel, financial calculators, and specialized software such as Bloomberg, SAS, or MATLAB. Understanding the underlying principles is important, but day-to-day tasks often involve using these tools to perform calculations and analyze data.

Are Online Finance Degrees Worth It?

Employer perception of online degrees has evolved, with many employers recognizing the legitimacy and rigor of accredited online programs.

However, the value of an online finance degree is influenced by multiple factors, including the quality of the program, the reputation of the institution, the student’s personal circumstances, and their career objectives. Generally, an online finance degree can be a worthwhile investment for several reasons.

First and foremost, the flexibility offered by online programs is a significant advantage. Students can balance their studies with professional and personal commitments, which is particularly beneficial for working professionals or those with family obligations. This flexibility allows students to access coursework at their convenience, making it easier to integrate education into their existing schedules.

Furthermore, online finance degrees can be more cost-effective compared to traditional on-campus programs. Students often save on commuting, housing, and other campus-related expenses. Additionally, many online programs offer competitive tuition rates, making higher education more accessible to a broader range of students.

The accessibility of online programs is another compelling benefit. Students are not limited by geographical constraints and can enroll in programs offered by institutions worldwide. This broadens the range of available programs, allowing students to select one that best fits their career goals and interests, including those that offer specialized tracks or unique expertise.

Technological proficiency is an inherent advantage of online learning. Students become adept at using various digital tools and platforms, a skill set that is increasingly valuable in the finance industry. Proficiency in technology and digital communication can enhance employability and prepare graduates for the modern workplace.

However, it is crucial to consider the accreditation and reputation of the online program. Researching the institution’s reputation and the specific finance program’s standing within the academic and professional communities is essential to ensure that the degree will be well-regarded.

In-person networking opportunities are generally more limited in online programs, although many institutions are increasingly offering virtual networking events, forums, and group projects to foster connections among students. These virtual interactions, while different from traditional networking, can still provide valuable professional connections.

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