Successful businesses rely on people with the knowledge and experience to invest assets wisely. By earning your Graduate Certificate in Investments—in just four or five courses—you'll learn quantitative tools and best practices, empowering you to make smart investment decisions for your organization.

Graduate Certificate in Investments Program Overview

  • Program Structure: 4–5 courses
  • Class Schedule: Monday–Thursday evenings at 5:20 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
  • Time to Complete: 1 to 3 years

Part-Time Graduate Certificate | Typical program timeline

*Course offerings vary per semester.
*Starts in September or January. May be completed at a flexible pace but is usually completed in three semesters.

Unique Features

12 or 15

Credits may be applied toward a future MBA

Top 50

Among national universities (U.S. News & World Report)

The business learning you need

The business learning you need Opens in Modal
  • Learn cutting-edge theories and quantitative tools for making sound investment decisions
  • Specialize your studies with electives that are relevant to your goals, such as real estate investing, personal financial planning, or risk management and insurance
  • Build your confidence and experience through project-based coursework and case studies—key components of Northeastern's practice-oriented approach to learning
  • Access expert career guidance from an experienced counselor at Northeastern's office of Employer Engagement and Career Design
  • Complete your certificate in as few as four courses, with the option for one additional elective to deepen your knowledge
  • Build the foundation for a future master's degree from Northeastern—you may be able to apply your earned certificate credits toward an eligible master's program

The student experience

Admissions

  • Interview required? Upon request.
  • English language proficiency: English proficiency, both written and verbal, is necessary for success in D'Amore-McKim classrooms. For more information, review our admissions policies.
  • GMAT Required? No.
  • Where do I apply? Learn more here.
  • Prerequisite for admission? Undergraduate or graduate-level finance or accounting major or minor, or CFA or CPA certifications. If you don't meet the prerequisites, you can take additional bridge courses before starting the program.
  • Eligible for International Student Visa? No. This program is not F-1 visa compliant.

Part-Time Graduate Certificates

Application DeadlinesDecision NotificationsClasses Begin
Oct. 4, 2023Rolling BasisJanuary
Nov. 9, 2023Rolling BasisJanuary
Dec. 7, 2023Rolling BasisJanuary
Feb. 1, 2024Rolling BasisSeptember
March 21, 2024Rolling BasisSeptember
May 9, 2024Rolling BasisSeptember
June 7, 2024Rolling BasisSeptember
July 3, 2024Rolling BasisSeptember
Aug. 1, 2024Rolling BasisSeptember

Tuition

Northeastern Student Financial Services publishes the tuition rates for Graduate Certificates. Under the “Graduate Programs” section, the cost per credit appears next to “D'Amore-McKim School of Business Programs.”

Financial Aid

Northeastern offers resources to help you finance your graduate education, and the Student Financial Services team will guide you through your options. Please visit the Graduate Financial Aid page.

Once you are a student, your financial aid advisor will work with you one-on-one to answer your questions, point you to resources and provide valuable insight as you navigate the financial commitments of your program.

Scholarships

Northeastern University has a variety of scholarships. As a graduate certificate applicant you may be eligible for the Full Circle Scholarship. You may also qualify for funding support as an alum, U.S. servicemember, or veteran.

Application Fee Waivers

D'Amore-McKim offers application fee waivers to applicants that meet specific criteria. You can review the policy on the Graduate Application FAQ web page.

The D'Amore-McKim School of Business community stands with our university and its leadership in our dedication to cultivating equity and inclusion for all humankind. Understanding and solving our problems requires constant interaction among people who bring their own diverse contexts and experiences to the conversation. Therefore, we must be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community that values the uniqueness of its members, recognizes the power and importance of diversity in our own and surrounding communities, and ensures their engaged participation.

Graduate Student Clubs  

There are numerous university-wide and D'Amore-McKim-affiliated student groups that you may wish to join, and several are grounded in building inclusive communities and resiliency. Many of our graduate business students participate in the Graduate Students of Color Collective, Grad Q, and Out in Business.

Campus Resources

Participate in community-building programs, lectures, and events offered by Northeastern's cultural centers representing a range of affiliations and interests including the LGBTQA Resource Center, Latinx Student Cultural Center, Asian American Center, Office of Global Services, and many more.

Curriculum

Your coursework for the Graduate Certificate in Investments will teach you strategic skills for tackling complex financial challenges in domestic and international financial markets.

Through your required coursework, you'll learn valuation techniques and quantitative tools that will allow you to build models for any investment instrument you want to analyze. The electives you choose allow you to dive deeper into the topics that support your career goals, including real estate investing, personal financial planning, or risk management and insurance.

Before you get started

Undergraduate or graduate-level finance or accounting major or minor, or CFA or CPA certifications. If you don't meet the prerequisites, you can take additional bridge courses before starting the program.

Required course

Familiarizes students with domestic and international financial markets and the securities traded therein. Discusses a variety of techniques for valuation of financial assets and relies heavily on quantitative methods. Critically analyzes such qualitative concepts as market efficiency, intrinsic value, and risk. The contents of this course, descriptive, theoretical, and applied, should provide students with the ability to build unique valuation models to suit the particular investment alternative they wish to scrutinize. Also provides students with an understanding of how investment theory and investment practice relate.

FINA 6203 | 3 Hours

Complete 3 or 4 elective courses from the following

Offers the first of a two-course sequence that focuses on the acquisition, measurement, and management of firm resources. Business managers make strategic decisions about the acquisition and use of a variety of firm resources. Helps enable students to understand and utilize critical information in corporate financial reports to improve business decision making. Offers students the opportunity to learn contemporary methods of financial reporting and analysis used by internal decision makers and external capital providers. Required course for co-op MBA/part-time MBA.

ACCT 6200 | 3 Hours

Provides an overview of all of the hedging markets and hedging instruments. Explores specific hedging use of options, forwards, futures, swaps, and options on futures. Focuses on advanced financial risk management of interest rates, currency rates, equity returns, and fixed income returns. Students use readings and case problems to study when and how to use hedging instruments to alter a portfolio's risk exposure.

FINA 6211 | 3 Hours

Exposes students to theory, applications, and evidence concerning highly sensitive interest rate products. Discusses recent developments in pension fund management, asset/liability management, duration matching, “gap” management, concurrent interest rate and exchange rate management, and other important issues now confronting domestic and international financial and corporate management. Studies how to customize a risk management program.

FINA 6212 | 3 Hours

Discusses policy, strategy, and administration of financial services firms. Topics include issuance of securities, the service function within financial services, pricing a negotiated issue of common stock or competitive bid issue, and meeting capital requirements of a securities firm.

FINA 6213 | 3 Hours

Provides students with a comprehensive understanding of real estate finance. Emphasizes factors affecting real estate investment. Topics include valuation (appraisal), market analysis, development, taxation, ownership types, short-term financing, mortgage markets, and investment strategies. Designed for students interested in a general overview of real estate finance, as well as those intending to pursue a career in the real-estate field.

FINA 6217 | 3 Hours

Develops portfolio construction, revision, and performance measurement. Highlights portfolio construction in an efficient capital market. Topics include risk-return analysis, the effects of diversification on risk reduction, and the costs of inflation, taxes, and transaction costs on fixed income and equity security portfolios. Examines financial models of capital asset pricing as the basis for the analysis of portfolios from the institutional investor's viewpoint.

FINA 6219 | 3 Hours

Examines today's evolving environment, in which effective utilization of human resources is a source of competitive advantage. To maximize the contribution of organizational members, managers must be able to understand, diagnose, and influence workplace behavior in the context of change. Topics include management of cross-functional teams and boundaryless organizations. Emphasis is on the role of corporate culture and distributed leadership.

HRMG 6200 | 3 Hours

Focuses on the international business environment, and examines the influence on global decision making of such areas as the international economy and trade issues, legal and political context differences, governmental actions, cultural and ethical system differences, exchange rates and international currency markets, international institutions like the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, and regional agreements like the European Union, NAFTA, and Mercosur. Also analyzes why firms internationalize their operations, how they can internationalize, and key areas such as international manufacturing, marketing, human resource management, and strategy.

INTB 6200 | 3 Hours

Trains managers to understand the competitive implications of global economic policies, the business effects of technological change, and the commercial imperatives of alternative political systems at a macro level. At a micro level, it creates a framework for industry analysis in a global setting that combines economic analysis, competitive analysis, and business decision-making skills.

MECN 6200 | 3 Hours

Focuses on marketing analysis and planning. Emphasizes analysis of customer needs and company and competitor capabilities. This analysis forms the basis of a sound marketing strategy that provides value to customers in a way superior to competitors. Discusses how to deliver this strategy through the development of an intergrated marketing program covering product offerings, pricing, promotion, and distribution. Includes professional accounting students.

MKTG 6200 | 3 Hours

Focuses on strategy development and implementation for a line of business and for the corporation as a whole by adopting a top management perspective. Beginning with developing a mission statement and goals for the firm, focuses on environmental scanning, incorporating economic, technological, sociopolitical, and legal trends in conducting industry analysis, thus assessing opportunities and threats and the firm's capabilities before formulating strategy that represents a fit between the environment and the firm. Discusses how to develop competitive advantage and assess competitive positioning, and studies how organizational structure and systems contribute to implementing strategy. Stresses the role of leadership and motivation before moving on to feedback mechanisms to assess success in strategy implementation, leading to revision of strategic plans as needed.

STRT 6200 | 3 Hours

The following is a sample curriculum and is subject to change. Enrolled students should reference the academic catalog for current program requirements.

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