International Economics | Finance Sequencing

The finance courses at SAIS are meant to provide students with an in-depth education in the basic institutional structure and concepts of financial markets and financial decision making. These courses are intensive and students completing the International Finance Specialization are expected to have a competence in International Finance that is comparable to top MBA programs. In order for students to obtain the most out of those courses, this page provides some suggestions on structuring the finance courses throughout their time at SAIS.

1. First and most importantly, is to get the basic economic courses out of the way immediately!  The best way to do this is to attend Pre-Term.  In 2 to 4 weeks of hard work, one can complete the Microeconomics and Macroeconomics requirement, plus brush up on some math and basic statistics.  Completing this before the start of the Fall term is almost a necessity to enable  pursuit of any specialization in economics.  Without completion of these requirements, there is not enough time in four semesters to progress from the basic level to the level of a specialist.
   
   
2. Take International Trade Theory and International Monetary Theory in your first year.  These courses provide additional fundamental information which is re-examined in the advanced level international finance courses.
   
   
3.  If you do not possess a technical business background (several years of investment banking or the equivalent) the Corporate Finance course will have to be taken to qualify for the advanced level courses.  You should take this course in your first year if you are interested in pursuing the specialization.
   
   
4. Try to take Multinational Corporate Finance before taking either of the case courses.  The material learned in Multinational Corporate Finance will help make the case courses easier,  interesting and more rewarding.  If you cannot take Multinational Corporate Finance before the case course, at least take it concurrently.  It has less value if taken afterwards.

As a final note, some of the finance courses are among the more time consuming courses at SAIS.  Some of these require a significant amount of time outside of class, either preparing cases or working on problem sets.  Particularly time consuming, are Corporate Finance and International Project Finance.  It is recommended that students take no more than two finance courses in any given term and only one if the student is taking a core economics course (Trade or Money).