Master of Finance CAPSTONE PROJECT
MFin Capstone Project The Master of Finance (MFin) at the UCI Paul Merage School of Business is a STEM-Certified, intensive one-year program that develops graduates who are eminently qualified for asset management and corporate finance careers. The MFin Capstone Project provides master’s level finance students an opportunity to apply their skills by working on real-life finance problems with industry partners. Our students are taught by world-class faculty and leading researchers to help students create valuable collateral that plays a critical role in decision-making and in the design or delivery of products and services. The goal of the MFin Capstone Project is to provide real-world experience to our students while providing you with real value.
Benefits Identify and explore from our talent pool of leading graduate finance students from a team of 4-6. Explore projects that you currently do not have the time or expertise to complete. All projects are supervised by faculty or industry advisors. Receive actionable insights and useful project analysis to drive business decisions.
Our MFin students can leverage the Merage School Bloomberg terminals and UCI Libraries’ powerful databases featuring U.S. and global company, industry, marketing, economic, and scholarly information. UC Irvine waives the ownership position of any intellectual property (models, analysis, findings, etc.) developed. There is no monetary cost to participate.
Sample Projects • Canterbury Consulting
Value proposition of self-funded healthcare
• First American Trust
Capital structure analysis
• IPC (USA) Inc.
Product pricing and hedging analysis
• KPMG
Natural language processing of loan applications related to Care Act
• Mazda USA
Building model(s) to rationalize media spending and transaction pricing, incentives to optimize market share
• MIG Capital
Develop investment thematic frameworks by analyzing historical stock performance
• Pacific Life
Research on machine learning signals on future investment decisions
• Research Affiliates
Analysis of equity, value and operating profitability model in trading
• Rimrock Capital
Data extraction, analysis and profit driven trading
• Roth Capital
Prospect development, strategic alternatives for sell/buy-side engagements
• Tech Coast Angels
Conducting due diligence for early-stage investment
• The Cove Fund II
Preparing due diligence for VC Investment
• Viasat
Strategic analysis – capital structure and cost of capital
• Wells Fargo Capital
Validate a dynamic leveraged-lending model in technology space.
• Western Digital
Implementing a data analytics strategy to deliver key insights and critical performance improvements by establishing tools, metrics and reports for the global real estate organization
Timeline Winter
• Master of Finance (MFin) staff and faculty will meet with you to help define the challenge to be addressed. • NDA’s are Signed and Data is transferred.
Spring
Summer
• A team of four to six MFin students will be assigned to each project in May.
• A final presentation will be delivered to the company at the conclusion of the project in August.
• Regular communication and updates occur throughout the five-month project.
• All deliverables (final report, presentation, models, analysis, findings, etc.) will be provided at the conclusion of the project.
Commitment
“I was impressed with the MFin Capstone team and their ability to uncover complex life insurance
• Help define a 12-week project that is comprehensive enough to enable students to demonstrate breadth and depth of knowledge.
industry specific concepts. They were creative, enthusiastic and professional while delivering what
• Provide actual data and insights to the student team.
they set out to accomplish. I was pleased with the
• Name a project liaison to work with the student team – we anticipate the liaison to spend 1-2 hours per week on the project.
scope of their analysis and quality of their final
• Attend your team’s kickoff meeting, midpoint meeting, and final presentation (at your office/site).
presentation. Thanks to their efforts, we are further analyzing various points they uncovered. We look forward to working with the MFin Capstone program again!” –Bob O’ Meara, Director, Financial Planning & Analysis, Pacific Life
Fall • ProSeminar • Foundations of Finance • Financial Reporting • Electives
Spring • ProSeminar • Risk Management • Electives
Program Curriculum Emily Lee, MFin'20
Winter • ProSeminar • Derivatives • Financial Research and Methodology • Electives
Summer • ProSeminar • Capstone Project • Electives
MFin Class of 2021 Class Profile
Undergraduate Degrees
Applications Received
1,557
Class Size
120
Average GPA
3.50
Average GMAT
646
Average Work Experience
1.93
Percentage of domestic students
38%
Percentage of domestic URM Age Range
35.7% Economics
1.6% Engineering 0.8% Health Sciences 1.6% Humanities 1.6% Computer Sciences 3.2% Physical Sciences 1.6% Social Sciences
6% 20-47
Women 54%
Men 46%
54% Business Administration
Countries and Regions Represented Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, United States, and Vietnam
Undergraduate Universities Represented (60) UC Irvine 24.6%
Other UC Schools Other CA Schools 11.9% 14.3%
Other U.S. Schools 27.8%
International 21.4%
The project is not intended to be a research and development effort or to result in any intellectual property. UC Irvine waives the ownership position to any intellectual property (models, analysis, findings, etc.) developed by the students during the course of the project and defer ownership to the partner company. UC Irvine requests that all company data be de-identified prior to release to the team(s). Data that contains personally identifiable information or personal health information or is subject to information security and privacy laws. Under no circumstances can our Capstone teams receive or use information that is export controlled or military sensitive. For those companies that request nondisclosure agreements, we typically accept your company’s standard NDA.
Nick Shaffer Director of External Relations 4291 Pereira Drive, SB2 Suite 230 Irvine, CA, 92697-3125 nshaffer@uci.edu, 949.824.6293 Master of Finance 4293 Pereira Drive, SB1 Suite 4500 Irvine, CA, 92697-3125 mfin@merage.uci.edu
merage.uci.edu/MFin