By Adrienne Murrill

It’s a Tuesday afternoon at 555 Clark on the Northwestern University campus, where a group of students is settling into a classroom. As they fix their nameplates at their seats, Kellogg Assistant Professor of Finance Ernst Schaumburg prepares for his lecture, “CAPM and Market-Neutral Views.”

These students look younger than the average MBA student, and they should. They are Northwestern undergraduates who are participating in one of the latest additions to the Kellogg School’s programs. One of these students is Mingu Kang, a junior enrolled in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

He is participating in the financial economics Certificate Program for Undergraduates, which began last fall. It is a joint effort between Kellogg and Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Interested students apply in their sophomore or junior year; the application process is rigorous, admitting about 50 students.

“The certificate has very high prerequisites in math, statistics, probability and microeconomics,” says Janice Eberly, academic director of the financial economics program. “We can teach all the courses under the assumption that the students have a consistent level of preparation.”

The most visible tie the program has to Kellogg is that the certificate’s four courses are taught by Kellogg faculty. Eberly, the John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Finance, taught the first course last fall. She says the certificate has a narrower, more technical focus than does a full MBA program, yet it still exposes undergraduates to the Kellogg approach. “The group work brings in more of the Kellogg experience,” she says, “where even though the students are doing technical work, they learn how to accomplish that together and achieve a better outcome than they would individually.”

Eberly added that, for these undergraduates, the exposure to Kellogg is unique. “To have access to that expertise, the curriculum, the courses, the faculty is quite novel. I think it’s very valuable to the students.”

One of Kang’s classmates, Atanas Stoyanov, says that Eberly’s class exceeded his expectations. “I was expecting that the Kellogg professors wouldn’t be as approachable as the undergraduate professors, but I was pleasantly surprised that she was so approachable,” says Stoyanov, a junior from Bulgaria. And the course content is cutting edge, offering the very latest insights. “Professor Eberly gave us examples from what had happened on the stock market that morning and explained what was going on. In most classes they teach you stuff from years ago, which is still interesting, but when it’s something that’s in the newspaper, it’s really valuable.”

For Kang, who is from South Korea, the certificate is an opportunity to apply and build upon what he has learned in his microeconomics and his statistics and econometrics courses. “It’s an extension of the undergraduate education, and it is more applicable to real jobs,” he notes. Kang and others pursuing the financial economics certificate likely will apply for jobs in the financial services industry. This fall, Kellogg will launch a second certificate program, focused on managerial analytics, in collaboration with the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. It is geared toward students pursing consulting positions and will admit about 50 students.

In addition to the classroom study, the undergraduates benefit from external relations too. Abra Kitei, who works in Northwestern’s Career Services area, helps students secure internships and full-time jobs by working closely with Roxanne Hori, assistant dean and director of the Kellogg Career Management Center. Students may also conduct a research project with a Kellogg faculty member for further exploration. Kitei also arranges for speakers, including Kellogg alumni, to address the students. One recent presenter was co-chief administrative officer Scott J. Freidheim ’91 of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc.

Carol Henes, the program’s administrative director, says the certificate and these external opportunities give students additional tools that make them more marketable upon graduation. “If you take a student who has in-depth knowledge of a subject matter and add these analytic tools and information, this makes them very valuable.”

Eberly explains that, for the typical student who holds an undergraduate business degree, it is unlikely that the credential would be paired with the knowledge of a scientific field or the breadth of a liberal arts education. “We’re hoping we have students who can apply their writing and communication skills or their technical background in a business setting, doing valuation or consulting, for example,” she says.

In turn, this collaboration strengthens the Kellogg School. “For the faculty, it’s a pleasure to teach these very bright, hard-working and interesting young students,” Eberly says. “This produces another group of students who will be very successful and will have that Kellogg certificate attached to them. The program will enhance their reputation, particularly in quantitative fields, and raise the school’s profile in those fields.”