Rank the electives for me: Top Four. I need to select any four. Security Analysis and Portfolio Management Fixed Income Securities Mergers & Acquisition Project Appraial and Finance Retail Banking Advanced Financial Statement Analysis
Those could all be great courses (well, except the last one 
). Suggest you rank them in some honest order that reflects your needs and education and individual factors like how well you intereact with the teachers.
I think, for a start, you could strike retail banking. The folks I knew in undergrad who took a similar class were miserable.
Here are the 4 I would go with: Mergers & Acquisition Advanced Financial Statement Analysis Security Analysis and Portfolio Management Fixed Income Securities I agree with Young_Prof - Retail Banking is a total snoozefest, and not terribly relevant unless you are going to cover banks or be a branch manager… 
i second bodymore’s suggestion. i would like to enroll in the M&A and portfolio management class as well.
Hey, I have to disagree with their assessment about Banking class. I took a Bank Management course Fall of my senior year and it was boring and difficult, but at the end of the day, I learned SO MUCH. You’ll find there is so much about a bank that you had no clue about but that is so relevant to how and why interest rates work and to how and why rates can be used to expand and contract an economy. I also learned just a ton about banking in general. Difficult but very very worth it (this, of course, was at my school with different professor). Beyond that I’d say Fixed Income Securities is a MUST. It’s beyond my understanding how universities can hand out degrees to finance majors who haven’t taken fixed income. Again, it’s another boring, difficult class that is well worth it.
I’ll take a go 1. Secuity Analysi and Port Man - how can you argue with that 2. Fixed Income -Never had one, wish I did 3. Advanced FSA - will help for CFA, wish I took this class 4. M&A - took it, kind of boring honestley 5. Project Appraisal - sounds like corp finance which is always fun 6. retail Banking - boring, find a book labelled banking for dummies
Advanced FSA is probably the most important.
I’d choose:- Advanced Financial Statement Analysis Fixed Income Securities Project Appraial and Finance Security Analysis and Portfolio Management
I would go with: Security Analysis and PM FI Securities M&A Project Appraisal and Finance Advanced FSA: simply not worth an entire class - you are taking the CFA aren’t you? Retail Banking: really not worth taking unless you are planning on working in or covering banks. And, Kkent - I would suggest most of that economic understanding can be attained through micro/macro classes of various levels - not sure what you guys have to take at the undergrad level, though. Although, I did really enjoy my related class - Managing Financial Institutions which looked extensively at the retail banking sector.
mcthorp, you can’t gain in-depth knowledge of how banks use interest rates and how the banking system and risk relate through macro and micro. This class I took was great–we had Bank game software that allowed us to manage our own banks, make decisions about risk, analyze financial statements, manipulate interest rates, make moves based on predicted economic scenarios, etc. The professor was brilliant and also taught Fixed Income so we learned applied fixed income in banking. I have no clue how the poster’s class would work, but if it is anything like this class, I’d recommend it 100%. Most useful class of college.
I’m sure that each class at each university is different, even though the name of the class may be the same; the focus, depth and teaching style may differ. I was referring to my grad-level econ classes that I took that did focus in great detail on material regarding interest rates - in fact they were more statistical analysis courses with a focus on economics. My undergrad micro/macro classes were a cakewalk and glossed over a lot of information, since they were for the masses. My graduate econ classes were probably the toughest and most informative of the courses that I’ve taken through my MSF, though, again, that was primarily due to the hard-core teaching style and focus and in-depth curriculum my professor utilized (he was a PhD, Econ, MBA, BSCE). My class on managing financial institutions was great - and it was a solid in-depth analysis of the retail banking industry - but I would have to say that the information learned there was not very applicable to other industries, interesting though it may be. Though it would have given me a leg up had I gone into FIG research.
Security Analysis and Portfolio Management Mergers & Acquisition Project Finance Fixed Income Securities I guess Advanced FSA court might not add value if you are a CFA candidate take projct finance and SAPM for sure, M&A also a likely one.
It really depends on what your interests are. I’d start with the building blocks and dump retail banking. Advanced Financial Statement Analysis Securiy Analysis and Portfolio Management Fixed Income Securities Mergers & Acquisition Project Appraial and Finance Retail Banking
I’m sorry, but this knee jerk reaction against the Banking class is ridiculous. Find out more about it and even talk to the instructor. The class may be useless, but my class was by far the best class (and most useful class) I took in finance.
kkent - Aren’t you trying to get into retail banking as a broker? I found the courses that I considered the best in college were directly correllated to the professor’s affinity for the subject material and their ability to convey why they feel the subject is so interesting. I loved my anthropology courses (I even took some extra graduate level courses from a couple of outstanding professors - because I could) and found that they had a tremendous impact on my life. I wouldn’t recommend them to everyone, though, because the subject matter just isn’t that applicable for most people beyond providing interesting dinner table conversation. IMO, the same applies to the retail banking course - the subject material is discrete and has little to offer tarun_iift if he is looking to maximize his financial education through four courses selected from his list of six. Again, IMO, the broadest swath he could carve (given that he hasn’t specified his interests and needs that would benefit from these course choices) would provide the most value add, and retail banking is just a single industry in the area of finance. Again, I really got a lot out of my retail banking course, as well, and enjoyed the subject material, though I still don’t recommend the class, unless one is interested in getting into the retail banking business in some form.
mc, no, I’m not trying to get into retail banking. I have thought about starting my own bank, but I’ve also thought about starting my own school, too, so, well, ya know, I’ve got no clue what I’m doing with my life. LOL. Good post, mcthorp.