Pre-college research & planning
A working knowledge base for the Butler University Finance major — built to answer the questions every student should ask before they register: which classes, which professors, and which experiential programs actually move the needle?
The program
Butler's Finance major is more pre-defined than most. The Lacy School's Business Core is shared by every business major — about 80% of coursework — which means the real strategic decisions happen elsewhere.
Required of all Lacy majors. Includes FN 340 Corporate Finance, MS 365 Business Analytics, accounting, micro/macro, statistics, ethics, law. The leverage here is choosing the best professor for each.
FN 347 Investments and FN 451 International Financial Management are the two required Finance courses. Nine credit hours of FN electives are chosen — this is where specialization happens.
Two required internships, plus opportunities to compete for SMIF, BBCG, the captive insurance company, the CFA Research Challenge, and FMA leadership. These matter more than any single class.
How to prioritize
Not every class deserves the same attention. Here's the working framework for picking professors, choosing electives, and deciding when a B+ is worth a top-tier teacher.
FN 340 (Corporate Finance) and FN 347 (Investments) are foundational. Take them with the best-reviewed professor available, even if it means waiting a semester.
SMIF, BBCG, CFA Research Challenge, FMA leadership. These are the resume-differentiators and the source of mentor relationships.
After sophomore year, pick FN electives that align with the emerging career direction (IB → Derivatives + Financial Institutions; AM → SMIF + Derivatives; etc.).
University-core requirements don't matter for finance placement. Take with highly-rated professors in subjects he genuinely enjoys. Protect the Honors 3.5 floor here.
The cost of a bad professor in a major class compounds: weaker learning, weaker rec letters, less engaged with the subject. RMP + Coursicle + Reddit at every registration.
Who matters
Seven people drive most of the Finance experience. These four come up most often in student reviews and program leadership.
Professor of Finance · Ratliff Endowed Chair
Teaches: FN 347 Investments · Student-Managed Investment Fund
Co-author of Fundamentals of Investments (McGraw-Hill, the textbook used in his class). Whiteboard-based lectures, generous extra credit, and lecture videos posted online. Students consistently say they learn more in his class than any other at Butler.
Plan the schedule around him for Investments and SMIF.
Associate Professor of Finance
Teaches: FN 340 Corporate Finance · Investments · Valuation
RMP 4.0/5, 100% would take again. Reviewers cite great analogies, hard-but-fair homework, and genuine care for students. Faculty advisor to the Financial Management Association (a "Superior Chapter" nationally). Strong fit for quant-curious students.
Best target for FN 340 and an obvious mentor candidate.
Associate Professor of Finance
Teaches: FN 451 International Financial Management · FN 357 Behavioral Finance · Investments
RMP 4.7/5, 80% retake rate. Ph.D. from University of Muenster, magna cum laude. Former Fidelity and Deutsche Bank; former pro basketball player in Germany. Reviewers describe his classes as practical and approachable without sacrificing depth.
Top pick for FN 451 and Behavioral Finance.
Assistant Professor, Business Tech & Analytics
Teaches: MS 365 Business Analytics
Poets&Quants Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors 2025 and the inaugural INFORMS Data Mining Society Teaching Award winner. Joined Butler in 2025 from Purdue's Daniels School, where he led the MS Business Analytics program to ~100% placement.
Time the semester to land in his MS 365 section.
Three more in the Finance department — Dr. Stephen (Department Chair), Dr. Marshall (dual Ph.D. in Finance and Mathematics), and Dr. Templeton (Emeritus) — are detailed in the planner's faculty tab.
Experiential programs
At most schools, internship outcomes correlate with experiential programs more than with any specific class. Butler runs four that are unusually strong.
Undergraduates manage roughly $3M of real endowment money across sector teams in the S&P 500 universe — rare at undergraduate scale. A separate private equity fund manages another $2.5M. Run by Dr. Dolvin.
Apply as a rising junior. Alumni placements: JP Morgan, Google, Bristol Myers, Indiana PERF.
A paid student analyst program working real consulting engagements — 94+ clients across 40 industries (Roche, Eli Lilly, Hitachi, Eskenazi Health). Generated $10M+ in revenue, $7M of which has funded Lacy programs.
Apply sophomore year. Alumni: Google, Deloitte, EY, Lilly, Roche.
Required sophomore class where teams of six (cross-major, randomly assigned to CEO/CFO/CMO roles) take a $1,000 seed loan and design, launch, and operate a real business for one semester.
Won the USASBE Model Re-Emerging Program Award.
Includes the MJ Student-Run Insurance Company, Ltd. — the nation's first student-run captive insurance company. Two mandatory internships built into the major. Top-10 nationally per Business Insurance magazine.
Worth exploring as a second major if risk/insurance interests emerge.
Plus the CFA Research Challenge, Financial Management Association (a national "Superior Chapter"), Bulldog Reports, and the two required internships (LSB 401/402). All detailed in the planner →.
Honors Program
Butler's Honors Program is explicitly designed to work with any major. Requirements: maintain a 3.5 cumulative GPA, complete four HN courses (one 200-level, one 300-level) at B or higher, attend eight Community Events, and complete an Honors Thesis.
The thesis in particular is the resume gold — it forces a deep faculty relationship that becomes the source of both grad-school recommendation letters and summer research opportunities.
⚠️ The 3.5 GPA floor creates tension with taking the hardest finance professors. Worth talking through up front.
Double majors & minors
Open questions
These need a direct answer from Butler advising, current students, or career services. Track progress in the planner's Open Questions tab.
The planner has every course, every professor, an 8-semester drag-and-drop grid, a decision matrix for head-to-head comparisons, and your open-questions tracker. Saves locally in your browser.
Open the planner →