High School

Many high school classes provide good preparation for college and a career as a financial analyst. Economics and business courses will help you to learn about financial concepts, investing, and the business world. English and speech classes will help you to build your communication skills, which you’ll need when writing reports, giving presentations, and pitching stocks to portfolio managers. You’ll use a computer and the Internet daily in your job, so courses in database management, Internet research, and other information technology–related areas will be helpful. Mathematics and statistics courses will help you hone your skill at working with numbers and making complex computations. Social studies, science, and philosophy classes will help you develop your critical-thinking skills. Participation in business or investing clubs will also be useful.

Postsecondary Education

To become an analyst, you’ll need to complete a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in finance, statistics, mathematics, computational finance, financial engineering/financial mathematics, or a related field. Many analysts (especially those in senior positions) have graduate degrees.

U.S. News & World Report publishes a list of colleges and universities that offer the best finance programs in the United States. In 2025, the top 10 schools were:

1. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
2. University of Chicago (Booth
3. New York University (Stern)
4. Columbia University
5. Stanford University
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
7. Harvard University
8. University of California-Berkeley (Haas)
9. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Ross)
10. Boston College (Carroll)

Visit https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/finance-rankings for more information.

The International Association for Quantitative Finance offers a list of colleges and universities that offer degrees in financial engineering/financial mathematics at https://www.iaqf.org/academic-programs.

Certification

Some colleges and universities and professional associations provide undergraduate- and graduate-level certificate programs for finance professionals. For example, Columbia University offers a certificate in quantitative studies for finance, and Stanford University offers a certificate in financial analytics. Contact schools in your area for information about available programs.

The Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association offers the Fundamentals of Alternative Investments Certificate Program. In this online, self-paced course, you’ll learn about traditional vs. alternative investments, risk management, investment returns and risks, and other topics. Visit https://caia.org/programs/fundamentals for more information.

Other Education or Training

Many professional associations provide continuing education classes, webinars, workshops, and seminars. For example, the CFA Society New York offers online professional development programming. The International Association for Quantitative Finance, CMT Association, and associations at the state and local levels also provide professional development opportunities.

Certification or Licensing

Becoming certified is a good way to increase your chances of landing a job, earning higher pay, and keeping your skills up to date. Many analysts earn the chartered financial analyst (CFA) credential—especially if they want to advance to the position of portfolio manager. The CFA program, which is offered by the CFA Institute, has three levels of examinations and measures the candidate’s ability to apply the fundamental knowledge of investment principles at the professional level. To enroll in the program, applicants must meet one of the following criteria:

• have completed a bachelor’s program or equivalent program and received a degree
• be a current university student who is within 23 months from completing their undergraduate degree
• have a combination of 4,000 hours of work experience and/or college/university education that was acquired over a minimum of three sequential years and achieved by the date of enrolling for the Level I exam

Other certifications are provided by the:

• Association for Financial Professionals (certified treasury professional, certified corporate financial planning and analysis professional)
• Investments & Wealth Institute (certified investment management analyst)
• CMT Association (chartered market technician)

Some companies require analysts to obtain their Series 7 (General Securities Representative) and Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent State Law) or 66 (Uniform Combined State Law) credentials from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-regulatory arm of the investment industry.

Analysts who are hired directly out of college must have previous experience (internship, co-op, summer job) at a mutual fund or in financial research at an investment bank, in an alternative investment sector (i.e., hedge funds, private equity, venture capital), or with a Fortune 500 corporation.

Successful mutual fund analysts must have strong analytical, communication, organizational, research, and time-management skills; the ability to solve problems; a deep understanding of financial and economic markets; curiosity; a detail-oriented personality; and a passion for investing and the investment process. They also need to be familiar with company and fund analytics software; office and presentation software such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word; and financial modeling software.