Marquette University Academic Senate has elevated Accelerating Ingenuity in Markets (AIM) to the status of an undergraduate major in the College of Business Administration.
“Building on its strong history, AIM today delivers an immersive, rigorous, application-driven learning experience that’s designed to give students the critical competitive edge they need to land internships and top-paying jobs in leading global firms,” says AIM Executive Director, Dr. Joe Wall. “Our team could not be more excited about AIM’s future.”
The new major offers a pair of concentrations — Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and fintech (financial technology) — that allows top-performing students the opportunity to customize their academic experience. CFA concentration students grow their knowledge of finance and investments by buying and selling stocks that comprise a portion of Marquette University’s endowment, while students focused on fintech gain invaluable experience in cutting-edge technology that drives the next generation of financial services.
“Everything we do in AIM is with an eye toward preparing our students to be leaders,” says AIM Director, Dr. James Valentine. “Applicants come to us as talented, eager finance students and leave as fully equipped professionals, ready to make an impact at the industry’s biggest firms.”
Interested students apply to AIM early in the fall term of their sophomore year, and notification of acceptance occurs before the end of fall semester. AIM does offer a rare path to acceptance for exceptionally high performing first-year students and even high school students who have been accepted into the College of Business Administration.
AIM began as a program in 2004 under founder and former director Dr. David Krause. It was the first undergraduate business program selected as a Program Partner by the CFA Institute, a designation awarded because AIM’s curriculum covers at least 70 percent of the CFA Institute’s Program Candidate Body of Knowledge, the CFA Institute Ethical and Professional Standards and other requirements. This milestone partnership set the standard for how the CFA Institute now works with hundreds of colleges and universities across the globe.
Numerous AIM students won accolades during the 2022-23 academic year, including a first-place finish in Wisconsin’s CFA Research Challenge and a final round appearance in NIBC’s global pitch contest. Marquette students were among only 48 teams out of 1,600 initial competitors to reach the top competition tier in Vancouver, Canada.
With the College of Business Administration’s transition to its new home in O’Brien Hall, AIM now operates in the first-floor, state-of-the-art Baird AIM Lab.
Students interested in applying for AIM can do so here.
