Luke McClellan is one of 25 students enrolled in the school’s inaugural MSF program.

Degree of Difference
MSF program makes strong debut

Coming to Krannert with degrees in the classics, a Peace Corps assignment in the Middle East, and service work in Africa, Luke McClellan isn’t a typical management student.

But the school’s new Master of Science in Finance (MSF) program isn’t typical, either.

Launched against the growing backdrop of a global financial crisis, the inaugural year of the program paid early dividends by attracting a diverse group of students focused on the fundamentals — working hard, working right, and working together.

That initial success is at least partly by design, says Krannert finance professor David Denis, the school’s Burton D. Morgan Chair of Private Enterprise.

“We perceived a demand for a one-year, specialized degree in finance that would leverage core classes in finance, economics, accounting, and quantitative methods,” Denis says.

“The current MSF curriculum shares some features with our MBA program, but offers a set of courses that are more tailored to finance students and conducted over a more concentrated time frame.”

After an initial module of classes in the summer, explains Denis, MSF students then take a fixed set of courses during the fall and spring semesters. This allows them to complete the 40-credit-hour MSF curriculum in just 10 months.

The market responded favorably to the new program offering.

“We had an unexpectedly large number of applications, from which 25 were selected for admission,” says Denis. “These students have generally performed well in the classroom and hold their own with our more experienced MBA students.”

With individuals like McClellan in the lead, the program’s strong start makes sense even in a contracting economy.

A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, McClellan earned bachelor’s degrees in theology and classic Greek from the University of Notre Dame; he spent his junior year in Ireland studying at Trinity College, Dublin. He considered pursuing a master’s and PhD in biblical studies before following his travel and service instincts to the Peace Corps.

McClellan frames his decision with a reference that suggests Purdue’s role in his later, greater search: “I asked myself if I wanted to be an astronomer or an astronaut, and decided I wanted to be where the world was changing. The Peace Corps took me in that direction.”

After two years of youth and community development work for the corps in Jordan, he moved on to Ethiopia for another year of service work while an important decision formed in his mind.

“I realized that what people needed and wanted most was financing,” he says. “I started reading about micro-financing and learning how to apply basic business principles on a much smaller scale in a developing world.

“In theology, I took a series of assumptions, ran them through valid, logical models, and made conclusions and decisions based on that process. I learned that I could do the same thing in finance, only in a different domain.”

Returning to the United States in 2006, McClellan took a position with a small community bank, where the lessons were brought home. “I was in a microcosm that exposed me to all operations of the bank and allowed me to discuss issues with executives and managers on every level,” he says. “I learned the semantic domain of business.”

Meanwhile, McClellan also considered his avenues for continued education. As might be expected, his choice was pragmatic.

“The state of Indiana has three great business schools, but I wanted an intensive, one-year program that focused specifically on finance,” he says. “Krannert was the best option.”

Today, even after the global changes of the last months, McClellan remains confident in his path. In many ways, the turmoil has become part of his education.

“The MSF curriculum is excellent — every class is integrated and in sync with one another,” he says. “The economic crisis is a topic we cover in class almost every day. In business school, you’re inexorably linked to the market.”

McClellan serves as MSF class representative for the Krannert Graduate Student Association (KGSA). He would like to take his career back to the nonprofit sector one day, but expects to find service work of a different variety in the world of corporate finance.

“It’s a tough job market for anyone, but I’m not worried,” he says. “I think the offers will come from one of the many small, private firms that are still profitable rather than Wall Street or a Fortune 500 company. There will be plenty of demand for people who have the skills and desire to do what’s right.”

And so there remains plenty of reason for optimism as the world, the Krannert School’s MSF program, and Luke McClellan continue to evolve.

“The Krannert administration has been very responsive to change and improvement,” McClellan says. “When you’re blazing a trail, you don’t tend to look behind. It will be nice to reflect back in 20 years as a member of the MSF program’s first class and see where it’s come from here.”