Faculty: 3 full-time, 2 non-tenure track,
3 extension, 1 tenure track opening,
3 adjunct
Student-to-faculty ratio: 48: 1 ten-ure-track faculty, 33: 1 including non-regular faculty
Tuition: For an online course, $485
per graduate credit hour (a certificate
requires 18 hours and an M.S. requires
42 hours). For classroom courses, Mis-
souri residents seeking an M.S. pay
$269.40 per credit hour with $411.34
in other fees; nonresidents seeking
an M.S. pay $470.30 per credit hour
with $411.34 in fees; for a resident B.S.
(14hours per semester) $9,272; for a
nonresident B. S., $22,440.
FPA student chapter: Yes
Profile: The University of Missouri
is home to the oldest departmental-
level financial planning program in the
country, but it took a while to get there.
In the 1960s, the program was the
Department of Family Economics and
Management before becoming the Col-
lege of Home Economics. In 1987, the
name changed to the Department of
Consumer and Family Economics and,
finally, in 2000, the Personal Financial
Planning Department, three years after
the program was registered with the
CFP Board. “It wasn’t that we wanted to
be the first one at all, it’s just that I got
tired of explaining what we do,” says the
department chairman, Rob Weagley,
only half-jokingly. The program offers
a certificate track and several degree
tracks, including a Ph.D. Larger univer-
sities resist elevating financial planning
to departmental status, Weagley says,
because they focus on “pure” or theo-
retical finance, which is largely divorced
from real-world financial needs. “But at
programs like ours,” he says, “all we care
about is the application. We care about
the people.”
San Diego State UniverSity
San Diego
CFP Board-registered programs
(online and in person): B.S. in
financial services with a certificate in
personal financial planning; M.S. in
financial and tax planning, executive
financial planning advanced certificate
Enrollment: 115 in bachelor’s, 16 in
master’s, 22 in executive
Faculty (full-time and adjunct): 15
for bachelor’s and master’s programs;
5 for executive
Student-to-faculty ratio: 9: 1
Tuition: For a California resident
seeking a bachelor’s degree, $3,538
per semester; nonresident bachelor’s,
$9, 118 per semester. For a California
resident master’s, $3,952 to $7,567 per
semester (depending on course load);
nonresident master’s, $6,184 to $12,031
per semester. For an executive certifi-
cate, $7,416 for the complete program.
FPA student chapter: Yes
Profile: The oldest, continuously oper-
ating financial planning program in the
country, San Diego State University’s
program resides in the finance depart-
ment of the business school. That
placement was a conscious choice by
Tom Warschauer, who founded the
program in 1980 and still runs it. Pro-
grams in some other universities share
space in home economics or even
communications departments. SDSU’s
new capstone course — which the CFP
Board mandated this year for all its
registered programs — covers counsel-
ing and communication skills as well
as financial planning software. “There
are at least a half-dozen areas that are
important in our program,” Warschauer
says. The graduate degrees require rig-
orous specializations in either wealth
management or tax planning, in addi-
tion to regular planning courses. The
programs were the country’s first to
be at a school certified by the Associa-
tion to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business, and all courses are for credit.
The school said that 32 students sat for
CFP exams in 2011 and that 67% of the
bachelor’s students passed, along with
80% of the master’s students and 60%
of the executive students.
Should programs focus on helping
students pass the CFP Board’s certifying
exam, or provide them with a more
well-rounded education as planners?
texaS tech UniverSity
Lubbock, Texas
CFP Board-registered programs
(online and in person): 11, ranging
from undergraduate to Ph.D., including minors and dual graduate degrees
in financial planning and business or
law, and one certificate
Enrollment: 100 PFP undergraduate majors, 60 undergraduate minors
(studies in personal finance), 90 PFP
master’s students (including dual-degree law, dual-degree MBA, and
dual-degree finance majors), and 33
PFP Ph.D. students
Faculty: 12 full-time, 2 adjunct
Student-to-faculty ratio: 16: 3 for the
PFP major courses
Tuition: Texas-resident undergraduates ( 12 hours) $3,760 per semester,
out-of-state undergraduates $4,471 per
semester, Texas-resident graduate students ( 12 hours) $4,359 per semester,
out-of-state graduate students $8,570
per semester.
FPA student chapter: No
Profile: This September, in a historic move, the well-known finan-
