The Finance and Accounting Certificate Program provides working professionals with the fundamentals of financial management using the resources of one of the world's leading business schools.
A program lasting as little as two semesters, participants will acquire top-level skills in accounting, economics, and corporate finance that will allow them to advance their careers. The program emphasizes the application of classroom learning to practical decision making in the workplace.
The program is designed primarily for working professionals who do not have a background in finance and accounting. Courses are held in the evenings in state-of-the-art teaching facilities at Jon M. Huntsman Hall on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. During the spring and fall, classes meet one evening a week. Summer classes meet two evenings per week.
Faculty members are appointed by the Wharton departments for their subject area expertise and their ability to maximize the learning and networking opportunities that can arise from across a select, highly motivated group of professionals.
WPWP recommends that courses be taken in the order outlined here; other sequences can be planned with a WPWP program representative. Financial Accounting must be taken in a student's first term and Corporate Finance should be the final course taken.
During the fall and spring semesters, classes meet one evening per week, and participants can take one or two courses. In the summer, classes meet two evenings per week, and participants may enroll in one class per session. The certificate can be completed in as little as two regular semesters or in one regular semester and two summer sessions. All courses earn post-baccalaureate credits from the University of Pennsylvania.
Courses are taught by Wharton professors and industry leaders who are appointed for their subject expertise, teaching skills, and ability to offer networking opportunities to course participants.
Professionals with nonbusiness degrees who need to understand finance and accounting to advance their careers.
Professionals early in their careers who want to change to finance and accounting.
Those who have risen to a high level in a specific discipline such as science or technology and who need to acquire skills in finance and accounting to advance into senior management.
Professionals in the early or mid-stages of their careers who have no formal business training and want an introduction to finance and accounting before applying to an MBA program.
Entrepreneurs seeking formal business training in order to enhance their own management skills.
Applications must be filed according to the following schedule of deadlines:
For the Spring term beginning January 14, 2009: no later than November
21 (Extended to December 5, 2008)
For the Summer session I beginning May 26, 2009: no later than April
17
For the Summer session II beginning July 6, 2009: no later than May
22**
**For the Saturday Business Essentials Certificate Program, the Summer session
begins May 30, 2009 and ends August 15, 2009. All materials must have been received
by the Summer I deadline of April 17.**
For international applicants, deadlines are:
For the Spring term beginning January 14, 2009: no later than October
31
For the Fall term beginning September 9, 2009: no later thanJuly
10
WPWP-ELP Alliance students may notbegin certificate
study in the summer sessions.
Fees for the 2008-09 academic year will be $2,893* per course.
* Includes $78 tech fee not charged during the summer sessions. Tuition is subject to change.
WPWP certificate courses receive full post-baccalaureate accreditation from the University of Pennsylvania and so often qualify for most companies' tuition assistance programs. In addition, Penn offers loan programs, details of which are available at www.sfs.upenn.edu.
For more information, or to apply, please contact:
Wharton Programs for Working Professionals
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
255 South 38th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104.6359
215.898.2888 phone
215.386.4304 fax wharton-wpwp@wharton.upenn.edu
“I chose this course because it was a way to understand U.S. accounting principles and to learn the vocabulary of U.S. finance. It was a totally different type of learning.”
Arnaud Dubary, Belgium-based worldwide controller of chemical operations at Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson
