Teaching
PRIVATE EQUITY STRENGTH TRAINING
Center faculty members and advisory board members help design curriculum to ensure students are fully conditioned for careers with a deep understanding of the private equity market.

A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Courses are multi-disciplinary with a heavy emphasis on finance. Students cover all of the traditional functional areas of business as well as more specialized courses covering concepts directly related to the private equity market and managing private equity investments.

PRIVATE EQUITY IN THE MBA PROGRAM

The curricula cover the broad spectrum of private equity investments, including early and later-stage venture investing, mezzanine investing, investing in established private firms, buyouts, financial restructuring of distressed firms, and private equity financing by public firms.

Students interested in a particular segment of the private equity market, such as buyouts, have the opportunity to take specialized courses in finance or entrepreneurship or design customized independent study courses with individual faculty.

FIRST SEMESTER

The general private equity curriculum in the MBA program begins in the first semester with the following core courses required of all Texas MBA students:

  • Financial Accounting
  • Statistics
  • Economics
  • Financial Management
  • Marketing Management
  • Operations Management

Private equity students also take a course on Valuation during the second half of the first semester.

SECOND SEMESTER

During the second semester, students take core and elective courses on:

  • Strategic Management
  • The Art and Science of Negotiations
  • Leading People and Organizations
  • Investment Theory and Practice
  • Advanced Corporate Finance
ADVANCED CORPORATE FINANCE

The Advanced Corporate Finance course covers essential concepts related to mergers and acquisitions, highly levered transactions, and corporate governance, among others. Collectively, the first-year courses cover many of the ideas and tools important in the second year of the MBA program. They also provide students with a solid technical base for general finance or private equity internships during the summer after their first year.

SECOND-YEAR FIRST SEMESTER

The second-year curriculum is designed to build on the skills developed in the first year. In the first semester of the second year, students take a finance course that focuses on the private equity market and another course that focuses on the Financial Management of Small Businesses. In the first course, students study the roles of, and relationships between, the major participants in the private equity market and concepts related to identifying, valuing, and financing private equity investments, managing these investments for value creation, and exit strategies. 

The second course, Financial Management of Small Businesses, provides students with a broad exposure to financial concepts that are important to managers of small businesses—from start-up through managing growth and harvest strategies. These courses are taught through lectures, case studies, consulting projects, and presentations by industry participants. In addition to the two second-year finance classes, students are advised to take Entrepreneurial Management and Financial Statement Analysis courses during the first semester of their second year. This schedule provides students with the opportunity to select one elective course this semester.

SECOND-YEAR SECOND SEMESTER

In the second semester of their second year, there are no recommended courses. Students who have taken the recommended courses during the first three semesters can choose five electives during this semester. This provides students with considerable flexibility in tailoring the program to suit their specific interests.

Group of women listening to a lecture

Private Equity in the Undergraduate Program

The private equity curriculum at the undergraduate level provides advanced undergraduate finance students with opportunities to take elective courses, attend guest lectures on private equity topics, and pursue independent study projects in private equity.

These opportunities, combined with the general requirements for the finance concentration, help prepare undergraduate students to pursue careers in private equity.

APPLY FOR AN MBA OR PHD SCHOLARSHIP

Eight $1,500 merit-based scholarships are awarded each year to first-year MBA students or PhD students interested in private equity finance. The scholarships are named in honor of the partners at Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, who provide financial support for the Center. The scholarship application deadline is December 13, 2023.

Scholarship Application