Three students from the Whitman School of Management passed a prestigious financial analyst examination during the summer.

Daniel Popa and Angad Rajpal, both second-year MBA students, as well as Jing Hua, a second-year Master of Science in finance candidate, passed level one of the Chartered Financial Analyst examinations. In order to be certified, students must pass all three levels of the exam.

CFA certification is an important asset on a financial analyst’s resume, according to Ravi Shukla, the Whitman School’s associate dean of master’s of business administration and masters of science programs, Ravi Shukla.

‘CFA certification is a signal to the marketplace that the person is highly qualified, and it opens many opportunities,’ Shukla said.

However, not all companies require it.

‘It isn’t the gold standard yet, but it will be,’ Shukla said.

After looking at some jobs in the field, Rajpal saw that many jobs require an MBA along with a CFA certification. Popa also decided this exam was necessary.

‘If I want a good job, I have to take it, and it’s better to start while in school,’ Popa said. ‘It’s easier in an academic environment. It takes three years to finish, so you should start as soon as possible.’

The classes the students took at Whitman helped to prepare them for the exam.

The students timed practice exams of the CFA so they could take relevant courses to prepare them, Rajpal said.

However, the students had to do a considerable amount of studying on their own.

‘Besides the academic foundation, we didn’t do much,’ Shukla said. ‘It was totally their initiative. We are very proud of them for doing all of this on their own.’

The CFA recommends 250 hours of studying, said Rajpal. It required the students to be very disciplined.

Hua, because of her job, was unable to study enough during the school year, so she stayed on campus for the first month of summer vacation.

‘I studied for 10 hours a day, because I can’t afford to take it a second time,’ she said. ‘Summer here was boring. I watched more movies that month than I did for the entire semester. It’s an investment in my future; it cost over $800 for level one.’

The students took the exam in New York City, but it can be taken in many major cities around the world. The test takes three hours in the morning and three more in the evening.

‘You have a minute and 20 seconds for each multiple choice question, so there was time pressure,’ Popa said.

The Whitman school wants to continue encouraging students to take the CFA exam.

‘In the future, we want to provide incentive and encouragement,’ Shukla said. ‘The test and the necessary books have a significant cost, and we would like to subsidize some of it.’

The three students will be taking level two next June.

Published on September 12, 2006 at 12:00 pm