Daily Schedule
Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST. Live on Zoom.
Essentials of Finance
A 100% free pre-college summer program — online — for students everywhere.
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Program Overview
Essentials of Finance is a highly selective, intensive one-week program introducing high school students to personal and corporate finance fundamentals. Participants gain understanding of the time value of money, risk and return, equities, and valuation models — and apply them in a peer-collaborative capstone project.
Graduates earn a Bridge Institution Certificate of Completion plus a Wharton Global Youth Certificate. Admissions are reviewed on a rolling basis.
What You Need to Know
What You'll Learn
- Personal finance fundamentals — time value of money, budgeting, taxes
- Corporate finance — capital structure, financial statements, decision frameworks
- Valuation and investing — discounted cash flow, comparables, multiples
- Fixed income and equities — instruments, markets, risk and return
- Capstone project — applied case study with peer review
2025 Program Dates
- Session 1: June 9 – 14, 2025
- Session 2: August 4 – 9, 2025
Application Deadlines
- Priority: June 26, 2025
- Final: June 2, 2025
Who Should Apply
High school students in grades 8 – 11. International applicants welcome.
Admissions Criteria
We review applications on a rolling basis. Strong applicants show curiosity about finance and economics, evidence of follow-through, and the ability to collaborate.
Program Faculty & Instructors
- Alina Markutsya — Academic Director
- Agrim Jain — Program Leader
- Parth Shah — Program Leader
- Samuel Ma — Instructor; Wharton Global Youth alum, 20% annual portfolio growth, 2nd in Northern California at the National Economics Challenge, 4th place California State Speech & Debate Championship.
