Personal Financial Planning, Ph.D.

About the Personal Financial Planning Graduate Programs

The School of Personal Financial Planning supervises degree programs leading to the Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning and the Doctor of Philosophy in Personal Financial Planning.

M.S. students must earn a C or better in all courses unless otherwise noted. Students must average a 3.0 GPA to maintain good standing with the Graduate School and to graduate. Up to 6 hours of PFP courses can be transferred into the M.S. degree from another university.  Students must earn a B or better in courses transferred into the degree program.  Ph.D. students are required to earn a B or better in all courses counted toward their degree.

Graduate degree programs in personal financial planning are registered and regulated by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board), a national recognition. The mark of CFP^® identifies a financial planning professional who has met educational standards, passed the CFP^® Certification Examination, satisfied a work experience requirement, and agreed to the CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The terms CFP^® professional and Certified Financial Planner™ represent the most respected professional certification in the financial planning profession. The “core required courses” are required for students to be educationally qualified to sit for the CFP^® Certification Examination. Students with upper-division undergraduate, graduate, or certificate coursework in a CFP Board Registered Program are permitted to substitute the courses completed successfully in their prior education program with elective classes at the discretion of the M.S. Program Director in collaboration with the student upon review of the student’s transcript and M.S. degree goals. Those with an active CFP^® certification are eligible to substitute all “core required courses” with other classes.

A graduate student using Veteran Education benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is considered full time if they are enrolled in 3 credit hours in one 8-week course term in the School of Financial Planning’s Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning degree. 

Admission. Applicants may apply to a graduate program by visiting the Graduate School website or by visiting the School of Personal Financial Planning website. Applicants will have two options to choose from when completing their application: on-campus and synchronous online.

About the Personal Financial Planning Doctoral Program

This doctoral degree requires a minimum of 60 semester hours of graduate work beyond the bachelor’s degree, exclusive of credit for the dissertation. Up to 28 hours of leveling classes may be required for students who have not completed a CFP Board-Registered financial planning program (25 hours) and a statistics course that equips the student to pass a leveling statistics examination (3 hours). Students develop their courses of study in consultation with a graduate advisory committee. Following the completion of introductory (foundations), skills (statistics and theory), and application (research) collateral coursework, a qualifying examination for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree will be conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Graduate School.

Admission. Applicants may apply to a graduate program by visiting the Graduate School website or by visiting the School of Personal Financial Planning website. Applicants will have two options to choose from when completing their application: on-campus and synchronous online. If a student chooses the synchronous online option and is participating in a dual-degree program, there may still be an on-campus requirement for the courses required outside the School of Personal Financial Planning.

Contact: Dr. Stuart Heckman, 806.834.0979, stuart.j.heckman@ttu.edu; or Esmeralda Torres, 806.834.1115, esmeralda.torres@ttu.edu