Florida State University\u2019s Herbert Wertheim College of Business<\/a> ranks among the Top 10 student-managed investment funds at public schools nationwide, according to recently released rankings published by The Center for Investment Research.<\/p>\nThe Wertheim College\u2019s SIF secured the No. 10 spot for its 2025 performance among the nation\u2019s public schools and ranked No. 23 among all schools in North America. It is the only Florida business school listed in the Top 25.<\/p>\n
Completely student driven, the FSU SIF is now valued at $11.5 million, said\u00a0Steve Perfect, vice chair of the SIF oversight board and associate professor of finance. That marks significant growth from the combined $1.3 million in private donations and Florida State University Foundation funds that kickstarted the SIF in 2008, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SIF offers our students an incredible opportunity to gain hands-on experience as portfolio managers and analysts under the guidance of faculty experts,\u201d said\u00a0Don Autore, Dean L. Cash Professor of Finance and chair of the Department of Finance. Select master\u2019s students carry out the role of portfolio managers, while top students in the college\u2019s Undergraduate Investment Group (UIG) serve as the fund\u2019s analysts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Master of Science in Finance (MSF) program as a whole really values experiential learning, and managing the student investment fund is one of our most impactful opportunities,\u201d said\u00a0Andrew Schrowang, MSF program coordinator and associate lecturer. He said students learn to pitch investments, build financial models and defend their investment strategies \u2013 skills that finance professionals rely on every day across the investment industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experience also helps our students stand out in interviews, as they can speak to real investment decisions they\u2019ve made with actual capital at stake, focusing on what worked, what didn\u2019t and what they learned,\u201d Schrowang said. \u201cMany master\u2019s graduates have leveraged this experience to land roles in institutional asset management, investment banking, equity research and wealth management.\u201d<\/p>\n
The center surveyed over 500 schools with student-managed funds and ranked them based on each fund\u2019s verified AUM (assets under management) as of Dec. 31, 2025. Funds in the Top 25 range from a high of $85.5 million at the University of Dayton, a private university in Ohio that has operated a fund for more than 25 years, to the $9.27 million fund at Oklahoma\u2019s private University of Tulsa.<\/p>\n
The Wertheim College\u2019s SIF closed last calendar year with $11.23 million in managed assets. That total also includes the college\u2019s Real Estate Investment Fund (REIF), which the college added to the SIF portfolio in 2022. Now valued at $2.7 million, the REIF is managed separately by top real estate students under the direction of faculty advisor\u00a0Mariya Letdin, Kyle Riva Associate Professor of Real Estate, and an investment committee of industry representatives. SIF and REIF share an oversight board chaired by the dean and comprised of both faculty and industry professionals. In addition to good investment decisions, the SIF portfolio\u2019s base fund, including the REIF, benefited over the years from $3 million more from the Foundation and an additional $320,000 in philanthropic investments.<\/p>\n
Finance continues to be the No. 1 major chosen by undergraduate business students at the Wertheim College and the No. 1 major selected by all undergraduate students at Florida State. The Wertheim College ranks No. 1 among all public schools, No. 5 overall, on Niche.com\u2019s 2026 Best Colleges for Accounting and Finance in America. Also, the finance master\u2019s program at FSU consistently places in the Top 25 at public schools nationwide in annual rankings by the\u00a0TFE Times.<\/p>\n
Learn more about FSU\u2019s SIF and finance department by visiting its website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Master of Science Finance (MSF) students, pictured today with Steve Perfect, associate professor of finance, serve as portfolio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[76851,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-242831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-herbert-wertheim-college-of-business","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Master](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Student_Investment_Fund.png\")
Master of Science Finance (MSF) students, pictured today with Steve Perfect, associate professor of finance, serve as portfolio managers for the highly ranked Student Investment Fund (SIF). The SIF operates out of the Peter & Mary Lee Jones Trading Room in the new Herbert Wertheim Center for Business Excellence and benefits from the trading room’s Bloomberg terminals and other technology used by leading Wall Street firms. (Photo by Kallen Lunt)\t\t<\/p>\n