Bloomberg Terminal Preps Business Students for Demanding Job Market

Despite a steep rise in subscription fees, the School of Business Financial Learning Center has renewed access to its Bloomberg Terminal, a prized, professional-level electronic research and training tool utilized by business people worldwide as a real-time market database.

Words by Matt Huston '12

Despite a steep rise in subscription fees, the School of Business Financial Learning Center has renewed access to its Bloomberg Terminal, a prized, professional-level electronic research and training tool.

Utilized by business people worldwide as a real-time market database, the Bloomberg Terminal provides a special opportunity. Through two, eight-unit interactive training programs, students interested in business may earn Bloomberg Certifications in Fixed Income and Equity Market.

“Since Bloomberg is widely used by financial professionals throughout the world, students gain a competitive advantage by earning Bloomberg certification while still in college,” Tammy Lynn Dieterich, assistant dean of the School of Business, said.

Each certification requires the successful completion of eight unit exams. Three units are introductory and five are subject-oriented. Students who complete one or both of the certification programs receive a certificate directly from Bloomberg L.P., the financial news and data company that grants terminal users access to its second-by-second information stream.

“The terminal is an amazing resource for a student—a resource that is highly overlooked and underappreciated,” Mario Smeriglio ’10, a rising senior finance major, said. Smeriglio has used the terminal extensively for class work and research projects, and his certification ultimately helped him attain a summer internship with the Bloomberg company.

Bloomberg Certification and additional operations are open to all TCNJ students, not just finance majors, Dieterich said. Students have used the terminal for independent research, class projects, and for management of the Student Investment Fund—a student-run, $155,000 stock market portfolio.

A recent jump in the cost of maintaining the terminal posed a challenge to the School of Business. Bloomberg’s suspension of academic discounts lifted the price from an already costly $8,000 a year to about $23,000 a year. Nevertheless, Dieterich maintains that the Bloomberg Terminal, even at triple the cost, is an invaluable utility for students at the College.

Bloomberg programs put students in touch with real-world business procedures—“In today’s challenging job market,” Dieterich said, “this is perhaps more important than ever.”