Consumer Science course catalog

All 50 recorded UW–Madison courses in this department, including courses not offered this term. Open a course for prerequisites, historical grades and instructors.

  • CNSRSCI 111: Financial Life Skills

    1 credits

    Applied personal finance in college and after graduation. Financial values and behaviors, debt and credit, housing, transportation, retirement planning, investing, spending and saving plans.

  • CNSRSCI 175: Introduction to Consumer Finance

    3 credits

    Introduction to consumer finance and the concepts and methods used in consumer planning and financial management. Topics covered include budgeting, credit, investing, insurance, taxes, retirement, estate planning, mortgages, and an introduction to behavioral finance. Discuss methods for calculating, planning, and allocating resources to attain specific financial objectives.

  • CNSRSCI 201: Consumer Insights

    3 credits

    Provides basic training in quantitative data analysis, with an emphasis on descriptive and inferential statistics with consumer research applications.

  • CNSRSCI 250: Consumer Marketplace Leadership Symposium

    1 credits

    Provides detailed examination of careers in the consumer marketplace industry. High level industry experts from leading companies in the industry participate as guest speakers and panel members.

  • CNSRSCI 251: Financial Services Leadership Symposium

    1 credits

    Provides detailed examination of careers in the financial services industry. High level industry experts from leading companies in the financial services industry participate as guest speakers and panel members.

  • CNSRSCI 255: Consumer Financial Services Innovation

    Credits unavailable

    Experience the current financial services market from the perspective of real families. Design, develop and evaluate innovative solutions to improve service or address unmet needs.

  • CNSRSCI 257: Introduction to Retail

    2 credits

    Foundational knowledge of the retail industry including the retail process, the evolution of the industry, key drivers and trends and concepts to support retail study.

  • CNSRSCI 273: Finances & Families

    3 credits

    For the majority of Americans, money and family life is intertwined. Learn about the basics of relationship formation and dissolution, gender and family dynamics and the psychology of money with the goal of encouraging financial equality among members of families of all types.

  • CNSRSCI 275: Introduction to Personal Financial Planning

    3 credits

    Introduction to consumer finance covering techniques of personal sector cash flow, asset and liability management, life cycle financial planning, investment management, tax planning, retirement, and estate planning. Analysis and evaluation related to personal financial planning.

  • CNSRSCI 299: Independent Study

    1–3 credits

    Directed study projects for freshmen and sophomores as arranged with a faculty member.

  • CNSRSCI 301: Consumer Analytics

    3 credits

    Leverage data analysis to drive consumer business decisions via the telling of a compelling, evidence-based story. Structured to 1) provide you with a core process by which data analysis can produce effective business actions, 2) build your analytical abilities to execute the process and 3) establish a method by which analytical results can be transformed into effective stories. The process and methods studied will have application across a broad range of careers.

  • CNSRSCI 340: Building Financial Assets and Capability for Vulnerable Families

    3 credits

    Learn how to assess and prevent household financial problems and improve financial security. Based on the context of vulnerable households, financial services and public policy, focus on skills related to managing cash flow, credit and debt, saving for emergencies and long-term goals.

  • CNSRSCI 355: Financial Coaching

    3 credits

    Financial coaching is an approach influenced by the fields of positive psychology and behavioral economics to help individuals build financial capability. Prepare for financial, social work, and asset building services.

  • CNSRSCI 357: Consumer Behavior

    3 credits

    Analyses from social and psychological perspectives. Motivation, perception, learning and attitude formation. Effects of social class, family structure, cultural backgrounds and reference groups. Not open to students with credit for CNSR SCI 657 prior to Fall 2026.

  • CNSRSCI 360: Sustainable and Socially Just Consumption

    3 credits

    Examines how consumers influence sustainability and social justice through their purchases and how policy and globalization influence their choices.

  • CNSRSCI 390: Financial Life Skills: Peer Education Techniques

    Credits unavailable

    Examine student learning and development to become effective peer educators in the Badger$ense Financial Life Skills program. Learn about common financial issues college students face. Develop knowledge and skills related to interpersonal and group communication, the impact of leadership, group learning and how to create a positive financial learning experience.

  • CNSRSCI 477: The Consumer and the Market

    3 credits

    Analysis of the consumer's market, consumer's behavior, and government policies affecting the consumer in the American economy.

  • CNSRSCI 501: Special Topics

    1–3 credits

    Specialized subject matter of current interest.

  • CNSRSCI 555: Consumer Strategy Consulting Practicum

    3 credits

    Design thinking and strategic planning frameworks applied to consumer challenges. Working with an outside client, develop evidence-based solutions and implement them with contingency planning. Evaluate impact with objective recommendations for future action.

  • CNSRSCI 561: Consumer Engagement Strategies

    3 credits

    Exploring applications of consumer behavior and insights in developing strategies for consumer engagement.

  • CNSRSCI 562: The Global Consumer

    3 credits

    Key issues in international retailing with consideration of the global consumer.

  • CNSRSCI 564: Retail Financial Analysis

    3 credits

    Provides tools for planning and analyzing retail financial performance. Includes elements of retail financial statements, pricing, purchasing terms and conditions, merchandise planning, inventory control, and economic factors that impact retail businesses.

  • CNSRSCI 567: Product Development Strategies in Retailing

    3 credits

    Merchandise product development planning through market trend analysis, assortment planning sourcing production.

  • CNSRSCI 579: Consumer Policy Analysis

    3 credits

    Analysis of consumer policies enacted and proposed at federal, state, and municipal levels; application of economic analysis to consumer laws, public policies and regulations; study of the process of creating and enforcing legislation and impacts on consumers' well-being.

  • CNSRSCI 601: Consumer Science Internship

    Credits unavailable

    A supervised internship providing hands-on training in a professional experience in consumer science related fields.

  • CNSRSCI 603: Retailing Internship

    Credits unavailable

    A supervised internship providing hands-on training in a professional experience in retailing related fields.

  • CNSRSCI 627: Advanced Consumer Finance

    3 credits

    Studies financial markets and instruments from the perspective of individual consumers and their portfolio decisions over their lifetime.

  • CNSRSCI 635: Estate Planning for Financial Planners

    Credits unavailable

    Analysis from a financial planner's perspective of the process of planning the accumulation, conservation, and distribution of an estate, in the manner that most effectively and efficiently accomplishes an individual's personal tax and non-tax objectives.

  • CNSRSCI 645: Retirement Planning for Financial Planners

    Credits unavailable

    An introduction to retirement planning concepts and analysis with attention to designing retirement strategies to meet various client situations. Focus given to plans and approaches to meet retirement income needs while taking into account the dynamics of the household. Explore how values, behaviors and psychological factors influence retirement choices and financial well-being.

  • CNSRSCI 665: Household Risk Management

    3 credits

    Application of advanced analytical techniques to examine household financial risk. Implications for financial planning of changes in family structure and earnings. Private and social insurance that guard against economic consequences of death, disability, ill health, retirement, marital dissolution. Use of financial planning software.

  • CNSRSCI 675: Family Financial Counseling

    3 credits

    Systems approach to family financial management, stressing development of interpersonal techniques by professionals who will assist individuals and families to become responsible financial managers.

  • CNSRSCI 680: Senior Honors Thesis

    Credits unavailable

    Individual study in honors as arranged with a faculty member.

  • CNSRSCI 690: Senior Thesis

    Credits unavailable

    Individual study as arranged with a faculty member.

  • CNSRSCI 699: Independent Study

    1–6 credits

    Directed study projects as arranged with a faculty member.

  • CNSRSCI 748: The Economic Organization of the Household

    3 credits

    Studies family behavior and family outcomes using an economic framework. Covers theoretical models of consumption, fertility, household production, time allocation, and household formation. Knowledge of microeconomic theory [such asECON 301] recommended.

  • CNSRSCI 768: Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Social Science

    3 credits

    Introduction to empirical consumer science research methods, with an emphasis on application. Covers different types of data structures commonly encountered, statistical properties of data, bivariate and multivariate linear regression models.

  • CNSRSCI 775: Household Finance and Well-being

    Credits unavailable

    Provides an overview of major theories in household finance, financial literacy, financial capability. Evaluates programs and strategies designed to improve consumer well-being by changing household financial behaviors, building household financial assets, and regulation of consumer financial markets.

  • CNSRSCI 778: Causal Models in Household and Consumer Research

    Credits unavailable

    Research on the application of modern econometric techniques commonly used in empirical consumer research with an emphasis on causal inference.

  • CNSRSCI 820: Health and Financial Well-being

    Credits unavailable

    Explores the interrelationships of health, health insurance, the health care system, and financial well-being. Provides an in-depth understanding of how the financing and delivery of health care affects consumer financial health, as well as consumer financial health as a central determinant of individual health.

  • CNSRSCI 830: Families and Households in Communities

    Credits unavailable

    Examines how local communities inform family economic well-being. Explores the intersection of people and organizations using quantitative and qualitative techniques.

  • CNSRSCI 851: Measuring Household and Community Well-being

    Credits unavailable

    Provides broad knowledge of major quantitative measures of consumer well-being. Investigates construction of and literature on well-being measures across various domains.

  • CNSRSCI 852: Advanced Consumer Policy

    Credits unavailable

    Studies the intersection of behavioral economics and public policy. Explores the effect of deviations from rational economic behavior on consumer well-being. Analyzes the impact of policy design on consumer well-being across a variety of policy domains.

  • CNSRSCI 888: Advanced Consumer Behavior

    Credits unavailable

    Provide a broad-based knowledge of the consumer behavior literature. Develop skills to be an active researcher in fields that require an understanding of consumer research.

  • CNSRSCI 901: Graduate Special Topics in Consumer Science

    1–3 credits

    Specialized subject matter of current interest.

  • CNSRSCI 920: Consumer Science Graduate Workshop

    1 credits

    Develops professional skills. Provides opportunities for presenting research and respectfully critiquing the work of others.

  • CNSRSCI 930: Seminar in Family Economic Policy

    3 credits

    Topics on family economic well-being and the social and consumer policies that influence economic behavior and family economic status.

  • CNSRSCI 990: Research and Thesis

    1–12 credits

    Independent research and writing under the supervision of a faculty member.

  • CNSRSCI 999: Independent Study

    1–3 credits

    Directed study projects as arranged with a faculty member.

  • CNSRSCI/HDFS 465: Families & Poverty

    3 credits

    Introduction to research at the intersection of family and poverty studies. Learn how family behaviors vary by socioeconomic status; how romantic relationships, childbearing, and childrearing may be implicated in poverty; what the consequences of poverty are for family functioning and children; and about the role of policy in influencing families and poverty.

  • CNSRSCI/RELIGST 173: Consuming Happiness

    3 credits

    Explores the study of happiness and well-being, examining how consumption, money, and the experience economy intersect with the pursuit of a fulfilling life. Covers topics such as positive psychology, prosocial spending, and the psychology of persuasion, drawing on both academic research and popular media. Incorporates visual media and provides opportunities to assess the effectiveness of these concepts in real-life contexts.