UofC Finance Peeps: Question on 400 level courses

[Mckenzie]

Well I need to take a finance option for my CASB program and here are the one open next year. I was just wondering if you guys had any input on which the EASIEST course would be. I'm taking a pretty heavy load next semester and do not need to go crazy in another one of Haskayne's make work projects.

FNCE 473: New Venture Finance (no instructor mentioned)

FNCE: 479: Corporate Risk Management with Lee

FNCE 595.14: Mergers & Aquisitions with David

FNCE 595.03: Corporate Risk Management with Lehar

The new venture and mergers and aquisitions sounds pretty neat, but I am registered in 479 right now...these are the only one I have to choose from.

Thanks for any input you might have!

[Gainsbarre]

479 is by far the easiest but you will learn the least. Ryan is a great guy though.

In order of workload (from highest to lowest):
473
595.03 (F&O isn't easy..on that note, DO NOT take 445)
595.14 (lots of tough case studies)

479 (MUCH easier than the other 3)

[Gainsbarre]

BTW instructor for 473 will be the same Chinese guy that was the TA for FNCE 317 (Zhenyu Wu).

[Mckenzie]

hmmm.....how come new venture finance is so much work? It sounds like an interesting class...

Thanks for your input :)

[Gainsbarre]

Well new venture used to be 595.07 before they gave it a proper number. People who were in 473 the last time it was taught (fall 2004) all say that it was the best class ever, but a ton of work...there a bunch of case studies where you have to make huge reports on how the company can receive financing, why they should, financial projections/forecasts, risks & contingencies, and so on. I know that there were at least half a dozen 15+ page reports the last time 473 was taught. 473 in fall 2004 was also the semi-famous class where the prof (Jeff Dunphy) was out of control during the presentations...swinging golf clubs, knocking golf balls around the room, breathing down people's necks, trying to knock presenters over, and of course, lots of profanity. His objective in all that was to replicate what it's "really" like in i-banking. A lot of the assignments in Dunphy's 473 were emailed out (without prior warning) around noon on Tuesdays...and they would be due in class at 6:30. It got to a point where everybody was trying to anticipate what the assignments would be so that they could start them beforehand because 6 hours (even with 5 people working on it) just isn't enough!

Anyways, check Jess Chua's ratings on the Infonet for when he taught FNCE 595.07 (he's teaching FNCE 785 this semester...new venture finance for MBAs, so look up that course, then instructor ratings. Notice what students thought of the workload..it appears that the majority of respondents said that the workload was "much higher"). Chua is Wu's PhD supervisor, so I suspect that the workload will be just as intense.

[Mckenzie]

Wow thats crazy! It sounds interesting but I know I'll die with that and 4 other 4th year business courses. I did like Zhenyu Wu though....could not really understand him that much but he seemed very intelligent and approachable.

Maybe I'll just stick with 479 then. :thumbsup: