Introduction
Relevance: BI's new strategy emphasizes making courses "relevant" for both students and employers in the business world. In finance, this means developing practical courses that enhance our BSc students' employability. Microsoft Excel stands out as the most crucial software skill demanded by employers, who expect new graduates to demonstrate high proficiency from day one. This makes FIN 3616 one of the most valuable courses in our BSc Finance program, as it is the foundational course that develops students' Excel skills from intermediate to advanced level throughout the three-year program.
FIN 3616 is structured to maximize relevance by combining weekly three-hour lecture with three-hour Excel workshops (including synchronous and asynchronous material). The workshops are intended to enable students to "learn by doing." They are essential for mastering Excel and involve problem-solving using current, real-world data relevant to business practice. For instance, students work on comprehensive problems such as:
- Developing retirement planning solutions through age 65, where students incorporate realistic lifetime expenses such as saving for a house down payment at age 30, wedding expenses, and tuition costs for their expected children who might study in the US where education isn't free. Students analyze these real-world planning decisions alongside expected business cycle fluctuations, including economic booms and busts throughout their lifetime. This allows them to understand, in numerical terms, the impact of interest rates and investment returns on early-life savings and investments.
- Solving portfolio optimization problems using a hypothetical $100,000 investment across 15 actual stocks (including Tesla, Apple, and major banks) with real-time data updates. While students may have heard about portfolio theory in previous courses, working with real-time data in FIN 3616 and using Excel brings these concepts to life as they construct stock returns and portfolio covariances.
- Learning to work with live stock price data while applying theoretical concepts to optimize portfolio allocation, maximizing returns while minimizing volatility through proper diversification of idiosyncratic risk.
Furthermore, students download financial statements (balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements) from Bloomberg and stock prices from sources like Yahoo Finance to determine the valuation of companies such as Apple. They then compare their theoretical valuations against actual market prices, analyzing whether companies are overvalued or undervalued, and make investment recommendations as financial analysts. This practical approach encourages deep thinking about model assumptions and how they might need adjustment to align with market valuations.
In conclusion, FIN 3616 serves as a cornerstone course in the BSc program, enabling students to apply theoretical concepts learned throughout their studies through practical Excel applications.
FIN 3616 has a midterm to be submitted as a group with other classmates. This often represents the first opportunity in the BSc program where students solve complex problems in groups, exposing them to the benefits and challenges of working with peers outside their immediate friend circle—a common situation in professional settings. The midterm not only focuses on Excel usage and VBA coding but also challenge students to think critically about theoretical assumptions and effectively communicate their group solutions in writing.