UC Davis Working Professional (Bay Area) MBA course review
MGB 205A: Financial Theory and Policy with Brad Barber
Date evaluated: Spring 2009 at the Bay Area Working Professional San Ramon campus.
Official course description: Covers the fundamental principles of corporate financial management and capital markets. Major topics include general valuation methods for risky cash flow streams, capital budgeting, asset pricing models, risk management, equity financing, debt financing, and dividend policy.
The real course description: Time value of money. Net present value (NPV). Stock and bond pricing. Capital budgeting. Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Cost of capital. Market efficiency. Capital structure (debt vs. equity). Options.
The professor: Brad is a rockstar. He knows everything about the topic, is pretty good at explaining the material, and is a nice guy to boot. There were times where he could have brought the material together a little better to remind us why we were focusing on learning a particular topic.
The course: The book was very good. Assignments were interesting. The final was brutal, very difficult.
The grade: I got an A-. That means I lost my 4.0 GPA. Bummer, dude. I give Brad and the class an A- as well, although he probably deserves an A.