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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Finance for Non-Finance Professionals by Rice University

4.8
stars
2,836 ratings

About the Course

This short course surveys all the major topics covered in a full semester MBA level finance course, but with a more intuitive approach on a very high conceptual level. The goal here is give you a roadmap and framework for how financial professional make decisions. We will cover the basics of financial valuation, the time value of money, compounding returns, and discounting the future. You will understand discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation and how it compares to other methods. We also step inside the mind of a corporate financial manager and develop the basic tools of capital budgeting. We will survey the how, when, and where to spend money, make tradeoffs about investment, growth, dividends, and how to ensure sound fiscal discipline. Our journey then turns to a Wall Street or capital markets perspective of investments as we discuss the fundamental tradeoff between risk and return. We then synthesize our discussion of risk with our valuation framework and incorporate it into series of direct applications to practice. This course requires no prior familiarity with finance. Rather, it is intended to be a first step for anyone who is curious about understanding stock markets, valuation, or corporate finance. We will walk through all of the tools and quantitative analysis together and develop a guide for understanding the seemingly complex decisions that finance professionals make. By the end of the course, you will develop an understanding of the major conceptual levers that push and pull on financial decision making and how they relate to other areas of business. The course should also serve as a roadmap for where to further your finance education and it would be an excellent introduction of any students contemplating an MBA or Finance concentration, but who has little background in the area....

Top reviews

JD

May 4, 2020

This class is an excellent introduction to capital budgeting and finance. It is an excellent primer for understanding how businesses can use these tools to analyze transactions.

CI

May 23, 2023

I come from untraditional background but I find this course is very helpful! The course is very well-structured, allowing me to simply and easily understand finance foundation.

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501 - 525 of 617 Reviews for Finance for Non-Finance Professionals

By GARIP M

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Aug 21, 2019

thanks

By SELCUK G

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Aug 18, 2019

thanks

By Gökhan B

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Aug 18, 2019

thanks

By ERAY K

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Jul 26, 2019

Thanks

By Анна А

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May 23, 2019

great!

By Utkarsh A

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Oct 3, 2022

Good

By CHIDINMA O S

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Aug 2, 2020

Great

By MEHMET S

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Sep 2, 2019

thnks

By DILAN O

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Aug 6, 2019

Thank

By BIPLAB D

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Mar 22, 2026

GOOD

By Leyla M

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Jun 10, 2024

good

By Vishwajeet T

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Mar 20, 2022

Well

By Asante T A

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Sep 8, 2021

Good

By Deleted A

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Dec 11, 2019

Nice

By HASAN

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Aug 31, 2019

good

By Adeyinka I G A

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Jul 17, 2021

WOW

By CEM

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Sep 1, 2019

thk

By Leslie J T P

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May 25, 2022

ok

By SONAT

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Aug 29, 2019

..

By Rizwan

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Dec 10, 2025

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By Uğur S

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Sep 1, 2019

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By VAHAP V

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Aug 28, 2019

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By AHMET Ö

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Aug 27, 2019

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By Craig E

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Jan 30, 2019

V

By shikha a

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May 23, 2021

Overall, the course is really well structured and allows someone from a non-finance background to get a good insight into finance in a fairly short amount of time. The addition of practitioner section is a nice touch as well to provide a good understanding of real world application.

However, my one major frustration with the course was that the quizzes, specifically the ones at the end did not have detailed solutions so one could not understand where they went wrong for the incorrect responses. This should be an easy fix though.