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

4.8
stars
2,793 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

CI

May 22, 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.

GL

Sep 25, 2022

V​ery good course and materials. Learned a lot. The pace was very fast for me and had to watch some classes more than once, but they provide all the information needed for this subject,

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551 - 575 of 609 Reviews for Finance for Non-Finance Professionals

By Daniel C

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Apr 3, 2020

Really high level introduction to financial concepts. The professor does a good job in building the intuition behind concepts.

By P C

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Apr 14, 2017

Some concepts are a little difficult for a non finance person. However, so far it seems very interesting and useful!

By Michel D

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Mar 24, 2018

Good refresher on NPV, ROI, Cashflows.. Little bit shallow on "reading" income statement/ balance sheet.

By Sahil J

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May 9, 2020

A couple of concepts like stock markets work, what are dividends should have been taught in detail.

By aaron y

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May 4, 2020

Some of the test questions contained information that was not covered thoroughly in the chapters.

By Diego A G C

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Aug 21, 2017

Very helpful, but defining essential concepts and additional real world examples would be useful.

By Bruno A F M

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Nov 22, 2019

I think there should be more exercises, and better relation between theory and exercises

By Marilyn C

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Aug 18, 2020

It started quite interesting but by the last weeks it became quite flat and monotonic.

By Izabella O

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Apr 10, 2022

Ich fand diesen online Kurs sehr gut um den ersten Kontakt zum Finanzen aufzunehmen.

By LI L N

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Aug 2, 2025

it has helped tremendously in my understanding as a non-finance professional.

By Bassam E K

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Jun 29, 2017

Very good course for non-finance professionals seeking management jobs.

By Sam W

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Feb 13, 2018

Good course but lacking in back up for instructors if you get stuck.

By YASAR U P

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Aug 29, 2019

Thank you . Some additional accounting examples may be helpfull

By BHATE C P

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Jul 21, 2020

A really helpful course for beginners in Finance field.

By Tariq A H

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Nov 22, 2020

Was very challenging going through the final week 5 HW

By Ayleen M A H

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Aug 22, 2019

Very helpful but would like to see more practice

By Francisco C

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Apr 30, 2024

Great for a high-level overview of Finance

By John C

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Jul 21, 2024

good for pre MBA for non finance folks

By EKJOT S

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Aug 1, 2020

question 7 in capstone quiz is wrong

By Roselle J

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Jan 17, 2021

Interesting but very difficult

By Akkas A

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Jun 4, 2020

capstone project is to taught

By Jessica F

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Aug 6, 2020

Wonderfully communicated!!

By CHRISTIAN D

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Apr 5, 2023

Good overview of finance

By Ganthi M r

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Jul 12, 2020

Learning soo many things

By Avinash K

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Jun 2, 2022

eellent xperiexperience