A Whirlwind Start to the MFI
Aileen Arcilla `02
Issue date: 2/13/01 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 1
As soon as I got back from winter break on January 7, I encountered the first part of the Managerial Finance Immersion (MFI) Practicum taught by Professor Roni Michaely. (The second part will occur later in the semester). During this week I had classes Monday through Thursday AND a case analysis due at 5:00 p.m. that evening, with discussion on that case for an hour and a half afterwards. Basically, we waste no time. My days went from 9:00AM to 6:30PM for four straight days. Thank goodness Prof. Michaely provided coffee and bagels for us the whole week; we needed all the energy we could get!
Our class went right into topics such as different valuation techniques, signaling to the market, and Modigliani and Miller's theory on a firm's optimal capital structure. We even talked about options again to understand how to value corporate securities (something I honestly thought was left behind in the finance core!)
It seemed strange that the schedule was so condensed (especially with a case analysis due soon after our lecture). However, Prof. Michaely explained that if he gave us more time (aside from the 4-5 hours that we had scheduled), we may not have gotten any closer to a reasonably correct answer. He also wanted to ensure that our schedules were freed up during the next few weeks due to spring recruiting. He has a point, but I still wish that I had had some more time to review the cases.
I must admit that at first I did not fully understand everything discussed during the practicum, but Prof. Michaely assured us that once we started Valuation Principles, everything wouldl become much clearer. So I waitd patiently...
As soon as that week was over, Valuation Principles started the following Monday. I must admit that I also looked forward to the class because I had heard so much about Prof. Bhaskaran Swaminathan (or Professor Swami as he is known throughout the school). All because a former student told me the following: "Swami rules!" Well, I am not disappointed. The class has been AWESOME. Prof. Michaely was right. All the information that I got from the practicum now begins to make sense. More importantly, Prof. Swami teaches in a way that makes you understand the concepts almost immediately. And as a side benefit, I get to learn very quickly how to maximize the use of Excel; there is a lot of spreadsheet work in this class.
We have just begun the other MFI courses - financial statement analysis, cost accounting and the strategy core. There's not much to say about these courses at this point. However, I will say that even though the first two weeks were packed with classes and a lot of information to absorb, I have learned so much. These two courses have answered so many questions that I had about finance in general. So, despite the whirlwind schedule, I am happy that I chose MFI for my spring semester. Now, if only I can figure out how to get free bagels along with the coffee-I've become somewhat spoiled with that perk...
Our class went right into topics such as different valuation techniques, signaling to the market, and Modigliani and Miller's theory on a firm's optimal capital structure. We even talked about options again to understand how to value corporate securities (something I honestly thought was left behind in the finance core!)
It seemed strange that the schedule was so condensed (especially with a case analysis due soon after our lecture). However, Prof. Michaely explained that if he gave us more time (aside from the 4-5 hours that we had scheduled), we may not have gotten any closer to a reasonably correct answer. He also wanted to ensure that our schedules were freed up during the next few weeks due to spring recruiting. He has a point, but I still wish that I had had some more time to review the cases.
I must admit that at first I did not fully understand everything discussed during the practicum, but Prof. Michaely assured us that once we started Valuation Principles, everything wouldl become much clearer. So I waitd patiently...
As soon as that week was over, Valuation Principles started the following Monday. I must admit that I also looked forward to the class because I had heard so much about Prof. Bhaskaran Swaminathan (or Professor Swami as he is known throughout the school). All because a former student told me the following: "Swami rules!" Well, I am not disappointed. The class has been AWESOME. Prof. Michaely was right. All the information that I got from the practicum now begins to make sense. More importantly, Prof. Swami teaches in a way that makes you understand the concepts almost immediately. And as a side benefit, I get to learn very quickly how to maximize the use of Excel; there is a lot of spreadsheet work in this class.
We have just begun the other MFI courses - financial statement analysis, cost accounting and the strategy core. There's not much to say about these courses at this point. However, I will say that even though the first two weeks were packed with classes and a lot of information to absorb, I have learned so much. These two courses have answered so many questions that I had about finance in general. So, despite the whirlwind schedule, I am happy that I chose MFI for my spring semester. Now, if only I can figure out how to get free bagels along with the coffee-I've become somewhat spoiled with that perk...