Our advice to students (not just MBA students) is to learn from the finance expert. Learning from a good teacher is a hundred times more effective and impactful than learning from an average one. Remember we read about how a good high school teacher can be valued at $100,000 plus a year! I personally think the same is true at the graduate level!
So learn Corporate finance or Valuation from the best at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Prof. Ashwath Damodaran is putting up two of his current courses entirely online. According to his blog:
a. Corporate finance class
What is it? This is my “big picture” class about how financial principles govern how a business should be run. It looks at everything that a business does, through the lens of finance, and classifies them into investment, financing and dividend decisions.
Who can use it? I am biased but I think that everyone can use a corporate finance class: entrepreneurs starting new businesses, managers at established businesses and investors valuing these businesses.
How do you join? Go to the site (http://coursekit.com/finance). Enter RWHZYG as your code and you can then register for the class. Once you are registered, you will automatically be put into this page, every time you enter the site.
b. Valuation
What is it? This is a valuation class and it is about valuing any type of business: private or public, large or small and across markets. My focus is on providing the tools that will allow you to create your solution to valuation challenges, since new ones keep popping up.
Who can use it? While investors interested in valuing companies may be the obvious target, I teach the class more generally to be useful (I hope) to managers running the businesses and those who are just curious about value.
How do you join? Go to the site (http://coursekit.com/app#course/b40.3331.damodaran). EnterEH7WZN as your code and you can then register for the class. Once you are registered, you will automatically be put into this page, every time you enter the site.
He is going to share his lecture notes, handouts, assignments and even exams with self-grading material with you. He will also put up his webcasts online so you really have almost all that a full time paying student has. The only component missing will be live feedback from the master himself.
GraduateTutor.com will try to fill up this missing component for our students by providing live support for your questions and being your group mate as you work through the assignments and projects. We are getting together the mechanics of the best way to make this happen. So if you are interested in participating, please join us below and we will keep you posted as we get this going.