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

4.8
stars
2,678 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

RM

Aug 16, 2020

This is a very well designed course. Taking you through basics and in the end puts you in a real business scenario where you are expected to take a decision based on the tools and concepts you learnt.

KH

Mar 27, 2020

Great Course, Very solid start for those who are trying to enter Finance world.

It makes you love this field if you are not familiar with it and have no previous experience.

Great Job Professor.

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26 - 50 of 596 Reviews for Finance for Non-Finance Professionals

By Varun R

Feb 17, 2018

I love the enthusiasm the Professor shows and having taken this course out of my own interest (pun intended), I find it thoroughly enjoyable and practically useful.

By Alaa H

Nov 12, 2017

I would like to thank you for this amazing course, it is very helpful for non-finance and financial people at the same time. I believe it will help me in my career.

By Alex F

Apr 4, 2021

if you want to learn how businesses operate without going in depth, this course is for you!

By Vishesh A

Jun 20, 2020

Course content is presented in a well-organised and logical manner. It is an excellent course if you want to review concepts of capital budgeting (like NPV, IRR, WACC, cost of equity, cost of debt, and DCF analysis). The professor uses Excel to solve problems, and the capstone case is also Excel-based, which adds another layer to the course. Overall, this short course if very good for reviewing basic concepts of capital budgeting, but might seem slightly difficult for those who have absolutely no background in finance.

By yash m

Apr 23, 2019

An exceptional course that teaches all the basics of financial world to the professionals form every field. Concise modules which are taught very enthusiastically by the professor.

By Daniel V V

Apr 25, 2021

Content from the videos is not very coherent with the quizzes, capstone case and final exam. The quizzes, capstone case and final exam are significantly more difficult than what is presented in the videos. The vocabulary and terms they utilize in the videos is not the same as what is on the quizzes, capstone case and final exam, making it difficult to interpret what you need to calculate and whatnot.

By Kaitlyn L

Aug 28, 2020

James Weston's teaching style is great - he's enthusiastic, knowledgable, and simplifies the complex. As someone who was slightly intimidated by the concept of learning finance (which I have to do as a prerequisite for my graduate program), this was very easy to follow and grasp. This is basically a crash course for everything you need to know to get started on capital budgeting, taught in a logical, easy-to-digest format. Highly recommend to anyone that wants to get the basics down and can do the work with confidence by the time the course is over.

By Kevin H

Nov 27, 2019

The course in general covers the most essential topic in finance that regular non-finance folks may wonder: how finance helps a company run by providing the tools and methods for the management to make sound decisions. The instructor goes through all the topics with clear and easily understood explanations while giving insights about the practical use in the finance field. Overall, I genuinely enjoy the learning process in this course, and I would like to express my gratitude to Professor James and Ms. Christine for sharing their knowledge with us.

By Enrique A P E

Sep 7, 2020

Professor Weston was great at keeping me interested since he's able to explain all the financial terms in a way that someone who has never taken finance course beforehand could understand. The course was also structured in way that facilitated this understanding with more advanced topics introduced until later weeks while also helping reinforce previous subjects by touching upon them again. I'm now even more interested in going deeper into many of the topics. Thank you!

By Deleted A

Apr 2, 2020

This is my first finance course where I have learnt the basic concepts, principles and tools to analyze finance problems. Overall this course is well-designed and the professor is very engaging. The final capstone case is a nice one to put everything together, although more clarification would be helpful. It would also be useful if some concepts and terminology could be explained more clearly via more practical examples. Thanks for the efforts for creating this course.

By Adithya N

Jun 19, 2023

I recently completed the "Finance for Non-Finance Professionals" course on Coursera and I must say it exceeded my expectations. The material was presented in a clear and concise manner, making complex financial concepts accessible to someone like me with no background in finance. The course provided practical examples and real-world case studies, which enhanced my understanding. Highly recommended for anyone looking to enhance their financial literacy!

By Jaime N M

Feb 14, 2019

Very happy with the overall content, organization and curriculum of the course. It has allowed me to pear inside the world of finance from a theoretical and practical point of view. The exercises and problems presented proved challenging enough to seek external resources to further my understanding and of the appropriate level to not fall into frustration. Thank you Cousera, Rice university and Professor Weston for putting together this course.

By LUA C H

Nov 25, 2020

Great course overall. Professor James Weston was articulate and interesting, often giving real-life examples or different ways to explain the points he was trying to bring across. I believe I now have a basic understanding of the underlying principles of finance. Would recommend Prof Weston to conduct intermediate and advanced level finance courses so students (like myself) could continue to build on the principles taught in this course.

By H3nry_T

Mar 21, 2021

definately one of the best online courses I took. its available to audit and provides some solid information and is nicely presented. explanations were clear and the reading material was actually quite good. my financial literacy was already quite good but this actually made it even better. I've always understood financial statements and the stock market however I now under stand the maths behind valuation models. very beneficial.

By ABHIJIT S

Apr 4, 2020

Good Day

Dear Sir , Ma'am ,

I sincerely thank Rice University and Coursera Platform for this opportunity .

Thanks and Warm Regards.

ABHIJIT SENGUPTA

Portfolio URL :

https://about.me/abhijitsengupta

Website : www.pactolianconsulting.com

E - Mail : abhijit@pactolianconsulting.com

Kolkata , India

Skype : abhijit.sengupta357

Ph. : + 91 33 25907110

Cell : + 91 9163863607

Whatsapp : + 91 8017648297

+ 91 6290750012

By Iain S

Apr 15, 2019

This is the best introduction to Finance I've ever received, and I worked alongside a Finance department for two years! The Finance concepts are made easy to understand and the quizzes are challenging enough to keep you going without being put off. I'd recommend this course to anyone who wants to understand how finance in business works, as the depth it goes to is pretty impressive for how short the course is.

By Jennifer R H

Sep 6, 2020

Finance may not be easy, as always, but it is still worth learning when it comes to math-related terms. It helps grow the knowledge of bonds, stocks, cash flows, initial investments, etc. as well as math formulas related to finance. Plus, I can use Excel to help make complicated things easy (ie. NPV, IRR). I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in finance, but with no experience (just like me).

By Deleted A

Mar 9, 2017

Excellent course to give an overview of the Financial World. If you want to know the finances of your project or what the Finance Department in your organization does, this is the course to take. The course strikes the right balance between theory and practical examples and perfect for learners with little or not Financial experience. A big thanks to Professor Weston. Loved and enjoyed the course.

By Patrick M

Sep 18, 2020

This is a great course for non-finance professionals. The course expectations can be met even with a working schedule and other outside commitments. The time level required to complete is reasonable. The instructor does an excellent job presenting the material and the capstone project brings it all together in a "real world" environment at the end. Overall I enjoyed the class very much. Thanks!

By Gabriel G

May 20, 2023

El curso es excelente pero fui engañado con una redacción tramposa y creyendo que el curso era gratuito hice toda la primera semana. Al finalizarla, realicé el examen final de la primera semana y al intentar enviarlo (recién ahí, no antes) me exige un pago para continuar.

En este momento me siento engañado y frustrado.

Consultaré a mi abogado sobre lo que considero una trampa de Coursera.

By Vipul a

Oct 1, 2023

Very important course for any individual and learner who want to learn about finance. Sir James Weston teaches it very well, the examples he used are well customized and easy to understand. His way of communicating the course and topic is pitch perfect. Last capstone project is simple and well documented, the only problem is there are not more of such cases in the course to solve.

By Qiuyang J

Jun 21, 2020

Would one hundred percent recommend this course, professor Weston is really good at explaining details of vague concepts and provide you with many questions to practice.

One thing I would say is that the final capstone case is harder than expected, so you might need to consult your previous notes and read the context very carefully. Overall, great class I have ever taken online!

By Sitanshu V P

Jun 11, 2020

The way the professor has explained things is really noteworthy. Understanding the concepts to initiate more reading is the most important aspect i found in this course. Please suggest more reading resources if possible. Forums need to be more active as well.

Thank you for introducing finance. I will definitely make use of this knowledge for further transactions with finance.

By Adlirrahman A M

Jul 22, 2020

Mr. James Weston is such a great instructor! I was able to understand most of these materials because of how clear the deliverance to us (viewer). Slight problem with The Capstone Case which has several 'unclear' instructions/questions. But overall it was challenging. As long as you follow the course carefully, you will pass all the assignments with great understanding.

By Colleen H

Mar 11, 2019

Very helpful course. I have a liberal arts background, but the instructor makes the content and concepts easy to digest for anyone. It's a well-organized course so you feel like you're building on what you're learning each week. It definitely made me feel more confident in my career change from the non-profit space to business. I highly recommend this course.