Courses at Simon Graduate School of Business - University of Rochester.

Off late, lot of first year students have been approaching me to get some advice on the courses they should take next year. So, I decided to put up a brief post on my blog related to my experience with the courses at Simon Graduate School of Business....But needless to say, these opinions might be biased.....

Following is the list of all the elective courses I took at Simon School of Business (no need to comment on the core courses as you can't do much about it - you need to take them whether you like it or not):

1st Year

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Winter:

• Financial Statement Analysis : Awesome course, Prof Wasley is a great professor, a must course for someone looking for a career in investment banking or equity research.

Spring:

• Investments : Awesome course, a must course for someone looking for a career in portfolio management, trading or equity research .
• Corporate Finance: Again one of the great courses at Simon School, Prof. Smith is a high class professor, he has got his own unique style of teaching, a must course for any finance related job.

2nd Year

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Fall:

• Financial Institutions : Awesome course, a quite useful course for someone looking for a career in capital markets especially risk management related jobs. (Unfortunately, because of some job related commitments, I wasn't able to put the efforts I would have liked to in this course...Result - struggled a little during my internship at CIM - CIGNA Investment Management)
• Cases in Finance: Again one of the great courses at Simon School, Prof. Jarrel is a high class professor as he also has got his own unique style of teaching. A must course for any Investment Banking or equity research. But I would recommend every Simon School student to take this course as it is just not a course but it is an awesome experience.
• Financial Reporting I: I took this course as I wanted to concentrate in Corporate Accounting. Many times during the course, I got frustrated. May be because the other professors had set very high standards and hence expectations. But at this moment, I realize, how valuable that course was. Anyone looking for a career in accounting or equity research, don't miss out this course.
• Application of corporate finance in Health care: I took this course as I wanted to learn about health care industry. It turned out to be one of the most useful for course for me as the Professor helped me a lot to prepare for my interviews at CIGNA and Aetna...And even now when I am covering health care industry as an equity research associate, lot of times I refer to his notes..:)

Winter:

• Investment Management & Trading Strategy : Again one of the great courses at Simon School. For Professor Burnside what to say - just one fact - he got "Superior Teaching Award" for 2009 - says everything. He also helped me a lot in my job search. This course is a must for anyone looking for a career in Portfolio Management and Trading but anyone interested for any career in finance should take this course.
• Pricing Policies : One of the courses you definitely want to take at Simon School. Take a break from finance and accounting course and do take this course...Good Course, great professor.
• Futures & Options : Content was good but professor...hmmm..May be didn't suit my style....take this course if you love futures and options and you feel that you would never take initiatives to study about them on your own. Otherwise, I will take a miss.
• Advanced Managerial Data Analysis : Professor Schwert is highly regarded in the industry. This is an advance version of GBA - I will call it as GBA III. For anyone interested in market research and analysis or quant related jobs, this course would be extremely helpful.

Spring:

• Financial reporting II : I registered for this course to delay my graduation and get my concentration in my corporate accounting. Not compelling enough for me. But I believe, this would be an useful course for someone looking for CPA track.

Some other courses, which I would recommend (though I didn't take them):

• International Economics
• Macroeconomics - Great Professor and excellent course.

Other than that, on my job front, it is like "Dream come True" and I am enjoying every bit of it. Little hectic but great experience so far.......