MATH 5140

The course was a very interesting and one of the few practical courses for financial mathematics concentration along with probability. Holt is much better than the other professors who teach it because he focuses much more on practical application rather than theory. Relatively easy homeworks each week along with coding assignment to be done in R (Called R-Signments by Holt) make up a lot of your grade and is an easy boost. Holt assumes that the class has no coding experience and teaches you R as part of the class. Tests are entirely fair and Holt is a great lecturer. Absolutely take this class.

TAKE THIS CLASS WITH HOLT!! He is by far the funniest and most down-to-earth math professor I've had at UVA. The mathematics behind derivative securities is super interesting and actually useful (I've taken plenty of less useful abstract math courses). Holt is really thoughtful of students in this course and does his best to make things interesting when he can. He's also really understanding of students' time and schedules, so he is fairly flexible about homework due dates.