COMM 3030

(*Review of ICE from Fall 2024)

If you have little/no interest in pursuing Finance and/or you didn't do very well in Comm 2010/Comm 2020- this class is going to be quite stressful! I'm concentrating in Marketing & Management and didn't realize that Blocks (3 & 4) taught by Professor White usually end up with a large portion of students concentrating in Finance/Accounting so I felt really behind/confused a lot of the time. Since the previous reviews don't really mention how the class is for students who struggle with/aren't into Finance, my review is going to focus more on perspective of those students (as that was my experience)!

Class content builds of topics from both Financial & Managerial accounting and goes along with the Intermediate Accounting I elective. While you don't technically need to have had previous interest in topics related to Finance, a lot of the formulas & assumptions you'll need to justify your answers (both in class & on exams) require you to remember topics discussed in economics/accounting prerequisites- I didn't really like those classes (partially due to some struggling in the classes) so I didn't retain much information, and therefore was kinda lost during class discussions. If you are someone who needs some time to process/understand information, this class is also not the greatest, as it is quite fast-paced.

Being completely honest, since I was hoping for at least a B- in the course, I study pretty heavily for exams but didn't really do so otherwise. If you aren't satisfied with that grade, I'd suggest setting aside a good amount of time (5-6 hrs) every week to invest in studying/reviewing for this course. To all my Marketing students and/or those who don't like Finance- I see and recognize your efforts to get into McIntire, so stay strong and keep going!! :)

If you want to learn finace (either as a finance concentration or not) then be in block 3/4 with white. You will learn more in one class with White than my friends in other blocks learned the whole year. He ties in strategy and QA a lot on class and every class is a case so its super interactive. We use tools and learn higher level finance concepts that many other blocks do not. Be prepared for class through or you will be lost.

Professor White (Block 3/4) always makes class entertaining and uses simple analogies to explain complex financial concepts which is very helpful. He truly pushes you not only to learn finance, but to really understand it- we had to make our own Financial Toolkit Models on Excel which took hours, but was great experience to understand how certain items tie together and great to talk about during interviews. Make sure you participate during the Case Study days. There are 2 exams, the first is short answers, some MC, the second is all MC and I thought it was much harder so make sure you do well on the first one.

Professor White teaches the Finance component of ICE for Blocks 3&4. He is very passionate about what he teaches and will challenge you in class, so make sure you come prepared. I learned so much from this class in such a short period of time.