COMM 4710

Professor Baker is fresh out of the PhD program so sometimes he emphasizes things that you'll never really need to know in real life. He is really nice and tries really hard, but the course ended up being kind of pointless because most people learned everything in it during their 3rd year and then the new information that was taught wasn't taught very well. Going into the final exam, almost everyone had an A/A- and then he put a problem worth 35% of the grade that no one had ever seen before on it solely designed to bring down the class average (even if you had all of your notes out and the textbook, you still couldn't answer it based on what we learned that semester). He was definitely less work than other Investments professors (no midterm, only a quiz every other week and homework once a week) but the final was pretty strange. Course grades haven't been released yet, so definitely ask around how this weird final affected everyone's average before taking Investments with Baker!

I have very mixed feelings about this professor. He is a very nice guy and very willing to help outside of class. His lectures are extremely dry however, with him basically reading off of powerpoints. Many people I know did not attend class because he did not take attendance. The class was very straightforward until the final, with homework assignments once a week (takes about 1-2 hours and you can work in groups) and quizzes every other week (almost identical to the homework questions). The final was tough with an average of 61%. However, if you actually understood the concepts at a deeper level you could have done reasonably well. Bottom line, the class is a bit of a nuisance with all the homeworks and quizzes, but given that Baker will probably improve as a professor he is a decent choice for Intermediate Investments.

Professor Baker is a great guy! Very helpful and very approachable. He would really help you understand concepts and answer questions during office hours. Incredibly patient. No midterms. The quizzes are not too bad although final is kind of a killer. But most people I know get good grades because of good homework and quiz grades. Take his class.

Professor Baker was a very nice guy who was always willing to help, however he often taught right off of the slides and never uploaded answer slides to collab therefore you had to go to class to understand many of the concepts. Also, many of his ideas were theoretical rather than common practive, howver if you want a good great take this class because he curved my 68 in the class to a B-.

This class is tricky because you kind of feel like you're going to fail the whole time, but then he ends up curving everything up so the lowest grade is a C+ (he designs the class average to be a B+). Basically there are weekly homework assignments, bi-weekly (ish) quizzes, a project, and a final exam - no midterms. The homework assignments take a while but are open-note open-classmate so they're not bad if you collaborate. The quizzes are a little trickier, but really prepare you for the final. The project is super open-ended which was intimidating, but he is super open to ideas and from what I can tell he graded them pretty easily (our group felt somewhat clueless and got a 94). The final is NOT as bad as the reviews below - he must have changed it up, because it basically mirrors the quiz questions, and there aren't too many points allocated to any one topic, so you won't get screwed for not knowing one thing. My raw grade in this class was a 75, which was curved up to a B+. You're going to be bored in lecture, but the lecture notes are helpful. Baker is just really too smart to teach clueless students like me, but is super nice and really does try. Overall, you'll probably feel uncertain about your grade throughout the semester, but just know that the massive curve will probably help you out if you stay around the average on quizzes and get 10/10 on your homeworks.

To give an updated perspective: this class isn't horribly hard, but it really is boring, cumbersome, and will slightly dampen your 4th year. Baker gives some of the driest lectures I've encountered during my time at UVA. This stems from the fact that he is a quant type dude and some of the content is inherently dry. As a result, a good 95% of the class doesn't look up from their computers throughout the entire lecture (myself included). ESPN will be the only thing keeping you awake. There is weekly homework (2-4 hours of work each) and bi-weeklyish (total of 5 between August - October) quizzes (2ish hours of studying each). Quizzes require study of homework/lectures and NOTHING else (don't even bother buying the textbook..maybe download it online). Can't stress that enough - the quiz I got destroyed on, uncoincidentally, covered the homework I didn't understand at all. Make sure you understand the homework beyond the surface level. Throughout November, there isn't a whole lot of new content or normal lecture as the month was mainly dedicated to the group project, which was interesting and easily graded. The final was hard, but not ridiculous - the median was 75%. As covered in other comments, the class is curved to a 3.3 average. ~27% of kids enrolled got a B+ in the class, 26% got an A-, and 14% got an A during my semester. Overall, this class is annoying but will teach you some stuff that you should know if you wanna be an investor, and Baker is a nice, fair, and goofy guy that is more than willing to help you along the way.

This class made me question my finance concentration. For those that did not do an investment or banking internship over the summer (aka me), they were screwed from the beginning. Unlike most of the class, I listened to all his lectures (although definitely zoned out as Baker's lectures are confusing and boring) and attending all classes. He taught to the highest denominator and assumed everyone had experience through summer internships with investing. I had a hard time discerning between Baker's research and material we would actually need to know on the quizzes/test. He would always ask for questions, but I felt that all of my questions would be deemed~ stupid~ by him, so I never asked them. Baker wasn't very approachable and because he knows so much, is rather arrogant when dealing with students. I thought I'd end up with the average around B+ coming into the test with average or above average on all the quizzes, but his final (the first and only test of the semester) was extremely hard and put me slightly below the average. Basically- I feel like I learned nothing now and question why I even concentrated in finance after taking this class. TAKE THIS WITH ANOTHER PROFESSOR!