COMM 3040

Basically every class you read a case and/or articles(s) and then he spends 75 minutes mostly rambling about his thoughts and feelings about the text. Strategy is so pointless I don't understand why we have to take the class with him. We could be learning about the tax code and instead we have a grumpy middle aged man asking us vague questions and putting us to sleep for 75 minutes. Literally not a single person had a single clue as to what his portion of the project was asking for. He asked us to perform some tasks that his class in no way prepared us for. To clarify, the tasks were things that any student at UVA could accomplish. But I guess it takes 75 minute lectures with Marcel in order to do random things *strategically*. What a joke

3040 is split into 3 parts: Strategy, Finance, and OB which focus on M&A. For strategy, follow Marcel's way of doing things (you should know by now) and you'll be fine. There's a take home exam for that portion. Finance was in my opinion the hardest part of this course. The homework cases take a while to do, but make sure you do them otherwise it's hard to participate (and cold calls weren't uncommon). White's exam was in-class, and very hard (all short answer). OB was chill, and if you did well first semester, follow the same strategy. Make sure you memorize notes to study for the midterm and participate actively in cases. The M&A project itself was kind of a pain. However, Block 3 demolished all other blocks, every team in our group got the highest selling price if they were the seller or the lowest buying price as the acquirer, quite a few teams even negotiated the other blocks outside of their planned ZOPAs.

Have to take the class. I wish Block 3/4 teachers were more understanding of the fact that everyone was focusing more attention on interviews than class.