Sharing classroom space with undergrads

The investment banking class meets every Monday and Wednesday. On Mondays our instructor, who flies down from New York City, gives us a four-hour walk through on how to do valuation models and every Wednesday we have a guest speaker. Past speakers include Gary W. Parr (via teleconference) from Lazard Freres and Hugh McColl, for whom the building was named after. But the most interesting aspect of the class is that about 10 out of the 50 students are undergrads. These are juniors or seniors who have accepted a job offer from an investment bank and whom the school has deemed will benefit from the course.

The presence of undergrads makes for some interesting dynamics. Earlier today our instructor was talking about the difficulty one encounters with using the discounted cash flow method to predict the value of a company. He used AT&T as an example and said no one in 1984 would have predicted the path it would take in the years since the breakup. He then paused and asked who in the room was born after 1984 and all the undergrads raised their hands. Later on when we were putting together a discounted cash flow model on Excel, the undergrad cutie sitting next to me was having trouble with some formulas. I gallantly offered my services. But just as I was getting somewhere, the T.A. physically inserted his presence between us and said “perhaps I can be of assistance.”

 

At the end of class, we formed study groups to work on our assignment due next week. My study group consists of three MBA students and three male undergrads. I have been told that because the undergrads receive a letter grade for the course while the MBAs receive the standard pass/fail, the undergrads tend to outperform the MBAs on these assignments. It will be interesting to see if this is evident within our study group. And in case you are wondering, I asked the undergrad cutie if she was in a group and her response was “oh I am in a group already, thanks for asking.”

 

Bummer.