BA-954
FINANCE IV
Not in Fall 2026
Term
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that teaching clarity stands out. The main downside is that grading clarity comes up as a friction point. Best for students who want a structured class rather than chaos. The sample is still thin, so treat this as directional rather than definitive.
DepartmentFUQUA
Terms offeredSpring
Typical enrollment10–10
Semesters of data1
8.0
Hrs / week
6
Responses
10
Enrollment
60%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.7
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.8
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.8
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
4.2
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysislow
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 13 comments across 1 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that teaching clarity stands out. The main downside is that grading clarity comes up as a friction point. Best for students who want a structured class rather than chaos. The sample is still thin, so treat this as directional rather than definitive.
Student Reports
How hard is the A?
Hard to get an A
Students repeatedly frame high grades as something you have to earn. This reads as hard to ace rather than casually easy, especially once the course pace or grading standards ramp up.
Homework Load
Heavy homework load
Homework load is one of the clearest friction points. Students repeatedly describe assignments, readings, or problem sets as time-consuming.
Lecture Load
Regular lecture load
Lectures matter here, but the evidence points to a fairly standard lecture burden rather than a course dominated by long or exceptionally dense lectures.
Student Responses
(1) developed an understanding of the ideas covered in the empirical asset pricing literature (2) practiced thinking about problems like an asset pricer: models tell you what to look at in the data, but looking at data is hard so there is active discussion, and that leads to new models; be careful not to not lose sight of economic intuition when working through math, etc. (3) Anna's teaching was itself a good example of how to explain difficult concepts intuitively. For example, she explained the SDF as a distortion of physical probabilities.
Spring 2025 · Cieslak, Anna
This course has helped me learn important aspects of the empirical and theoretical underpinnings of asset pricing on multiple levels. First, I think it provided the basics of theoretical asset pricing, including consumption-based asset pricing and the theory of fixed-income asset pricing. Second, it provided an extensive review of existing literature and empirical evidence. Finally, it helped me to get familiar with commonly used empirical methods and data sources.
Spring 2025 · Cieslak, Anna
- Overview on the main active research topics on Empirical Asset Pricing. - Computational Implementation of the main methodological tools in the field. - Critical thought on recent research in Empirical Asset Pricing.
Spring 2025 · Cieslak, Anna
- knowledge about asset pricing models - methods in analyzing empirical work - skills in working through complicated empirical problems/replications - A solid background in asset pricing theory
Spring 2025 · Cieslak, Anna
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2025 | Cieslak, Anna 0.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality0.0Difficulty0.0Based on 0 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.7 | 4.2 | 8.0 | 10 |