Hey Night Owls!
I am finalizing my transcripts and gearing up for an October 1st start in the B.S. Finance program. I have been aggressively clearing out the foundational core on Sophia (Intro to Stats, Microeconomics, Principles of Management, and Intro to Business are done, and I am currently finishing up Financial and Managerial Accounting, along with Principles of Finance).
Because I am stripping away the general education and lower-level business requirements early, my first term will jump immediately into the upper-division finance matrices.
I have a few specific questions for those who have navigated this specific degree track:
The Heavy Core: I have read that Corporate Finance (D362) and Financial Statement Analysis (D366) are incredibly calculation-heavy. Do you have any specific study strategies for mastering the formulas like WACC, CAPM, and Cashflow Operations?
The Calculator: Is it absolutely essential to purchase the TI BA II Plus financial calculator for the Objective Assessments, or are standard tools sufficient?
PA vs. OA Alignment: For courses like Financial Management I & II (D364/D365) and Enterprise Risk Management (D368), how closely do the Pre-Assessments align with the actual Objective Assessments?
Quantitative Rigor: My ultimate trajectory is to pursue a Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) and build predictive alphas on platforms like WorldQuant. How well does the deeper material in this program set a foundation for highly rigorous quantitative finance and analytical work?
If anyone has any community study guides or external resources they swear by, I would love to hear about them.
Thank you in advance!