Wednesday, August 24, 2005

St. Bonaventure University: Graduate Success - The Class of 2004

St. Bonaventure University: Graduate Success - The Class of 2004

Expectations matter. I am always concerned when undergraduates feel they will be making $100,000 right out of school. Therefore I highly recommend that you take a look at what the class of 2004 at SBU did.

There are of course many caveats (responder biases galore and these are for all majors not just finance or even just business) but it is a starting point to establish expectations. (and yes I realize the link says 2003, so it may be a year off, but either way you have some idea of what to expect.

From the report:

AVERAGE STARTING
SALARY
NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS PERCENT
Less than $15,000 3.36%
$15,000—$19,999 8.05%
$20,000—$24,999 16.11%
$25,000—$29,999 14.77%
$30,000—$34,999 32.89%
$35,000—$39,999 16.11%
$40,000—$44,999 6.04%
$45,000—$49,999 0.67%
$50,000—$54,999 2.01%
$55,000 and higher 0 0%

Monday, August 22, 2005

Podcasts for class

Yes ladies and Gentlemen, something new for the new semester: podcasts!

I expect to use them to review what was covered in class and to give a few clarifications of challenging and important topics.

Right now I have a few recordings done. I will have these linked on our class pages as well, but since some past students may want to see how these work, I will also post these here.

  1. How we will use Podcasts
  2. Welcome to Finance 301
  3. Welcome to Finance 401
  4. Introduction to Market Efficiency

Thursday, August 18, 2005

EconLog, The Economics and Philosophy of Pity Grades, Bryan Caplan: Library of Economics and Liberty

Bryan Caplan of the Econlog says it better than I can.

EconLog, The Economics and Philosophy of Pity Grades, Bryan Caplan: Library of Economics and Liberty: "students should get the grade they earned. And this has nothing to do with how much higher grades would benefit them. Students who demonstrate their knowledge of the material deserve high grades, and students who demonstrate their lack of knowledge deserve low grades, and that's all there is to it. In short, morally correct grading is about merit, not need."

I do not give away grades, you earn them :) Or at least that is my goal!

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Latest News and Financial Information | Reuters.com

Latest News and Financial Information | Reuters.com: "NEW YORK, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The typical U.S. broker is 'quite satisfied' with his or her career, according to a study released Tuesday by a clearing unit of Fidelity Investments.

Fidelity's National Financial said its study, released in the form of an index, showed the overall satisfaction level of brokers to be 5.4 on a scale of 1 to 7, with the highest number indicating 'fully satisfied.'"