Comments:FIN 4350 - Honestly the worst class I have taken at Baylor. For starters the canvas page is a complete mess, their is absolutely no structure and half of time spent on the homework is spent trying to find it. Second off the professor is a generally nice guy but is difficult to understand and spend 30-40 min a class trying to show you how to navigate his canvas page while simultaneously reprimanding you for not listening to his videos which are also hard to follow. If that was not already bad enough he gives these insanely long homework assignments that he just expects you to know how to do. I gained nothing from this class except a few excel shortcuts and a lot of heachache.  - Grade In Class:C+

Comments:4350 - This class was very challenging. I will echo what has been said in virtually all reviews for this class; It is incredibly important to get a good group. I will say that even with a good group, there are certain parts of the homework as the class progresses that Excel can't handle through cloud sharing. We ran into many technological issues which made a few of the big homework's extra challenging and tough to collaborate on. Be ready to improvise and know everyone's strengths and weaknesses. Make sure you've got a decent computer. Being strong in Excel prior to this class is NOT needed but will help with speed. Prof Macias makes this clear. I did learn many Excel shortcuts which was a huge plus of this class. As it relates to the instructor, Prof Macias is incredibly kind and always willing to help. He does an excellent job of bringing faith into class and begins every class with the word of God. He is always willing to help but will not hold your hand. He also does an excellent job at not revealing too much information so don't try to ask for answers or drawn-out hints. You will be challenged in this class but you will also be challenged in life so don't be scared to take a chance on it. Best of luck.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - First, this class is very informative and will equip you to make your own financial models and structured analyses in the future. Most of what you will use in this class comes from the previous Excel knowledge you should have. If you are lacking in this area, I recommend brushing up before the semester starts. The rest of what you will learn is advanced techniques that can set you apart in the workplace or other classes. Second, Dr. Macias is the best part of this class. He is always available and more than willing to help whenever he can. I even met with him several times outside of office hours, which was generous of him. If you don't understand something or need help, he will guide you toward solving the problem independently. Don't expect him to give you the answer or tell you if yours is correct. Make sure to do any prework, as the lectures can be pretty swift if he expects prework completion. He happily answers any questions and treats each student with the utmost respect. Third, I implore you to select a quality group with similar goals and ambitions to your own. Put extensive thought into the people you group up with. If you choose the groupmates poorly, you will be on the hook for all the work. Trust me, this is not something you want, as the work is extensive and challenging at points. Start as early as humanly possible and put extra effort into making your projects stand out (once they are correct). If you can take any class taught by Dr. Macias, do it. This will be one of the best experiences you can have with a professor. He has plenty of industry knowledge and a skill set accessible to any of his students willing to ask. Plus, he has genuine regard and care for each of his students. Couldn't recommend him more!  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - I don't think the class is difficult in its contents, but I do think this class is frustratingly taught and structured. First of all the canvas is a mess, basically a flood of information and it's tough to pick out what you need to know vs what you don't. I'll lay out a bunch of tips and info to be better prepared for this class. 1) YOU NEED GOOD GROUP MEMBERS. The homeworks in this class are all done in a group that you choose at the start of the year, if you do not pick good people for your group, you will end up doing most of the work yourself, and it will be awful (I know from experience). 2) Class time is essentially just extra practice (basically useless but you still have to show up). You will be learning from videos he posts on canvas and he expects you to have watched before class. He will also spend half of class saying "you should have watched the videos." The videos mainly go over how to do excel functions and practicing with different analysis techniques. They are INSANELY helpful when doing homeworks, since the work he does and the practice excel files on canvas show you exactly how to conduct analysis on homeworks as well. 3) Lastly, this is a class you can't really slack in. You learn close to all of the contents needed for this class in the first half of the semester, then spend the rest of the semester working on homeworks and the final DCF project. Try your best to NOT get behind in this class, so pay attention to the videos, understand how to do the excel work, and beleive me this class can be a lot easier than people make it out to be, you just have to stay ahead of the game. The final is also just an excel file where you demonstrate all the analysis techniques you've learned during the semester. You can work on the file at home and is not that difficult. Good luck!  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 Financial Modeling - Just don't take him. His brain operates in a COMPLETELY different way than the students. I come out of class frustrated.  - Grade In Class:B+

Comments:FIN 4350 - He is an amazing professor and is worth taking if you want to learn. This class has been a top 3 class on the "I actually learned something incredibly useful here" scale, and I am very grateful I took it. I will put a WARNING in here: There are some very lengthy and difficult group assignments in this class, and frankly, if you are assigned a poor group to work with, I would consider it preferable to drop this class altogether and retake it later as opposed to slogging through it. If your group isn't willing to work hard, you will personally spend literal days finishing the projects. I promise. There is very little recourse to your own grade offered (as in none) to having a poor group. Otherwise, incredible professor, incredible content, and the life lessons he teaches on the last day are absolutely worth attending to hear.  - Grade In Class:B+

Comments:FIN 4350 - Do not mistake yourself, this is a VERY challenging course. it is all excel based and it really makes you feel uncomfortable in your overall prior knowledge of excel or financal application. I poured in hours and hours a week into this class, by my own personal choice, to get the best grade i could. i would say you can get by with the bare minimum, but to even complete the homeworks you have to pour in hours and hours to even finish. it can get really confusing really fast if you do not pay attention in class (which i most definitely was at fault for). PLEASE if you take anything away from this review is to follow his excel work outs in class and take notes on what he did to get there. he uses a lot of very niche excel functions and processes that are difficult to look up instructions for online bc they are not often used. and all of the homeworks stem from what we work out in class and i promise if you take notes on what he does you homeworks will go by so smoothly bc you apply the functions from class to the homeworks. aside from workload and rigor, his canvas page is set up very poorly. it is pretty difficult to find things bc he tries to make it easier by making pages for everything but it honestly makes it 100x harder. if you take this class try to take it with people you know, it is all group projects and if your group sucks you'll be stuck doing all the work and it will take you an unimaginable amount of hours to finish the homeworks. he is such a kind teacher and is so passionate and very smart, which often can make his teaching style difficult. but if you ask him questions in class or in office hours he helps out so much, i would have done a lot worse on some of the homeworks had i not asked for help. also for your final project choose an easy and large company that you can easily find information on.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - This class is hard. He is difficult to understand and teaches at a high level over everyone's head, making it even harder. The thing about the class, and what makes it dooable, is that you have 4 HW assignments, the first one is with a partner and the 2nd-4th are with groups of 4. So you are not on your own trying to do this. I suggest finding a SMART and HARD WORKING group!! If you are not diligent with those assignments and working ahead of time then you will not do good! Also even though you are working with a group the whole time, do not not pay attention in class, you need to know how to do everything for the final anyways. The final is literally making your own super complicated model expect its individual. He also offers extra credit that helps and grades pretty east!  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:FIN4350 - I believe it is one of the most helpful classes in business program but also very challenging. Dr. Macias is a very nice guy and is always willing to provide help when you are struggling. You will integrate everything you learnt from previous basic classes and build excel models based on these concepts. There are many short and easy reading quizzes that takes a small percentage of the overall grade. Projects are the major parts and worth about 70+%. There are 4 group projects so pick your teammates carefully. Do not be a FREE RIDER! The group projects are about influence diagram, deterministic modeling, and stochastic modeling. Pay attention in class, and never procrastinate on projects, since projects will take longer time than you expected. If you pay sufficient effort in all projects, the final exam will be a breeze for you. Useful advice: GO TO OFFICE HOURS! Start working on the projects early so that you can have enough time to check your work with either TA or Dr. Macias. Office hours turned out to be super helpful. Generally, it is a challenging hardcore class but you will definitely learn a lot of solid stuff if your pay good effort.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - He's so cute and so funny and hilarious truly. I was so scared to take this class but he ended up being one of my favorite professors at Baylor. This was one of the most helpful finance classes I've taken with a ton of relevant info for personal and professional use. One word of advice is it is a lot of work so STAY CAUGHT UP and do not take this class when you're taking a bunch of other tough finance or accounting classes. It's awesome for your resume and you learn a ton. Macias is awesome  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:FIN4350 - Other reviews aren't lying when they say Professor Macias is one of the best at Baylor. Macias cares about the improvement of his students and will go out of his way to provide multiple avenues to achieve improvement. He will tell you on the first day of the class that you should work ahead on all projects to get ahead and get appropriate feedback before turn-in times. To help you begin early, he will only provide feedback for homework assignments up to the Thursday before that homework is due (homeworks are due on Tuesdays.) He also provides extra credit points (10%-5%) if you turn the homework in a week before. If you spend an hour per class working on your homework and applying what you learned in that day's class, you will probably be able to finish the homework easily. Don't wait until the weekend before to do the homework, or else you're just going to be stressed and the project will be low quality because you get no feedback. Something else that makes Macias extremely helpful is that he will still tell you how to improve even if you get a good grade on a project, even if you get a 100 on a project he will provide 7+ lines of feedback on how you could improve because he cares that much about your improvement in the world of financial modeling. The article assignments and other reading homework take very little time to do, so the only real time commitments in this class are the three required homework projects, an option fourth project (very short), and the final project that you have a month before its due to start working on. For the Final Project, Macias provides various examples of past projects to help you create your model/report/presentation. Also on the final project, professor Macias provides a base model that you work on in class for about a month, so he sets you up for success as long as you take the time after each class to replicate what you did for your own company. Macias provides so many ways for you to learn and succeed, this class should be a breeze for most if you just commit the proper amount of time to this class. As a final note, you should make sure you choose good groupmates that won't wait until the last minute to work on homework, as that will just make the course harder. There is an opportunity to change teams around after homework 2 if needed. Take this course; some people say that it's a lot of work, but if you don't wait until the last minute, it should be easy.  - Grade In Class:B+

Comments:FIN 4350 - Professor Macias is one of the best teachers at Baylor. He cares about every student and provides more than enough resources needed to succeed in the class. FIN 4350 is the most helpful finance course when it comes to real world application. It is challenging but absolutely necessary and worth the effort if you want any job in finance after graduation.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:FIN 4350 - This course was very challenging, but Prof Macias is very likable. I really grew to enjoy his lessons after the halfway point in the semester and I found him to be and effective teacher, as well as entertaining at times. He took time sometimes during lessons to explain basic finance concepts that a lot of people were struggling with (my whole side of the classroom did not have great 3310 professors). He also spent a few (helpful imo) days giving us an unstructured problem and we would sort of just attempt to create a model to answer the question. The workload isn't traditional with there being 3 homework assignments and a 4th that can replace the lowest of the 1st 3. There is also the infamous DCF project which is a huge undertaking, and a final exam. Throughout the course there are about 20 article based reading quizzes, 8 textbook quizzes, 3ish excel quizzes, and a few based on Wall Street Prep. Here's the thing though, most of the article quizzes and about half of the textbook ones are not required, you can do them for extra credit. My one criticism is that the homework projects were graded really slowly because the TA/graded was a total bum. When Dr. Macias graded them, he finished doing all of them in a weekend flat. Like the reviews under me said, make sure you get a good group for project 2 and onwards (HW 1 is a 2 parter group assignment) because if you have any slackers or people who don't care about their grades, it's going to be a rough ride. Ask your friends who took the class before you and Dr. Macias for guidance too, because sometimes it's hard to start a model from scratch. It can be a difficult class, but I feel so much better about going into a banking job this summer actually knowing what a Monte Carlo simulation is.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:FIN4350 - Let me preface this review by saying that if you genuinely desire a career in IB or Management Consulting, you need to take this class. Dr. Macias is the definition of a professional and ensures that you gain the skills needed to be successful. However, the class requires putting in the effort and doing the work. There is a definite time commitment. The projects are challenging but very rewarding. If you make sure to choose a good group and are proactive, they are quite manageable. To reiterate, the class is a lot of work, but Dr. Macias ensures that you are given the tools necessary to succeed in both the classroom and your career.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - This class is one of the most effective ways to take your theoretical and academic knowledge of finance and actually seeing it applied pragmatically. Modeling projects are intimidating, but useful to training your brain's problem solving skills. Macías cares about his students: professionally, spiritually, personally. Understand, however, he wants you to work hard, and learn DILIGENCE, so know that you will do most of the legwork in this class. If you had an easier corporate finance class during the Covid lockdown semesters, you might find yourself needing to catch-up like I did. My personal recommendations are starting early on the projects, getting the help of the GA, and partnering with team members who wont drop from your group right before the final project without any forward notice. At the end of the day, your spreadsheet with 25 tabs is only as valuable as the insights you generate, ergo, generate rich, powerful insights. Also, hide your gridlines on each tab. Alt W VG. May the Holy Spirit enlighten you  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:Fin 4350 - This course was one of the most if not the most useful classes I took during my time at Baylor. Financial modeling without a doubt helped me get my foot in the door for the career I’ve wanted since my early years of highschool. Proffessor Macias is brilliant with 2 masters degrees from Stanford and years of experience in mergers and acquisitions to prove it. Your success in this course could very well determine if you end up in consulting or banking rather than pedaling life insurance policies or mutual funds to your family and friends at northwestern mutual.The material will seem intimidating but just take a breath and remember it’s nowhere as complicated as it might seem on the surface . Attention to detail is crucial and will decide whether you have a A or a C in this course. Start your projects early and although Hw4 is optional make sure to do it anyway .  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - listen. the people here who left bad reviews are students who did not put the time or effort to actually LEARN the material, or just didn't go to his office hours. Dr. Macias is one of the BEST professors I've had at Baylor and I will definitely be asking him for letters of recommendation in any future job. His class challenges you but also it is SO VALUABLE for anyone hoping to pursue a career in finance. I would definitely take him again!  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - Professor Macias has been one of the most helpful, inspiring and challenging professor Ive had at Baylor. His classes are SUPER HELPFUL for somebody interested in a finance career and **wants to be successful**. He even tells of stories of his former students on how they were able to land prestigious jobs, get promotions, and pursue a successful career in finance because they used techniques and skills from his class!! He truly cares to help each student progress, even if youre struggling, which I appreciated. He is very witty and interesting too! TAKE HIM!!  - Grade In Class:B+

Comments:4350 - I took Dr. Macias' class this past semester and it completely changed my outlook on my finance career. I actually enjoyed going to his class and the amount of information and experience i got from it was incredible! He is a very cheerful man and great teacher and you will never be bored in his class. Definitely recommend taking his class!!! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!!  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - I NEVER write reviews and this is the first & last one I do because I just had to talk about how INCREDIBLE this man is. He genuinely cares for his students and is also such a great role model- he is so joyful, funny, engaging, energetic, and his class is easily one of the best courses i've taken at Baylor. Will it challenge you? yes. Probably the reason why people came here to complain is because they DIDNT put the effort to learn the material. Will this class actually help you learn applicable things you WILL USE in your finance or business career? YES. YES IT WILL. Dr. Macias teaches concepts and techniques that you will one day use in the corporate job you get in a successful career in finance. He is also SO kind and understanding, he walks you through any problems or confusions, and GENUINELY WANTS YOU TO SUCCEED. His class will be one of the few that will actually help you land a successful job. TAKE HIM! I could not recommend him enough!!!!  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - I don't understand why people leave bad reviews for Prof. Macias, this guy is an absolute OG. The actual homie, like on the highest of keys. He cares so much about the students profiting from the material he teaches, and he is extremely passionate about the material. Those are characteristics of someone that is good at their job, which he is. The workload is annoying when the reading quizzes are due before every class, but he gives you tips and advice on how to SKIM through them to answer the quizzes in like 5 minutes, I've gotten 100% on all the reading quizzes and I hate reading. Don't be scared when you get a 60 page article, just read the intro and the conclusion and maybe use the control find function and you'll be fine. An example of something people complain about, he just puts all the possible information that could help you out at any point in the semester all at once in the beginning and you think its a crazy amount of info, but if you take a step back and realize which of it is useful for your situation (in my case a handful of links/articles) it's just a bunch of loud noise that tends to distract some people. For the groups, make sure you pick a group that is determined to share the workload equally because trying to do it all by yourself will actually suck towards the end of the year when the projects get bigger. If you've taken his class, he always tells you "be diligent" and that some of the best advice he can give. I will say it helps to have a solid footing of excel beforehand but don't shy away if you don't know anything about excel because he teaches you as he goes. He's a bit old school in how he expects you to know things and will call you out, but that is an attempt to push you to be better not to insult you. He is a teacher that when students go to office hours, show up to class, and ask questions; it goes a long way with him and he tends to help those that show they care and want to learn. This class isn't hard, you just have to actually try and be diligent. The real-world implications of this class on your career are priceless. In class, he always talks about dozens of former students thanking him for this class and talking about how they've received promotions based on the things they learned in this class. I highly recommend this class for anyone trying to get into the finance industry. Having an excel background in financial modeling is something recruiters just eat up! Great professor, amazing and insightful class. 100 recommend.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:FIN4350 - This man loves giving out work, and making you do all the learning by yourself. Never had a workload like this class. Man requires group work in a pandemic which is okay cause zoom. But he also refuses to talk with his mask on most of the time. very hard class, you need to find another elective or good teammates for the homeworks  - Grade In Class:B

Comments:4350 - This is the first review i've left on BU Books. I want people to know that Macias' rating may look really bad, but he is an incredible professor and this class is wonderful. It has A TON of work (pulled multiple all nighters working on projects), but I learned more from this class than almost any other class at Baylor. Tough class, but worth it. Macias is amazing!  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:4350 - Valuation - Dr. Macias is a very smart and devout man. He really does care that you learn the material. The lectures are about 65% model building, while the other 35% are about Christian principles, good professional practices, and insights shared by practitioners in high finance. Really great class if you are interested in private equity, investment banking, or Big 4/MBB consulting. My criticism of the class is this: He will group you into teams of 4 people, and you will work on very challenging projects that take 2-4 weeks (If you procrastinate until 3 days before the due date, you will fail). The workload on these projects is not divisible, so consequently, we had one person on our team doing most of the heavy lifting in excel. I would've liked it if he broke the projects down into smaller steps so that everyone could get more modeling experience. Furthermore, he has a thick accent, but he is also very cognizant of this and is happy to repeat himself if something goes over your head. Overall, I would recommend the class to anyone who is willing to put in the work and anyone who is intellectually curious about finance.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:FIN 4350 - This class is very difficult and Dr. Macias is the only one that teaches it. He is a very good professor and very intelligent. He wants his students to learn material although his methods are not the best for learning the material. Sometimes it can be difficult to follow-along in class because of his thick accent. If you show that you work hard in the class, he will do everything he can to help you. A very nice person and professor.  - Grade In Class:A

Comments:FIN 3310 - The comment below mine is very accurate about what you'll get with Professor Macias. But, according to the first comment made about Macias in this thread, it makes him seem unreasonable. He probably changed a few things this semester and made the class a little easier as opposed to last year, but I still don't think it's fair to put the blame on him for performing badly in his class. Macias may not be the best teacher (and yes, he does over-complicate the material), but the adjustments he made toward the end of the semester really helped people out, myself included. You just need to realize going in that this isn't some basic business elective--it will demand as much work as an accounting or mathematics class. Personally, I slacked off at the beginning and didn't put in the work to understand the material. If it weren't for the reviews, bonus points, and extra office hours Macias gave at the end, I think a lot more hateful comments would be posted here. So, with all that said, would I recommend Macias? Seeing as other FIN 3310 professors aren't much better, I would recommend taking Macias with the added note that you'll need to actually work for your grade in this class.  - Grade In Class:B

Comments:FIN 3310 - Dr. Macias is a good guy with alot of knowledge and real world experience in Finance. He is passionate about teaching and cares about all of his students. He does tend to over complicate the material and make it more difficult than it is. His tests are over some material we did not fully discuss in class and are not a fair measure of the student's knowledge. He does allow his students to use the equation sheet and excel on exams which makes the tests easier. He also offers up to 10 point in extra credit over the semester towards your final and he curves exams if you do some extra work. I did very poorly on the first two exams but because of homework, attendance, quizzes, and extra credit I was able to pull out a B in his class. This class requires full commitment and discipline to go the extra mile. For this reason many students dropped or received poor grades.  - Grade In Class:B+

Comments:FIN 3310 - There is a reason that Macias will not be teaching 3310 next semester. Never take him unless you can speak fluent Spanglish, because that is all that he will speak in class. Seriously, it is an effort to understand what he is saying, and this is a class where understanding the professor makes the difference between passing and failing.  - Grade In Class:DROP

Comments:3310 - Corp Fin- I created an account just so I could help out some students out and warn them about Antonio. He is a great guy but a horrible (I repeat) HORRIBLE teacher. Not to brag, but I am a good student. I graduated top of my class and I have never made below a B in my life. The workload is not very hard. You have online homework assignments, random quizzes, and two tests. I averaged a 98% on homework and a 95% on my quizzes by the end of the semester. So, how did I fail this course? Antonio tested over things that we had never covered in class and he spent almost every class showing us how to work problems in excel- which we couldn't use on the test. Also, he never taught us how to use the financial calculator (I taught myself) and expected you to memorize every single formula! He did offer extra credit, which I did not do because it was a ridiculous amount of work. I do not recommend that you take him if you have no prior knowledge of finance. 4 out of 16 students in my class failed. I re-took this course this semester with Stegemoller and it was amazing. I am making a B and I understand everything.   - Grade In Class:F