Sethi, Menka  

Sethi is a new teacher at Cal Poly and is teaching Real Estate Finance. This course is 99% real estate theory. The ENTIRE class is based around graduate level Columbia real estate case studies, some are nearly 80 pages long and are required to be analyzed and turned in 1 week's time. The concepts in this class have very little to do with financial analysis and obviously are constructed by the Graduate Real estate program at Columbia for the use of GRADUATE REAL ESTATE STUDENTS. This class adds zero value to my Finance education and requires more work than any class I have taken at poly with no reward. Not only this but professor Sethi does not seem to realize that her students have never taken a real estate course before even though our lack of real estate knowledge was presented to her in class. If you know nothing about real estate and want to learn more about it, my suggestion is go read a book because this class will NOT teach you what you want to know.

Could not agree more with the comment below.

Take this class if you want to learn about real estate. Unlike most cal poly professors, she has real world experience with actual real estate deals. Her class is different than other finance ones and the only kids that complain are the ones who just aren't used to thinking outside the box for a class since all other ones are just exams. This class consists of mainly case studies which she grades really fairly on. She's understanding and has a lot of knowledge.

No. Just no.

This class is more real estate than it is finance so be prepared for that if you take the class. The majority of the work during the quarter comes from the case studies which are difficult but give you more of a "real world" feel than typical textbook problems. Also on that note, there is no textbook required which is a plus. The homework assignments are simple and the final is fairly easy if you put work in during the quarter. If you want to do well pay attention in class and do work on the cases. Sethi knows her real estate and does a good job of presenting the important points of the industry in this class, especially for a new teacher. Utilize office hours if you have issues. She grades pretty tough but applied a curve at the end which certainly helped for the final grade.

The course consisted of three homework assignments (1 hour each), three detailed and time consuming case studies, a participation grade, and a final. Homeworks were fairly simple with a little internet research. Case studies were tough and probably half of the class did poorly on them, but there were always a few who did pretty well. My partner and I always began the case studies as soon as they were assigned, which gave us ample time to wrap our heads around them and go to office hours multiple times, and we ended up doing well on all of them. Just make sure to be thorough on the write-ups of the case studies. Sethi grades your participation on answering/asking questions in class, answering questions on the discussion forums for the case studies, and probably having some exposure to her office hours (I'm saying this because my group went to office hours a few times and we got 100% for our participation grades). The final was cumulative, 30 questions, and fairly easy because it was open note. There were some multiple choice and a few situational questions where you had to say true/false and why, and they were about 10-12 sentences each (just try to be thorough on them). The class was graded on a curve which seemed to help some of the others who have written reviews. So about Professor Sethi, students were pretty much against her all quarter because they were doing poorly on assignments. Her class requires you to put in more effort than most other finance classes, but you also take a lot more out of it. Cal Poly would be hard pressed to find a real estate professor more qualified than Sethi. She has a ton of real-world experience with an example from real life for just about everything she lectures on. She also had her father-in-law as a guest speaker who has made a ton of money flipping real estate in the midwest or whereever. If you want an easy finance elective you should stay away from this class, but you can put in a little effort and actually do pretty well in this class. I'd recommend Sethi for her quality.

I do not agree with people who complain about the amount of work or say this is a graduate-level course. When I took it, it was very clear that most of the class didn't want to put fourth any effort to do the work or take any initiative to think critically about the material. Unfortunately most of the OCB professors are lazy and don't push students, but thankfully professor Sethi does and you can expect to learn a lot. Yes, she uses case studies from Columbia; she also uses case studies from Harvard and Wharton; and from my experience those are the schools producing the people I was competing against when I was looking for a job in San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles. Put simply, for those of you interested in a career in real estate, don't listen to students who whine about this course -- just take it. No questions. It's one of the main reasons I got my job in real estate and probably the singular most valuable course OCB offers in real estate.

Pros: She was really good at presenting the material without making it boring. She also had supplemental exercises/activities to help us learn the material. She is also really smart/passionate about real estate, but is also friendly and approachable for questions. The midterm and final were very easy, as long as you have some sort of competence with microsoft excel, as it was mostly excel. Cons: 40% of our grade was based off case studies, which weren't tough, but very time consuming and not appropriate to the class - sure they were about real estate, but did not do much in the way of teaching anything. They just sucked up huge amounts of time, and it was inevitable that we would lose several points on these. Overall, good class and she did a good job relating the material to the students.

Real Estate Finance consists of 20% participation, 40% case studies (lowest one dropped), 15% midterm, 25% final. In terms of participation make sure you show up to class and do the exit tickets well these are extremely important!Sethi is smart in the sense that she has a real world job and understands tests aren't everything. Be willing to work hard at the case studies which are both number-crunching and writing based and understand the in-class excel assignments which are what the tests are based on. I'm really glad I took this professor she really cared for our class and was proud of our accomplishments while doing her best to help us succeed.

Instructor with tons of great real world experience. I believe she still works in real estate. Her enthusiasm is refreshing. The lectures are somewhat on the dull side, but it's real estate so... The class consists of a midterm, case studies(over 40% of your grade), a final, and participation. The case study can be somewhat challenging if you aren't used to doing work like this. Taking the likes of Bing and Roche, I surely wasn't prepared for the case studies. There is little direction as to how to do it, she just gives you the case and expects you to do all the discoveries yourself. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I am just stating the fact. Overall OK class. Definitely one of the better instructors in the finance department.

not sure why there's so much complaining about the workload. I'm currently enrolled in the course and the workload is definitely doable and somewhat on the lighter side if you ask me. Typical finance courses tend to have a slightly heavier workload, because that is the best way to learn. i'm really enjoying the course so far and would definitely recommend sethi for 434. she really incorporates real world examples and makes the class interesting and applicable to the real world. The case studies are not horribly time consuming but enough so that you have to put time into it to be able to grasp concepts well, which is obviously required of any class. definitely a great course to take if you're at all interested in real estate.

Sethi was a breath of fresh air in a department of finance teachers who either want to kill you with their workload (cough, Gorman) or bore you to death. She's enthusiastic, her lectures are easy to follow and are posted online, and she is VERY knowledgable in real estate. The case studies can be graded a little tough, but as long as she sees you really put effort into weighing the pros and cons of each property, there's really no "right" answer for her to grade you on. The midterm and final were both challenging but fair, and she grades fairly. Overall, absolutely no complaints for her. I think she is doing exactly what she should for the class. I looked forward to going to class and will probably reference some of the stuff we did in the future.

First polyratings I've ever made and this teacher is my favorite I've ever had at cal poly, go into office hours for the project and she will all but give you the correct answers. The project can be time consuming but it, unlike 90% of the stuff you learn in other classes, applied to real life circumstances. Amazing teacher, 100% would take her again.