Patel, Pratish  

Prof cried today.... What a weirdo hahahah get a grip of your life.

The above comment is funny, but overall Patel seems like a nice guy. He does tend to care less about students as compared to his research, and his carelessness and hardheadedness when it comes to grading can be a pain. He believes that he is very smart since comments about his difficult classes and trading prowess tend to inflate his ego, but enough interaction and you'll find there's some missing links between his abstract thought and physical/financial reality. Overall he's fine for learning a thing or two, but if your trying to take a class with little work or trying to get a good grade without kissing up it might be difficult. I would recommend his classes only for the Junior who already has a solid internship lined up and is not concerned about grades.

Patel knows his real estate, but he has no idea how to teach it. The quarter is almost over and I haven't learned anything new about real estate finance. He's one of those professors that assumes you know the current happenings in real estate and expects us to be able to answer oddly specific questions that don't seem relevant. Also the dude is kinda weird. He probably wished he was a finance bro back in college and now he's trying too hard to compensate despite being super awkward.

Patel really cares about how his students do in his class. He is still relatively new to teaching and is learning how to teach the more he teaches. The information he presents is extremely confusing at first, but if you ask questions he will clarify everything. The class is structured with 3 quizzes, 3 homework assignments, 2 cases, a Mini Project w/ presentation, a Final Project w/ presentation, and a final. Everything is pretty much done in groups. I took a lot away from this class about the finance part of real estate (i.e. mortgage types and how to conduct an analysis on where to invest). I would recommend taking this class.

To be honest I don't understand why others on this channel are so critical of Pratish. I agree that sometimes his lectures come off as less structured than they might if he merely read from his notes or a powerpoint, but really that is his strength. Not only does he genuinely care about his students, he is willing to take his time to break down literally any concept you are struggling with step-by-step if you just ask. I have been in 4 classes with Pratish now and each one I like better than the last. Perhaps the haters on here just never took the time to ask questions or work with their peers, but all of Pratish's classes can be easy if you just work together on assignments (which Pratish encourages) and ask questions in class/office hours. Plus if you think you are struggling with the class and aren't going to get the grade you want, you will definitely be pleasantly surprised with your grade at the end of the quarter since Pratish is more than lenient with final scores (he hates giving poor grades -- I know a friend who had a legitimate F in his class and ended up with a C+). Just show up and try hard and I'm sure you will not only love the class but will find that he more than prepares you for entering the workforce as a Real Estate Analyst.

DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE. He has no clue how to teach, gives difficult homework assignments, and the midterm project (20% of your grade) has literally nothing to do with real estate. It's a CM/architecture project and he even said to the class that it has nothing to do with this course or real estate. The quizzes are really difficult, especially considering he does not teach anything. Avoid this class at all costs.

There is no doubt that Pratish knows his stuff about Real Estate Finance. But he failed miserably trying to explain concepts to his students. He asked questions that were vague and misleading and made the class feel stupid when all 40 of us were unable to answer. If you feel confident in real estate finance before even taking this class, by all means, I'm sure Patel will be a great professor to you. If you're a student coming in with no knowledge of the course topics at all....good luck. Personally, the most frustrating part of his teaching style was his attitude during office hours and presentations. I have never seen a professor hold his head in his hands when a question was asked as if the student should already have known the answer to it. During presentations he constantly looks at you as if you are not even speaking English and rudely interrupts to ask impossible questions. Not only is that completely rude, but it's down right discouraging for a student that actually wants to learn the material and UNDERSTAND IT. This is what separates Pratish from being an amazing professor....learn to actually care and help your students rather than leave them ending the quarter feeling stupid as many this past quarter have felt.

This is the worst teacher I have ever had in my entire educational career. He asks convoluted questions that no one in the class knows and then laughs like we are the least intelligent people he has ever known. He cannot explain anything in a simple manner and gets no student feedback. The business department is going downhill very rapidly especially in the upper division classes and required electives. Avoid this so-called "teacher" at all costs!!!

Before you decide to enroll/not enroll, you must know a few things about Patel. 1) There is no denying that he is a smart guy. He knows his stuff. 2) He is a new teacher, not just new at poly, but new in general. He does not have many years of teaching behind him. Additionally, he is FAR FAR worse at communicating with students than all other professors in the business college. How? He does know how to lecture properly. His questions are vague and open ended with oddly specific answers. His assignments are ok though, if you're alright with no midterm and the final being 40% of your grade. Side bar, he gives little to no assistance with the project, which takes an unreal amount of time and makes up 30% of your grade. Is he a good professor? Absolutely not. It's not that he doesn't try to teach, he just has a long way to go before he knows how to actually get students to retain the information he is trying to convey.

What this class was missing was homework assignments leading up to the project making the project more difficult than it needed to be. Regardless I learned a ton of practical knowledge about the process of buying a home, securitization, and mortgage-backed securities in this class. Patel is a very intelligent individual who is on his way to being an excellent educator. I was overall unimpressed with the effort put forth by my fellow classmates. Many of the groups were starting the project days before it was due which simply does not cut it. And if this was you then you are responsible for your poor performance and should not turn around and write a negative review about an up and coming professor. Put in the work and you will learn.

Patel is the MAN. He is such a cool dude and can connect really well with students. He is very personable and frankly is pretty funny. However he is young - quite young. He recently got his PhD from Berkeley I believe. A lot of the time he assumes that students just 'get it,' which really ins't the case. Real Estate Investment is counterintuitive, it wasn't what I was expecting. The vast majority of the class deals with securitization, specifically, mortgage-backed securities. You will learn A TON about this, but it is a lot of work towards the end of the quarter. There are 6 homework assignments that were all pretty easy. If you choose the 'hard option' for the big project in the last few weeks and do it successfully, you don't have to take the final and get an A in the course. The 'hard option' takes many, many, many hours to do. I won't try to explain it here on PolyRatings. My partner and I got through it, but we were busting our butts the last few weeks of the quarter to complete it accurately. Still would recommend 435 / Patel classes. Interesting class and he's a great dude.

Pratish is the man. His classes are by no means easy, but if students make the effort to learn they are very attainable. Tests are hard, no way i passed his final but he is a very understanding guy and ended up giving my roommate and I B's. Great opportunity to learn, and work hard so if you are not willing to work hours on excel, probably stay away.

Disclaimer: This class is more on securitization (the bundling and reselling of debt) than real estate. If you are still interested, this guy is the man! He is slightly hard to follow in class and expects A LOT out of you. Will assign stupid amounts of reading every night that I learned to just skim and get the gist of (he will likely talk about it next class and call on people to see if you read). Regardless, he really knows what he is talking about and is more than willing to help if you stop by his office (which he is always in). I enjoyed this class and would suggest Pratish to anyone wanting to push themselves and sharpen their excel skills.

Patel is by far my favorite teacher I have taken at Cal Poly! If you are committed to truly learning about Real Estate Investments (MBS/CMBS/etc, not single property sales), then this is a great class. Patel is incredibly knowledgeable, and has designed really interactive/dynamic assignments designed to simulate things you would be doing in the real world. His MBS valuation project is A TON of work, but I brought it into internship interviews and the interviewers loved it.

Honestly, if you like finance and you chose to become a finance concentration for all the right reasons, you will probably understand this class and know what to do. But, for me, this class was utter hell and I thought I would 110% fail right out. The whole class hinges on the big project Patel gives you. Pick your partner wisely, because that is the partner you will be spending the entire quarter meeting up about 3/4 times a week with (after the project gets assigned). The project is literally torture. It takes hours upon hours to get together, and I'll be honest that I didn't understand much of what was going on. My partner was god-sent, and I probably broke his back from all the carrying he had to do. Also, if you get an A on the project, nothing else of what you did in that class matters; Patel gives you an A. So no one showed up for the final, because everyone bet on the project. The presentation is pretty easy to put together after you finish the big Excel sheet, and it's not even a given that you'll present. He randomly picks a group and you have to be ready to present. Luckily, I didn't have to, but, if you do, get ready to answer some questions. I honestly think I was probably the only dumb one in that whole class, seeing as how everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, so I think Patel was a decent professor and he was certainly eager to help students learn and to teach about real estate. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely a hard class for everyone involved, but I think for everyone else, it was just really time-consuming, whereas for me, I don't think I could've figured out the project even if I had a million years.

"if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen". This quote applies to all of Patel's classes. All I see on here is students bitching about him. He is one of the only professors in the finance department who has actually taught me anything about finance. If you are here to learn something about finance and not look like an idiot during a job interview, then take Patel.

I still find this review funny "Prof cried today.... What a weirdo hahahah get a grip of your life." So he believes that classes are not taught and students should seek knowledge on their own. While he has a point, I think he tries to take this too far. Not having class (he doesn't show up to half of them and isn't very responsive to the forums) and expecting students to be exceptional with the mundane tasks of formatting and other boring tasks doesn't seem quite right. He gives out low grades and is disappointed when we don't know how to do specific tasks that aren't taught. His logic is that because he designed the quizzes and projects, it should take us around 10 times as much time to finish the analysis and report... if you design a data set and know how to format and analyze it, the only restriction is your typing speed (aka it would be much much quicker).

Somewhat arbitrary grading. He states this himself on the first day of class where 10% of the grade is completely arbitrary, but most of the projects and homework are also arbitrary as he grades mostly on presentation (of the documents) and not on content. Somewhat ironic that grades are based on art rather than application. Anyways its not as good a class as people make it out to be and professor doesn't really want to teach the class either since he says were supposed to learn it on our own anyways.

I just wanted to write a little evaluation about this professor since he is new, and I want to give people an idea about him. Its hard to know what my grade will be in the class since somehwere around 60-70% of the grade is on our final project and final. There is no midterm, just a few easy homework assignments. I have legitimate interest in futures and options, as well as the overall stock market. My first recommendation is to only take this class if you have interest. That being said, he has good days and bad days. It is difficult for him due to the inconsistency of our finance department, either you took the hard route or the easy route, so there are people way ahead and way behind. HE explains the math and logic and proofs behind futures, which can be daunting since there are so many variables and he has a very engineering analytical mind. He does not always do the best in explaining in lamen terms. However, he brings in real world examples and in my eyes makes the class interesting most of the time. FOr our project we are diving deep into the Bernie Madoff scandal, which is super interesting. Simply put, if you are interested in the subject, take it he will only get better at teaching it. If you aren't interested you will probably hate it.

Pros - it was a pretty easy class, the homework was 30% of the grade and was free points, and there wasn't any mysterious information on the final; it was all stuff we did in class, which is important since it is 40% of the grade Cons - the class went very slow, so it was pretty easy to feel bored during lecture. Also the project was kind of a pain to do, because it took a lot of time, but it was not that hard overall. Pretty good class overall, Id recommend it

Another example of the inconsistency in the Finance department, caused by failed leadership. Pratish has a lot of real world experience. However, that is where the buck stops. He has virtually no teaching experience and it can be easily seen in teaching methods. His syllabus is ineffective and does not promote a constant learn and check philosophy. Rather, the majority of your grade consists of a final exam and a final project with little to no mid-term check up to ensure a proper grasp of the material by his students. That being said, it is his first (or second) quarter teaching here so I suppose he is still developing it. Sad that it has to be at the expense of the students, but I don't expect much from this department. His teaching and his ability to communicate with students is poor. He often asks open ended questions expecting extremely specific answers, which is OK as long as you don't laugh at the student for giving a shot at answering. The one good thing from lectures are the group questions. You form a group and tackle a question in which he hasn't lectured entirely on. It promotes discovery and helps the material really stick when you learn something that way. I found that studying from the text book is far more effective than lecture for learning the material. On a positive note, mid-term he asks for a short evaluation from his students. This is great because it means he is trying to improve.

Previous ratings sum up what I would say about this class. On top of that I'd like to add that the projects are pretty tough and he gives you very little instruction. I'v been working on it all this week and no one in my group knows how to do most of it. Overall I DON'T recommend this class. He has no business teaching.

Honestly, Patel's class isn't the most interesting. If you're not already fairly interested in learning about the Bernie Madoff scandal, doing a lot of Excel, or talking about Black-Scholes (like me), you probably won't be too stoked on this class. That being said, Patel is a really, really great guy. I think he's still trying to get the hang of teaching and communicating with college students, but he knows his stuff and genuinely cares about his students. I felt like I could come to him with any questions about the class, no matter how dumb they might have sounded, or if I really should've known the answer a week ago. Patel's also a good professor to keep in touch with even after you have a class with him, especially if you're looking for research opportunities or advice on how else you can get involved in the finance department or build your resume. I think his teaching career here may have gotten off to a shaky start, but he's only getting better as a teacher and he's definitely a great resource to learn from and to have around. Other tips about the class: (1) You end up doing two, fairly time-consuming group projects, so make sure you work well with your team and start meeting to work together, or even do homework together, early on; (2) You get out what you put in. Patel asked if we understood concepts/equations a lot throughout his lecture, but people rarely asked him to re-explain or repeat something. If you want him to slow down or clarify something, just ask! It's honestly no big deal; chances are that somebody else has the same question, and it will really help for him to know which parts are more difficult for students to understand and which parts he needs to spend more time on.

You learn as much as you put in. If you dedicate yourself and go in for help or clarification when needed, the class will be a breeze and you will come out having learned quite a bit. If you procrastinate and don't make an effort to learn outside of class, you're dead in the water. Patel warns you about the amount of time the project may take--do NOT dismiss this warning, even if the material seems easy at a glance. The same applies for the midterm, which was the only exam in the class when I took it last year. However, even if you don't do well, it's still possible to get an A in the class, provided you stay on top of the rest of the work. As a person, he is extremely positive, making him very approachable.

Patel is smart. The class is hard. You need to put in effort. Must have advanced knowledge in Excel. Must ask him questions because he fails to recognize student difficulties. Otherwise, information is interesting.

I thoroughly enjoyed BUS 442. Learning about futures and options is extremely interesting. Watch the videos for Khan Academy and it will help you understand the class. If you watch these videos, you'll get a B or better on the midterm. Overall, pretty intriguing class with a fantastic professor.

Patel is one of the best professors I have had at Cal Poly. His Futures and Options class teaches you advanced excel skills and gives you a very solid understanding of Futures and Options. Patel is always willing to help his students and makes you feel comfortable asking questions in class/office hours. I would highly recommend him as a professor and his BUS 442 class!

Okay let's get started! First off, Patel is legit. If you're a serious finance student, this would be a great class to end up in. I didn't know too much about options aside from casually learning and the bare bones basics from other classes, but this class provided a good amount of insight into the world of derivatives. It's not AS mathy as you'd imagine, but you definitely have to put in time to understand the topics. Consisted of a few pretty challenging Excel based homeworks, a few challenging tests, and a pretty big final project. Ask questions, see him in office hours. Aside from the material, Patel is an awesome guy and I felt comfortable asking him questions. If you're on the fence about this class, it's definitely one for someone who wants a challenging but super interesting and worthwhile class. If you're a business major, it will be one of the harder classes (but not insanely hard) that you can take. Any focused finance student will do just fine!