Class record · MFIN · CSOM

MFIN 8801

Investments · 6 instructors on record · 27 sections

How the curve score is built

74Teaching84 raw · 38th percentile of BC classes

±0Easiness adjustmenteasiness 78 · 59 raw workload · lighter than 52% of BC classes

74Curve scorethe teaching curve ±0 for the workload · at most ±6 either way

Boston College's ratings are bunched at the top — the median instructor averages about 88 out of 100 on the raw scale, and 44% of them clear 90 — so a raw score cannot separate anybody. Every figure here is ranked against BC classes and that rank is re-expressed out of 100, which is what turns a raw 88 — the middle of the university — into a figure that says where somebody actually stands. On this scale 77 is the median, 84 the top quarter and 91 the top tenth. Workload is then an adjustment on top of that, worth nothing at all for an ordinary one. Lighter work than 52% of BC classes.

What the course score is made of

84BC evaluations27 records · weight ×1.0 · Fall 2021 – Spring 2026

—Student reviewsno reviews — does not contribute

—RateMyProfessorsno ratings — does not contribute

The class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it — who taught it is the board below.

How is this worked out?

That is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between: the board carries each instructor's own score for this class, and the score above is the class averaged across all of them.

What the challenge rank is made of

69thMore challenging than 69% of BC classesranked against every one we hold

93BC — “Intellectually Challenging”27 records · raw score out of 100

Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question. It is not a measure of difficulty, grading or workload.

How is this worked out?

Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question for this class only — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score.

What the workload rank is made of

48thMore work than 48% of BC classesranked against every one we hold

59BC — “Workload”27 records · raw score out of 100

One of Boston College's five workload bands, not a number of hours. Higher means more work, not worse.

How is this worked out?

Boston College reports workload for this class only as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.

In a competitive market, investors allocate funds among financial securities in response to perceived values and subjective attitudes toward risk. This course addresses the issues that seem to determine the relative values of financial instruments and the techniques available to assist the investor in making risk/return tradeoff.

The board

6 instructors · ranked on this class onlyCompare the top 3

Scores are real averages. The order also accounts for how many records back each one — the count is under every score — so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. 2 of the 6 rows carry a mark saying so.

Rank	Instructor	Curve	Easiness	Challenge	RMP overall
1	Vincent BogousslavskyAssociate Professor and Hillenbrand Family Faculty Fellow · Finance	8092 raw · 3 records	68−2 to the score	51st	6610 ratings · all classes
2	Cheng JiangFinance Provisional fewer records	8394 raw · 1 record	68−2 to the score	70th	7610 ratings · all classes
3	Robert JamesFinance	7891 raw · 13 records	68−2 to the score	86th	—no page
4	David SolomonProfessor and David J. Mastrocola Dean's Faculty Fellow · Finance	7385 raw · 3 records	78±0 to the score	40th	—no page
5	Bozidar JovanovicAssistant Professor of the Practice · Finance Provisional fewer records	6579 raw · 1 record	68−2 to the score	32nd	—no page
6	Michael BarryProfessor of the Practice · Finance	7386 raw · 6 records	68−2 to the score	53rd	—no page

2 of 6 rows are marked provisional: fewer than 3 records stand behind the number. That is thin evidence, not a bad instructor — the record count is in every row. The RateMyProfessors column is an instructor's overall figure across everything they teach, not a figure about this class.

How this board is built and ordered

Positions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted. The comparison here is the class itself: a thin record is read against how this class was rated overall, not against the university.

Every instructor with an evaluation record for this class is on this board — it is not a top ten, and nothing is hidden behind a “show more”. Curve is the instructor's score for THIS class only, ranked against every instructor we hold and printed back out of 100, with the raw BC average underneath it; nothing on this board is an average across the other things they teach. Easiness is an adjustment on top of it, worth up to about ±6 — BC's workload item, ranked and turned over, so a lighter section gains and a heavier one loses, while an ordinary one changes nothing — and each row prints the adjustment, signed. The board is ordered on the same figure it prints, adjusted for how many records back it. Challenge is BC's “intellectually challenging” item shown as a rank against every class we hold; students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it is not a measure of difficulty or grading, and it is never marked better or worse.

That site has no course dimension, so its figure is shown for information and kept out of the ranking.

The line

All 13 items · means across 27 records

Instructor4

Course3

Feedback3

Workload & Challengenot ratings

Bars are ranks, not raw scores. Nothing here is graded good or bad.

What each item asks

Explains Clearly: The instructor was effective at creating an understanding of difficult subject matter.
Available: The instructor was available for help outside of class.
Motivating: The instructor motivated me to do my best work.
Sparks Interest: The course stimulated my interest in the subject matter.
Organized: The course was well organized.
Clear Goals: The learning objectives for the course were clear.
Useful Later: What I learned is applicable beyond this course.
Assignments: Assignments and exams contributed to my learning.
Fast Feedback: I received feedback on my work in a timely manner.
Useful Feedback: The feedback I received on my work was meaningful.
Workload: How much work the course took outside class, on Boston College's five-band scale — the band boundaries are not published, so this is not a number of hours.
Challenge: The course was intellectually challenging.
Attendance: Attending class was necessary to do well in this course.

Why these numbers are curved

Both the number and the bar are the rank against every comparable record we hold, printed back out of 100. BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so on the raw scale every cell here would read in the high eighties and every bar would be nearly full — thirteen numbers that tell you nothing. Each cell prints its raw BC figure and its percentile underneath, so nothing is hidden by the transform. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one.

Game log

27 sections · newest first

Instructor	Term	Sec	Instr	Course	Work
Robert James	Spring 2026	01	92	89	60
Robert James	Spring 2026	02	90	87	60
Robert James	Fall 2025	01	96	88	60
Bozidar Jovanovic	Fall 2025	02	79	79	60
Vincent Bogousslavsky	Fall 2025	03	93	92	60
Cheng Jiang	Summer 2025	01	94	85	60
Robert James	Spring 2025	01	86	82	—
Robert James	Spring 2025	02	87	81	60
Robert James	Fall 2024	01	91	84	60
Vincent Bogousslavsky	Fall 2024	03	89	91	60
Michael Barry	Summer 2024	01	87	84	—
Robert James	Spring 2024	01	93	88	60
Robert James	Spring 2024	02	95	89	60
Robert James	Fall 2023	01	90	82	—
David Solomon	Fall 2023	03	82	84	—
Michael Barry	Summer 2023	01	93	87	—
Robert James	Spring 2023	01	97	94	60
Vincent Bogousslavsky	Spring 2023	02	94	89	60
Michael Barry	Fall 2022	01	82	82	80
David Solomon	Fall 2022	02	88	86	60
Robert James	Fall 2022	03	93	82	60
Michael Barry	Summer 2022	01	90	80	60
Robert James	Spring 2022	01	85	79	60
Michael Barry	Spring 2022	02	85	80	—
Michael Barry	Fall 2021	01	80	78	40

Showing the first 25.

How to read this board

Instructors are ranked on their record in this class only, never on their average across everything they teach. Scores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Workload is BC's own five-band figure, not a number of hours, and is shown as a rank. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero.