Tutoring for 15.724 Financial Management at MIT Sloan

The 15.724 Financial Management course at the MIT Sloan School of Management is a mandatory introductory finance course. While 15.724 Financial Management is an introductory-level finance course, it is not an easy class. The 15.724 Financial Management course syllabus specifically notes that it is “most likely, the most difficult of all EMBA courses,” and states that “Finance is not a spectator sport”! So be prepared to do some serious study. 

Graduate Tutor’s corporate finance tutors provide live one-on-one tutoring for 15.724 Financial Management course. This page outlines how we tutor students of 15.724 Financial Management and other finance courses at MIT Sloan.

Tutoring for MBA Programs Available at the MIT Sloan School of Management

15.724 Financial Management course professors and Teaching Assistants (TAs) are available to Students in the EMBA program to help with doubts and questions during office hours and review sessions. Students can also contact the EMBA Program Office to discuss tutoring options.

Graduatetutor’s finance tutors will be happy to provide private tutoring 1-on-1 in person or online for 15.724 Financial Management or for other finance courses at Full-Time Two-Year MBA, MIT Sloan Evening MBA, Leaders for Global Operations (LGO), MIT Sloan Fellows MBA (SFMBA) and MIT Executive MBA (EMBA).

Objectives of the 15.724 Financial Management Course at MIT Sloan

While all the MBA programs, including the Full-Time Two-Year MBA, MIT Sloan Evening MBA, Leaders for Global Operations (LGO), and MIT Sloan Fellows MBA (SFMBA), have similar courses, the 15.724 Financial Management course was designed primarily for the Executive MBA (EMBA) and other executive and leadership programs. The corporate finance course equips managers, entrepreneurs, investors, and business professionals with the core analytical frameworks of modern finance. Within the 20-month MIT Executive MBA (EMBA) program, 15.724 Financial Management is a mandatory foundational course, along with Financial Accounting, Applied Economics for Managers, and Data, Models, and Decisions. It bridges theoretical corporate finance with action-learning modules such as IDEA Week and Leading in a Global Context. The primary objective of the 15.724 Financial Management course is to establish the fundamentals of modern financial analysis. The curriculum is built around three core topics:

  • Valuing a project or an entire company.
  • Raising capital effectively.
  • Managing financial risk.

Back to the Top

Prerequisites for Financial Management at MIT Sloan School of Management

The 15.724 Financial Management Course syllabus does not list formal prerequisite courses. However, students must have completed the pre-MBA quantitative fundamentals courses, which include an accounting review covering balance sheets and income statements, as well as basic finance functions. In addition, before day 2, students have to review additional materials on the financial statements. So some level of proficiency in basic math, finance, and accounting is assumed for this course. In addition, students browse lecture notes ahead of each session and watch assigned “heads-up” videos to prepare for class discussions.

15.724 Financial Management Course Content at MIT Sloan School of Management

Core subject areas taught in the 15.724 Financial Management Course are similar to most other corporate finance courses and include:

  • Valuation & Capital Budgeting: Time value of money, Net Present Value (NPV), annuities, perpetuities, payback periods, Internal Rate of Return (IRR), cash flow calculations, and Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) models.
  • Fixed Income & Equity Markets: Bond valuation, term structure of interest rates, default and inflation risks, and equity growth options.
  • Corporate Financing: Capital structure, Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), tax shields versus financial distress costs, startup financing, venture capital, and information asymmetry.
  • Risk, Portfolio Theory, & Options: Diversification, systematic versus idiosyncratic risk, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), levering and unlevering betas, Black-Scholes option pricing, and real options.

The 15.724 Financial Management Course does add a few carefully selected finance case studies that show how finance theory is applied in practice.

Back to the Top

Teaching Format for 15.724 Financial Management Course at MIT Sloan

15.724 Financial Management course at MIT is delivered through a mix of lectures, case studies, practice assignments and online quizzes. The course is hosted on Canvas (canvas.mit.edu/courses/34651), the course meets across 10 scheduled days, with each day consisting of two 80-minute class sessions. Learning is reinforced through online quizzes posted after each class, collaborative team case studies, and optional TA-led recitation sessions held either in person or via Zoom to bridge lectures and problem sets. The recitation sessions are very helpful as questions discussed are similar in nature to the final exam.

Use of AI in 15.724 Financial Management at The Sloan School of Business

Unlike many traditional finance classes, the 15.724 course explicitly permits the use of Generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) for all assignments and case memos, provided the usage is properly cited and the student takes final responsibility for the output’s validity. However, AI tools are strictly banned on the take-home final exam. Across all coursework, students are held to MIT Sloan’s zero-tolerance honor code on cheating and plagiarism, governed by the school’s “Classroom Values in Practice” guidelines.

Back to the Top

Tutoring Plan for 15.724 Financial Management at MIT Sloan

Graduate Tutor works with MIT’s EMBA students to work out a customized tutoring plan for each student. This differs from student to student, as each has a unique background and different levels of knowledge.

Some of MIT’s executive MBA students who may be successful and senior executives at tech firms or doctors or actors come with no prior corporate finance (or basic algebra) knowledge. So we work out a program to start with the very basics and build a good foundation before the course starts and continue working with them on a weekly basis.

Other MIT’s executive MBA students come with a tremendous amount of experience, including finance backgrounds, and only want to work on the corporate finance case studies to fine-tune their understanding.

Given that these students are executives and already have demanding schedules, graduate tutors, corporate finance tutors, schedule time in the evenings, weekends, or even early mornings. We meet each student where they need us.

Case Studies Used in Financial Management at MIT Sloan School of Management

The 15.724 Financial Management Course has about five corporate finance case studies. Executive MBA students form small teams of three to four to analyze and submit single-team write-ups for real-world corporate scenarios. The five cases covered in the course recently are:

  • Case 1: Tottenham Hotspur plc. (Capital budgeting with synergies)
  • Case 2: Debt at UST (Capital structure and debt policy)
  • Case 3: The Cost of Capital at Ameritrade
  • Case 4: Buffett’s Bid for Media General’s Newspapers
  • Case 5: Genzyme (Real options in practice)

Back to the Top

Required Textbook for 15.724 Financial Management at MIT Sloan School of Management

The required textbook for 15.724 Financial Management course at the MIT Sloan School of Management is Principles of Corporate Finance by Richard Brealey, Stewart Myers, Franklin Allen, and Alex Edmans. This is an excellent corporate finance textbook and class slides are provided on Canvas. Additional recommended readings are also provided. Some examples include:

  • In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio by Andrew Lo and Stephen Foerster (2021)
  • Lessons in Corporate Finance: A Case Studies Approach to Financial Tools, Financial Policies and Valuation by Paul Asquith and Lawrence A. Weiss (2nd edition, 2019)
  • A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel (2019)
  • Capital Ideas by Peter Bernstein (2005)
  • Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms by John Downes and Jordan Goodman (2014)

Key Questions Addressed in 15.724 Financial Management at MIT Sloan

Throughout the semester, the curriculum tackles critical financial questions facing executives, including:

  • How do managers accurately calculate present values and evaluate competing investment criteria beyond standard NPV?
  • How much debt should a corporation borrow, and how do tax shields balance against the costs of financial distress?
  • How are risk and return quantified using CAPM, and how do companies lever or un-lever betas across different capital structures?
  • How can financial options and real options be valued and used as insurance contracts or strategic growth tools?

Back to the Top

Teaching Faculty for the 15.724 Financial Management Course

The Fall 2025 section of 15.724 is taught by Adrien Verdelhan, the Stephens Naphtal Professor of Finance at MIT Sloan and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Specializing in international finance, currency markets, and sovereign bonds, Professor Verdelhan is a multi-time teaching award recipient at MIT Sloan—having earned the Outstanding Teacher Award (2025), the Teaching with Digital Technology Award (2021), multiple Teacher of the Year honors, and the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Other distinguished MIT Sloan finance faculty who teach or have recently taught 15.724 Financial Management include:

  • David Thesmar (Franco Modigliani Professor of Financial Economics)
  • Paul Asquith (Gordon Y Billard Professor of Finance)
  • Roberto Rigobon (Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management and Professor of Applied Economics)

Grading in the Financial Management Course at MIT Sloan School of Management

Final course grades are calculated using four weighted components, which may be different each semester.

  • Final Exam (40%): An individual, take-home exam posted after the final class and due January 6 (without the use of Generative AI).
  • Case Study Write-Ups (30%): Team memos graded on effort rather than strict correctness to encourage active pre-class preparation.
  • Quizzes (20%): Online post-lecture assessments due before the start of the subsequent class (no late submissions accepted).
  • Class Participation (10%): Evaluated on both the frequency and quality of in-class contributions.

Back to the Top

Order of Topics in 15.724 Financial Management Course at MIT Sloan School of Management

The 10-day curriculum progresses sequentially so that each module builds upon previous concepts. Each semester may be different but an illustrative order of topics is provided below.

  • Day 1: Introduction and Net Present Value
  • Day 2: Alternatives to NPV and Capital Budgeting
  • Day 3: Bonds and Fixed-Income Markets
  • Day 4: Fixed-Income Risks and Stocks
  • Day 5: Capital Structure and Startup Financing
  • Day 6: Diversification and Portfolio Optimization
  • Day 7: Risk, Returns, and CAPM
  • Day 8: Option Payoffs and Cost of Capital
  • Day 9: Valuation Revisited and Real Options
  • Day 10: Real Options in Practice and Final Review

Tutoring Locations Around MIT For Corporate Finance Tutoring

Most of GraduateTutor.com’s tutoring for EMBAs is done live and online on zoom because the EMBAs come to campus only on specified weekends. However, we can meet for one on one private tutoring at any of the locations below too if students prefer in person tutoring. 

  • MIT Hayden Library in Building 14S-100 (160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139)
  • MIT E53 Study Space at Dewey Library Study Area (30 Wadsworth Street, Cambridge, MA 02142)
  • MIT Barker Engineering Library in Building 10-500 (77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139)
  • Cambridge Public Library – Central Square Branch (45 Pearl Street, Cambridge, MA 02139)
  • Cambridge Public Library – Main Branch (449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138)
  • Ripple Café (314 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142)
  • Tatte Bakery & Café – Main Street (101 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142)
  • Tatte Bakery & Café – Third Street (318 Third Street, Cambridge, MA 02142)
  • Jaho Coffee Roaster & Wine Bar (425 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139)
  • 1369 Coffee House (757 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139)
  • Life Alive Organic Café (431 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142)

Back to the Top

Tutoring for 15.724 Financial Management and other Finance Courses at the MIT Sloan

Because finance is an active, quantitative discipline—and 15.724 Financial Management is widely considered one of the most challenging courses in the EMBA curriculum, we recommend students not wait to get private live one-on-one tutoring if you think you are falling behind. In fact, we have EMBAs who come for private tutoring ahead of each finance class so they are going to class well prepared and contributing valuable points in class.

Graduate tutor’s corporate finance tutors also provides tutoring for other foundational finance courses such as 15.401 Managerial Finance, 15.402 Corporate Finance, 15.414 Financial Management (SFMBA), 15.415 Foundations of Modern Finance (MFIN), 15.425 Corporate Finance (MFIN), 15.724 Financial Management (EMBA)

We also provide tutoring for other advanced finance courses and applied programs at MIT (at both the undergraduate and graduate level). Some of the finance courses we can assist you include:

  • 15.403 Intro to the Practice of Finance
  • 15.417 Laboratory in Investments (UG)
  • 15.418 Laboratory in Corporate Finance (UG)
  • 15.426 Real Estate Finance and Investment
  • 15.429 Securitization of Mortgages and Other Assets
  • 15.431 Entrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capital
  • 15.433 Financial Markets
  • 15.434 Advanced Corporate Finance
  • 15.436 Corporate Financial Strategy
  • 15.437 Options and Futures Markets
  • 15.438 Fixed Income Securities and Derivatives
  • 15.439 Quantitative Investment Management
  • 15.445 Mergers Acquisitions and Private Equity
  • 15.447 International Capital Markets
  • 15.450 Analytics of Finance
  • 15.454 Financial Mathematics (MFIN)
  • 15.456 Financial Engineering
  • 15.457 Advanced Analytics of Finance
  • 15.458 Financial Data Science and Computing
  • 15.465 Alphanomics: A New Approach to Security Analysis
  • 15.466 Functional and Strategic Finance
  • 15.467 Asset Management, Lifecycle Investing and Retirement Finance
  • 15.480 Science and Business of Biotechnology
  • 15.481 Financial Market Dynamics and Human Behavior
  • 15.482 Healthcare Finance
  • 15.483 Consumer Finance and FinTech

Contact us for Corporate Finance Tutoring

Graduatetutor’s finance tutors will be happy to provide private tutoring 1-o-1 in person or online for 15.724 Financial Management or for other finance courses at Full-Time Two-Year MBA, MIT Sloan Evening MBA, Leaders for Global Operations (LGO), MIT Sloan Fellows MBA (SFMBA) and MIT Executive MBA (EMBA). Email us or call us to start as soon as possible.

Back to the Top

Sign Up Now