Spring 2027

Corporation Finance

Corporation Finance covers financial management theory, capital budgeting, project and firm valuation, capital structure, dividend policy, cost of capital, and M&A.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Ilhan Demiralp3.8/5Scott Baker

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Ilhan Demiralp

The course was not too difficult for students with a decent base, and exams were essentially rephrased versions of the homework.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Set a capital budget

  • Evaluate projects with discount cash flow valuation

  • Compute the appropriate cost of capital

  • Value whole firms with discount cash flow valuation

  • Identify factors that determine an optimal capital structure of a firm and how debt impacts financial decisions

  • Explain the basics of mergers and acquisitions

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

FINANCE/​ECON 300,ACCT I S 301, (MATH 213 or 222) and (GEN BUS 307, 317,ACT SCI 654,ECON 400, 410,STAT/​MATH 310,STAT 312, 333 or concurrent enrollment), or declared in undergraduate Business Exchange program

FINANCE 325 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.50/5 from 4 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 3.0/5 raw quality · 4.0/5 difficulty · 1 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Ilhan Demiralp

A student noted that the class was not too hard if you had a decent base, and that exams were basically just homework rephrased. They described Ilhan Demiralp as whiny and annoying at times, saying he basically encouraged you not to come to his office hours.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.25 GPA, 60.5% A/AB (n=114 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.27 GPA, 63.2% A/AB (n=87 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.31 GPA, 64.5% A/AB (n=124 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.44 GPA, 59.5% A/AB (n=116 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Oliver Levine

Historical instructor Oliver Levine made dry finance topics interesting and printed slides for students. He described the workload as relatively low, noting the textbook was unnecessary. Exams mirrored practice questions, though one student found the final surprising; the class was curved. Levine cared about student success, and students noted the value of attending lectures to fully grasp the material.

ILHAN DEMIRALP is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

OLIVER LEVINE is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SCOTT BAKER is recorded teaching in Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online (some classroom)0 / 660
LEC 002Online (some classroom)0 / 660
LEC 003Online (some classroom)0 / 650
LEC 004Classroom Instruction0 / 650
LEC 005Classroom Instruction0 / 650

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Ilhan Demiralp

Students with a solid foundation found the class manageable, as exams closely mirrored the assigned homework problems.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.35 GPA, 64.2% A/AB (n=218 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.35 GPA, 56.7% A/AB (n=319 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.28 GPA, 57.4% A/AB (n=202 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Ilhan Demiralp

The course was not too difficult for students with a decent base, and exams were essentially rephrased versions of the homework.

Past student reviews · Ilhan Demiralp

One student described Instructor Ilhan Demiralp as annoying and noted that he discouraged attendance at his office hours.

Topics

  • Capital budgeting and valuation of projects and firms
  • Capital structure theory, dividend policy, and cost of capital
  • Mergers and acquisitions

Skills

  • Setting capital budgets and evaluating projects using discount cash flow valuation
  • Computing cost of capital and identifying factors determining optimal capital structure
  • Valuing whole firms with DCF and explaining the basics of mergers and acquisitions

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.08 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
FINANCE 325 · Spring 2027

Corporation Finance

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:233:003044",
    "course_id": "FINANCE 325",
    "course_uid": "course_e4adc02b0ffa8d8ef30f0bcd",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "003044",
    "source_subject_id": "233",
    "title": "Corporation Finance",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "d3c839e5d5e67d2ae109c4931d4df15a0987b3acb512940ce4b0afed779a1d6e",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}