This class has been my most useful, most practical, and one of my favorite classes at UCLA so far! I highly recommend this class to any student as Professor Shawn teaches useful personal finance topics, and the assignments are actually relevant to your everyday life, very eye-opening, and relatively short (less than 1 hour per week of work). Each assignment is due by the beginning of the next class (you have an entire week to do it), and he is totally chill with you showing up late to class. Attendance and participation are counted toward your grade, though I was very interested in the material, asked a lot of questions, and therefore got a good participation grade in the class.

Professor Shawn himself is a private wealth manager and went to UCLA for both his undergrad and his MBA. Therefore, he has a lot of relevant and relatable experiences as a UCLA student, and frequently brings in and uses these experiences in his teachings, such as when we learned about credit cards, insurance, and financing/leasing cars. He is a very friendly and approachable dude and was always open to meeting outside of class to talk about anything. When I mentioned I was interested in PM, he introduced me to his business school friend and paved the way for me to have a great conversation with him. Professor Shawn really cares about his students!

The only downside of this class is that was one 3-hour long seminar each wee, which was difficult to focus in during the end. He would teach for an hour, then give up a 15-minute break to do whatever we wanted (I usually went on a walk outside during this time). We would then return with him teaching for the two hours remaining. It was difficult to focus during the second hour, especially when I was tired from little sleep the night before.

In terms of enrollment, he is very generous in giving out PTEs. Don't be fooled by the strict enrollment standards on myUCLA, anyone can take this class! I actually reached out to him on LinkedIn (since he is a private wealth manager, he has a very detailed LinkedIn) and messaged him about joining the class. He said he didn't have any space in the room but takes as many people as fit in the classroom. A month later, he messaged me out of the blue saying he got a bigger classroom and offered a PTE code to me! Here was the LinkedIn connection message I sent him that eventually got me the code. Feel free to use it!

"
Hello Shawn,

I heard about your personal management class at UCLA, MGMT 168, from my accounting TA and am very interested in taking it this upcoming fall. Besides personal interest, I'm a member of UCLA MoneyThink (where we teach high school seniors financial literacy), so taking this course would help me be a better mentor. However, I'm a rising sophomore and have not yet entered the entrepreneurship minor (I plan on applying in Fall 2022), so I am unable to enroll in the class currently. Can I enroll in the course later if there are spots available? Thanks!

Best,
[my name]
"

Here is a breakdown of the course material and assignments:
Week 1: Budgeting and Cash flow → Create a monthly budget based on your past year of expenses, then track your expenses against your budget for the next 2 months (report to be done at the end of the quarter)
Week 2: Time Value of Money, Credit, and Debt → Research three credit cards and savings accounts, then recommend one for yourself based on your personal life factors (also run a credit report)
Week 3: Auto financing → Research financing and leasing the exact same car, then write a report about what you learned
Week 4: Home financing → find a home in your planned living location in the future, analyzing the mortgage and other expected costs of home ownership
Week 5: Equity investing → Choose a stock and predict its price after its upcoming earnings report based on factors learned in class (correct predictions equal extra credit!)
Week 6: Debt investing (bonds) → no assignment
Week 7: Insurance (you apparently can insure pretty much anything) → no assignment
Week 8: Retirement Planning → no assignment, though can begin working on the final project
Week 9: Life Insurance/Estate Planning → research term vs universal life insurance and write a report about what you'd recommend for yourself and what you learned
Week 10/Finals: The final project is a 40-year financial plan, from the beginning of your career until your retirement. You should use all of the knowledge, skills, and tools you learned during the course. The professor is very helpful in completing this if you reach out. The project is worth 35 points, with the presentation to the class being another 15.

Each assignment is graded from 6-10/10, with the following distribution:
Bottom 10% of the class on the assignment: 6/10
10-30th percentile of the class on the assignment: 7/10
30-70th percentile of the class on the assignment: 8/10
70-90th percentile of the class on the assignment: 9/10
Top 10% of the class: 10/10

Therefore, the class is curved relative to other students, but ~50% of the class ends up getting A's. I got 9s and 10s on every assignment with about an hour of work per assignment, sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less. It's easy to get an A in this class if you actually care and put in some effort.

Overall, I would recommend this class to every UCLA student!

This is a unique course that teaches through guest speakers and case studies, which can be quiet useful for the real world. As long as you put in the effort, you should get at least an A-. Just a heads up that attendance AND participation is part of your grade. You also have to interview a real entrepreneur which I think is cool. Also this class is fairly expensive with all of the course materials being around $150.

As someone new to entrepreneurship, this class was a good introduction to the field. The professor brought in many entrepreneurs as guest speakers and it was useful to hear their stories and journeys. The case studies discussed in class were pretty interesting and cool to learn about. The class is graded on a curve, with about 50% of the class getting an A- or better, so make sure you actively participate and perform well on the tests. Most of the content that is business and economic-based is learned through the textbook so read those carefully.

I recently took Management 159 with Professor Shawn Patt, and it was one of the best classes I've had. Professor Patt is an outstanding lecturer who knows how to make the material engaging and relevant. His deep understanding of the subject matter and his ability to convey complex concepts in a clear and accessible way really stood out.

One of the things I appreciated most about the course was the use of case studies. These real-life examples allowed us to apply what we learned in class, making the material more practical and easier to understand. It was great to see how the theories we discussed could be used to solve actual business problems.

Another fantastic aspect of the course was the weekly guest lectures. Professor Patt brought in successful entrepreneurs to share their life stories and insights. These sessions were incredibly inspiring and provided us with valuable knowledge about the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship. Hearing from people who have been successful in the field gave us a lot of practical advice and motivation.

Overall, Professor Patt's approach to teaching and his commitment to providing a well-rounded learning experience made Management 159 a standout class for me. I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested in entrepreneurship and practical management skills.

Professor Shawn really knows his stuff and is extremely helpful. The class is filled with opportunities for free points such as an attendance and participation grade. Many of the guest speakers were really interesting and shared useful experiences. Feel free to reach out to the professor or talk to him after class if you have any questions as he's very approachable. The class has a midterm (15%) a Final (30%) and a final paper (10%) which make up the bulk of your grade.

I've never seen so many people drop a class. Materials are EXPENSIVE: ~$90 for the textbook, $42 for a bunch of pdfs, and $10 to use the software for one of the assignments. Attendance is graded, there's a participation grade (for lecture participation), and lectures are very hit or miss. Some guest speakers were really engaging and you could learn from them, others got defensive when you asked questions / came off quite out of touch. Prof Shawn LOVES to talk about how he uses chatgpt all the time but doesn't actually teach us how to be better at using AI. I also personally did not enjoy my interactions with him as he came off as condescending and unhelpful.
Since enough people convinced him to move the midterm and final online, scores were really high and the cutoff for an A-/A was way above 90/93. The entire class is graded on a bell curve / where you stand in the class distribution which makes it extremely competitive, and you have to constantly aim to be above the average.
Overall: Avoid this class if you can. I personally feel that his personal finance class would be a much better option, as he comes off much more engaging and helpful in that domain.

Perfect class if you want to hear weekly presentations with pretentious millionaires complaining about how hard their life is. It's like listening to an unhelpful podcast of useless finance jargon that won't help you unless you are already the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

currently trying to be busy in my internship so here i am. this is for mgmt 159, idk why it wont let me put it down but whatever. Great class, great guy, and honestly you will learn something. i think everyone should learn about the prorcess of starting a business and i think mgmt 159 is what does that. in terms of grades, honestly just put in some effort and the rest will be fine. the only challenging part is the midterm/final which make up about 50% of your grade, make sure to watch his review and then do the homework chapter problems that we have access to. If you do both of these things and retain the information you will do amazing in this class. ok cool its only been 3 minutes, idk what else to do

My favorite management class at UCLA. Attendance is mandatory and participation score is curved so make sure you sit in front, maintain a good relationship with the professor, and answer a lot of questions. The guest speakers who come to the class are highly experienced and provide valuable business advice. I think a lot of classes have the complain that it never talks about doing stuff in the real world but I think this is totally the opposite.

This class was by far the most practical and applicable class I've taken at UCLA. The personal finance concepts introduced are immediately applicable to life and for that reason alone I would strongly recommend taking this class. Particularly as a student interested in entrepreneurship, I felt this class gave me a strong footing to prepare me for being financially responsible as I pursue my career goals. In addition to its practicality, Professor Patt is one of the most reasonable, relatable, and engaging professors I've had at UCLA. His approach to finance and teaching is very informative. Overall, I would highly recommend this course to literally every student at UCLA.