CURRENT COURSES
Sustainable and Impact Investing, MBA program elective, FNCE695, SMU.
Oct-Nov 2020
Great industry knowledge and passion that really comes through in his teaching. Prof’s willingness to embrace different platforms and methods (Piazza, flipped classroom, whatsapp) is much appreciated and contributes to a great learning process, especially during abnormal conditions. There is plenty of opportunity for feedback so it feels like the course is being adapted as we go along to meet the cohort’s specific needs.
Prof put a lot of effort to impart ESG and impact investing through articles, sharing, inviting guest speakers every week and etc. I probably went in having zero knowledge of ESG and came out with a lot of interest on this subject.
Real-world experience in the finance & investment sector, and able to combine theory with practice throughout the teaching process
Alternative Investments, Masters of Applied Finance elective, FNCE6023, SMU.
Mar-Apr 2021
Prof. Matt has strong communication skills, knowledge about the market and trends, and could connect it with the theory during our course. He gave a lot of stimulus for students to learn, used different tools to interact and brought some guest speakers, who could give us a better perspective of what we were learning. Really an outstanding job!
Prof Matt puts a lot of thought into how he presents the material. His lessons were engaging, useful and he was very patient with everyone in class always encouraging students to speak up. He also gave us many in-class surveys and exercises to help up really understand what we are learning rather than just memorizing for the quiz.
Mar-Apr 2020
Clarity of teaching. Able to view questions from the shoes of the student and thus understands and answers student questions very well.
The course content is carefully prepared and closely follows the latest advance of industry. Prof encourages us to ask questions through various channels. He answers every question very carefully.
Being very insightful and professional. Also, you have wonderful pacing. I have never seen any profs who can do so many details in such a non-hurry speed. I actually hope you can write tips about how to do a great presentation.
Mar-Apr 2019
Very interactive and genuine passion for subject. Also he answered all doubts correctly and constantly strived to improve by taking regular feedback. Also the class discussions were very well conducted.
Professor Matt is really excellent and experienced. He brought lots of real cases and new concepts to me. He is a meticulous and responsible teacher.
The prof made the class as interactive as possible. His enthusiasm for teaching made the classes interesting. Invited guest speakers added new element to the classes. The material provided was very helpful. Prof maintained continuous contact with the students through emails, making it easy to approach him.
Mar-Apr 2018
The instructor was overall among the best during the entire program. He managed to instil genuine enthusiasm in the subject among the students and had an excellent grasp on all topics. I also liked how he provided additional material for those interested in topics.
I hope I'm not putting my foot in my mouth saying this, but I don't think Matt did his PhD, and yet he has been by far the best professor I've had at SMU. While other professors have shown no interest in helping students or meeting with them outside of class Matt has done both. If he hasn't been given the opportunity already, and if he has time to do so, this man deserves to be offered a full-time position for his excellence towards students and teaching.
Mar-Apr 2017
Prof Dearth is a very open and enthusiastic person. He is very experienced and have a wide network to find speakers to do relevant presentation for us to help us gain deeper insight into the subjected involved.
Professor Matthew was a great lecturer. Classes are always interesting. He is very open to discussions as well. Easily contactable and approachable.
PREVIOUS COURSES
Asset Management, MBA program elective, FNCE695, SMU.
Oct-Nov 2018
Matt Dearth is an excellent professor. The best in SMU. Thanks to him I *finally* feel like I’m learning something useful and applicable in a Finance course. Other courses appear to be all theory and fluff.
Prof Matt is my favorite professor during the whole MBA program. He’s very knowledgeable yet humble and always offer help to students. I really enjoyed his course and I would recommend his course to other classmates.
I was very excited to learn from an expert from the industry. Prof is very helpful I especially like the design of giving feedback after every class because Prof makes sure that I understand the concepts clearly.
Oct-Nov 2017
I like the instructor for the three reasons: 1) he sets high standards for letting us know that we should put more effort and being more self motivated. Its hard but we cannot stay in the comfort zone forever. We choose MBA for leaving comfort zone. 2) he is well prepared for every course. For every course there is guest speaker coming in telling us about the real industry practice. there is massive information and relevant topics regarding the themes and we need to write the course feedback every course we take. I like the attitude and his ways of doing things. 3) he did make a lot of effort by encouraging us to meet him off-hours of the course, trying his best to be available and helpful. Appreciate that.
Prof is able to stimulate interest of the course. And being a industry practitioner he is knowledgeable and brought in quite a few guest speakers to complement the teaching experience. One of the few best professors.