Professor
Shawn Patt
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2026 - I've never written a review on bruinwalk but felt like I had to for this one. The one thing that I got out of this class is that Shawn Patt just wants to make money, even from his students who already pay tuition. The textbook he makes you purchase, he wrote with ChatGPT and proudly talks about it. Since he wrote the textbook, he makes $40 from every student in an 100 student lecture every quarter. I would say 40% of the class is actually learning entrepreneurship, and 60% is him talking about AI and how awesome it is (I wish this percentage were an exaggeration—it really was an unnecessary amount of AI talk that wasn't useful). Everything in this course is made by AI. Your exams, assignments, and the syllabus. EVERYTHING is made by Ai. There will often be mistakes/errors because of this. Shawn Patt is a hardass about tardiness, so if you have to walk across campus and end up being 5 minutes late, do not take this class because he cares. I'm honestly very disappointed after taking this class (especially since this was my first one in the entrepreneurship minor—I was so excited!) All the guest speakers that come in and companies that he has direct involvement with/he invested in + these companies really try to market themselves to us, so it still feels like he wants to make money from us one way or another. BTW, one of the guest speakers he brought on justified a makeup business that fully did a racist makeup campaign that they helped start up. He really does not care about his students, and it's honestly disappointing and discouraging the way he prioritizes his cash flow (haha) and AI. Anyways, I learned very little, mostly everybody did badly on the exams (but he does a crazy curve on it, making it seem like ppl did okay on it) bc the way he lectures is just reading off slides, nothing more engaging than that. Pretty disappointed, and more disappointed at the fact that there are people like Shawn Patt in the world who get fulfilled from making money from students. Lastly, every word that comes out of him is discouraging; he is not a positive lecturer/person. Shawn Patt, if you're reading this, rethink the way you teach, speak, and really think about who's in the lecture seats. I know that little brain of yours may not think as well as it used to because it's plugged into ChatGPT and gemini 50% of the time, and the other 50% is thinking about how you can make your income bigger every month.... but maybe, JUST maybe (just an idea)—put down the Ai. Go outside (a golf course in calabasas doesn't count) and think outside the box for once :)
Winter 2026 - I've never written a review on bruinwalk but felt like I had to for this one. The one thing that I got out of this class is that Shawn Patt just wants to make money, even from his students who already pay tuition. The textbook he makes you purchase, he wrote with ChatGPT and proudly talks about it. Since he wrote the textbook, he makes $40 from every student in an 100 student lecture every quarter. I would say 40% of the class is actually learning entrepreneurship, and 60% is him talking about AI and how awesome it is (I wish this percentage were an exaggeration—it really was an unnecessary amount of AI talk that wasn't useful). Everything in this course is made by AI. Your exams, assignments, and the syllabus. EVERYTHING is made by Ai. There will often be mistakes/errors because of this. Shawn Patt is a hardass about tardiness, so if you have to walk across campus and end up being 5 minutes late, do not take this class because he cares. I'm honestly very disappointed after taking this class (especially since this was my first one in the entrepreneurship minor—I was so excited!) All the guest speakers that come in and companies that he has direct involvement with/he invested in + these companies really try to market themselves to us, so it still feels like he wants to make money from us one way or another. BTW, one of the guest speakers he brought on justified a makeup business that fully did a racist makeup campaign that they helped start up. He really does not care about his students, and it's honestly disappointing and discouraging the way he prioritizes his cash flow (haha) and AI. Anyways, I learned very little, mostly everybody did badly on the exams (but he does a crazy curve on it, making it seem like ppl did okay on it) bc the way he lectures is just reading off slides, nothing more engaging than that. Pretty disappointed, and more disappointed at the fact that there are people like Shawn Patt in the world who get fulfilled from making money from students. Lastly, every word that comes out of him is discouraging; he is not a positive lecturer/person. Shawn Patt, if you're reading this, rethink the way you teach, speak, and really think about who's in the lecture seats. I know that little brain of yours may not think as well as it used to because it's plugged into ChatGPT and gemini 50% of the time, and the other 50% is thinking about how you can make your income bigger every month.... but maybe, JUST maybe (just an idea)—put down the Ai. Go outside (a golf course in calabasas doesn't count) and think outside the box for once :)
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - 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!
Fall 2022 - 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!
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