<p>hear hear ECON PRIDE MUTHA****AAAASSSSSS. </p>
<p>anyone know anything about von neumann-morgenstern utility by any chance?</p>
<p>“Is Econ really that bad at UCLA? Is it bad because you don’t learn anything or is it bad because the professors suck?”</p>
<p>“A lot of Econ majors say it’s bad because they went into it for the wrong reasons. Most of the people in Econ don’t even like Econ in the first place, and are here because it’s the closest thing to a business major.”</p>
<p>I think I was the one who mentioned that there was an overflow of people in the dept for whom it was the closest thing to a business major, and not because they liked econ as a social science. I myself actually like economics, so that is not why I think the econ dept is bad. There are some pretty deep rooted problems which make the state of dept pretty persistent and difficult to change within a short time, imo:</p>
<p>Two years ago, I had a chat with the departmental counselor, Julie Plotkin. She told me that the econ department was the most (or one of the most?) underfunded departments on campus. I’m not sure whether she meant in comparison to other departments of comparable size, or in general. Either way, I believe it. If you look at another large, impacted department like Psychology, you see that they have 2X the number of course offerings than we have in any given quarter. We also lack breadth in our courses, and pretty much none of our courses are interdisciplinary/interdepartmental (I believe we are the only department within the division of social sciences like that, which is strange because econ is a very interdisciplinary subject!!); it’s too bad, because I would have liked to have taken “behavioral economics” or classes on economic institutions of other countries or even those more interconnected with public policy. The general ucla course catalog actually reveals a wider range of econ classes, but the reality is that only a fraction of them will be offered during your 4-year undergrad career, and some of them you’ll probably see offered once your entire tenure (wth, economics of energy? economics of political conflict?? development of economic institutions in western europe? I have never seen these classes in my four years here!). Just the other day, I received an Econ-Alert email that said that one of the few decent econ classes I’ve taken - Economics of Sports - will no longer be offered during the school year (summer only). So I think that particular incident has to do more with the recent turn of events that is affecting the whole campus, but I mean we had slim pickings to begin with. To see it be decimated even further - wow, I feel sorry for the folks who have to deal with that.</p>
<p>Another big thing is that we have a huge problem with recruiting talent (professors) and retaining them. I do not know the details or reasons, but in the last few years, UCLA has experienced a large exodus of talent within the econ department. Fellow students from the econ dept probably have noticed that 70% of the upper div classes (and econ 11, i suppose), are taught by the same, like, 5 professors with a few smatterings of other instructors. Yeah, you probably know who I’m talking about. It would have been ok if those 5 professors were awesome teachers, but nope, they are all pretty subpar. I won’t even mention econ 1 and 2 because they’re monopolized by bresnock and hou, year end year out.</p>
<p>And yeah, we don’t have a lot of memorable professors within our small rank to begin with. I don’t think a lot of other north campus departments can feel our pain.</p>
<p>thecheesecake,</p>
<p>I will agree with you that the Econ department has its fair share of ****tiness. Maybe even more than its fair share compared to overly funded north campus majors.</p>
<p>We have ****ty professors like Murphy, Brown, etc, etc…
But I think that their reputation is overshadowing much better aspects of the department.</p>
<p>I’ve never had McDevitt, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about him (even if he is difficult). And I can honestly say Sproul was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t think anyone in Sproul’s class could complain about his lectures. I really don’t think anyone else could have made me enjoy learning economics more than him.</p>
<p>Right now I have Hopenhayn, and although he is extremely difficult, teaches a very valuable and practical Industrial Organization class. Right now I’m working on a paper for him that has me tracking the prices of video games over time, and the pricing strategies these companies use (in detail). Very interesting.</p>
<p>So yes, while I will agree with you the Econ department has problems such as ****ty class availability and the same old bad professors sticking around, I will also argue that not everyone has the same experiences. Once you’re past the weeder classes, there’s a lot of opportunities out there.</p>
<p>I have one of those insanely bad econ profs (Brown) and need to find a tutor for the rest of the quarter. He just taught us the material for the last midterm today, but we took the midterm last week. I’m hoping he’s not planning on teaching us the material for the final after the class is over.</p>
<p>If you or someone you know could tutor me in econ 41, statistics, PLEASE send me a message. I just want to pass the class and then I’ll be switching majors.</p>
<p>^dude relax…i learned that entire quarter of econ 41 material in 14 hrs. you can do it too. my advice is know how to do the practice problems like the back of your hand. if you dont know how to do them, memorize the solutions. then KNOW HOW TO USE YOUR CALCULATOR. its absolutely CRUCIAL that you know how to use your calculator. because without it, you WILL not have enough time to finish the final, the final is like 3 midterms long, lmao. hit me up if you need more help.</p>
<p>[Highest</a> Paid Bachelor?s Degrees: 2009 - Slideshows - CNBC.com](<a href=“Highest-Paid Bachelor’s Degrees: 2010”>Highest-Paid Bachelor’s Degrees: 2010)</p>
<ol>
<li>Chemical Engineering</li>
</ol>
<p>Average starting salary: $65,466</p>
<p>Interesting.</p>
<p>How does a major in international relations compare? There’s economics in there, plus it pulls on many other things I find interesting.</p>