BC 3029

Not terrible. There is a lot of reading, but it is usually really interesting. If you find it boring, which I sometimes did, you can just skim it or skip it all together. There is a midterm and a final, which are all essays and IDs. He gives you possible questions before, and chooses a few of them to put on the test. Make friends and split the questions up - it is much easier that way, especially for the IDs. If you hate tests, you can write a paper instead. Make friends with the TA, Jere. He does all the grading. He can be harsh - the midterm was graded surprisingly harshly - but is more than willing to go over the exam with you, as long as you are willing to listen and try to learn the material, not just fight for a higher grade. Your final grade matters much more anyway. I got a B on the midterm and an A in the class, so clearly there was some curving going on.

5 assignments (15%), 2 midterms (20% each), 1 non cumulative final (25%), 1 project (15%), 5 pop quizzes (5%)

Professor Reddy is a wonderful professor and a wonderful man. First, you can tell he REALLY cares about his students and is genuinely interested in hearing their points of view. Even in a large lecture class, he encourages class participation, and truly listens to every student's comments. I felt completely comfortable commenting on sometimes very complex economic theories, which is a truly rare thing for a Columbia or Barnard econ class. I found the material to be absolutely fascinating. When people say Development Economics, it can mean a lot of different things. Professor Reddy understands this, and in facts structures his class around the idea that development economics has been interpreted in many different ways throughout the 20th century until today. Each week focuses on a different theory or aspect of economic development - from the Solow growth model to the role of gender, health, and education in economic development. In many ways, this is a history of economic development class. I left feeling I knew a good amount about many different thoughts and theories in the field, rather than harping on one. He is not a data-driven economists, but a theoretical economist. There are no problem sets or equations to memorize. He occasionally used formulas or equations when relevant, but it was absolutely NOT necessary to follow them if you don't like that kind of thing. Being tau…

Very interesting course. the prof covers a wide range of topics from poverty to gender to econ growth models. the lecture can be dull at times unfortunately. she expands a little bit off of the ppt slides but its not entirely necessary to attend class. she is a really nice lady. not the best of professors from an academic pov but defintiely cares about students she knows personally. the ppl who went to her oh got to know her better personally and understand how much she cares about being a better professor. she has a significant amount of teaching experience so students expect more from her than what she offers. this class is an easy a compared to most econ classes but there is a significant amount of work with 5 assignments and a project along with 3 non cummulative exams. overall i would recommend this class for ppl interested in the topic. you do walk away knowing more about development economics.

An excellent class. Well-structured and a superb lecturer. Very eloquent and easy to follow and covers most of the readings. Very approchable and is just brilliant!

Easy A if you are great at memorizing. This class includes a lot of busy work. 5 long problem sets, 2 midterms, 5 pop quizzes, a research paper and a final.

Its pretty intensive but if you do an independent project, you can go within your own pace.

Stay away from the Egyptian Plague if you are actually interested in learning about Development Economics. I originally entered this class thinking it would be a great learning opportunity. Instead, I endured an entire semester of a teacher reading off her slides and holding her students hostage with the threat of pop quizzes. Her understanding of the subject is very questionable as she was never able to answer most questions asked in class. Finally, the TA graded most of the assignments haphazardly and also knew little about Development Economics.

Sanjay Reddy is such a sweet man; I took this course without any prereqs and I had very little interest in econ itself (I was more drawn to the development aspects of it). So I decided to take the risk and do a 25 page paper on women and dev and that was probably yhe best decision I ever made. It's really not that bad..I would say ditch the midterm/final and do something else that may strike your as well as his interest.