BC 3038

Professor Burgstaller is incredibly knowledgeable and very passionate about the material that he teaches. Although he may ramble and his class is often hard to follow, his passion and desire to teach makes up for it. I enjoyed him as a Professor

Basically nothing (HW is graded for completion) Periodic quizzes (we had 2), also graded for completion Midterm (semi-disaster) Final (absolute disaster)

Some people are just not meant to be teachers. Burgstaller is one of them. He is a lovely person, very nice, very willing to help. However, this class was an absolute failure. There are not many classes at Columbia that I believe are an absolute disaster. Everyone has bad teachers, unfortunate experiences, but this class was the absolute worst. I hope no one has to experience what I did. The class started with over 100 people. Before the midterm, half of them have left. Of the remaining 60 students in an empty classroom that fits over 100 people, most had P/F the class by the midterm after realizing the coursework was absolutely absurd. Burgstaller could not teach, period. He tried to teach macro concepts without any math, yup any at all. I hate math, but sometimes it's necessary. The concepts were extremely difficult and convoluted without any numerical basis, and people literally just guessed around for the answer. His TA Luis was a disaster too. He graded the tests without any leniency. Since no answers had numerical basis, honestly it was up for arguing. He wrote extremely poorly organized handouts in which covered extensive material on one page of poorly written notes and graphs. Everyone I knew was always confused. There was not one person I spoke to who enjoyed the course. Further, most left confused and feeling like this class had ruined their semester. Most people I k…

5 problem sets (Chegg all of them) and 2 quizzes 1 midterm 1 final exam In terms of PSET / effort required on a regular basis this class is a joke. However, studying for the exams are torturous because of what is mentioned above.

This class is ridiculous. Many people I know have P/D/Fed by the middle of the course. The beginning of class had over 120 people, and now there's only 58 people left in the course because everyone got the feeling that this would be an utter disaster. I had the same feeling but nonetheless chose to stay, so I guess I can't even complain much. First, the class is not organized, and Andre goes way beyond what is on the tests during his class lectures. This leaves people extremely confused. Class average was a 40/70 for the midterm which is 57% ish...... I don't know how else to stress the fact that no one should take this class. Even if you're the smartest person in the world and somehow believe you can meander your way around his confusing material and pull an A....you're wrong. Spend your time somewhere else. Most people I know who are A- to A students in harder Econ classes at Columbia are struggling to get a B+ at this point. I'm not sure who was the delusional reviewer down below who glorified this class and said it was easiest thing out there. Most of us probably got swindled into taking this awful class because of that reviewer. Concluding thoughts: THIS IS A BAD CLASS. DO NOT TAKE IT UNLESS YOU ENJOY MISERY.

4 Psets based on completion Midterm, Final Literally 0 effort needed

Please for the love of God do not take this class if you have a soul. The material is confusing and he makes it 10x harder than he should because he "needs to feel stimulated" though none of it is covered on the test. You don't have to go to class ever, and no, it doesn't even help to go. Homeworks are based on completion. In theory, this is every econ majors dream. The class average on the midterm was about 30%... which was absurd but everyone got at least a B-. If you are a student of color or a any person with a moral backbone, this is just simply not the class for you if you don't want to deal with blatant racism and discrimination. His comments were absurd to the point where nobody even knew how to react. Based on how students are reacting this semester (Fall 2017), I would be surprised if he is still teaching here next year.

"Problem Sets" that are just questions from the end of the textbook chapters Midterm and Final of which he posts old ones and solutions. They are arbitrary and annoying, but not hard.

This is a joke of a class. Volunteer on the first day to write the lecture summary for that class, send it to the TA (who seems to really resent that he got stuck as a TA for this professor) and never return to class other than tests and to drop off homework. All of his lectures are recorded, not that it matters because of his wild ramblings and nonsensical explanations for things, not to mention his immensely uncomfortable borderline, if not outright, racist comments at minority students. The textbook has everything you need and is solid, but not great. The material is at least interesting if you are into international macroeconomics. (The material is largely focused on the interaction between exchange rates, interest rates and domestic output) Very low effort class for a relatively easy grade, especially for a Columbia Fin-E student who struggles to find some easy filler credits within the major.