Rajiv Sethi

For context, I had never taken any classes related to econ in high school and had not taken any calculus. I came into the class unsure if I was interested in the subject at all, but this class and professor made me decide to declare an econ major. Some people who had taken econ classes before said the topic weren't sequential, but as someone without any prior knowledge, it made sense to me. Sethi doesn't always go by the textbook, but he does a fantastic job at relating the study of economics to real life and current events which I thought was the best part. He's not necessarily the easiest professor, but it was such an interesting class and I learned so much. He has a tendency to go off on tangents sometimes, but again, they are very interesting and will deepen your interest in economics. In terms of things you actually need to know, he is very good at simply explaining concepts and formulas. Taking notes is crucial, because the slides are more of a supplement. He really cared about us understanding what we learned, asking questions, and being interested in economics itself beyond the classroom.

This class will NOT teach you how to code. Do not go into this class thinking its an intro class because it is not. This class is meant to teach you general concepts in coding and how to structure projects. It's a brilliant class if you're a CS major trying to create projects for your resume (so much free reign is given to you for that final project), but not so much if you're just looking to learn. If you think this is going to teach you stuff related to finance, it's not.

Awesome professor -- Sethi obviously knows his shit. As other reviewers have mentioned, I think Sethi probably does more conceptual stuff than Davidson (not that I know, since I didn't take her class, obviously), but I think that makes the class more interesting and when you know the theory behind the financial instruments discussed it makes doing the problems more intuitive as well. As such, Sethi stressed intuition when studying for exams, not plug in chug math, so I thought the exam problems could get difficult (you lost a lot of points for not understanding the "why" behind things) but overall I learned a ton in this class. Lectures were great -- this is one of few Econ classes I've taken where I think attending lecture is imperative to doing well, and Sethi is obviously really into the material, very engaging, you will want to go to lecture (except that it was in Milbank which was a long ass walk, so I didn't actually want to go, but you'll want to be there, is what I mean). The transition between one lecture to the next is seamless, and he does a brief review of the last lecture every class which I thought was really helpful because then you can actually see how each topic is connected to the next. He also in the first lecture did a pretty good job of laying out the plan for the whole semester which I found really helpful. Problem sets were useful for applying lecture co…

very smart professor, interesting lectures, but he is really intense and moves really fast--no nonsense teaching style. great powerpoints will guide you through the fast-paces lectures, though. covers many interesting topics, but it's not easy stuff, so you have to stay on top of readings and go to class to do well on problem sets and exams. he's helpful in responding to emails and questions posted on courseworks.

I took Prof Sethi for intro and intermediate. He was good for intro and well. . . not so good for intermediate. I understand many people in the class were econ majors and could grasp the material easily, but I also know that many were not. Prof Sethi spoke very quickly and rushed through most of the in depth curriculum. All his power point slides were posted online and accessable before the class but were highly incomprehensible. Prof Sethi was unaccessable and as previously stated, he was the first one out of the class room on most days. Good thing about the class though, fairly decent curve. On the midterm an ~20/ 50 was a C.

Prof. Sethi was amazing!!! I have never seen a teacher so dedicated to his students and wanting them to excel. Take advantage of his office hours and of his message board on courseworks!! Economics is a very important subject to understand for all aspect of your life and Prof. Sethi makes it so interesting and makes you want to understand. I highly reccomend him!!

Sethi is an excellent professor who is open to meeting with students about any problems with the class. He is organized, clear, and presents the information in an interesting manner. A note on the first reviewer for Sethi: why would you assume that all Barnard classes are an easy A? Please get off your high horse and actually take some classes before you make such sweeping assumptions.

He's great i love this guy hes also rlly nice and his supporting material is great; i didn't rlly study well for this class but he was all good help i miss him

1 large PSET every week that you submit the code for. 3-5 hours. Final project is that but DIY.

A fantastic professor who does an amazing job of explaining concepts to his students. Though he can rush through things at times, he always makes sure to pause and make sure that everybody is following. If not, he is more than happy to go back and clarify. His course covers a lot of topics and is a great way to build a solid conceptual understanding of these topics. His lecture slides do NOT cover everything he will go over in class, so you will benefit greatly by printing them and writing on them in class. The workload is extremely manageable for the class and does a good job of reinforcing asking you to apply the concepts taught in class to solve the problems. Definitely would recommend attending lectures if you take this course. HW 30% MT 20% fair Final 50% cumulative