Ethan is the best professor you will probably ever have at UCLA.

I knew going into this class it was going to be difficult (in large part because I had not taken a programming class before), but boy oh boy was I in for a treat!

Where do I start?

The first day of class, I walked in and was pleased to see a very young (hahaha hilarious pun) charismatic, friendly professor ready to show us the ins and outs of MATLAB. After an introduction to the course, which included the thrilling experience of realizing that this class was not going to have a midterm (grade is solely based on homeworks and the final project), I was starting to like the guy. My positive first impression of him did not wane for the first few weeks as I hardly ran into any problems with the first few homeworks.

Inevitably, the class suddenly got quite complicated for me.

What most people will tell you is that Ethan does actually explain concepts pretty well during lecture, which is true. The problem with him is that what he teaches during lecture is perhaps 1/10th (if I'm being generous) of the difficultly that some of the homework projects are. He answers emails frequently, but he almost always responds with a very cryptic answer (I understand what he's trying to do; he is trying to get us to figure out the problem ourselves, but it usually just winds up in getting oneself even more confused than you were before).

But what is perhaps most frustrating about the class is that the TA's essentially wind up giving in since they see how confused we are. Some of them practically write up the exact code that you need in order to figure out the problem that you are having., which basically undermines all that Ethan is trying to accomplish.

Don't get me wrong, this guy can definitely improve, but he is far from being perfect. I can definitely see that this is a very difficult class to actually teach well, but that should not mean we give him a free pass to a high rating simply because he is charismatic and he can explain the easiest possible fundamentals to the class.

Most of the class at the beginning of the quarter did not raise their hand when he asked if we had taken a programming class before, so while some of you coding experts might be saying to yourself, "haha what a whining little ****," just remember that you also still have to write the godawful, pointless 10+ page reports for EVERY HOMEWORK, EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

JOKE'S ON YOU FOOLS!

In all seriousness, just remember one thing; being young, charismatic, and friendly does not maketh a great professor.

Ethan was great. One of my favorite professors. His assignments were pretty interesting and he was really passionate about programming, so he really tried to give you an idea of the concepts behind the code. He was also really quick to respond to emails and really helpful in office hours. TAs for this class are also really helpful, so figure out who the best ones are when you're taking it and go to their lab section/office hours! I had Jordan Price and Colin Togashi and they were absolutely wonderful.