This was one of the first classes I took at UCLA after transferring from community college. During my orientation, U.S. Latinx Politics was the one class I had to "settle" for. Despite getting into my other upper-division political science and elective classes, I couldn’t secure a spot in my second political science course of choice. For those new to UCLA, transfers are required to choose two upper-division major classes and one additional course during orientation for their first semester. Since political science classes are highly impacted, enrollment is competitive- making difficult to get into your preferred courses without priority registration.

I was initially concerned that my first quarter at UCLA would be negatively affected by being enrolled in a class with a professor who had low ratings on Bruinwalk. As a pre-law student with a relatively high GPA, maintaining my academic standing was incredibly important. However, I quickly learned that while Bruinwalk can be a helpful tool, it’s not the definitive measure of a professor’s quality. My experience with this class and professor proved that.

If you are unable to earn an A in this class, it reflects your own efforts- or perhaps personal circumstances that might be hindering your performance- (Of course, life can get in the way of things).

Professor de la Vega, along with her TAs (I had the “tougher” TA, Emily), demonstrated genuine devotion to helping students succeed. They were committed to ensuring that you had the resources and support you needed to understand the material and do well in the class. No one will do the work for you, nor will anyone hold your hand through every assignment in this class or any others at UCLA. However, if you have questions or concerns about an assignment or feel unsure about your logical or writing skills, Professor de la Vega will ensure you have access to the resources necessary to succeed and improve.

Fall 2024 consisted of bi-weekly lectures, two weekly readings from the textbook (or other provided materials), and weekly discussion sections. Attendance at lectures, comprehension of the reading materials, and active participation in discussions were all required. Since the class was held during a presidential election year, two assignments focused on contemporary issues—one semi-weighted assignment and the midterm. The final exam however was based on material covered after the election cycle/midterm and was not cumulative.

Overall, Professor de la Vega’s class is a fantastic introduction to the rigor of UCLA and higher education in general. No one is going to "hand you" an A, but if you’ve made it this far—enrolling in upper-division classes at UCLA—you should be able to succeed. Attendance and participation in lectures and discussions matter, and if you demonstrate the self-discipline expected of a UC student through consistent effort and engagement with the material, Professor de la Vega will support you. She won’t let you sink.

P.S. The lecture material is contemporary and highly engaging. I initially didn’t think the class would interest me, but I was pleasantly surprised. Professor de la Vega is very approachable and brings the material to life in her lectures. I highly recommend enrolling in this class—you may discover an area of interest you hadn’t considered before!

Professor De La Vega is an amazing professor. Not sure why this course taught by here has a low rating but this was a very informative class, especially since she included the election into this course. She does very well at explaining materials and is very knowledgeable. She is a really understanding professor and understands that students have other classes. The readings are very manageable. She is also very well organized which makes this course a breeze. Midterm and final are just answering a couple of essay prompts which are easy to do if you read the readings and take notes during lecture since she makes the question based on what is discussed in the course. You are only allowed to use lecture notes and any readings she provides you for the midterm and final which makes it easy to not having to find sources online. Overall this course is really good and I highly recommend taking. She goes into interesting points and discusses multiple Latin American countries and their relationships with the United States.

Wouldn’t take again very difficult content and grading

(leaving this here too as under 143C)

Professor De la Vega is the best I've had at UCLA. I didn't think I had to leave a review to reiterate this because I know everyone who takes her courses is always in awe of her, but I felt strongly compelled to advocate for her due to the awful reviews other students have left her due to circumstances out of De la Vega's reach.

Those crappy reviews you see of her are far from the truth about the sort of Professor she truly is. They were left by students who took her class last quarter, which I was also in, and were upset due to the lack of communication that their TA's had with Professor. Their TA's decided to take matters into their own hands when it came to due dates and other things, which led to a conflict that could only be resolved by leveling the playing field after some students got a greater advantage over others- because of their TA- without her knowledge. This is why some students got upset, but the reality is that she never cheated a student out of their real grade.

She is passionate about her job and is always thoughtful and caring, as well as communicative with everyone. That's why I, just like many others, took her class again this quarter, and plan to take her again next quarter! The students who wrote those negative reviews just didn't want to settle for the actual grade they earned, and got mad because of it. I would ignore those few outliers if I were you all.

This is one of my fav classes I've taken. Im Latinx and found the content very interesting and relevant. I really liked the professor, she is very nice and offers a lot of extra credit. She is very accommodating to students and would often have memes on her slides. idek why people are lying and depicting her as mean, i don't think there is a nicer professor out there. like if I got an A so can you, i didnt do a lot of the readings. Not assignment intensive at all!!! join the groupme and youll be fine. I would 100% take this professor again

She is incredibly rude. The workload appears easy depending on her mood swings. You might be told one thing but another will happen instead. So do all your work on time as she revokes extra credit, the exam curves, and assignment due dates depending on your TA. I would not recommend this class to anyone not looking to struggle for no reason.

Second worst professor I have ever taken at UCLA. She is disrespectful, inappropriate, and unprofessional. She will manually choose which students to give A+s and who are denied the literal grade that appears on Bruinlearn and the Myucla grade book. Students of different sections were told by their TA that they could be given more time to turn in certain assignments, however, the day grades were due, students were told that the professor said "it wouldn't count on their grade." As a result, they were all given zeros on those same assignments despite being told otherwise. All the extra credit was not "considered" nor was the midterm curve for any students trying to get an A+(for the 4.3 law school GPA). She will scold, degrade, and embarrass you if you try to reach out to her through email about any issues in the class, so beware. She needs home training. DO NOT TAKE ANY CLASS OFFERED BY THIS HORRIBLE PROFESSOR.

This class was really not that hard, easy final project was a lit review and Infograph in addition to midterm and final. I did like none of the readings and got an A. Main annoying thing was the midterm questions felt like they were intentionally worded to throw you off. The average midterm score was a low C and we were all awarded curve points and potential additional extra credit points. Even though I finished the class with my lowest grade being a 98% on my lit review, I still didn’t receive an A+. After course evals were closed, she switched up and said only those who did exceptional on every assignment without the curve would be award and A+. On principal this doesn’t sit right with me but overall easy class.

Professor is chill. If you pay attention, or have any background in contemporary politics, it is not difficult.