To be honest, professor Herrera is a really nice person. He always cares about his students. He is the first professor that will ask people to chat with him in his office hours which is very interesting. Trust me, you will learn a lot from his class and you will gain a lot of interest in geography. All of the exams/ homework’s are pretty straight forward. I think people usually can get at least A-. However, TA play a very important role in this class because he/she basically grade all the things in this class. My TA is a very hard grader, she always takes 1 point from the reflection papers (5 points is highest) which made me lose 4% in the total grade. Also, she takes a few points in the participation just because she thinks that you are not always raise your hand and answer those stupid questions. Overall, it’s a good class as long as you don’t have a crazy TA.

I am so happy I took Geography 3 with Dr. (Professor) Herrera. Absolutely the best professor at UCLA. Funny, engaging, and open to his students during lecture and about going to his office hours. Grade wise, there are reading response papers due every 2 weeks, a midterm, and a final. Dr. Herrera is very flexible and will hear out your concerns if you have any. 11/10 recommend this course with him as a GE and as a prerequisite.

Take this class!!! Grade consists of biweekly reflections on one of the readings, participation in lecture, and a midterm and final which are just short essays about the readings and a few definitions. Professor Herrera is one of the most interesting, engaging professors I've had at UCLA and I really recommend everyone to take this class even if you aren't a geog major!!

Herrera is one of the best professors at UCLA; never turn down the chance to take a class with him. He is engaging, funny, passionate, and helpful during office hours. The class completely changed the way that I think about the world. The class was graded on the midterm, final, participation, and 4 two page reading responses throughout the quarter. Overall, not difficult. Readings were super dense but he went over everything that you needed to know in detail during lecture. Take this class for an easy, interesting GE

Loved this class and professor! He's very engaging, funny, and helpful. I felt like I learned about topics that interested to me and applied to what is currently happening in the world. He truly cares about his students. I never got the chance to go to office hours because it interfered with my classes, but I would recommend it because he makes an effort to remember his students and learn their names. Also, all of the readings are now posted online so you don't need to buy any course materials. He also gave extra credit twice throughout the quarter!

Breakdown:
- 25% Midterm: fairly easy if you studied, vocab/ID, then 8 short answer questions (got to pick from 10? questions)
- 40% Final: opted out because of corona (did fairly well in the midterm so I knew I could)
- 15% Discussion Participation: my TA was okay, but I did the readings so I just talked about them
- 20% Response Papers: four of them, based on the readings, fairly short at 300-400 words

My only complaint was that there was a lot of readings. You could probably skim them and still understand based on his lectures, but I still chose to read them to get a better, fuller understanding.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class and would recommend it as GE purely because of how great Dr. Herrera is. You will enjoy going to class and listening to him lecture. He is also just so kind and it really showed this quarter (based on these crazy circumstances)

Once again Professor Herrera brings wonderful insight into the world around us (well, California) with his GEOG 184 course. I had taken GEOG 3 with Professor Herrera before and I was thrilled that he was teaching more GEOG courses since I had thoroughly enjoyed his other class. The lectures were posted online, available to watch at any time. Professor Herrera is very knowledgeable, kind, and understanding. All of the content discussed in this course remains relevant to the structure of not only California, but in the structure of our society today. I attended office hours one time, and I really enjoyed having a professor take the time to ask about my story and for feedback on the course. I do recommend this course with Professor Herrera 100%.

There are slides posted for the lecture, and it is always helpful to takes notes on them. The readings can be long, but they are all very important and interesting reads.

Grade breakdown:

20% Participation/ Discussion Forum Comments: There are weekly forum where we would share our thoughts on the week's readings. You only needed to choose one to write about, but it helps to talk about multiple readings to show your engagement and understanding of the material.

30% Reflection Papers: Two 3-page analytical reflection papers based on selected films or articles. The TAs graded pretty harshly on this, and I believe it was graded a bit oddly. I spent a lot of time on them, but I did not receive the grade I had aimed for.

20% Online Quizzes: They were all multiple-choice questions based on the readings and lectures.

30% Final Exam: Due to the various external factors going on around us, it was a no harm final, and it was an essay question (3-5 pgs). I did not participate in the final, and I was still able to receive an A in the course.

This is the second class I have had with Dr. Herrera and I wish more classes were taught by him. He is an extremely thoughtful professor and the coursework is relatable, engaging, and thought provoking. The assignments are reasonable and the course material brings different angles to light in regards to the week's content. This class was taught remotely without much preparation and included recorded lectures as well as live office hours. Truly one of the best professors I have had and I am appreciative of the content and his compassion.

Going into this class, I thought it was going to be a normal GE that I can easily get through. With that being said, it was an easier class if you engage with the material, but moreover, it became a class that I was very excited to go to and engage with. The professor was very engaging, considerate of his students, and overall one of the best people to listen to and learn from. The class material was very interesting and related to many aspects of everyday life that many people may overlook. As a geography class, it isn't focused on mapping, but rather demographics and how they are affected in society as a whole. The readings and assignments were very interesting, giving you a chance to learn about new ideas and establish your own opinions in relation to them. The tests were very correlated with the readings and lecture material, so I recommend attending every lecture and do teh required readings. Overall, this class had a great impact on me as a person and my overall learning at UCLA, one that I would take again if I could.

SUCH AN AMAZING PROF! He is so sweet and funny, and all his lectures were so interesting. He truly cares about his students and all his topics were so inclusive with race, gender, sexuality, class, etc. As a first-gen Latina, I felt like UCLA wasn't a place for me until I met him. One regret I have is not thanking him in person for being an amazing professor.

I've had professor Herrera a few times before and honestly, he is THE best professor I've ever had at UCLA. He's funny, kind, and truly cares about his students. His lectures are engaging, educational, and very helpful when studying for midterms, finals, or writing papers. I cannot stress this enough, but he has been so incredibly kind and compassionate during these troubling times (covid/online learning) which has made learning and getting through the quarter easier. Don't get me wrong, his class still requires you to put in 100% of your effort to do well and get an A, but Bottom line, take him if you can, he's amazing.