Two words: easiest GE. Simply put, I attended the lectures for the first 3 weeks of the quarter and then didn't attend any until the very last one. The professor pretty much reads off the slides during lecture so there's not necessarily a point to going (don't be a slacker though). However, he does not record his lectures but he does release all his lecture slides. Discussion is mandatory and every other week (based on your last name), you have to write a short reflection paper (~300-400 words) on the readings for each week. Newsflash, I also did not do most of the readings, I skimmed through them. The midterm was in-person short answer and a couple longer form questions. The final was a take-home essay, 1 mandatory prompt and then choose 2 from 4 prompts, each response ~400-600 words. The prof was super chill and understanding. Just go to discussion and take notes there as the TA will usually sum up the key points of the lecture which you can reference again when you do your papers!

i loved this class so much !! professor herrera is genuinely one of the nicest and funniest professors you will encounter at ucla !! workload is extremely manageable with a small reading reflection every other week. although there are a lot of readings, you can get away with skimming them (but please at least look over them, they are very important during the midterm and final). midterm isn't that bad and final he made it take home which was super cool of him to do. this was probably the best class i've taken at ucla so far and it is genuinely making me want to change my major to geography. professor herrera is a cool dude who is always listening to students and makes sure we understand the material. also TA richard is the best :)

lots of readings, but still an easy ge
mandatory discussion attendance

This class is the definition of an easy A GE. I took it in Winter 2022 when it was online so it might not be as easy for you under different circumstances.
Prof Herrera is very sweet, kind and caring. He is a great person who truly cares about his students and whether they understand what they teach. He has a lively personality too. He encourages everyone to drop by office hours and is super sweet.
Take this class if you want an easy A. Don't take this class if you want to learn something new or useful. Everything taught in this class seemed like common sense or the most obvious things that a reasonably smart person would already know.
We had points for attending and participating in discussion sections and there was a take-home midterm and take-home final which each had me write like 3 650 word essays.

Relatively easy GE. Memorization was more concept rather than fact based. There is a decent amount of weekly reading but Prof Herrera goes over all the important points from each reading during class so you can get away with skimming the readings. You have to type ur notes lecture is too fast paced to hand write. Prof Herrera is a cool guy who seems to actually care about his students

what a nice man! prof herrera was just so cute and definitely came to class high as a mf kite! he loves when people come to office hours, chat after class, and always wants to hear how he could improve the class. he changed our final from a test to take home because he heard from students that would be better. he goes over all the readings in class so you don't have to read them, and often just reads off his own slides (which are posted on bruinlearn). very kind and engaging, so even though you don't need to go to lecture, you definitely should. ta liz was very fun loved her. this class is overall mad easy and fun

Professor Herrera is such a cool professor! He provides all the readings, so there's no need to purchase textbooks. Additionally, the course content is super interesting and it makes you think about societal structures impacting the different geographies we see today. I would highly recommend this class & would gladly take it again!

Man, I mean, take this class if you're like hella woke and like when your professor pushes his own agenda rather than teaching the content of the class. I, like many others, took this class for it to be an easy GE, but it honestly just turned into a nightmare. The readings were not interesting, and the lectures just made me groan. It got to the point where this class became an actual burden on my day; I didn't like walking in or logging on and hearing Prof. Herrerra yell at us to "attend class," as we literally sat stark in front of him. This became the class that my friends and I all bitched about, because it was universally despised.

And god, the take home tests. That final took 20+ hours, no lie.

Look, I will be honest. This, like many other classes, are entirely dependent on your TA; you get a good one, you're fine. You don't, you're not. My advice would be if you want a class you can most likely earn an A or A- in pretty easily, sure this class might be for you. But I honestly the amount of mental strain this class took was just not worth my time, regardless of the grade I receive.

Herrera is such an amazing professor. I love dropping in his office hours and enjoy going to lectures in the class. This class would be relatively easy if you do all the readings and go to every lecture. There were only reading reflections (bi-weekly), midterm, and final. For midterm and final, he made them be three take-home essays in my quarter, choosing from 5 prompts. The reading reflection was basically just answered the prompt and integrated at least one reading into your two-page essay. For discussion, participation matters, so speak up in the class. The course exposed you to many different lessons that you had never thought of, and you will find everything interconnected which is super cool!!!

Overall, I would recommend this class to anyone, literally anyone. This class would be a perfect GE in social analysis for you. Even though you are not super interested in geography, I still recommend you to try out this class! Geography is more than just maps and you will discover that through this class. It is a fair A class—if you put in work, you will get a fair grade—and not too heavy in workload. I LOVE THIS CLASS and I believe you would love it too :)

Professor Herrera has got to be the coolest professor at UCLA. He's young and funny and enthusiastic and it just made this class the best. The material is so much more interesting than I could've imagined so I actually loved learning and engaging with it. His lectures are mandatory, workload is manageable - you just read a couple articles every week (they can be pretty lengthy but they're interesting), you write a 2 page reading reflection every other week, and the midterm and final were both take home. Everything's super straight forward, nothing confusing, while being really fun and interesting. Take this class at all costs!!!!!