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Margaret Peters
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Based on 28 Users
I agree with the other reviewer.
Don't take this class unless you are a Global Study major.
This is the worst class at UCLA I have taken.
I complained to the professor about her TA: she withheld help, responded to my classmates and myself passive aggressively, and seemingly went out of her way to make students feel stupid. I spoke with at least five other students who believed they had personally done something to offend her before the course because she was so hostile. When I kindly came to the professor about this, she called me a sexist and sent me an article about women in education. I am a woman. Professor Peters is a fine professor, but a horrible person. She seems normal on the outside, but this woman has a disturbed side to her that comes out as soon as you talk to her outside of class. Be warned.
I enrolled because the grade distributions looked promising. I'm not sure what happened this quarter but peter's class was very difficult. It wasn't an easy A as we all thought. She's disorganized during lectures and tells us not to quote her on certain topics. She did live-stream her lectures to accommodate students but other than that, there's nothing too great about this class. Peters talks a lot about migration because that's what her research focuses on but doesn't go into much detail for the other units. Her TAs were also strict graders. Lots of people got a B average grade (including me) because of paper grades. Peters is a nice person, but I wouldn't take another class with her. Often times we were all stressed about quizzes, mostly cause we had little time to complete them. Office hours with the TAs and her are also kinda useless...she has some policy about the TAs not being allowed to proofread any sort of your writing for the paper. The class was stuck asking basic questions that didn't really help us out in the long run. One of her TAs was also really mean near the end of the quarter. I didn't have her as my TA, but I heard stories from classmates. Don't take this class unless you really need it, it's too disorganized and difficult.
I absolutely hated this class. It provides a good overall concept of markets and economics, but the social environment of communication between Peters and the TAs is so toxic and gave me so much stress. They all create an atmosphere that makes students feel dumb, that they're not paying attention to instructions, and hesitant to ask questions because they're often met with extremely rude responses.
Honestly, I'm being generous when I say it taught me something new, as the class material is similar to your standard high school economics class.
The class consisted of multiple reading quizzes, unit quizzes, and four papers. The workload was manageable but so tedious and time-consuming. Quizzes are not as easy as they sound, and focus on the fine detail of the readings. The papers are absolutely horrible and are harshly graded. To top it off, the TAs provide very rude feedback that is taking a jab at your ability to write. If it was a matter of constructive criticism, I would be saying otherwise. Peters' lectures were also very confusing and disorganized. Most of her slides consisted of pictures that would be confusing without context, and she goes into so much explanation is more confusing than the slides themself.
I'm also really sick and tired of constantly being assigned readings written by the class's instructor. Professor Peters honestly cares about her research more than she does her class and students, due to the number of readings and articles we've read of hers. I've had professors this quarter that made sure everyone was comfortable and didn't feel nervous to reach out, and Peters doesn't really do that. Professor Peters is also very disorganized when presenting her lectures and posting assignments. It hinders the class when she posts assignments late because it gives us a limited time to complete them and reach out to our TAs for help. Another student reached out to her about her research, which she was more attentive to than the actual class itself. She's even stated in the first lecture that she probably won't respond to you if you email her because of how many emails she gets. The fact that she confesses her inability to respond to students shows how much she really cares. I have professors who have contacted me at any given time despite the number of students in their classes, and encourage me to ask questions even if already mentioned elsewhere. She just doesn't care enough and it shows. Life must be so difficult for a UCLA instructor who doesn't give two shits about a class she pushes her unnecessary research on.
The TAs are also another aspect that has made me hate this class. Professor Peters has two TAs--Doeun Kim and Jieun Park. Doeun is sweet to her students but a strict grader, while Jieun is a more lenient grader but complete nightmare as a person. After talking to both, I've found Doeun to be a lot more helpful when it comes to assignments and be open to communication, but more precise with her grading techniques. Jieun is honestly very passive aggressive when talking to her students and is so rude when we try asking her questions that she (as a TA) is responsible to answer. Lots of my classmates have stated they felt very unwelcomed and hesitant to ask her questions because of the responses they're given. Professor Peters posts tons of announcements and messages, which are hard to keep up with. Because of this, it's understandable if we didn't get certain information, but Jieun will rudely mention it to you with a "As per the announcement..." or of the like. The TAs are also not allowed to proofread any of your work, which is not helpful at all. But, Jieun's attitude and refusal to help her students without being a bitch about it is awful.
When addressing these matters, Professor Peters' head is so far up her ass to even care about the student's argument. She is quick to defend her TAs, and uses your concerns as leverage to turn it around as your fault. One of my classmates asked a simple question to Jieun about how many sections she missed after transferring into another section, and was told by Professor Peters that SHE was being rude to Jieun. It's ridiculous. The way they all handled students' concerns around Week 10/finals week was horribly executed. There was a sincere lack of empathy despite students getting poor grades on their essays due to extremely brutal grading techniques.
I would not recommend this class. I know it's a core class for Global Studies majors/minors, but the spring quarter offers both 103 and 104 with professors that are far better than Peters. Something really needs to be done about the harsh grading techniques, as it's not fair to students who try their best to understand concepts that don't come easy to them. It should be a matter of constructive criticism, not downright insults. I know that this is a research-based university, but Professor Peters puts the emphasis on the research aspect. I'm fed up with all of the instructors in this class, and I know others are too.
Took this class Winter 22 and got out with an A-. Whilst I agree with some of the disappointed reviews, overall, I felt like this class was manageable. I did have to put a lot of time and effort into this class to get an A, but if you really pay attention in lecture and fully respond to the essay prompts, you should be ok. Prof is not the best lecturer, her powerpoints are consisted of pictures and you really have to listen closely to everything she says, I wish her lectures would have been organized but by the end I kinda got used to it. I had Doeun as my TA and whilst there was a consensus that she's a hard grader, the grades that I've gotten back from her were all above a 90. I felt that she did a good job during discussion, facilitating it and answering questions. There were multiple times that I asked her questions after class and she was more than happy to explain things. This class is unavoidable for Global Studies majors and it's not an easy A class so yes you're going to have to put more work and time into this class if you want a decent grade.
If you're a GS minor, DON'T take this class and find another class to fulfill the requirements. If you're a GS major, think long and hard about your life choices that led you to even consider enrolling. Just don't take this class. It's really not that hard to understand. There were actual problems with this class, and I'm here to share with you all what it was like.
She focuses too much on her meaningless research to actually care for her students. Peters is so into migration and political economy it's scary. Legit Googled every single topic she's "researched" about and I get an answer right away. It's pathetic.
Aside from that, Peters really needs to swallow her pride and learn how to teach and treat her students. She told us not to email her about questions cause her inbox gets flooded, yet spammed the shit out of our Canvas announcements tab by the week. We'd get around 3-4 announcements per week. Her TA Jieun Park is the rudest person I've ever met. She needs to learn some manners and etiquette based on the way she treated us this quarter. An actual bitch, she clearly wasn't raised right. Ofc Peters didn't do anything about it either cause didn't give two shits about her class.
The class itself is basic. The quizzes were alright, papers were graded harsh af. There's a REASON why the reviews for this class are negative. A shitty professor who teaches a shitty class.
I took Global Studies 100A (now called 102) with Prof Peters online due to COVID-19. Despite the abrupt switch to virtual learning, Prof Peters did a great job at making the lectures engaging and relevant to our experiences with the ongoing pandemic. The majority of our grade came from 4 papers on broad topics covered in class. The prompts asked you to present a solution/opinion on relevant topics (trade war with China, immigration policies, etc). Grading for the papers by the TA's was very fair. Overall I really enjoyed this class and Prof Peters! Take this class!!
I definitely recommend this class. No textbook required, as Professor Peters provides all of them for free. Professor Peters is very kind, helpful, and empathetic towards her students. Her class is flexible, especially for the due dates of the weekly reading assignments (Quizzes on CCLE). Her recorded lectures aren't very long and are a great supplement that summarizes the main points of the weekly readings. However, attending the live lectures featuring guest speakers is mandatory for attendance grade, which IIRC there was only 6 throughout the quarter. If you cannot make it to the live lectures, you can submit a one-page summary of what you learned and might get some credit. To be clear, I am not one of those "laid back" students, so I did do all of the readings and felt that the exam questions were fair. To be more precise, I found the Final Exam to be a bit more complicated than the Midterm as the essay questions required deeper thinking. The essay exam requires you to write 4 essays in total, but each essay has a one-page limit and done in single-space, with a reference page at the end. The weekly reading assignments (Quizzes) was not too hard, but it would be if you didn't do the readings at all. Typically, the quizzes have 3-5 questions, and you have an hour to submit. Be sure to do some of the readings before the discussion sections, as you are expected to answer questions as a group. Your TA will be the ones who grades everything. Thank you, Professor Peters, for the great quarter!!
based on the reviews i saw, i avoided going to peters' office hours or talking to her directly and honestly this strategy was much more effective. i found the class material interesting, and though her lectures often jumped around, i was still able to follow necessary concepts bc she pretty much just outlined each chapter of the textbook. seriously just focus all your efforts onto the textbook and readings and you'll be fine-- but definitely still attend the lectures lol. also a lot of the quiz questions i struggled with were super specific on the readings and usually specific examples of countries who illustrate reading concepts.
This class depends a lot on how comfortable you are with econ and econ policy. This class is the study of migration but mostly this class goes into how econ motivates people and states to accept or not accept immigrants.
You have to attend guest lectures which are boring.
There is a fair amount of reading which is pretty dense and some of the hardest I have read for a Poli-Sci.
During section, the TA cleared up a lot of the complex reading which made the class easier.
Class is graded on a curve and via the GroupMe, it seemed that most people Got B+ A- on the midterm and final.
I agree with the other reviewer.
Don't take this class unless you are a Global Study major.
This is the worst class at UCLA I have taken.
I complained to the professor about her TA: she withheld help, responded to my classmates and myself passive aggressively, and seemingly went out of her way to make students feel stupid. I spoke with at least five other students who believed they had personally done something to offend her before the course because she was so hostile. When I kindly came to the professor about this, she called me a sexist and sent me an article about women in education. I am a woman. Professor Peters is a fine professor, but a horrible person. She seems normal on the outside, but this woman has a disturbed side to her that comes out as soon as you talk to her outside of class. Be warned.
I enrolled because the grade distributions looked promising. I'm not sure what happened this quarter but peter's class was very difficult. It wasn't an easy A as we all thought. She's disorganized during lectures and tells us not to quote her on certain topics. She did live-stream her lectures to accommodate students but other than that, there's nothing too great about this class. Peters talks a lot about migration because that's what her research focuses on but doesn't go into much detail for the other units. Her TAs were also strict graders. Lots of people got a B average grade (including me) because of paper grades. Peters is a nice person, but I wouldn't take another class with her. Often times we were all stressed about quizzes, mostly cause we had little time to complete them. Office hours with the TAs and her are also kinda useless...she has some policy about the TAs not being allowed to proofread any sort of your writing for the paper. The class was stuck asking basic questions that didn't really help us out in the long run. One of her TAs was also really mean near the end of the quarter. I didn't have her as my TA, but I heard stories from classmates. Don't take this class unless you really need it, it's too disorganized and difficult.
I absolutely hated this class. It provides a good overall concept of markets and economics, but the social environment of communication between Peters and the TAs is so toxic and gave me so much stress. They all create an atmosphere that makes students feel dumb, that they're not paying attention to instructions, and hesitant to ask questions because they're often met with extremely rude responses.
Honestly, I'm being generous when I say it taught me something new, as the class material is similar to your standard high school economics class.
The class consisted of multiple reading quizzes, unit quizzes, and four papers. The workload was manageable but so tedious and time-consuming. Quizzes are not as easy as they sound, and focus on the fine detail of the readings. The papers are absolutely horrible and are harshly graded. To top it off, the TAs provide very rude feedback that is taking a jab at your ability to write. If it was a matter of constructive criticism, I would be saying otherwise. Peters' lectures were also very confusing and disorganized. Most of her slides consisted of pictures that would be confusing without context, and she goes into so much explanation is more confusing than the slides themself.
I'm also really sick and tired of constantly being assigned readings written by the class's instructor. Professor Peters honestly cares about her research more than she does her class and students, due to the number of readings and articles we've read of hers. I've had professors this quarter that made sure everyone was comfortable and didn't feel nervous to reach out, and Peters doesn't really do that. Professor Peters is also very disorganized when presenting her lectures and posting assignments. It hinders the class when she posts assignments late because it gives us a limited time to complete them and reach out to our TAs for help. Another student reached out to her about her research, which she was more attentive to than the actual class itself. She's even stated in the first lecture that she probably won't respond to you if you email her because of how many emails she gets. The fact that she confesses her inability to respond to students shows how much she really cares. I have professors who have contacted me at any given time despite the number of students in their classes, and encourage me to ask questions even if already mentioned elsewhere. She just doesn't care enough and it shows. Life must be so difficult for a UCLA instructor who doesn't give two shits about a class she pushes her unnecessary research on.
The TAs are also another aspect that has made me hate this class. Professor Peters has two TAs--Doeun Kim and Jieun Park. Doeun is sweet to her students but a strict grader, while Jieun is a more lenient grader but complete nightmare as a person. After talking to both, I've found Doeun to be a lot more helpful when it comes to assignments and be open to communication, but more precise with her grading techniques. Jieun is honestly very passive aggressive when talking to her students and is so rude when we try asking her questions that she (as a TA) is responsible to answer. Lots of my classmates have stated they felt very unwelcomed and hesitant to ask her questions because of the responses they're given. Professor Peters posts tons of announcements and messages, which are hard to keep up with. Because of this, it's understandable if we didn't get certain information, but Jieun will rudely mention it to you with a "As per the announcement..." or of the like. The TAs are also not allowed to proofread any of your work, which is not helpful at all. But, Jieun's attitude and refusal to help her students without being a bitch about it is awful.
When addressing these matters, Professor Peters' head is so far up her ass to even care about the student's argument. She is quick to defend her TAs, and uses your concerns as leverage to turn it around as your fault. One of my classmates asked a simple question to Jieun about how many sections she missed after transferring into another section, and was told by Professor Peters that SHE was being rude to Jieun. It's ridiculous. The way they all handled students' concerns around Week 10/finals week was horribly executed. There was a sincere lack of empathy despite students getting poor grades on their essays due to extremely brutal grading techniques.
I would not recommend this class. I know it's a core class for Global Studies majors/minors, but the spring quarter offers both 103 and 104 with professors that are far better than Peters. Something really needs to be done about the harsh grading techniques, as it's not fair to students who try their best to understand concepts that don't come easy to them. It should be a matter of constructive criticism, not downright insults. I know that this is a research-based university, but Professor Peters puts the emphasis on the research aspect. I'm fed up with all of the instructors in this class, and I know others are too.
Took this class Winter 22 and got out with an A-. Whilst I agree with some of the disappointed reviews, overall, I felt like this class was manageable. I did have to put a lot of time and effort into this class to get an A, but if you really pay attention in lecture and fully respond to the essay prompts, you should be ok. Prof is not the best lecturer, her powerpoints are consisted of pictures and you really have to listen closely to everything she says, I wish her lectures would have been organized but by the end I kinda got used to it. I had Doeun as my TA and whilst there was a consensus that she's a hard grader, the grades that I've gotten back from her were all above a 90. I felt that she did a good job during discussion, facilitating it and answering questions. There were multiple times that I asked her questions after class and she was more than happy to explain things. This class is unavoidable for Global Studies majors and it's not an easy A class so yes you're going to have to put more work and time into this class if you want a decent grade.
If you're a GS minor, DON'T take this class and find another class to fulfill the requirements. If you're a GS major, think long and hard about your life choices that led you to even consider enrolling. Just don't take this class. It's really not that hard to understand. There were actual problems with this class, and I'm here to share with you all what it was like.
She focuses too much on her meaningless research to actually care for her students. Peters is so into migration and political economy it's scary. Legit Googled every single topic she's "researched" about and I get an answer right away. It's pathetic.
Aside from that, Peters really needs to swallow her pride and learn how to teach and treat her students. She told us not to email her about questions cause her inbox gets flooded, yet spammed the shit out of our Canvas announcements tab by the week. We'd get around 3-4 announcements per week. Her TA Jieun Park is the rudest person I've ever met. She needs to learn some manners and etiquette based on the way she treated us this quarter. An actual bitch, she clearly wasn't raised right. Ofc Peters didn't do anything about it either cause didn't give two shits about her class.
The class itself is basic. The quizzes were alright, papers were graded harsh af. There's a REASON why the reviews for this class are negative. A shitty professor who teaches a shitty class.
I took Global Studies 100A (now called 102) with Prof Peters online due to COVID-19. Despite the abrupt switch to virtual learning, Prof Peters did a great job at making the lectures engaging and relevant to our experiences with the ongoing pandemic. The majority of our grade came from 4 papers on broad topics covered in class. The prompts asked you to present a solution/opinion on relevant topics (trade war with China, immigration policies, etc). Grading for the papers by the TA's was very fair. Overall I really enjoyed this class and Prof Peters! Take this class!!
I definitely recommend this class. No textbook required, as Professor Peters provides all of them for free. Professor Peters is very kind, helpful, and empathetic towards her students. Her class is flexible, especially for the due dates of the weekly reading assignments (Quizzes on CCLE). Her recorded lectures aren't very long and are a great supplement that summarizes the main points of the weekly readings. However, attending the live lectures featuring guest speakers is mandatory for attendance grade, which IIRC there was only 6 throughout the quarter. If you cannot make it to the live lectures, you can submit a one-page summary of what you learned and might get some credit. To be clear, I am not one of those "laid back" students, so I did do all of the readings and felt that the exam questions were fair. To be more precise, I found the Final Exam to be a bit more complicated than the Midterm as the essay questions required deeper thinking. The essay exam requires you to write 4 essays in total, but each essay has a one-page limit and done in single-space, with a reference page at the end. The weekly reading assignments (Quizzes) was not too hard, but it would be if you didn't do the readings at all. Typically, the quizzes have 3-5 questions, and you have an hour to submit. Be sure to do some of the readings before the discussion sections, as you are expected to answer questions as a group. Your TA will be the ones who grades everything. Thank you, Professor Peters, for the great quarter!!
based on the reviews i saw, i avoided going to peters' office hours or talking to her directly and honestly this strategy was much more effective. i found the class material interesting, and though her lectures often jumped around, i was still able to follow necessary concepts bc she pretty much just outlined each chapter of the textbook. seriously just focus all your efforts onto the textbook and readings and you'll be fine-- but definitely still attend the lectures lol. also a lot of the quiz questions i struggled with were super specific on the readings and usually specific examples of countries who illustrate reading concepts.
This class depends a lot on how comfortable you are with econ and econ policy. This class is the study of migration but mostly this class goes into how econ motivates people and states to accept or not accept immigrants.
You have to attend guest lectures which are boring.
There is a fair amount of reading which is pretty dense and some of the hardest I have read for a Poli-Sci.
During section, the TA cleared up a lot of the complex reading which made the class easier.
Class is graded on a curve and via the GroupMe, it seemed that most people Got B+ A- on the midterm and final.