Class taken: Pub Pol 10A
To be perfectly honest, this guys personality just bugs the hell out of me. If I'm sticking to the criticism of the class and his teaching, the books are interesting, and the policy memos are graded difficultly but actually teach you a valuable skill. I cannot say the same about the rest of the class. I usually went (just because I had class right before and after) but spent the entire time on bbc or cnn. Because after a half hour explanation of what inflation is, I figured out that everything you need to know can be learned from high school econ and you know, not living in a cave. Stoll's just smug, and assumes a great level of idiocy in his students. Except on the policy memos, where he expects you to be perfect... Don't let it keep you away from the minor though, once you start picking your own classes its good!

Class Taken: Public Policy 10A
Michael Stoll is by far one of the worst lecturers I have ever had the misfortune of enduring for 10 weeks. He often shows up to class late or otherwise spends 10 minutes at the beginning of the class just getting set up before he even starts.

His lecture style is decidedly filled with rambling. His treatment of topics is unfocused, disjointed, and almost uniformly shallow. Even for a survey course, there is a disturbing lack of depth in his lectures, and despite this, he still fills his tests with material he doesn't himself cover.

Stoll ambitiously tries to cover many fields of public policy, to the detriment of any sort of development. He spends a single lecture on topics like Health Care Policy and Crime Policy, and hardly gets anywhere in the process due to the lack of depth.

There is no discussion section for this course, yet he assigns various readings from the book which you don't hear of until you get to the test. As previous posters said, DO NOT RELY STRICTLY ON THE STUDY GUIDE WHEN YOU ARE PREPARING FOR TESTS. You will miss a good chunk of the material covered, especially material you need for the essay questions. I found his study guides very misleading and unfair in that sense.

Another thing you shouldn't rely on: his lecture slides. He obviously puts minimal effort into his lecture slides, only putting enough for him to talk about what he needs to talk about. Looking over them for the test is next to useless. Often looking through a lecture you on the slide a mere mention of terms with almost no explanation or too shallow an explanation for studying with.

The 3 memo's were somewhat interesting, but for the most part pretty limited in scope. The first one allowed you to pick your own topic in crime or health policy, but the other two were very narrowly defined for you (Social Security & Environmental focus). This is important to note if you are interested particularly in certain fields of public policy, but not in others. If you are like this, like I was, you'll have to grind through researching and writing about topics that are less than interesting.

All that said, he was a really nice guy. Just a very lackluster lecturer with little analytic rigor and cohesion. Take PP10A with someone else if you can.

Class Taken: Public Policy 10A
Michael Stoll is by far one of the worst lecturers I have ever had the misfortune of enduring for 10 weeks. He often shows up to class late or otherwise spends 10 minutes at the beginning of the class just getting set up before he even starts.

His lecture style is decidedly filled with rambling. His treatment of topics is unfocused, disjointed, and almost uniformly shallow. Even for a survey course, there is a disturbing lack of depth in his lectures, and despite this, he still fills his tests with material he doesn't himself cover.

Stoll ambitiously tries to cover many fields of public policy, to the detriment of any sort of development. He spends a single lecture on topics like Health Care Policy and Crime Policy, and hardly gets anywhere in the process due to the lack of depth.

There is no discussion section for this course, yet he assigns various readings from the book which you don't hear of until you get to the test. As previous posters said, DO NOT RELY STRICTLY ON THE STUDY GUIDE WHEN YOU ARE PREPARING FOR TESTS. You will miss a good chunk of the material covered, especially material you need for the essay questions. I found his study guides very misleading and unfair in that sense.

Another thing you shouldn't rely on: his lecture slides. He obviously puts minimal effort into his lecture slides, only putting enough for him to talk about what he needs to talk about. Looking over them for the test is next to useless. Often looking through a lecture you on the slide a mere mention of terms with almost no explanation or too shallow an explanation for studying with.

The 3 memo's were somewhat interesting, but for the most part pretty limited in scope. The first one allowed you to pick your own topic in crime or health policy, but the other two were very narrowly defined for you (Social Security & Environmental focus). This is important to note if you are interested particularly in certain fields of public policy, but not in others. If you are like this, like I was, you'll have to grind through researching and writing about topics that are less than interesting.

All that said, he was a really nice guy. Just a very lackluster lecturer with little analytic rigor and cohesion. Take PP10A with someone else if you can.

AVOID PLEASE. I am not judging him gradewise but as a student who is paying way too much for a teacher that gives back way too little. BEWARE, if you think that coming to class and taking notes will help u pass, u are only partially right. the TRUE CHALLENGE is to even comprehend what this man is saying. He rambles on irrelevant stuff in which you cannot even distinguish if they are background information or if they are important for the class. If you ask him a question, expect to NOT get direct answer. Expect to sit there for 5 minutes and try to even figure out what he is saying. Overall:

LAG - never posts anything on time
UNORGANIZED - he sends everything last minute
TA's - unapproachable, when you ask them something they end up looking at each other for the answers

Avoid him and take someone else. Trust me you will be bored out of your mind and will study in the study guide but only 40% of whatever is on there will be on the tests. everything will catch you by surprise. I actually got an A on his midterm but that was only because i literally had to google and understand the concepts that he covered in class because he is seriously useless.

Course: PP10A

Stoll is the best teacher I've ever had. He sincerely cares about his students, and wants you to be passionate about what you're learning. What's more, he understands that public policy should be taught-and learned- correctly, because it provides solutions to real-world problems. On the last day of class, he told us that, "whatever path you choose to pursue in life, always try to do it for the public good." He really emphasizes using your knowledge for the betterment of society. After taking this class with him, I can't help but feel that I became not only a better student, but more importantly, a better person.

As for the class itself, you have 2 "midterms"- one is 10th week, but it is NOT cumulative- and 3 memos. No final. The memos are graded rigorously, as are the exams, but again, it's useful information, and it challenges you to find practical solutions.

I couldn't recommend Prof. Stoll more. He's an awesome person. And yes, the birthday rap was quite epic.