I came into this class expecting something great because of the reviews from past quarters. However, this class is quite simply the worst I've ever been in. Homeworks took 30+ hours for me since I had no previous coding experience and the basics weren't taught during class. The homeworks did eventually get shorter, but only after essentially the entire class complained to Rojas and the department. The tests were nothing like the homeworks. The homeworks all involved coding everything while the tests required knowledge of how econometrics worked and how to calculate everything by hand. As for the lectures, they were essentially useless. Rojas just read off a pdf that was riddled with errors. Moreover, he ignored questions half the time and when he did respond to questions, he answered with "You should know this from Econ 41" or "Hang in there, it's the learning curve." He also did not respond to emails and was not very accommodating in my experience. If you can take this class with literally any other professor, do it!!! This class is near impossible if you have no prior coding experience and I'm, quite frankly, shocked that I even got a B (I was expecting a C). If you get stuck with this guy, good luck

I had Rojas in econ 1 and got an A- and many people have been told to wait until Rojas is teaching this class because he is the best professor for 103. I didn't love him in 103 but to give him the benefit of the doubt, this was the first quarter he transitioned to giving homework in R instead of Stata but he did not estimate how long homework would take so we were doing 30 hour homeworks for the first few weeks. Over time, you learn how to code a little better and the homeworks get shorter (you can also work with other people and split up the problems). The problem though is Rojas sees the concerns of students but doesn't really care. He expects students to figure out their life and take this class like we arent in the middle of a pandemic.

The tests are actually pretty easy if you study for them. His exams used recycled questions from practice/previous exams so try to find prior problems because he does not update his tests.

The overall worst part of this class is the assignments in R took hours and the exams had very little to do with them. So we spent hours learning to program and 85% of our grade (2 midterms and a final) had little to the majority of the course.

A word of advice if you have never programmed before: it starts out intimidating and you think you will never figure it out. I had never coded or anything like that and I thought I was going to fail the course. It gets easier after 2-3 weeks so try not to get too anxious in the early weeks and by week 5/6, you can knock out 2-3 problems per hour. Figure out which TA is the best and go to their sections because my TA (Alvaro Boitier) was super unhelpful but a different TA Ben Shapiro (lol) really helped me learn the basics which saved me a ton.

With all the bad stuff I'd heard about this class and the difficult time I had in Econ 41 (took it with Rojas, got a B-) I really expected 103 to be rougher than it was. Rojas is super nice and tries his best to make the material interesting and clear. He moves at a manageable pace and has very neat, easy to read handwriting. I never downloaded R or Stata or tried to learn either of them beyond what the outputs meant in the problem sets. I did most of the practice problems, went to my TA's office hours before exams, and came out the other end with a B+. You'll probably do better than me if you have any interest in statistics or programming.

I actually expected to get an A and ended up getting A-. I guess it's because Rojas's teaching was pretty clear and straightforward. I think the median and average is better than I expected, feels like everyone did pretty well. So I am only at around 30% ranking and ended up getting an A-. The contents were pretty easy, and there are a lot of old midterms in coursehero, especially mdt one. go look for it and then practice a lot, try to get very high scores in the 1st mdt because it's very easy but some people still do bad. Students tend to perform better in 2nd mdt and final, so doing well in mdt 1 can really help you gain some advantage and eventually secure an A.

Took Econ 1 with Rojas and I enjoyed 103 with him! Probably the best professor to take 103 with. Clear and concise. No coding is tested (yay!) just know how to read the outputs! Curve is pretty generous!

I took Econ 2 and Econ 41 with Rojas, so I knew what to expect in terms of lecture and exam style prior to coming into this class. I definitely think that I made the right choice taking 103 with him as well. He is extremely thorough and clear, and both of his midterms and the final were fair. I definitely suggest buying the textbook and reading the chapters covered in class, because the book goes over example problems and provides more detail than he is able to provide during lecture. We did not have any lab problem sets, so I never downloaded or learned how to code Stata (which is a requirement for some other 103 professors). Therefore, lab discussions will be pretty useless if your TA spends a lot of time covering Stata coding and not on conceptual material. You will need to learn how to interpret Stata outputs in order to do well on the exams, but everything you need to know is covered during Rojas’ lab lectures. I stopped doing the discussion and homework book problems after the first midterm because I didn’t think that they were representative of the questions he asks on exams (ended up being more confusing than helpful), and instead I focused on reviewing practice exams. I did almost exactly average on the first midterm and the final, and 10% above average on the second midterm, and with the curve I ended up with a B+.

He is the best choice for 103 HANDS DOWN. For my quarter, discussions did not help, but TAs did help if you needed questions answered. Do not slack off when it comes to the homework. DO THEM and problems related to the them. Trust me.

Apparently Econ 103 has become the prerequisite for Econ 104, so the material has changed. There is A LOT OF coding in R, and the professor expects you to have a basic knowledge of R before entering the class( or you need to self-teach during the first two weeks). ALL homework is done in R, which requires A LOT OF time. (the professor has cut down the number of questions due to complaints, but the workload is still huge) For me, every homework takes AT LEAST 5 hours to finish (have taken Stats 20). However, the is No relevance between HW and exams. The exams are more doable than HW, but there is no room for dumb mistakes since it's a curved class. NO practice final is offered and No similar exercise for the exam! Still waiting for the grades, I don't know what the curve will be like..
Overall, you will find yourself spending 70% of time doing HW that counts for 10% of this class since No homework will be dropped. No exercise or practice is offered when you try to prepare for the exam. The professor is not responsive, but it's understandable. I do think there is an issue with the structure of this class.

I actually really enjoyed his course. This is the first Econ class I got an A in, so I'm definitely not one of those genius econ students who are always setting the curve. I came into this class expecting it to be hard (my older friends warned me) so I only took 3 courses this quarter and spent a LOT of time on the homework. Yes, it took a lot of time but I think it was doable as I had never coded before in my life and managed to keep up, I just had to ask my TAs a lot of questions. Also I think the homework actually helped my understanding because I would never do my optional homeworks in previous econ classes....so I guess that was a learning moment for me lol.

I had the opportunity to schedule an office hours with him and he gave a lot of nice advice to me in terms of career and research. He was really nice and accommodating and even made our homeworks shorter after the class complained, BUT I did not love that he didn't give a final exam practice which kind of stressed me out.

Horrible. Teaches like a robot. Makes you code -- I'm tryna be a business major and work in finance, I don't need to code. Literally need two devices to proctor yourself, including respondus. Studying for the final right now and I'm gonna fail for sure