Yes, the class is intense. There are a lot of readings to do, and the material is not only sensitive but dense (yet VERY interesting!). However, if you are genuinely interested in learning about immigration, take it. Professor Waldinger has so much knowledge to offer, and he genuinely cares for his students. I got a 99 and 100 on the midterm and final, but I worked my ass off for it. If you think you will be procrastinating, I would say this class is not for you. I often stayed up while balancing four other classes to make sure I wasn't behind on the readings. I made sure to attend every discussion, participated to the best of my knowledge and actively asked questions to make sure I was understanding the material correctly. I attended the study sessions offered both by Professor and the TA.

If it helps, I was juggling this class while reading a total of 2100+ pages (for other classes) at certain weeks, and I am the type of person who cannot skim for the life of me. If I can do it, so can you (with proper time management). Don't take this class if you are looking for an easy A; however, if you genuinely want to learn and are willing to put in the work, I truly believe it will be such a rewarding experience. Finally, if you plan on taking this class, GO TO OFFICE HOURS! I went to my TA's office hours, and even this in itself helped SO much. I do agree with the previous reviews that this class should be worth 5-6 units due to the intense workload.

Conclusion: Difficult? Yes. Hard work? Yes. Intense? Yes. Rewarding? Yes. Is it possible to get an A? YES!

First of all let me just say this. Avoid this man at all costs.

From week 1 of this class, I knew it was going to be hard. The workload was insane and immediately fell behind. I work a full time job, so was unable to watch every lecture and do every reading. And when I say it was a lot of readings, I mean there were probably 5-8 readings assigned each week, 20-50 pages each. Plus, there were at least 2 hours of lectures a week. After week 1, I gave up trying to keep up with the course load and decided to just go over it when the midterm came. The midterm was unnecessarily hard. The questions were straightforward, but each was 3-4 parts and required very specific information and references to multiple readings for each question. it took me 3-4 days straight to finish both the midterm and final. This class was the absolute bane of my existence for 3 months. the only saving grace was that the exams were graded easily. I would never take another course with Waldinger again. He was a good lecturer and the material was interesting but he clearly does not have any regard for students' needs and lives outside of his class.

Though I may be in the minority here, I thought this class was very interesting. Professor Waldinger is super engaging and knowledgable on the topics he discusses. I do agree the class has a very dense workload, but having the Professor as my TA himself really prepared me for the exams. Highly recommend taking a class with Waldinger if you get the chance and are interested in learning the material.

Boring, lots of workload. grade depends on 2 essays.

This class is pretty reading-heavy. I would say you are reading about 80 pages a week with the addition of supplementary articles and 5-10 minute documentaries. It's manageable if you have a lighter quarter, but it is very easy to fall behind. However, the readings are very interesting and I think the knowledge you gain after taking this course is very rewarding when you put in the work!

The midterm was a bit more intense than the final. It's 4 questions but each question is sort of split into four sub-questions and you get around 530 words to answer them. The final is structured the same. There are plenty of opportunities for extra credit. There is also a 5 paged citizenship paper due shortly after the midterm where you find someone who has attempted to gain citizenship, interview them, and write about their experience supplementing it with the readings.

He gives 5 extra credit points in the midterm and the final, and he also co-hosted five Zoom seminars on current migration topics and you write a 250-word discussion post for 1 point.

Waldinger's lecture style personally isn't for me, it is very stream-of-consciousness where he kind of rambles, and occasionally cold calls on some people (sit closer to the middle if you don't want to be called on). I wouldn't skip too many of them though as he didn't upload any recorded lectures and he takes attendance in the middle of the lecture by posting an online poll. The TAs grade pretty generously in my opinion, I got A+s on all my papers and as long as you participate in discussion you should be fine.

I would say this class is worth it if you are particularly interested in migration, but do not sign up if you are gonna slack. I think some of the reviews below are exaggerating how hard this class is, just do the readings and you'll be fine!

As a professor, I liked Waldinger. He is clearly passionate about this subject. In addition, he cared for his students. I had him at my TA as well and he loved teaching. The material was actually interesting at times. Due to it being a sensitive topic, getting different views is cool.

The professor does make it clear on the syllabus that this course is challenging. However, four units for this course is unacceptable. The workload is intense.

Cons: lotssss of readings. Sometimes the readings were so dry; it was best to just watch the 8-10 lecture videos for the week to get a sense of what the reading was about. Included with the readings were films that I personally did not find useful. I think probably watch 2 or 3 of them. Exams were graded very harshly. People got straight up 30s. It was not a pretty sight at midnight sharing midterm grades on the GroupMe chat.

Pros: the professor uploads weeks of material before the course begins. If you want to get a hard start: DO IT!!! I regret not doing this. Start those lecture videos and reading earlier; you'll thank yourself. Having the professor as my TA meant it was like more lecture. He would cold call on people for discussion; I actually liked it. The professor was open to regrade (by himself) after his grader graded our midterms as if we were PhD candidates turning in our thesis. However, some students even got a lower score on the regrade or just jumped half a grade higher. The professor hosted study reviews for both midterm and final; open to recommendations on how to be more clear on his exams, allowed two weeks to complete both exams, and offered extra credit. No textbook required.

Overall, nothing against Professor Waldinger. He completed his role as being proactive with his material, sending out updating emails, and being incredibly friendly. His course is beyond challenging. The exams take HOURS upon HOURS to complete. I wish this course offered more units and grades weren't rushed at the end because we got our midterm grade at the end of week 8 sooooo not much to do by that point. There is midterm, citizenship paper, and final. An extra credit opportunity was offered at the end. I wanted to like this course more because of the professor but I can't. I don't think I would take a class with Waldinger again.

I do not recommend this class. It is unfortunate because the professor is clearly very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject, but I could never imagine going through this class again. It is extremely dense and the workload is insanely high. Hours upon hours of lectures every week and more reading than you could possibly think of, and it wasn’t just like you could reading something once. Its hard and too much information to handle in such little time. I definitely think that it should not be considered a 4 unit class. There should be some warning to take the class alone or with a maximum of one other class that is super easy. There is way too much information to cover in one quarter. Overwhelming is an understatement. I think that the grade distribution can easily fool students, its not what it looks like. Doesn’t matter if you do the work in 4 hours or 40 hours, the chances of getting an A are slim considering the harsh grading. It is really a fascinating subject but the way that it was delivered was just so inefficient. I even felt bad that the TA’s had to go through all this material. I felt that even if students were on track with the timeline there would be no way to complete this class without losing many hours of sleep. It just wasn’t worth being sleep deprived, stressed, anxious, and emotionally drained. Think twice before considering this course.

I love Waldinger, but this class isn't the easiest, by design. He gives a LOT of reading and it can be hard to know what reading or concepts to focus on week to week. He can be disorganized and randomly send emails un-assigning certain readings or changing up essay questions . But he's a very caring prof who TAs some of his own sections and loves connecting w students. If you really engage with the material and go to office hours you can get a lot of out of this class. And if you see the chance to enroll in the section he TAs do it!

It's insulting that this class is only 4 units. It's very interesting, but the workload is insane. You have to watch 4+ hours of lectures per week, read 4-6+ chapters/articles per week that are dense, and watch videos. Yes, there is only a mid-term, citizenship paper and a final but the mid-term alone took me over 60 hours to prepare for and write after already have kept up with each weeks assignments. Absolute torture. And I got a high B on the mid-term. I spend a lot of time and effort in studying, and to get a B is frustrating. I'm working on the final currently and I've spent over 30 hours studying and preparing for it and I've only answered one question. Don't take this class. It should be worth 5-6 units.