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summerlove.xo
02-06-2013, 04:45 PM
Has anyone taken any senior level econ class that they would highly recommend and/or found useful? I was considering 325 (The North American Oil Industry) and 323 (Natural Gas Markets). I've also heard 311 (Computer Applications in Economics) is useful but not so good things about the prof, M. Miles.

Thanks in advance!

woodywoodford
02-06-2013, 04:51 PM
If you want to work in anything relating O&G and finance/economics then take all the energy ones you can. It's the one thing I regret about my degree. Otherwise take as many micro and macro fundamentals as you can, mathematical economics and econometrics. Those specialized ones (game theory, strategic behavior, financial economics, etc) I found to be slightly pointless as they got covered in nearly as much detail in the micro/macro's anyways. But I was at the U of A so not sure how well that all translates to calgary.

flipstah
02-06-2013, 04:55 PM
Schlenker is awesome and Miles is a great prof if you ask her issues.

She's definitely not going to spoon-feed you. 311 is too boring for me.

summerlove.xo
02-06-2013, 05:15 PM
Originally posted by woodywoodford
Otherwise take as many micro and macro fundamentals as you can, mathematical economics and econometrics. Those specialized ones (game theory, strategic behavior, financial economics, etc) I found to be slightly pointless as they got covered in nearly as much detail in the micro/macro's anyways.

Did you find the mathematical economics classes useful? I am on the fence about taking those courses.

I also agree with you on the specialized ones, I took a few like behavioural economics and found them to be useless.

summerlove.xo
02-06-2013, 05:17 PM
Originally posted by flipstah
311 is too boring for me.

Did you take the course or sit in it? I have heard from a few people that it is one of the more useful econ classes to take as your option. Was it boring because you were already familiar with the course content?

Superdooper
02-06-2013, 10:33 PM
Useful in terms of what? Grad school or industry?

I did econ 323 (with Schlenker) and I remember that there was quite a bit of writing as he would write his notes on the projector - the course was okay for me, do not remember much.

I also did econ 325 (w/ Yuan) and he had PowerPoint slides and it gave an overview of the oil & gas industry - I found the course more helpful and can still recall some of the material. Yuan is pretty boring though...

Econ 311 - attended the first two weeks but got bored and and decided not to take it...it did seem like it would be quite practical (ie excel and whatnot just did not see the value at the time in learning excel).

themack89
02-07-2013, 01:48 AM
If you are going to take 323 avoid Schlenker... He is a funny guy but his lecture style is brutal (not sure who else teaches it though). Exactly same story as SooperDooper, do not remember a god damn thing from that course.

I don't know why people trash talk Miles, she is an amazing teacher especially for 395 which is one of two courses I would stress any student to understand thoroughly (357 being the other--take it with Church, it will be painful but you will actually learn economics). Miles is the reason I fell in love with Econometrics and actually understand it.

Take 311, no questions asked.

325 with Afshin is standard. He's boring but he is fair and gets the job done.

327 with Walls is recommended.

If you aren't doing Honors and you are quantitatively weak, then taking 387 and 389 will only frustrate you and lower your GPA.

STRONGLY RECOMMEND 471, 477 and 571. Extremely challenging, extremely insightful, and potentially highly rewarding.

flipstah
02-07-2013, 09:54 AM
Originally posted by summerlove.xo


Did you take the course or sit in it? I have heard from a few people that it is one of the more useful econ classes to take as your option. Was it boring because you were already familiar with the course content?

It was boring because it was Excel but with Econ problems. I didn't like it and didn't pay attention so I dropped it.



Originally posted by themack89
If you are going to take 323 avoid Schlenker... He is a funny guy but his lecture style is brutal (not sure who else teaches it though). Exactly same story as SooperDooper, do not remember a god damn thing from that course.

I don't know why people trash talk Miles, she is an amazing teacher especially for 395 which is one of two courses I would stress any student to understand thoroughly (357 being the other--take it with Church, it will be painful but you will actually learn economics). Miles is the reason I fell in love with Econometrics and actually understand it.

Take 311, no questions asked.

325 with Afshin is standard. He's boring but he is fair and gets the job done.

327 with Walls is recommended.

If you aren't doing Honors and you are quantitatively weak, then taking 387 and 389 will only frustrate you and lower your GPA.

STRONGLY RECOMMEND 471, 477 and 571. Extremely challenging, extremely insightful, and potentially highly rewarding.

Weird. I love how Schlenker teaches; just have to hound him questions.

Yuan is terrible. He taught 357 one time and I wanted to shoot myself.

Walls is also a good prof and he's pretty up-to-the-point. If you ask him to clarify things, he'll do it. Even in Cantonese if you want.

I don't remember what the 400-level numbers were but Econometrics was fun. So was Emperical Energy Economics with Walls.

Skyline_Addict
02-07-2013, 12:43 PM
Wasn't a fan of Schlenker. Would just sit there and write on the projector the whole class. Typical soulless German machine ;).

Miles will teach the Econometrics (basically Stats) courses. She is pretty brutal, has a wailing high pitched voice and isn't very nice. However, if you show up to all her classes and take her notes, her exams are very reasonable. She will use the last couple of lectures for final exam review which you should go to. I remember he recycling some questions or using very similar examples and just changing some of the numbers.

As far as fun/interesting classes are concerned, take anything with Robert Oxoby. His Behavioral Economics class is pretty neat.

flipstah
02-07-2013, 12:47 PM
Originally posted by Skyline_Addict

As far as fun/interesting classes are concerned, take anything with Robert Oxoby. His Behavioral Economics class is pretty neat.

Fact. One of the best prof's I've ever had.

GQNammer
02-07-2013, 09:36 PM
I'm sitting in Schlenker's 327 right now. I've taken him for all my econ courses (201, 203, and now 327). I like his style of teaching because in all of his courses, you don't even need to read the text book. You just need to study the notes he writes when exam time comes.

flipstah
02-07-2013, 11:13 PM
Originally posted by GQNammer
I'm sitting in Schlenker's 327 right now. I've taken him for all my econ courses (201, 203, and now 327). I like his style of teaching because in all of his courses, you don't even need to read the text book. You just need to study the notes he writes when exam time comes.

Did he go through the Liberal haterade talk yet? WOW.

You should ask his time with Stephen Harper. He's far too kind with that one haha.

themack89
02-08-2013, 01:46 AM
Originally posted by flipstah


Did he go through the Liberal haterade talk yet? WOW.

You should ask his time with Stephen Harper. He's far too kind with that one haha.

Conflict of interest.... Atkins supervised him lol

civic_boii
02-08-2013, 12:27 PM
Did you take behavioral economics (ECON 481) with Subhasish Dugar? Any chance you have your old notes/tests?


Originally posted by summerlove.xo


Did you find the mathematical economics classes useful? I am on the fence about taking those courses.

I also agree with you on the specialized ones, I took a few like behavioural economics and found them to be useless.

flipstah
02-08-2013, 12:46 PM
Originally posted by themack89


Conflict of interest.... Atkins supervised him lol

Dude is old as fuu-

summerlove.xo
02-10-2013, 01:31 AM
Originally posted by civic_boii
Did you take behavioral economics (ECON 481) with Subhasish Dugar? Any chance you have your old notes/tests?



Yes I did. I have notes for his classes and the answers for midterm one. I think I have old exams somewhere too.

summerlove.xo
02-10-2013, 01:36 AM
Originally posted by themack89


Conflict of interest.... Atkins supervised him lol

I liked Atkins even though his classes are pretty lenient. He is always willing to help out his students.

summerlove.xo
02-10-2013, 01:39 AM
Originally posted by Superdooper
Useful in terms of what? Grad school or industry?


I meant more useful in terms of industry. I would think that useful courses for grad school would basically be all the courses required by the honours econ degree.