EPGY Summer Programs Course Evaluations...˘ ˇ ˇ ˇˆ ˘ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˘ ˘˙ ˇ˘ ˝˘ ˆ ˆ ˛ ˚...

2011 Course Evaluations for Investigations in EconomicsSession 2ESection 1Instructor Ashish Sachdeva

Total Responses: 19.

The chart below shows summary information for all course evaluations submitted. The first box is

the overall average. For each value the count of responses with that value is shown (including the

number of blanks).

The average value is computed based on the values 'Not at All' = 1, 'Somewhat' = 2, 'Usually' = 3,

'Definitely' = 4

Avg

Was the course challenging? 3 0 4 11 4 blank: 0

Was the course enjoyable? 3.2 0 2 10 7 blank: 0

Was the course interesting? 3.3 0 2 9 8 blank: 0

Were the Counselors/ Teaching Assistants helpful? 3.2 0 4 7 8 blank: 0

For the question below, 'No' = 1, 'Maybe' = 2, 'Yes' = 3.

Avg No Maybe Yes (blank)

Would you recommend this course to others 2.8 0 3 16 0

EPGY Summer Programs Course Evaluations https://epgy.stanford.edu/pine/summerevaluations.html?progyear=2011&...

1 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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Please rate the following:

Was the course challenging? X

Was the course enjoyable? X

Was the course interesting? X

Were the Counselors/Teaching Assistants helpful? X

No Maybe Yes

Would you recommend this course to others? X

What were the most valuable aspects of the class?

We get to have class discussions everyday during class which makes learning

easier and enables us to ask questions which bother us. I like how we get to learn

in college environment. Ashish, our instructor, is a great teacher and he puts in

effort to make the course interesting. It's fun to learn as a group with other students

from different nations. The TAs being in the class with us means they will know

what we're learning and can expand on the topic during study sessions. I really love

the fact that we get to go to the Federal Reserve as that was one of the best trips

I've ever been on with a class. Morgan Stanley was also very interesting but the

speaker was talking about very hard and complicated finance things which I didn't

really follow but it was still a great experience.

What aspects of the class, if any, could have been improved?

Sometimes the class is going a bit too fast so it was quite hard for me to catch up.

However, for some other students, it seems to be going either at the right pace or

it's going too slow. I don't like the fact that we have to sit on chairs without real

tables. I don't like those foldable tables as they are too small and annoying. If

possible, I'd like to have the normal tables. I also don't like how we're sitting in

different rows as sometimes taller kids sitting in the front would block my view. I

also want us to have more excursion trips to visit various places as it would be fun

to learn outside the class. We could perhaps visit the real NYSE as I want to see

how it's really like in the real situation where people trade shares in the market.

What were the instructor's strengths?

He knows a lot about economics. His main strength would be the fact that he is

able to interact with students and he pays a lot of attention to all individuals and

make us feel important. He also has a lot of examples to provide for specific

economic areas which makes it easier to understand the subject. He also comes to

our study sessions which shows that he cares about our learning and wants to help

us. I really like that about Ashish. I also like the fact that he will admit it if he doesn't

know something and will research on the thing he lacks knowledge on and will give

us a follow up.

How could the instructor improve?

He could've spend a little more time on some topics as sometimes he goes a little

too fast and it was hard for me to catch up. Ashish could have make some seating

arrangements as this would make it possible for us to know new people and get to

sit in different rows. He sometimes come a little bit late so it would be nicer if he

comes a bit early so that he can set up before lessons.

What was the most valuable assignment?

The most valuable assignment for me is the last assignment as this will reflect how

much we have learn throughout the whole course. It also gives us the freedom to

explore areas in which we are interested in and this will encourage us to work

harder. We are also required to make presentation on the topic which would benefit

us since it will help us practice our public speaking skill.

I really like the first assignment as well because it was a group assignment. That

allowed me to know more about my classmates as the 2 people in my group were

people I wouldn't have the chance to talk to if not for this assignment. It also

develop my responsibility and skills in working with a group. We learn to divide the

tasks up evenly.

All the homework we get daily are also valuable as it improves my understanding on

different area of economics.

What were the most important ideas or skills that you learned during the

class?

I learned that there are a lot more to economics than just microeconomics and

macroeconomics. I also learned a lot about graph plotting. It was very new to me. I

learned a lot about various economic terminologies as well which would help me

when I start to read the economic section of the newspaper. I learned how to plot

different graphs for different situations. I also learn to seek for help and meet

assignment deadlines.

Other comments?


2 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM

I really like the economics class but, as I stated earlier, it would be nice to have a

change in environment every week. I would prefer it if we could go to different

classrooms as the weeks go by as I want something new. I would also like it if we

could go into the Stanford library and borrow some books which would enhance our

understanding of our area of interest.


3 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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The most valuable aspects of the class were to see how economics plays a role in

our everyday life. After seeing all the different fields of economics, I can now view

decisions made and patterns in life in a different light.


I wish we had more time to specialize in one area of economics. There are many

branches, and we explored a few of them, but it would have been nice to learn

about them more in depth.


One strength was that he kept the entire class engaged and participating. He was

also very good at giving examples in real life to what we were learning in class in

order to better understand the material.


Although we had a few discussions, it would have been nice to have more talks with

the entire class. Most of the course was lectures, with a few discussions. I believe

that I learned more from the discussions than from the lectures because the

conversation would move toward topics that the class was more interested in, and

therefore allow us to learn more.


The most valuable assignment for me was the country project. We had to research

a country's economy, propose an economic plan, write a paper, and finally present

our country to the class. In the groups we worked in, we could pick a country that

we were interested in, but we still learned a lot. There are many types of

economies, government policies, and social differences between countries, and by

watching the presentations, I learned more about many of these differences.

However, we also had to apply the tools we had learned in economics so far and

think creatively in order to propose the plan for the future.


class?

The most important idea that I learned during this class was to question everything.

This might be cliche, but it is something we talked about a lot. Economists like to

ask the question "why?" We learned that one can ask almost any question about

society, business, or government policy and most likely be able to answer it in an

economic way. This was one of the most important skills because it taught us not

only to think creatively but to ask why a certain common fact is true.

Other comments?

I truly did enjoy the class as a whole. I came into the course having a little bit of

background in economics because of conversations with my parents and some

business courses in high school. But, this course showed me that economics is

more than just micro and macro. One can apply economic principles to many other

fields of study. Something that goes along with this is that many other subjects also

apply to economics, such as psychology, business, and some sciences. My favorite

part of the course was watching all of these different topics come together into

economic principles.


4 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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The instructor offered pretty interesting materials about different fields of

economics, which is very inspiring to me. I start to know more about this subject

except what the textbook told me in the past. The class is really interesting and I

broadened by view a lot during the class and my talks with my instructor.


There are so many interesting things to talk about in economics, and we are always

running out of time. I wish some materials can be offered before the program starts

so that students can have a preview and it saves time to talk more about extending

materials.


I think my instructor has a very broad knowledge. He is very strong at finding real

life examples for the abstract economic theories, which make the class much more

interesting. Also, he is very good at teaching us how to think and question about

current issues or daily events. I find it really inspiring.


Some of basic theories are not very well organized, possibly we there is always not

enough time. But that doesn't really affect the outcome of the course.


I value most the economic naturalist writing. I start to pay attention to the daily

things happened around me. It makes me view things around me in an economic

way and try to explain why something exists in one way but not another.


class?

I learnt to think from more aspects. For instance, from the textbook, people are

always assumed rational when building models, while through the class, it turns out

that most of us are actually not. I start to think deeper and more critically.

Other comments?

This class makes me love economics!


5 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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I got to know what economics is really about, even if the time was limited I learned

a lot of new things in these past 4 weeks and I am really glad that I came here.

However, the reason that I found the course somewhat enjoyable was that I think

the homework was too much. The point in coming to this program is to challenge

yourself and I know that, but none of the other classes had as much homework as

we had. I don't think that is fair.


The only change that would make the course more beneficial is to have longer

sessions.


My instructor (Ashish Sachdeva) was a really good instructor in every way. His

teaching skills were pretty well that I understood everything when I went and asked

questions individually. He also encouraged me to do my best when I felt intimidated.

He was really clear about the goal of the course and always in a good mood when

he was teaching us. He also participated to the study sessions which I think is not

mandatory for the instructors. His participation to study sessions helped me a lot to

cover the things that I did not understand during lecture. He was also interested

with every single one of us outside the course. ( questions that were not related to

econ)


---


The book Undercover Economist helped me a lot to have a better understanding of

the course. I gained a lot by reading that book. It was the most beneficial

assignment for me.


class?

I told this before but know I know what economics is really about. The most

important skill that I learned during this class is to make up my mind about

something and working to get it done in a short amount of time even if I have to get

up at 5 am in the morning.

Other comments?

Study sessions were a little bit repetitive. It would be better if we planned our own

time to do our assignments. I would spend a lot more efficient time if our studying

schedules were up to ourselves.


6 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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Getting to learn from someone with a respectable amount of real world experience

with the subject matter. It also gave me a small taste of what it might be like to

study in a college environment which is something I'm sure I'll appreciate once I

attend actual college classes.


The organization of it could certainly be improved. We often get distracted and

waste time that we should be spending learning.


His clear and often infectious love of his subject matter. Also his vibrant and good

natured personality have made the class very enjoyable even when the course gets

either too easy or too hard. Ashish clearly cares about his students and this is very

evident in the ways he goes about teaching his class


Maybe be a little more organized and try not to get distracted as easily. Sometimes

he gets off track and we lose time that could be spent learning about economics

listening to some talk on a hardly relevant issue. While these tangents are often

interesting, they are not relevant to my understanding of economics


The final project has been the most valuable assignment because it allows us to

apply some of what we have learned into a culminating experience.


class?

Learning to work quickly and effectively under time constraints, especially in the last

few days of the course. Also Ashish made a point of telling us his goal is not making

sure we completely understand all aspects of economics but that he opens our

minds to the world of economics. I think he has definitely accomplished that goal.

Other comments?

Nope.


7 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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I learned what economics is, though perhaps not terribly much economics. The

pacing was sufficiently fast most of the time, but there's only so much you can

cover in four weeks. I feel like I have a firm grasp of the concepts.


We needed initial evaluations so that the class could move forward based on what

people already knew, and not continually change pace as an attempt to correct for

incorrect assumptions.


Personable, interesting, engaging, and good at explaining by using examples.


In economics it seems there is a tendency to introduce variables left and right,

some of which overlap, and expect immediately perfect understanding of which 'N'

is being used just then. I would've liked to have seen the variables mostly done

away with.


The final project was the one I learned the most from, because it asked me to really

pull together my interests and strengths in a time crunch to make something that

was worthwhile.


class?

I learned how to pace my working speed, leaving enough energy to keep myself up

sustainably.

Other comments?

Excellent job overall, I'll look back happily at a summer well spent.


8 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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The social interactions with others, as well as the dedication and passion of my

teacher, Ashish Sachdeva, and my TAs. They have taught me many things in life

that goes much beyond economics and skills that I will most certainly use for the

rest of my life. The Econ Course gave me a very good understanding of what I will

learn in college economics, and now I am sure that I will take an economics course

when I go to college. The field trips and various activities also played an important

part in making life here at EPGY very comfortable and colorful.


The activities are sometimes too long and can be tiring. But overall, EPGY has

been a great experience and I hope it stays this way.


He was extremely good at keeping me engaged in the course, and taking the time

and effort to answer every single relevant, or non-relevant, question I ask. He also

thoroughly teaches each topic with a passion. Overall, a great instructor. I am lucky

to be one of his students.


Sometimes he runs out of time and has to skip a minor topic or two. So maybe if he

paid a bit more attention to time, we might have covered them. But the only reason

why we run out of time is because he is very thorough. I don't not wish for him to

sacrifice the quality of his work for quantity.


The most valuable assignment is perhaps the experiment that I am about to

conduct. The instructor has given me plenty of help and I have learned a lot about

economic experiments through this process.


class?

I learned many basic but important concepts of economics. I also learned about

different cultures and people, as well as a few small life lessons that I will cherish.

Other comments?

I had a great time. This is by far one of the most enjoyable summers I ever had.


9 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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Learning the essentials of economics and how they played into current issues and

businesses.


Generally during the end of class we would cover a concept very quickly because

we did not have enough time to go into greater detail. The entire study session that

day would be dedicated to going over this material. The TAs often did not explain it

well. Then Ashish would explain it perfectly in a small amount of time during class

time the next day. The time wasted listening to the poor explanation during the

afternoon study session took away time for us to work on our large amount of

homework.


Keeping people engaged in the material being taught even if it was not exciting

material at times.


Assign a more reasonable amount of homework for the amount of free time we are

given.


Country project


class?

Think like an economist

Other comments?


10 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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The most valuable aspects of the class were the discussions that were not linked to

the topic we were studying for example once we had a discussion on the economy

of china compared to that of usa.So these types of discussions broaden our

thinking which is really helpful.


Seeing movies and documentaries related to course is really good experience but

we watched only a little of them.So in order to make class interesting these kind of

strategies could have been used.Also time could have been used more efficiently if

everything was more planned.


The instructors main strengths were performing the experiments and game theory.


Instructor sometimes used a lot of maths but some students were uncomfortable

with it so instructor could use more than one method to explain things.


Most valuable assignment was the country project in which we choose different

countries and proposed their economic policy.In this way i learned about many

countries and the economic progress that otherwise i wouldn't had done.


class?

I learned how to do experiments and then to present the results in an effective

manner.Also,I learned using excel in economics to run multiple regressions etc that

was very helpful.

Other comments?

none.


11 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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I loved learning about how economics relates to everything; it made it less esoteric

than I previously had thought. We covered so much about the field that I now

consider it to be more broad; there are so many subtopics in economics that I had

never thought about, like the economics of happiness. I loved our instructor; he

made every day interesting and insightful. He really thought a lot about the course

and cared enough to plan fun things, like our guest speaker and our trip to the

federal reserve. I wish I had more time to spend here because I learned so much.


We went over a lot of material very quickly; as a result, I feel like I may not have

understood the topics as thoroughly. It would have been very nice to get some

extra review and practice problems, and to keep referencing the subjects that we

had already covered. I know that we had limited time and didn't really have the

resources to spend on reviewing the material; although I was interested and

engaged in everything we did, I feel like we should have had a more narrow focus.


Ashish made everything interesting. You could tell that he was very enthusiastic

about everything he was talking about and he was passionate about economics. I

really loved the macroeconomic discussions that we had as a class because Ashish

made these really difficult topics accessible and wanted to know our opinions on the

subject. He invited a lot of interaction, which made it feel like a conversation, not a

lecture. He also used the students in his examples, which made the class more

engaging.


Ashish tended to ramble sometimes. Although they were admittedly interesting

digressions, they weren't really focused on the material we were supposed to cover

that day. I really enjoyed talking with him about these issues, but they weren't

directly relevant. Also, even when he was talking about relevant issues, he would

over-explain some things. We ended up spending a huge amount of time on

presentations because he would always add a few comments on the end.


I really liked the profit-maximization worksheets; I felt like they were germane and

very important to the class. They created the foundation upon which everything else

depended, and they did so in a logical and efficient way.


class?

I learned that everything is related to economics; it isn't just about taxes and

spending, but also about the everyday choices of the firm and the consumer.

Economics uses tools and ideas from many other fields to provide a rich variety of

information and theories.

Other comments?

I wanted more time. We never had enough time to cover all of the things we

wanted to.

Also, our TA's got a little long-winded in the afternoon study session; I felt like the

time wasn't used very efficiently and often we had to do homework during free time,

which was a bummer.


12 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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I think that the most valuable aspects of the class were the group discussions that

often found their way into the lessons. These discussions may not have been a

large part of the plan for the days on which they occurred, but they provided

everybody in the class access to a broad spectrum of opinions in addition to an

opportunity to provide their own opinions.


I understand that the nature of our program requires a fast paced course, but i feel

that more time was spent on some area of the material that could have been better

if used in different areas. For example, some areas of the statistics unit like mean,

median, and mode were emphasized far greater than they needed to be while far

more complex things like variance and covariance were merely glossed over.


Ashish is funny, easy to engage, and keeps an open mind. He managed to make

even the most boring aspects of economics somewhat enjoyable (or at least he

tried). He eats lunch with his class and almost always starts a conversation with a

curious or even a more reserved student. He also clearly knows his stuff, but he

always makes sure to emphasize the fact that thinking like an economist means

challenging things. He is our instructor, but if our ideas differ from his teachings or

our observations then he encourages us to challenge them and to form new ideas

or solidify old ones.


No clear improvements come to mind.


The economist naturalist assignment was the most valuable for me because it

taught me to think like an economist. This assignment required me to think of an

issue or something that intrigued me in everyday life and to think of an economic

reason for it. After going through the process of this assignment, thinking like an

economist and digging deeper in the future will not be too difficult for me.


class?

The most important idea/skill that I learned was the whole concept of thinking like

an economist. An economist takes a fairly normal observation and tears it apart,

searching for every reason as to why something exists in the way it does. I have

always been fascinated with how things work, and this class provided some insight

into finding out how everything works.

Other comments?

Economics is very challenging but also very fascinating and the class was intense

yet rewarding.


13 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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The first two days of class we had relevant discussions of the current world and

economy. Each time Ashish was able to connect concepts and ideas we were

learning in class to events in the real world, a more memorable connection was

made. I enjoyed when Ashish used the class to answer and work through problems

since it kept everyone awake and on their toes.


I wish we could have had a larger variety of speakers and range of topics in class.

We had a entrepreneur come in one day which was incredibly valuable. When

teachers able able to connect what we are learning in class to real life and relevant

examples, knowledge and learning seems to come easier.

Many times the homework did no correlate to what we learned in class, so we were

forced to learn topics for the first time with the TA's and then immediately try and

apply it in our homework. The homework was also particularly long, we had

upwards of two to three hours the first few nights.

Finally, our final project wasn't explained in detail until the monday before it was

due. The final project consisted of a five page paper and could have been

completed with much more ease and much less stress had we known the

parameters earlier.


Ashish is very supportive of new ideas and connecting what we do in class to the

real world. He was also very personable.

-very easy to talk to

-willing to work outside of class


Although he has a disconnect when trying to understand the mind process of a

group of 17 year olds. Giving us 3 hours of homework creates diminishing returns

after the first or so hour, and causes us to get hardly anything out of our work.

-organization of assignments and class topics

-specific feedback on assignments


The final project I'm doing is focussed on the stock market. The overall assignment

allows for a lot of freedom of where each student wants to research or study.

Although as I said before, it would have been helpful to know the specifics of the

assignment sooner.


class?

General economic theory, how everything is related to economics

Following a powerpoint with notes

Other comments?

Study session needs the most work out of any part of this program.

1. three hours of straight work does not WORK. breaks are necessary

2. the TA's need to meet with the teacher more often so that what they teach

follows what the teacher is teaching

3. kids should have more freedom. ashish tried to enact this at the end of the

session, but it should work something along these lines. 45 minutes of mandatory

study/new materials. 45 minute of optional additional review. and the rest of the

time is given to study/homework. if you are worried kids won't focus, give everyone

books and take away the computers


14 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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The class covered many different aspects of economics, allowing students to

experience a wide variety of practices. This was especially helpful because it made

it easier to form an opinion on whether or not economics would be a good choice

for future study.


While it was beneficial to cover a wide variety of topics, at times, too many topics

were slated to be covered which rushed the learning time for the other aspects.


Explaining concepts and providing real life examples of how economic principles are

applied


Spending more time doing student-involved practice problems


A project which involved evaluating a country's situation, and proposing an

economic policy that would maximize its potential


class?

Focusing on what the most basic cause of an effect is, and then evaluating all the

repercussions that stem from it.

Other comments?

There was not enough time given to work on the final project.

The instructor seemed to favor some students, and had preconceived ideas of who

was capable and who wasn't.

The instructor also stated that he wanted us to not have to do homework during

free time, however most homework was too long or difficult for this to be feasible,

especially with the final project.


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I learned how I could relate the subject of economics to the real world through this

class. Not only does it have applications in direct fields such as finance and

investing but also in indirect fields like marine biology. To be able to do so with a

subject was absolutely astonishing to me, and learning all the applications of the

subject area made this class a valuable experience.

I also enjoyed having a greater understanding of the political scene today. This

class taught me about current events I had not paid enough attention to before. For

instance, when we learned about the recession, all of us came out of class excited

and happy to learn about an issue that had such a great effect on our lives which

we never understood ourselves.

These were some important and valuable aspects of the class that I enjoyed.


There were times where the discussion took over a majority of the class. While I

enjoyed the discussions, what normally would take up an hour of lecture would then

have to be compressed into 30-35 minutes of class. It was a cost that slightly

outweighed the benefits and, in my opinion, would have made it easier to learn

some course material had we taken more time on it.


The instructor was highly qualified and was currently doing his Ph. D. He knew

exactly what he was talking about because he also was a T.A. in the college that he

works in. He has read through hundreds of research papers, he understands them,

and often can communicate them to the students without hesitation.


The instructor often finds loop holes in the questions that he asks, which while it is

interesting can become a little tiring and scary. One does not know or want to

answer the question because there is a feeling that one is wrong, or that there is a

loophole not previously mentioned or accounted for.

The instructor also sometimes spends a little bit of time deviating from one subject

into another closely related but unplanned subject. It is very interesting to learn, but

then workload increases from homework from both subjects and there isn't a full

understanding of the first one.


The most valuable assignment is the final project that we are all working on right

now. It gives a good look into economics and which field fits which student. It is

difficult, but the challenge makes the project exciting and intellectually stimulating.

This is the most fun I've had on a school project and I can't wait to finish and

present it to my peers.


class?

I learned to question everything. The best economic intuition comes from the art of

asking why and learning not only to question but to answer. I will definitely be

asking "why" a whole lot more in the future.

Other comments?

The course was difficult at times and easy at times but it gave me an insight on

every field in economics. I really enjoyed it, and while, before EPGY, I was

confused as to what major I wish to pursue, now I feel excited and ready to address

my college life and the rest of my career. This has been a life-changing experience,

for sure, and I am grateful to have an opportunity such as this.


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For me, the most valuable aspect of the class was the amount of material we were

able to cover in such a short amount of time. I completely understand that it's

impossible to go in depth on every topic at a 4 week program, so I really enjoyed

being able to learn a little bit about so many different economic topics. Economics

offers such a wide range of fields and being able to absorb information about so

many of those fields was invaluable to me since I want to major in economics in the

future. Also, the course was very valuable since I'll be taking AP Macro this fall, so I

like how I'll be able to understand the course better in the fall thanks to what I

learned here.


I feel like the timing of everything could have been improved. We were assigned a

whole lot of work (which I find great since it's an academic camp) but at the same

time, there were some days when I felt like it was impossible to do it all. For

example, our talent show last night went from 7-10:15 and most of the study

session was scheduled for more lecture, so it was hard to schedule in time to work

on our 5 page paper and 15 minute presentations with such limited time and a

rapidly approaching due date. Also, sometimes I felt like the course lacked some

structure, and sometimes our discussions got off-topic, but I thought the structure

and organization of the course improved as the weeks went on.


Ashish is very good at encouraging students to reach their potentials. When a topic

was introduced that needed some hands-on work (like solving statistics problems or

finding equilibrium points), he made sure that everyone came up to the board to

learn. However, in doing so, he didn't make you seem stupid if you didn't know how

to do it. Rather, he encouraged you to learn from any mistakes you made and

helped fix whatever the problem was in a very kind manner. Also, he was very

willing to communicate with us. Whenever we had issues, we were free to email

him, and he would often come to our study sessions and allow us to ask any more

questions if we had them even though he wasn't always required to stay after with

us.


I feel like Ashish could have done a better job when it came to structure and time

management. He encourages a very vocal classroom in which everyone

participates which is great, but a lot of times, we might get on tangents that would

go on for a while. The only problem with that was that by the end of a lot of classes,

he had to rush through the actual material and had to place the obligation on the

TAs to teach during study session. And for me at least, the time after lunch isn't

usually where I'm at my most focus, so I would've liked it if we could've been a bit

better with timing.


I think the most valuable assignment is definitely our final project. First off, Ashish

provided us many different options for our projects that we could tailor to our own

individual tastes. For example, I'm very interested in finance economics and the

stock market, and now I'm able to do a project about that. Others are interested in

industrial organization or experimental economics, and they're able to do projects

on those, and I think it's great that we all have the chance to do a final economics

project on a topic that we truly care about. My only complaint about the assignment

is the strict time constraints, but I still think that this project allows each of us to

explore something we love and to present something we want to talk about while

still pertaining to economics.


class?

One of the most important skills I learned was to appreciate and look at the big

picture. For example, I had never realized the plethora of fields economics existed

in. I always thought it was just about things like debt and international trade and

firms, but after being here, I've learned that economics exists in everything that we

do and that economics can be applied to almost anything that we care about.

There's so much to economics, and it can be seen with an individual just as easily

as it can be seen in a global context, and I loved being able to observe that and

learn about so many different topics.


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Other comments?

Honestly, I just really enjoyed this course. There were some pretty stressful times

for sure, but overall, it was a great experience. In the summer of college

applications and things, it's easy for me to say that this was a waste of my time and

that I should've stayed home doing other things. But I truly enjoyed everything I

learned here. As someone who wants to now almost for sure major in economics

and as a student who will be taking economics soon, the things I was able to pick

up on at this camp will be an invaluable resource that I can probably use for most of

my life.


18 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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Students did several presentations which allows all of us to share ideas, and to

enrich our own views. Two gust speakers, Felipe and Cristine, broadened the

content of this course. Also, our instructor discussed about current issues with us

and encouraged us to challenge other people's opinions and form our own ideas. In

this course, I learned how to think, how to undercover phenomena, and how to

present my own ideas to others.


Because of limited time, we went through topics in economics in the last 4 weeks

quickly. Some topics were generally discussed without details. I hope we can learn

several topics thoroughly and the instructor and TAs could introduce the topics in

details. Even though less topics might be covered, I am willing to go deeper in each

topic.


He is good at illustrating his points, and has unique perspective on current issues.


I hope he could go into details in some topics such as industrial organization,

development, and macro economics. Some other topics were repeated several

times, for example, perfect competition and monopoly. A better arrangement and

structure of course is needed.


The most valuable assignment is Naturalist Economics Writing and presentation,

which required us to find questions related to everyday life, and using economic

concept to answer, and propose methods to test or to solve. When searching for

questions, we have to think carefully about our lives. To find the answers, we can

put economics we learned into practice. Also, presentations allowed us to see other

people's ideas and to practicing convincing others.


class?

When making a decision, people need to analyse the cost and benefit to pick a

rational choice. However, most people are irrational. I learned how to analyze cost

and benefit, and how to make wise decisions as economists.

Everything is related to each other. There are always some hidden reasons for a

certain event.

How did the world enter the economic recession 3 years ago.

Other comments?

Generally, the course is very helpful and interesting. We had a field trip to Morgan

Stanley and the Federal Reserve. My suggestion is that we should have more time

spending with the instructor and learn more new things.


19 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM


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I thought the most valuable aspects of the class were the discussions that we had

about current events. Once we'd learned basic economic principles, it was easier to

understand why things were happening in the market today. Relatedly, it was

valuable to me to learn basic economic principles, so that I will be able to better

understand financial happenings when I leave EPGY.


I thought that the class was often not engaging enough, we could have used more

direct interaction with the material. What I mean by this is that the instructor often

lectured at the class for a long time, but I usually lost focus as the class went on. If

the lectures on principles could have been discussed with relation to current events

or demonstrations, I maybe would have grasped the material better. During the

afternoon study sessions, we would often play "games" to help us understand the

course material or to segue into a new topic. The games were always relevant,

such as understanding international trade through a class-wide candy exchange,

and it could have heightened the classroom experience if the demonstrations were

also during regular classroom hours. One final thing that could have used

improvement was the statistics part of the course. Though this would be highly

relevant in pursuit of an economics degree, I felt that the three days spent on

statistics would have been better spent on a more in-depth analysis of directly

economic topics.


Ashish definitely understood the material that he was teaching very well, and this is

a significant strength. He could go in depth into the basic economic principles that I

wanted to learn about and I enjoyed that. I also liked that he surveyed the class

often to see what would be interesting to discuss. Game theory was something that

was not necessarily on the syllabus, but Ashish made time for it because he saw

that many people in the class were interested, and I appreciated that.


Besides having a more engaging class, as mentioned above, I felt that Ashish often

gave personal opinions instead of presenting the cold facts of a situation. During

our discussion of the recession for example, Ashish was talking about how the

investment banks never had any idea what they were really investing in, and this

helped lead to the eventual crash. My dad works in the CLO market, which is very

similar to the CDO market which lead to the recession, and has explained the

recession to me before. The reason his company was not at as much risk was

because they consciously did not invest in subprime mortgages, contrary to what

Ashish said. This is just one example, but it often felt at other times that he had

some personal undertones to the material he was teaching, which sometimes took

away from the class. Ashish also could have given more paper handouts with

homework or course material. It seems unnecessary to take notes on a powerpoint

when we could just be given all of the information. As far as homework, there were

a couple times when I did not realize we had any until late, and there was almost

always too much. One final problem was when Ashish did not tell us about the final

project requirements until two days before it was due. This wouldn't have been bad,

but we needed to write a 5 page paper and make a 15 minute presentation, even

though it was our last week, which was busy enough with scheduled activities as it

was.


The most valuable assignment I found was the first one about developing an

economic plan for a country. This was valuable because it allowed us to go deeply

into the economic strategy making of a country and really recognize how difficult it

could be. It was also good because now, looking back, I can further analyze the

changes I made in relation to the economic ideas that I now know, and I can see

what effects they would have had, and I enjoy that.


class?

The most important idea that I learned was the extensive application of the supply

and demand curve. This can be applied to nearly everything that was discussed.

Supply and demand may have other names, such as IS and LM, but the

fundamental ideas of supply and demand continue. In relation to this, it was very


20 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM

interesting to learn about equilibrium in economics, and to see how to maximize

things in the economy based on supply, demand, and the equilibrium point.

Other comments?


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The best aspect of this class was that it actually engaged all of us instead of being

19 straight days of lecturing. The discussions and activities we did in class helped

with information retention far more than just packets of homework problems or

afternoon review sessions. It also made the information more interesting because

we could actually think about the processes and theories behind the methods

versus just regurgitating formulas and data.


I think we should have spent more time talking about the real-world applications of

our studies, i.e., what fields we could study and what careers we could pursue. At

least from my own personal experience, I came to EPGY to see if Economics was

anything that I might be interested in majoring in when I go off to college in a year,

but I would have liked more exposure to different fields and jobs that I could have

entered with an economic background.


Our instructor Ashish was a large part of why our course was enjoyable. He fully

understood that while we had come to EPGY to learn something new, we were

taking time out of our summer and didn't want just a series of lectures. I think the

best part of his teaching style was how he could quickly come up with an example

for anything he was explaining; this really helped make the meanings behind the

topics we were learning easier to understand. Outside of the normal classroom

setting, he was always extremely helpful and a very easy-going aide to talk to.


The one thing Ashish could improve upon would be that he was too swayed by the

TAs. Often times he would tell us that he had had an assignment or activity of his

own in mind but that the TAs had told him to do something different. But in reality

his first ideas were often far better. I don't mean to criticize the TAs; it's just that

there's a reason why they're teaching assistants, not the actual instructor. Ashish

should have stuck to his own ideas because most of the time he knew what was

best for us.


The best assignment was the final project. I decided to do something on happiness

economics, which ended up producing a vast array of problems. I had to enlist a

TAs help to download the data and run regressions on it, and even when I had I

didn't get the results I wanted so I had to change the goal of my research. It taught

me to be quick and efficient, but also flexible enough to react to changes.


class?

The most important skill I learned in Economics is that problems are a lot more

intuitive than they appear; it is simply a matter of solving them in your own mind,

and then converting that into the language of your subject.

Other comments?


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I thought that the most valuable aspects of the class was not only the things we

learned about economics but more importantly, the excitement Ashish gave us.

Most of the material we learned in class could be useful in daily life and my

classmates and I would actually jokingly talk about the marginal utility of going for

another slice of pizza in the dining hall.


There were numerous days when my classmates and I felt overwhelmed with all the

work. We ended up spending a lot of freetime finishing homework or reading books.

In general, I loved the class though.


Ashish really wanted us all to love economics and share his interest in economics

rather han learn graphs and equations. He really enjoyed spending time with us and

would usually be in TriDelta during our afternoon study sessions and sometimes

watch movies in the evening with us. He was not only our instructor but also our

friend and we all felt comfortable with him. In addition, he was very understanding

and kind and a great teacher.


Ashish sometimes was not used to teaching students that had already taken

difficult math courses and such so sometimes he spent too much class time going

over simple math. Overall, he was great!


The most valuable assignment was the economic naturalist assignment where each

student had to question something about society and answer it in an economic

point of view. It was very interesting how most everything applies to economics and

it was a good way to use our concrete learning in a more abstract way.


class?

I really learned that economics is found everywhere in daily lives, and even is very

closely connected with Psychology. I love psychology and the introduction to

behavioral economics was fascinating.

Other comments?

The study sessions were sometimes filled with the counselors reviewing the class

material. At times it was unnecessary because the students all wanted to start on

the homework so we did not have to work on it during free time.

The field trip to Morgan Stanley and the FED was AMAZING! I loved seeing the real

world applications to economics. Learning more of the financial side of

economics/stocks was confusing at first but now I know a lot more about

finance/stocks.


23 of 23 8/8/2011 9:25 AM

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