Review:
Having read the reviews of Professor Brown before taking this course, I was really nervous about how well I would do. I was pleasantly surprised. This is easily my favorite class this semester. The homework is easy, Professor Brown is funny, smart, and presents well thought-out lectures, and I got a 98 on the first exam. Lesson learned: don't judge everything from the reviews you read here, and don't let me or anyone else tell you which classes to take.

Workload:
Don't have to do any of the reading if you go to class, but having the textbook to check things is good. The problem sets are easy and typically take less than an hour.

review a class you took with Drusilla Brown - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Loury is by far the best professor in the Economics department. Her lectures are clear, concise and she answers questions very clearly. She is always available outside of class to answer questions or concerns. She is always tolerant of alternative views and listens to different interpretations or economic thought. This class is all math and little theory but if you like math def take the class. I would definitely take all of her other classes, (specializes in labor econ and inequality and poverty). Unambiguously the best class I have taken so far at Tufts.

Workload:
There are 6 problem sets each with 2 or 3 questions. They take a few hours. 2 midterms with 20% each and a final exam worth 50%. The tests are similar to the Problem sets. The 2 midterms were relatively straight forward. The final was a bit tricky.

review a class you took with Linda Loury - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Drusilla Brown is THE worst professor I have EVER had at Tufts. The lectures were all over the place, the homeworks varied from ridiculously easy to so hard you want to kill yourself. But the worst part of this class was how random the tests were. The tests had almost nothing to do with what we learned about in the class, the best example being test 3. We had a good 6-8 lectures worth of material that could have been put on test 3, yet almost the entire test focused upon one SMALL concept she taught us in about 15 minutes the class before. Every student I talk to in the class agreed that it was stupid.

Workload:
The book was worthless. It was so complex and confusing, and when deriving equations would often used the dread words "with some simple algebra and manifipulation we get:" and give some new bogus equation that looked nothing like the previous one. I actually started doing better in the course and started understanding more when I stopped reading the book. The assignments were a crap shoot ranging from ridiculously easy to insanely hard. This whole course was based mostly upon luck and guessing.

review a class you took with Drusilla Brown - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
I think this is the worst class in the Econ department. Don't take intermediate with Brown.

Workload:
The workload was unimportant. The tests are random so studying is really a matter of luck. Good luck...hopefully you can take the class in the fall and you won't need the luck.

review a class you took with Drusilla Brown - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
I was one of the lucky few to make it through a semester with "Drusilla the Dream Killa". You must avoid taking EC 17 with her at ALL costs. I can say confidently that this will be the worst class that I will take at Tufts. Unfortunately it is required for a Quantitative Economics Major, which was the sole reason I finished the class. Please take it in the fall if it is at all possible. If it is not possible, I feel bad for you. Professor Brown seems to care little about her students? progress. If she cared, she would explain things better in class, not brush off questions when her students don?t understand her terrible presentations, and she would be at least pleasant during her office hours. It is hard to pick the worst aspect of the class, but the tests were probably the worst. There are three midterms, the first was so difficult that only two students in the class got the first problem correct, the second midterm didn?t test anything we had learned (I think she borrowed it from some other class), and the third midterm, which was ?easy? in Drusilla?s eyes, had about 80% of the problems concentrating on something we had spent twenty minutes learning on the last day of class. To give a quick example of her personality, when approached about the third test, she responded that I should have done better because the second part was merely a ?disguised? function that we had already learned, and I was ?stupid? for not noticing it. The book is virtually useless because it is not only impossible to understand, but the class only looks at small parts of the book that are strewn throughout the length of it.

Workload:
It is hard to quantify the workload. She gives a problem set just about every week. They ranged from taking 5 hours to taking 25 minutes. There were either impossible or easy. They helped us learn things, but usually she hadn?t taught a lot of what was on the homework. Basically the harder you study the more frustrated you get. This is mostly due to the fact that the tests have little to do with what she teachers, or what is on the homework. The only part that is time consuming is pondering whether or not to drop the class. There are three midterms, and an optional final. The optional final can help or hurt your grade so it is a big decision whether or not to take it. Don?t let Professor Brown steer you away from quantitative economics, just avoid her.

review a class you took with Drusilla Brown - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Drusilla Brown is quite possibly the worst professor I have ever had. She lacks entirely concern with students' progress and adopts an attitude in office hours that I would almost characterize as outright hostile. Furthermore, her lectures lack organization as she suddenly jumps from one concept to the next, this makes taking good notes difficult and confusing. Most importantly however is that her tests, and therefore your grades, do not reflect in the slightest what you have learned in the course. While the first test was difficult, but fair, both subsequent tests were entirely on topics that were covered only quickly and superficially in lecture. Though I learned a fair amount from this course, it was despite rather than due to the quality of the professor and I will never take a course taught by her again. I should also note that my sentiments are not those of a single disgruntled student but are shared by most of my classmates and even students I know in her EC0161 class.

Workload:
The assignments, I must note, do correspond fairly well to the course material. They are assigned weekly, with a few exceptions, but are pretty straightforward and would serve as good practice if the exams actually reflected the course material as well. The course overall is interesting, not to mention a requirement for quantitative economics majors, however the book we used goes far more in depth than the course requires, it is therefore not possible to simply read the book and disregard the bad lectures.

review a class you took with Drusilla Brown - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Professor Loury is a kind and caring teacher, but her lectures can be extremely boring and hard to sit through. I don't think I learned all that much in the class.

Workload:
The assignments weren't bad, pretty straightforward. Tests could were difficult though, she often curves them though.

review a class you took with Linda Loury - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Professor Loury is great. Although the lectures can be really boring, they didn't seem to drag on forever all the time. She'll answer any question you have and cares more about understanding the big picture than tiny specifics. I believe that she really cares about the students doing well in the course.

Workload:
Fair workload. 5 or 6 graded problem sets with the lowest score dropped. 2 exams during the semester, plus a final exam. There are no surprises on the exams, and she puts all of her class notes on blackboard.

review a class you took with Linda Loury - help your classmates make informed decisions!