ECON 4220

I enjoyed this class for the most part, and as far as 4000-level economics classes go, it's not super difficult to do well. If you show up to lectures, actually pay attention, and take good notes you will do well in this class. Wincoop is super fair as homework questions actually look like the stuff you learn in lectures, and exams actually look like homework questions. If you can confidently do homework problems, you should have no problems with the exams. Wincoop was always willing to help with homework in office hours - I HIGHLY recommend you go to these because he will walk through a lot of the problems! Overall this was a manageable and interesting course.

Van Wincoop has been teaching this course for many years now and he is clearly an expert in the field. Every lecture is fascinating, especially when Van Wincoop is talking about various currency crises and how he "got called in to help" back in the 90s for some of them. This is one of the most "fair" classes I have taken at UVA. There are no readings or weekly assignments, just 4 problem sets (he drops one), a midterm, and a final. I took it when the course was offered online asynchronously, so the exams were open book/open note. I'm sure this made the course much easier, since I found myself pretty much just copying down my notes for both exams, so take that into consideration if you're taking this course in person.

If you're looking for a low maintenance economics elective, this course will not disappoint.