ECON 3720

Ruediger does a decent job teaching the concepts in the class. He cares about the students and goes out of his way to make a potentially boring class engaging. Most of the work for the class is for the final paper. Having a good group is critical, luckily my group was great so the workload was very manageable.

I feel like I don't need to be the one to tell you to take this class; its obvious Ruediger is the way to go. This is the first Econ class I took at UVA where I felt as though the grade I received was the grade I earned. Everything about this class was incredibly fair. The content is difficult and if you want an A-/A you have to work for it, but it is defiantly possible. Personally, I wish I had prioritized this class over some of my others as I ended econometrics with an 89, but it was still well earned. Every exam was incredibly fair and curved a respectable amount, the paper was doable, and homeworks/TA sessions were graded easily. My main suggestions would be to try and take this class with at least 2 or 3 friends as that will make your paper much easier. Similarly, take the time to really study hard for exams and read the textbook or go to office hours. I wish I had spent more time and energy on that cause I'm confident it would've made the difference.

#tCFS24

Before taking this class, people always told me it was easier than what you would think. While this was true to an extent, it certainly was not a walk in the park.

The exams feel like a slap in the face, with a short multiple choice section and two Stata interpretation questions with ten or so parts each. The average was usually about mid to high 80s, including a small curve of a couple points. While they're difficult, they certainly aren't unfair, and its possible to do very well if you start studying a few days in advance. Memorize the big concepts, study the slides that he goes over on review days, think about what he might ask you, get some rest the night before, and you'll be just fine.

Honestly I think my biggest problem with this class was the project. It takes up an almost absurd amount of time (the data processing section probably took about 15-20 hours), so make sure you plan accordingly. The TAs graded each section in an extremely nit-picky way, and what's worse, we weren't given the rubric for each section before we turned it in, so we were essentially held to some standards that we didn't know existed. However, the checkpoints make up a miniscule part of your grade, and the final paper itself seems to be graded much more leniently as long as you take their suggestions (our checkpoint average was about an 85%, but we got an 100% on the paper itself). Most importantly, get yourself a group that you can trust. Mine was fantastic, but I've heard horror stories of groups basically leaving all of their work for one person (which I cannot even fathom given the amount of effort put in by each person in my functional group).

Ruediger himself is awesome. I personally have negative interest in the topic of econometrics (a viewpoint that he acknowledges is common), but he certainly did his best to make the class quite bearable. He also pays attention to the will of students more than any professor I've ever encountered, and spends about 5-10 minutes at the beginning of every class addressing feedback and clarifying topics that students expressed that they're having trouble with.

A few other miscellaneous notes: Unless there's a concept from class that you need more clarification on, don't bother with the textbook. Everything you need to know for exams is included in the lecture slides (honestly, really just the review day slides). I stopped reading it about halfway through and my grades didn't really change. Also, the homework usually isn't too bad as you have three tries to do each question.

Overall, definitely take this class with Ruediger. While there's a ton of work (project + exams + discussion section exercises + homework + readings if you choose to do them), Ruediger really cares about his students, and as the grade distribution shows you, it's actually not insanely hard to do well.

The goat. While Ruediger may seem abrasive at first, he really does care about his students and seeing them succeed. One test is dropped, which means if you do well enough, you can skip the final. (Pro tip: Don't skip the final, it's the easiest exam by far). The project is definitely time consuming, and make sure to pick your group carefully. You have to meet up with them about every ~1-2 weeks once the semester gets going. It is helpful if you know how to code, as most of the project is through Stata. I'd recommend getting help with a good project idea. You start it early during the semester, before you really know what you're supposed to be doing. It is super important to find a project that has lots of data on it, or you might be screwed. As someone who didn't have any stats background, it took me a bit to get used to the material. GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Ruediger is super understanding, and he likes to give points back on exams. There is no reason why you shouldn't utilize them. If you understand the homework, and know how to operate Stata, you should be fine. The textbook was not super helpful for me, and honestly a waste of time, but others thought it was useful. Studying the slides is the most important thing. Ruediger is very fair and very clear to what he expects you to know. There are plenty of Youtubers who also cover the material almost verbatim, and that helped me understand some of the more difficult concepts. His lectures are insightful, and he is flexible about you attending any time section. Discussion was not useful to me, but it really is TA dependent. There are short assignments due during the "labs", but the TAs are pretty flexible, as long as you tried. Overall, if you have the chance to take it with Ruediger, you should. He makes the content interesting, and he wants to see his students succeed.

This class was fine. Exams were fine, the project was stressful but at times really fun, office hours were helpful....I just found lecture pretty boring. I don't even know if I could do a better job to be fair, but most of class was him lecturing about an equation that I already read in the textbook. I guess I was just expecting more economic applications, but the class is all statistics pretty much. Again, not his fault, just not what I was expecting so know this is really a stats class before anything else.

I will say the project was super rewarding (I did have a great group). Ruediger gave great feedback throughout the semester and offered to help whenever if I emailed him.

Exams were always pressed for time, but they weren't bad at all. Got a 90+ on all of them, and that's all you need for an A really.

Ruediger is the man. Great professor, incredibly caring, communicates pretty difficult concepts in a way that makes them very easy to understand. There are weekly coding assignments (writing command files for Stata) that are essentially graded for completion, but they're impossible to do without going to discussion sections. There are also 6 or 7 homework assignments that are multiple choice/fill-in-the-blank; depending on how much you want to learn the material (ie do you read the textbook), these can take anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours. The paper is split up into various chunks throughout the semester, but even so the work hits you hard right at the end. GO TO OFFICE HOURS WITH RUEDIGER to talk about the paper - he is incredibly helpful in walking through whatever problems your group is having. A lot of groups change their topic/paper throughout the course of the semester as they get more feedback, and Ruediger is very open to this. The TAs are also super helpful and usually available for help on the paper. 3 exams and a final, each 20% of your grade, you get to drop one (study hard for the first two because the third midterm is harder, final's a bit easier). You'll probably run out of time on everything but the final. The curve isn't particularly generous (somewhere between 3-6.5 points for each of the exams) and you'll have to work hard for the A, but I agree with what other reviews have said about exam prep - just practice applying what you learn in class and you should be fine.

I think Ruediger teaches the class in a way that helps you see the value of econometrics pretty well. The material is definitely not trivial, but he does a good job in presenting it, and providing opportunities for learning. He cares about his students, and it shows. The exams are fair, you just have to be able to relate what you extend the concepts to STATA output. The one gripe I had
about the class is the paper that you have to write. It is a bit annoying if your don't have a great group. Otherwise, take Econometrics with Ruediger for a good experience in the class.

Ruediger is a great professor who genuinely wants to see students succeed. You can tell he puts a lot of pressure on himself to be an excellent teacher above all else. He lectures well, takes time to explain concepts in office hours, and incorporates feedback into everything he does.

The final paper is a grind, and you don't have to write one in other classes, such as Farmer's. However, even though economics is my secondary major, I thought the paper was worthwhile and extremely satisfying upon completion. You probably get more out of econometrics when you have to write a rigorous econometric paper than one where you don't, all else equal.

Finally, the exams are challenging, but are never meant to trick you. If you study well, practice communicating your thoughts on econometric models in writing, and pay attention to time, you will do just fine. An A being a 95 is criminal, but still managed it, just takes extensive prep.

All the exam and research paper are graded by TA. The grading is so ridiculous. How much score you got is totally depended on their moods.
Moreover, there are so many requirements you need to follow for the research paper. You can easily get point loss.
The midterm 3 is only two days before the final exam. I even couldn't get the score for it. I don't know what is the point of midterm 3?
But anyway, this is required course, so try to enjoy it :)

Based on what I've heard from students in other classes, Ruediger is the best professor to take Econometrics with. I personally struggled to follow his lectures at times, but I still managed to get an A in the class by reading the textbook before exams! I actually cannot recommend this enough - the textbook is straightforward and allows you to put the material in context and make more sense of everything you learned in class at your own pace. His midterms are long and time-wise difficult but he generously curved our grades. I did better than the average usually which I credit entirely to reading the book as I hardly paid attention in class. The group project was not fun and he actually grades pretty harshly!! So you definitely need to be prepared to put in actual work for this group project. Its manageable but definitely not a walk in the park.

Dr. Ruediger was a great way to take Econometrics, probably the best available at UVA from what I have heard of the other profs. He drops the lowest exam and curves so that the average of the three highest scores is 100, which is a tremendous help. For context, the first exam was curved by 9 points, the second by 7, and the third by 21. They are tough but definitely doable if you put work in and understand the slides. Ruediger is super helpful during office hours, especially with the research paper. The pollev questions during class are a really good way to test understanding during the lecture. Ruediger also makes sure to actually review things people are unsure about if a pattern shows up in the feedback (which is every class). He also has review days before the exam, which are extremely helpful for everyone and give a good summary of what will be on the exams. Definitely recommend taking Econometrics with Ruediger if possible!

I took this class with Ruediger because I had heard some great things about him. While he is a smart professor, I would not say that he is a particularly good professor. The homeworks have almost nothing to do what we learned in class and even less to do with what will be on the exam. We are never taught stata, besides some in class examples, and that is what we are shown on the exams. You do get one drop on exams so you may not have to take the final but the exams are tough so don't bank on this. I had friends who took the class with other professors and heard horror stories but this class Ruediger is not a walk in the park by any means. #tCFfall22

This is by far the best econ course I've taken at UVA. He's an extremely nice guy that really cares about all his students even if he has 180 of them. The lectures are some times a little dense as he likes to show a lot of derivatives that you don't need to know they just help some people understand the ideas better. They just confused me. The tests are fairly easy if you can do the Stata problems on the HW well. There is also a test bank online for all his MC for the test just look some practice questions up and you'll find it. Please take his class you're doing yourself a favor.

Take this class with Ruediger - wait a semester if you have to. I was busy with a lot of other things and took 3720 as a last minute decision, but he made the class one of my easier ones (ended with an A). I probably spent an average of two hours on this class a week, and one or two hours extra before exams. If you understand the STATA on the HW (really easy to figure out) you will end with at least a A- in this class. I do not kid in you in saying that he made the class interesting and engaging and you learn a lot, while making the workload very light. He is a great man and great teacher and you have to take this class with him!

I highly recommend taking econometrics with Ruediger! He's not the best at explaining concepts sometimes but the textbook is helpful and straightforward. If you do have questions, don't be afraid to ask him because he genuinely does want everyone to succeed. You can attend lectures in person or online (zoom) which was amazing. The homeworks were very easy because you get multiple tries but it can be time-consuming. There's a semester-long research project which was also VERY time-consuming but it definitely helped me understand concepts better. You get to choose your own research question so make it something you're interested in and it won't feel like busy work! The exams were not too bad. The first exam is pretty easy and then they kinda get progressively harder. There are a total of 3 midterm exams and 1 final exam. Since the lowest exam score is dropped, I did not have to take the final and ended up with a grade I was very happy with. He provides concepts to study before exams and I would recommend studying from his slides than using the textbook

From what I understand about other instructors, Ruediger is definitely the best one-- personally I like classes that are well structured with well-defined due dates and things like that, but this class is very prone to changing (though it's always to the student's benefit. I never did this but I'm pretty sure that If you asked for an extension on something he would just give it to everyone). The homeworks are somewhat difficult but made easy by giving you three attempts; the exams are graded very leniently (with half credit given back for doing test corrections). The final paper was good for me because I was fortunate to have good group mates, and he graded it very leniently. My only major gripe with this class was that I thought that the lectures were a little bland with the intense focus on proving concepts thoroughly instead of applying things. Also, I usually attended class through zoom for reasons not relating to the course at all so take that last comment as you will (and I would add that the class is live, on zoom, and recorded, but he wasn't too good about always starting recordings).
Overall, I didn't find the content to be what I expected, but I still found it mildly interesting and not too stressful because Ruediger really seemed to want everyone to do well (he's also just a nice guy).

Take this class with Ruediger. Stefan is a great guy who you can tell really likes to interact with students and help them. He doesn't make the class unnecessarily hard like other teachers, and the grading is pretty lenient. This class has problem sets for homework, three exams + a final, and a project that encompasses everything you do all year but isn't super stressful. Even if the class itself is pretty dry(it's a math class in reality with some econ thrown in), Stefan really teaches to student feedback, so he makes the best out of it. All in all, much better than any other econometrics teacher from what I've heard.

Professor Ruediger is hands down the best econ professor I have taken so far at UVA. After hearing tons of horror stories about econometrics I was terrified of taking this course, but Professor Ruediger made it fun by applying real world examples and really only putting an emphasis on things that would be useful to know in the future. I have found that what you put in, is what you're going to get out of it with him- make sure you understand the slides very thoroughly, and especially the examples he does with stata, it will really help come test time. He very clearly wants to see his students succeed, and is always willing to give a helping hand if you have any questions related, or even completely irrelevant to the course. I would strongly advise you take this course with him if you can help it, especially compared to some other options.

I think I am the first one to say that econometrics is my favorite econ class at UVA. However, I know that is 100% due to the teacher. UVA is lucky to have him as are you if you take his class.

This is the class structure:
4 exams each worth 15%
1 project worth 20%
HW 15%
In Class questions (pollev) 5%

The class is definitely manageable. The HW (1x a week) is on cengage so whenever you get it wrong you know why. No endless nights being stuck on questions because there is zero explenation. The exams are also very straight forward. He prepares you well and doesn't quiz on anything you didnt actually learn but "should have deducted" like lots of other econ classes may (depending on the teacher). If you pay attention in class and study beforehand you will do well. He is also always will to help whenever.

There is zero question. If you are going to take econometrics take it with ruediger, otherwise econemetrics will be make for a terrible semester with other teachers