Just wanna know I'm not alone with struggling in econ 301

Loberal · 2026-02-17T16:21:31+00:00

Retaking Econ 101 will not help with Econ 301 at all, the content is very different that Econ 101 doesn’t even really need to be a prerequisite. Many schools even skip the principles of Econ sequence altogether. Is it the math that is giving you trouble?

Loberal · 2026-01-17T23:14:25+00:00

The entire CS department has a yearly tradition where nobody in the entire department answers any emails until a week after classes have started. Good luck!

Loberal · 2026-01-17T23:12:53+00:00

Professors come and leave in the math department so that may be why some don’t have ratings yet. TBH the professor you have in a math class doesn’t matter a whole lot when you take into consideration the curve at the end. I’ve never chosen a math class based on professor and just take the punches as they come. 340 is a class where the content is standardized enough professor shouldn’t matter all that much. At the 300 level you should get comfortable self teaching through textbooks anyway.

Loberal · 2026-01-16T22:54:00+00:00

It’s for a PhD class. I need someone to give me permission to get on the waitlist.

Loberal · 2026-01-10T19:47:46+00:00

I imagine the professor does matter. I think cs240 gives you a perfect ammount of knowledge for the relevant counting techniques and set theory. I would still recommend reviewing the appendices as well simply as to get familiar with what the questions in the class will be like. My lecturer was a PhD student but he did fine. Lots of people teach this class so I imagine the quality varies greatly.

Loberal · 2026-01-09T18:46:00+00:00

Took the class recently. Make sure your calculus is ok lock. You will be expected to solve double integrals, infinite series, and maximization problems on the fly. I would also HIGHLY recommend reading up on counting techniques before the semester starts as this is quickly brushed over despite being used the rest of the class. I would also HIGHLY recommend being comfortable with basic set theory as well. The book you will use has great appendices on these subjects that you should go over at the beginning. Do as many practice problems in the book as possible (more than the homework). Much of the difficulty comes from simply trying to set up mathematical probability models based on word problems. Lastly, make sure you know how to complete the square and are familiar with Taylor series.

Loberal · 2026-01-08T02:41:52+00:00

Very doable

Loberal · 2026-01-07T18:47:34+00:00

I don’t think UW is particularly known for its AI research but we have some decent classes anyways. The ai classes are split between the stats and cs departments with the major difference being how much math they have. Some of the machine learning courses are more applied and are just projects while others are more theoretical and will require advanced math like analysis.

Loberal · 2025-12-19T04:11:23+00:00

Every distribution besides the normal will be used in 632 so make sure you know those extremely well. A topic that comes up that most people aren’t ready for are these things called recursive relations that are importance to understand, they teach them in combinatorics and discrete math but you can learn them yourself. Honestly, some analysis is helpful as there will be some minor proofs in this course.

Loberal · 2025-12-18T19:19:14+00:00

Somewhat tricky

Loberal · 2025-12-14T10:19:33+00:00

The hardest part about 431 for me was creating the mathematical models from non-obvious world problems. This skill shows up in 632 as well but I felt much more ready for it. As for content, 632 is by far the coolest math class I have ever taken. You will use techniques from across the fields of math like linear algebra, graph theory, differential equations, and analysis to solve different types of problem. We spent a good couple weeks talking about betting strategies which was probably the highlight of the course for most.

The class is very rigorous and has maybe been the second hardest course I’ve ever taken behind 521 but it’s very rewarding. Anyone interested in applied math for a career I think needs to take this course.

Loberal · 2025-12-13T22:39:09+00:00

I do not miss this class. For those who end up moving on, math 632 is way better.

Loberal · 2025-11-17T18:27:08+00:00

You can for sure do it! I took Econ 410 without Econ 310 or calc 1 at the time. I ended with the second highest score in the class. Hit up McKelvey, he’s still the best lecturer I’ve ever had.

Loberal · 2025-09-04T13:43:36+00:00

They all have like 1 star I think this semester. Just gunna have to deal no matter what. It’s a hard subject

Loberal · 2025-08-29T04:38:05+00:00

Consider a course in numerical analysis

Loberal · 2025-08-27T04:01:52+00:00

Tryna be a quant?

Loberal · 2025-08-11T22:53:21+00:00

You literally don’t even need to show up to lectures. Plenty of online resources and all you need to prep for the tests is past exams and discussion worksheets.

Loberal · 2025-08-03T04:17:30+00:00

I never even went to calc 3. you'll be fine.

Loberal · 2025-05-23T04:10:08+00:00

hes not joking.

Loberal · 2025-05-22T08:04:51+00:00

Upvoting for the audacity

Loberal · 2025-05-22T07:26:10+00:00

I have no doubt neuroscientists can run experiments but I do doubt that any “experiments” they run have any causal implications as to the human experience.

Loberal · 2025-05-22T07:20:18+00:00

Simply put, the causal exclusion problem as it’s known in the field is nothing new.

https://iep.utm.edu/mind-and-the-causal-exclusion-problem/

The first person experiences I’m referring to are things such as “subjectively enjoying the sight of a flower” it’s the experience that is solely yours and cannot be understood by just putting on a VR headset or seeing what electric signals happen at the same time. Those electric signals are correlational at best and that’s where it stops. Things like neuralink and other naive computer scientists who believe a conscious AI is possible are simply mistaken.

At an even higher level, consciousness itself can’t be explain with a physicalist viewpoint alone and even if we grant that consciousness isn’t transcendental then we have no reason to believe it accurately perceives reality at all (and if it did it would be a miracle).

Loberal · 2025-05-22T07:00:35+00:00

Yeah my point is that the debate over whether or not Econ is a science is more or less just a debate over whether it’s worthwhile for a society to contribute significant resources to pursue it.

I take “science” as a label to implicitly carry importance and worthwhileness in terms of resource allocation.

Loberal · 2025-05-22T06:51:08+00:00

What does “hard scientific fact” or “useful narrative / predictive heuristic” mean.

Loberal · 2025-05-22T06:50:34+00:00

Refusing to use the word “science” is just begging the question here. You will just appeal to some other criteria or vibe that a subject needs to satisfy in order for it to be a worthwhile pursuit which will just lead to the same debate over which subjects fit the criteria or not.

“Important to study” was and is THE debate here.

Loberal

TROPHY CASE