Papers

In case you want to know what courses, here are my papers for this semester. Side note: classes here are called "papers," and papers that you write would be referred to as essays.

I started off my week with a paper on the economics of energy resources. This promises to be an interesting class moving forward, as we'll be talking about some real hot topics with renewable energy and global warming. The first class didn't contain much economics, and Prof. P. (*ed. note: while I'm still in these classes, I'm not going to refer to professors by their real names. Who knows who might be reading/googling this. These may not even be professors' real initials!*) wasn't particularly engaging. Hopefully the pace will pick up as time moves forward.

I also have a sociology paper about Auckland and its citizens. I hadn't been too excited about this class before I started, but I think it will be really cool to be living amongst the city my class is about. Surprisingly, the course coordinator isn't a native Kiwi, but actually an American born in California who, after spending several years of childhood on a boat in the South Pacific, found his way to Auckland a decade ago. Everything about Prof. A.--the enthusiasm, the frequent use of notes, the awkward jokes, and the quick pace--screamed "I'm a Ph. D. student giving his first lecture!" Having done SI, I can relate. Prof A.'s enthusiasm about the course was contagious though, and nearly half the classes will feature guest lecturers who are experts in various parts of Auckland.

In contrast to Prof A.'s first-lecture jitters, Prof. R. from my Economic Analysis class seemed much more comfortable in front of a large class. Prof. R. is of my favorite breed of professors--easy to listen to, knowledgable, and focused on providing clear instruction. This paper lays the foundation for the math needed to move on for graduate work in econ, and I'm glad to be taking it overseas as the AU professor who normally teaches the equivalent class gets mixed reviews. Prof. R. is team-teaching the class with Ph. D. student Prof C., whom I haven't met yet, so hopefully he'll be equally good for the first six weeks before Prof. R. takes over for the second six weeks.

My final class was an intro to math proofs class. This is an important class for me, because it lays the groundwork for the other math classes I'll need to take when I get back to AU if I want to continue to econ grad school. I wasn't a fan of Prof. M. on the first day. He started off with one of my pet peeves: his first sentence was "This is not the most popular class." I can't stand professors who start out by telling the class how hard the material is and how likely they are to not do well. He even went so far as to say that proofs were about ability, not effort, and made it seem as if the talents needed to succeed in the class couldn't be built by practice. He also lectured in a style that reminded me of Prof. B. from AU last semester--writing only partial thoughts, words, symbols, and tangents on the board without fully explaining anything. Prof. M. certainly didn't have the patient, calm, and crystal-clear style of the incomparable Prof. E. from AU.

However, by the second class, Prof. M. started to improve. He passed out lecture notes that were clear and concise, and seemed to be focused more on teaching the subject than just talking about it. Hopefully this class, which is so dependant on precision and accuracy, will be filled with reasonable expectations and clear thought.