Professor
Mark Huppin
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - Definitely a very interesting class! Made up of midterm, essay, and final. Essays are graded fairly, however you need to study heavily for exams to understand the different components of each legal case. Exam questions can be tricky, because he will ask about the nitty-gritty details of each one. You should know their circumstances, the ruling, and reasonings for why they ruled that way. This is a great class if you're pre-law!
Winter 2025 - Definitely a very interesting class! Made up of midterm, essay, and final. Essays are graded fairly, however you need to study heavily for exams to understand the different components of each legal case. Exam questions can be tricky, because he will ask about the nitty-gritty details of each one. You should know their circumstances, the ruling, and reasonings for why they ruled that way. This is a great class if you're pre-law!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - Given that it was my first quarter at UCLA and the class was about the evolution of mass media images, I had the highest of hopes entering this course because I was very interested in what it had to offer. I was expecting a communication class to be very engaging and have opportunities for cool assignments pertaining to the topics we are studying; I was in for a rude awakening. Every class felt like groundhog day with him entering wearing the same grey t-shirt and reading off of the slides in a very monotoned voice. I feel like I learned more about his life and accomplishments more than I did of the class material. He went to UCLA for undergrad, went to Stanford to pursue a law degree, obtained a doctorate in psychology and has been teaching for 20 years; that is only a small handful of the many things he shared about himself. Meanwhile, I can’t tell you something I learned in the class that I didn’t already know before. There are no homework assignments, but you are graded on a midterm, final, and a couple of assignments that are supposed to help bring your grade up since the tests are 40% of your grade. You have to do really well on the tests or you are basically screwed since there are no extra credit opportunities. Unfortunately, I studied really hard for both tests and went through the readings but only managed to get Cs on both of them, causing my grade to suffer. He is one of those professors who will add items on the test that were never covered in either lectures or readings which was really annoying. Rather than identify areas that he may need to improve on, he proceeds to make students feel like we are the problem and that we only receive the grades we truly earned. He is very egotistical and acts as though life is the same as it was 20+ years ago and that any problem that young people face is because of our ignorance. Every class just felt like an annoyingly long lecture from your dad about how young people now are too sensitive and that life wasn’t like this way back in the day. Not to mention that if you raise your hand in the class to ask a question or answer him, he proceeds to talk over students before they even finish because he’s just so impatient. Yet, this guy wonders why nobody shows up to his office hours. I was lucky to end the class with the grade I received because I did not have the greatest expectations for my GPA. I honestly regret choosing this elective because I was more stressed about this class than I was for my actual major classes, which I managed to receive As for. He’s probably going to read these and scoff but you know what, the truth hurts, and the truth is that he is just not a good professor and lacks the self reflection skills he desperately needs. I would avoid taking any class of his if you can; save yourself the stress.
Fall 2025 - Given that it was my first quarter at UCLA and the class was about the evolution of mass media images, I had the highest of hopes entering this course because I was very interested in what it had to offer. I was expecting a communication class to be very engaging and have opportunities for cool assignments pertaining to the topics we are studying; I was in for a rude awakening. Every class felt like groundhog day with him entering wearing the same grey t-shirt and reading off of the slides in a very monotoned voice. I feel like I learned more about his life and accomplishments more than I did of the class material. He went to UCLA for undergrad, went to Stanford to pursue a law degree, obtained a doctorate in psychology and has been teaching for 20 years; that is only a small handful of the many things he shared about himself. Meanwhile, I can’t tell you something I learned in the class that I didn’t already know before. There are no homework assignments, but you are graded on a midterm, final, and a couple of assignments that are supposed to help bring your grade up since the tests are 40% of your grade. You have to do really well on the tests or you are basically screwed since there are no extra credit opportunities. Unfortunately, I studied really hard for both tests and went through the readings but only managed to get Cs on both of them, causing my grade to suffer. He is one of those professors who will add items on the test that were never covered in either lectures or readings which was really annoying. Rather than identify areas that he may need to improve on, he proceeds to make students feel like we are the problem and that we only receive the grades we truly earned. He is very egotistical and acts as though life is the same as it was 20+ years ago and that any problem that young people face is because of our ignorance. Every class just felt like an annoyingly long lecture from your dad about how young people now are too sensitive and that life wasn’t like this way back in the day. Not to mention that if you raise your hand in the class to ask a question or answer him, he proceeds to talk over students before they even finish because he’s just so impatient. Yet, this guy wonders why nobody shows up to his office hours. I was lucky to end the class with the grade I received because I did not have the greatest expectations for my GPA. I honestly regret choosing this elective because I was more stressed about this class than I was for my actual major classes, which I managed to receive As for. He’s probably going to read these and scoff but you know what, the truth hurts, and the truth is that he is just not a good professor and lacks the self reflection skills he desperately needs. I would avoid taking any class of his if you can; save yourself the stress.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - Overall, this class has been my least favorite. The professor himself is an extremely nice guy, and I can tell he tries to make his lectures interesting. But, his lectures are extremely hard to follow as it is simply 75 minutes of him listing a ton of facts about different experiments. It’s almost impossible to type or write fast enough to get the information down, and his slides don’t help at all. His tests are based on those tedious facts, so unless you can keep up, it’s really hard to do well on his tests. He says you should be able to guess the right answer if you understand the concepts, but I disagree.
Spring 2018 - Overall, this class has been my least favorite. The professor himself is an extremely nice guy, and I can tell he tries to make his lectures interesting. But, his lectures are extremely hard to follow as it is simply 75 minutes of him listing a ton of facts about different experiments. It’s almost impossible to type or write fast enough to get the information down, and his slides don’t help at all. His tests are based on those tedious facts, so unless you can keep up, it’s really hard to do well on his tests. He says you should be able to guess the right answer if you understand the concepts, but I disagree.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - [spring 2020 covid online quarter] Once Huppin subbed for one of my classes in Winter quarter I knew I had to take him. He was fantastic but I'll wager he would have been better in person. His teaching style revolves around asking students to discuss and critically think about the cases and legal debate issues he brings up in class. The same 10 students out of 100 ended up being the only ones talking week to week (you bet I was in the 90). He places an emphasis on showing up to class and engaging yourself (he only sent class recordings to students in other timezones/good reason for missing, he didn't post it for your general review/replay). If you don't listen and take notes, you will miss things, and his slides purposely only guide his lecture and cannot be relied on to help you study. That being said, idk if was because of that, or because of his engaging, very human and sensitive approach to the new circumstances of this quarter, % class attendance was really high every time. He also adjusted the class to talk about current events with COVID and BLM and stuff, very take it as you go guy. There was a good amount of reading, which I didn't do very sincerely, but if you do scan over it, it lines up with the lectures pretty well and will help you do well on the tests. (Ah, I remember he said he usually assigns a course reader which I assume would be $$ but this quarter he uploaded everything online so I escaped paying for that ig, nice.) He also assigned 2 movies which were a good time, 8/10 (also gave us off class on the days we should watch those on our own, I think he usually shows them in class). Grade was based on two tests. The questions to be honest weren't very straight-proceeding from the class material and really wanted to see whether you were thinking, which I think should be the point of school, but made it hard to figure out what to say in order to get the points. In all, definitely take this class, but know that Huppin's teaching style almost certainly suits in-person the best.
Spring 2020 - [spring 2020 covid online quarter] Once Huppin subbed for one of my classes in Winter quarter I knew I had to take him. He was fantastic but I'll wager he would have been better in person. His teaching style revolves around asking students to discuss and critically think about the cases and legal debate issues he brings up in class. The same 10 students out of 100 ended up being the only ones talking week to week (you bet I was in the 90). He places an emphasis on showing up to class and engaging yourself (he only sent class recordings to students in other timezones/good reason for missing, he didn't post it for your general review/replay). If you don't listen and take notes, you will miss things, and his slides purposely only guide his lecture and cannot be relied on to help you study. That being said, idk if was because of that, or because of his engaging, very human and sensitive approach to the new circumstances of this quarter, % class attendance was really high every time. He also adjusted the class to talk about current events with COVID and BLM and stuff, very take it as you go guy. There was a good amount of reading, which I didn't do very sincerely, but if you do scan over it, it lines up with the lectures pretty well and will help you do well on the tests. (Ah, I remember he said he usually assigns a course reader which I assume would be $$ but this quarter he uploaded everything online so I escaped paying for that ig, nice.) He also assigned 2 movies which were a good time, 8/10 (also gave us off class on the days we should watch those on our own, I think he usually shows them in class). Grade was based on two tests. The questions to be honest weren't very straight-proceeding from the class material and really wanted to see whether you were thinking, which I think should be the point of school, but made it hard to figure out what to say in order to get the points. In all, definitely take this class, but know that Huppin's teaching style almost certainly suits in-person the best.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - Huppin has been one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. He is super engaging and the material is not too difficult. He is a very chill instructor. The class consisted of a midterm that had a total of maybe 20 questions (half multiple choice and half short answer), a thought paper that was 3 pages in length, and a final that is the same format as the midterm. Highly recommend.
Spring 2024 - Huppin has been one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. He is super engaging and the material is not too difficult. He is a very chill instructor. The class consisted of a midterm that had a total of maybe 20 questions (half multiple choice and half short answer), a thought paper that was 3 pages in length, and a final that is the same format as the midterm. Highly recommend.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - Best class I have taken at UCLA. Super involved lectures and very interesting if you are even remotely interested in free speech or supreme court precedent. He welcomes all viewpoints and encourages class involvement. Huppin is extremely intelligent and provides insightful perspective. Super genuine guy and funny guy. He has a law degree from Stanford. I am certainly planning on taking future courses by him. Midterm and Final are very manageable but ready every single reading he posts. Most are very interesting and informative while being reasonably short. Also one short paper that he grades generously assuming you make a good faith effort. It is just an opinion piece requiring zero outside sourcing. You should really take this class if you are on the fence. Again, best class I have taken at UCLA.
Spring 2025 - Best class I have taken at UCLA. Super involved lectures and very interesting if you are even remotely interested in free speech or supreme court precedent. He welcomes all viewpoints and encourages class involvement. Huppin is extremely intelligent and provides insightful perspective. Super genuine guy and funny guy. He has a law degree from Stanford. I am certainly planning on taking future courses by him. Midterm and Final are very manageable but ready every single reading he posts. Most are very interesting and informative while being reasonably short. Also one short paper that he grades generously assuming you make a good faith effort. It is just an opinion piece requiring zero outside sourcing. You should really take this class if you are on the fence. Again, best class I have taken at UCLA.
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