Professor
Matthew Barreto
1 of 5
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - While the course material was fascinating, Dr. Barreto and his TAs made the experience kind of lackluster. My problems with this class are many. 1. The syllabus for the class required students to buy around five textbooks. We only used maybe half of them for the entire quarter. 2. There is a clear lack of unity, cohesiveness, and standardization among how the TAs graded. My TA, Claudia Rodriguez, was absolutely wonderful. Claudia was great at leading class discussions and was clear about what her expectations were. I had two friends who had an absolute nightmare TA. This TA was rude and condescending to them in emails. When receiving their final grades for a final project that required us to research Latinx populations in various cities across the US, my friends reached out to their TA to ask for an explanation. She gave them both Cs for their project because they didn't include "specific information" required by the professor. My friend emailed the professor back and forth; after re-grading her project, the professor gave her a B+. This lack of communication, cohesion, and standardization could have cost her an entire letter grade. 3. My final comment is about Dr. Barreto himself. His lectures were SO BORING. He would literally just make PowerPoint slides and read off of them the entire time. There were a few pictures here and there throughout the slides, but the majority of the slides were a text that had been copied and pasted from the book. Though a smart and accomplished man, I think he lacks the ability to make the information interesting in a teaching setting. Though I have many complaints about this class, I will say that (with a good TA) the class was actually pretty easy. There were only three components of our grade, two of which were a final and a final project. The final was easy if you went to lectures, took notes, and made a mental timeline of the events he talked about. I would definitely be wary of taking this class. I say go for it if you want to roll the dice and risk getting a rude and unfair TA.
Winter 2019 - While the course material was fascinating, Dr. Barreto and his TAs made the experience kind of lackluster. My problems with this class are many. 1. The syllabus for the class required students to buy around five textbooks. We only used maybe half of them for the entire quarter. 2. There is a clear lack of unity, cohesiveness, and standardization among how the TAs graded. My TA, Claudia Rodriguez, was absolutely wonderful. Claudia was great at leading class discussions and was clear about what her expectations were. I had two friends who had an absolute nightmare TA. This TA was rude and condescending to them in emails. When receiving their final grades for a final project that required us to research Latinx populations in various cities across the US, my friends reached out to their TA to ask for an explanation. She gave them both Cs for their project because they didn't include "specific information" required by the professor. My friend emailed the professor back and forth; after re-grading her project, the professor gave her a B+. This lack of communication, cohesion, and standardization could have cost her an entire letter grade. 3. My final comment is about Dr. Barreto himself. His lectures were SO BORING. He would literally just make PowerPoint slides and read off of them the entire time. There were a few pictures here and there throughout the slides, but the majority of the slides were a text that had been copied and pasted from the book. Though a smart and accomplished man, I think he lacks the ability to make the information interesting in a teaching setting. Though I have many complaints about this class, I will say that (with a good TA) the class was actually pretty easy. There were only three components of our grade, two of which were a final and a final project. The final was easy if you went to lectures, took notes, and made a mental timeline of the events he talked about. I would definitely be wary of taking this class. I say go for it if you want to roll the dice and risk getting a rude and unfair TA.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - This class is not as stressful as everyone makes it out to be. We don’t have any homework assignments (no discussion boards, quizzes, writing/essays) and no midterm. The only thing we have to do is read book chapters and articles. There are only two books, both of which are on inclusive access. Usually, we were assigned 2-4 readings a week, which may sound like a lot, but the book chapters were super short (never more than ten pages), although some articles were lengthy. Essentially, you just read the assigned readings and show up to the lecture. That being said, Professor Barreto is not the best professor. It is very obvious that he does not love teaching. Barreto told the class to go to our TA first if we have any questions, and if our TA can absolutely not answer your questions, THEN you can go to him. Your TA does all the grading for the class, but Barreto is not involved in the grading aspect at all. He is basically there to just lecture and leave. He didn’t even show up to our final exam, which was a bit of an issue because there were some questions that required more than one answer on the final exam, but the directions did not say that there was more than one answer. He does not use Canvas, so I never found out my grade on the final exam or the final project. His lecture slides are just repeating what the assigned readings said, but it is very important that you take notes on every lecture slide. Everything that appears on the lecture slides is fair game for the final exam. Additionally, Barreto does not publish his lecture slides anywhere and does not allow the TAs to send them out. If you do not take notes on the lecture slides, you will never see them again, so take notes!! Here is the grading breakdown: PARTICIPATION: 25% of your grade. How your participation is graded depends on your TA. My TA, Kevin Kandamby (who was great), had our participation graded on attendance, group discussions, and short answer responses to a prompt. Again, this varies on your TA. FINAL PROJECT: 25% of your grade. Professor Barreto provides five different data sets that we use to answer a proposed research question. We use Stata (which Barreto provides) and have to turn in a 12-slide presentation showing our data. This sounds difficult, but Barreto and the TAs walk you through this project. Barreto holds a “Stata Day” during Week 7, where he shows us how to use Stata instead of lecturing. During week 10, Barreto and the TAs hold workshops during class time where you can go in and work on your project and ask for help if you need it. Barreto said that if you do the assignment and show that you tried, you will get 100% on the project. FINAL EXAM: 50% of your grade. Our final exam had 106 questions. My advice is to study all your lecture notes. As previously mentioned, everything mentioned in the lecture is fair game for the final. It’s entirely multiple-choice, and there are no essay or short-answer questions. A scantron is provided. Overall, this class is not that bad. A lot of the content in this class is common knowledge and is often repeated multiple times throughout the course. Professor Barreto isn’t a very energetic professor and is not very involved with the course. Your grade is entirely dependent on your TA. In my opinion, this class is not very demanding. The only stressful part about this class was starting the final project, but if you attend the workshops, you will be completely fine. I would take this class again, but only if it was one of the few options left. So if this class is your only option, don’t worry, you will be fine! This class is not very difficult. The best way to succeed in this class is to attend lectures and take notes.
Winter 2024 - This class is not as stressful as everyone makes it out to be. We don’t have any homework assignments (no discussion boards, quizzes, writing/essays) and no midterm. The only thing we have to do is read book chapters and articles. There are only two books, both of which are on inclusive access. Usually, we were assigned 2-4 readings a week, which may sound like a lot, but the book chapters were super short (never more than ten pages), although some articles were lengthy. Essentially, you just read the assigned readings and show up to the lecture. That being said, Professor Barreto is not the best professor. It is very obvious that he does not love teaching. Barreto told the class to go to our TA first if we have any questions, and if our TA can absolutely not answer your questions, THEN you can go to him. Your TA does all the grading for the class, but Barreto is not involved in the grading aspect at all. He is basically there to just lecture and leave. He didn’t even show up to our final exam, which was a bit of an issue because there were some questions that required more than one answer on the final exam, but the directions did not say that there was more than one answer. He does not use Canvas, so I never found out my grade on the final exam or the final project. His lecture slides are just repeating what the assigned readings said, but it is very important that you take notes on every lecture slide. Everything that appears on the lecture slides is fair game for the final exam. Additionally, Barreto does not publish his lecture slides anywhere and does not allow the TAs to send them out. If you do not take notes on the lecture slides, you will never see them again, so take notes!! Here is the grading breakdown: PARTICIPATION: 25% of your grade. How your participation is graded depends on your TA. My TA, Kevin Kandamby (who was great), had our participation graded on attendance, group discussions, and short answer responses to a prompt. Again, this varies on your TA. FINAL PROJECT: 25% of your grade. Professor Barreto provides five different data sets that we use to answer a proposed research question. We use Stata (which Barreto provides) and have to turn in a 12-slide presentation showing our data. This sounds difficult, but Barreto and the TAs walk you through this project. Barreto holds a “Stata Day” during Week 7, where he shows us how to use Stata instead of lecturing. During week 10, Barreto and the TAs hold workshops during class time where you can go in and work on your project and ask for help if you need it. Barreto said that if you do the assignment and show that you tried, you will get 100% on the project. FINAL EXAM: 50% of your grade. Our final exam had 106 questions. My advice is to study all your lecture notes. As previously mentioned, everything mentioned in the lecture is fair game for the final. It’s entirely multiple-choice, and there are no essay or short-answer questions. A scantron is provided. Overall, this class is not that bad. A lot of the content in this class is common knowledge and is often repeated multiple times throughout the course. Professor Barreto isn’t a very energetic professor and is not very involved with the course. Your grade is entirely dependent on your TA. In my opinion, this class is not very demanding. The only stressful part about this class was starting the final project, but if you attend the workshops, you will be completely fine. I would take this class again, but only if it was one of the few options left. So if this class is your only option, don’t worry, you will be fine! This class is not very difficult. The best way to succeed in this class is to attend lectures and take notes.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Whew Chile! This Class has great potential. However, this Professor is not helpful and when I asked for clarification he always responded with an attitude. If you don’t like helping students, please do not become a professor. Also, the final project should be changed to something more engaging and substantive. If you are stressed out don’t take this class.
Winter 2022 - Whew Chile! This Class has great potential. However, this Professor is not helpful and when I asked for clarification he always responded with an attitude. If you don’t like helping students, please do not become a professor. Also, the final project should be changed to something more engaging and substantive. If you are stressed out don’t take this class.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - This class was interesting, but I felt like there were some flaws in the structure of the course and the way the professor engaged with the class. The professor does not post slides on his website, but because his lectures are literally the same material as the readings, it did not matter all too much. The professor also refused to use canvas, which led to a situation where many students were unaware they were charged for electronic textbooks they could not access until two weeks into the course (because of the “Inclusive Access” system). The project is not as bad as it seems; he spends a lot of time scaring students about it, but it's pretty easy. It is somewhat frustrating though that the only real assignments for the class are the project (25%) and an all-multiple choice final (50%). The rest was discussion points (25%). The subject was interesting, though, and if you're passionate about the subject, or U.S. politics in general (most of the class is about the most recent elections, 2004-present), you should take this class.
Winter 2023 - This class was interesting, but I felt like there were some flaws in the structure of the course and the way the professor engaged with the class. The professor does not post slides on his website, but because his lectures are literally the same material as the readings, it did not matter all too much. The professor also refused to use canvas, which led to a situation where many students were unaware they were charged for electronic textbooks they could not access until two weeks into the course (because of the “Inclusive Access” system). The project is not as bad as it seems; he spends a lot of time scaring students about it, but it's pretty easy. It is somewhat frustrating though that the only real assignments for the class are the project (25%) and an all-multiple choice final (50%). The rest was discussion points (25%). The subject was interesting, though, and if you're passionate about the subject, or U.S. politics in general (most of the class is about the most recent elections, 2004-present), you should take this class.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - Barreto's class is great, he does a lot to get everyone engaged and connect the material to current events. The current events that he takes at the beginning of class do show up on the final exam so it's important to keep track of those. The hardest part about this class is probably the final data project because of the program you use. My TA was extremely helpful though so overall it was a great class. I'm selling "Latino America," email me if interested: *************
Spring 2018 - Barreto's class is great, he does a lot to get everyone engaged and connect the material to current events. The current events that he takes at the beginning of class do show up on the final exam so it's important to keep track of those. The hardest part about this class is probably the final data project because of the program you use. My TA was extremely helpful though so overall it was a great class. I'm selling "Latino America," email me if interested: *************
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