Professor Barreto is wicked smart, but seems aloof. He doesn't engage with students, and seems almost bothered by questions. The subject matter is something I'm passionate about, and I learned a lot from him and Professor Dunn who co-taught the course with him - but unless someone is independently interested in the subject, his disengagement with the students would likely make it a miserable course for most. In short, lectures are great, engagement with students is poor - so consider that when thinking of taking a class with Professor Baretto.

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.

This class was kind of all over the place. It was not necessarily difficult in terms of material BUT the structure was really odd and invoked a lot of stress. Also the title is very misleading. This class should be called US Latino Voting Behaviors. We really just talked about various factors that influence how Latinos engage in the US political system, did not adrdess the sociological or more nuanced elements of Latino identity.

Breaking down the class structure and grading:
- no midterm
- participation in discussions kind of mattered, depended on the TA
- final exam worth 50% (I think) of your grade
- final project worth something like 40% of grade

The final project requires A LOT OF ENERGY, especially if you are unfamiliar with using R or stata. It is basically a data analysis of latino voting behaviors and opinions using HUGE datasets. There is very little support from the professor and TA's in tackling this project.

I did fine in this class, but it was honestly really stressful. Not worth it.

Start your final project early, and ask your TA for help/guidance. If you do well on that project, you're likely to do well in the course, it's 25% of the grade, and section participation is 25%, so actively engage your TA. The professor is incredibly interesting, but it's unfortunate that there's not more room for engagement, but rather just regurgitation of polling information he's acquired over years. This was the least engaging course I've taken in school - and if I wasn't interested in the subject matter, it would have been a total bore.

One of the worst professors I've ever had. You genuinely cannot ask him any questions without him belittling you. I would genuinely never take a class with this professor again.