Reviews of professor Joaquin Rubalcaba

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
this was my first semester at unc and i was nervous signing up for his class bc he has a pretty low score BUT he turned out to be my favorite professor! maybe he was more understanding than usual bc of the pandemic and it being a fys. still, he constantly pushed back deadlines and graded pretty easy. there arent many assignments for this class

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Gives periodic pop quizzes for attendance, so just show up to class, and you're good. Prof Rubalcaba is pretty chill and picks interesting cases to discuss in class. Go to office hours if you want a better explanation than lectures. 3 tests (open note), 7~ pop quizzes, 3 practice problem sets. Do your work and you'll be fine

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Rubalcaba was great! He was really accommodating given everything that happened this semester and he was very straightforward about what was required for tests, homeworks, and has good lectures. The tests are only 15 questions (including the final) so one mistake counts a lot. Do not be intimidated by this class, pretty much everyone does well.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Super cool guy and very passionate about the subject. Class time is one big discussion about the previous night's reading. Doesn't take attendance but gives pop quizzes that are worth a good portion of your grade. Just skim the readings, show up, and pay attention and you'll learn a ton. No textbook required for this class which is nice

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 1.0/5
Worst professor I've taken at UNC; His immigration plcy lectures were him just rambling the same thing in different words every single class. We never learned anything concrete (different plcy alternatives, factors to consider when writing immigration plcy). Really did not seem like he knew what he was talking ab- don't take if you want to learn

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
He is super goofy and makes a pretty boring topic interesting most of the time. If you did well in Econ 101 this class will be super easy, the tests are open note and the problem sets are intuitive. He does have some random attendance quizzes and tests are graded out of few points so be careful. Overall, a good professor and a good class.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 1.0/5
Don't get me wrong, Dr. Rubalcaba is a cool person. But I didn't learn a single thing in this course that wasn't covered in ECON 101. The grading was also incredibly delayed, and the class overall was remarkably disorganized. All in all, I wish I had taken ECON 410 instead and learned something.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Professor Rubalcaba was overall a strong professor with mainly fair grading and open note everything. Only negative thing was that he graded the last assignment harshly with no explanation after not teaching the unit super well (barely providing adequate notes/lecture)