Fall 2026

Economic Approach to Current Issues

ECON 100 introduces the economic approach to understanding current issues through academic and popular readings.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Matt Friedman4.2/5

Summary

1 / 6

Historical reviews of Amit Gandhi, Christopher Sullivan, Christopher Taber: Workload varies by instructor. Sullivan’s homework is completion-based and exams are fair, while Taber’s math problems were untaught and exams were random. Gandhi’s homework was easy, but Taber’s multiple-choice questions were difficult to study for.

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

MATH 96or placement into MATH 112 or satisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A. Not open to students with credit forECON 101, 102, or 111.

ECON 100

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Fall 2026

Matt Friedman

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.74/5 from 23 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.11 GPA, 40.6% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Christopher Sullivan: Christopher Sullivan is described as a passionate and accommodating professor with engaging lectures and fair exams, where homework is graded on completion. Reviewers recommend his class for its interesting content and accessible office hours, noting that reviewing his notes prepares students well for tests.

CHRISTOPHER R TABER is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Fall 2012. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2023, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ELIZABETH KELLY is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MATTHEW FRIEDMAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction56 / 800

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Historical reviews of Christopher Sullivan: Christopher Sullivan is described as passionate and engaging, with lectures that feel short and homework graded on completion. Reviewers note his accommodating nature and clear explanations, though one suggests the course is better for non-majors.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.56 GPA, 77.5% A/AB (n=80 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.58 GPA, 81.1% A/AB (n=74 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.11 GPA, 40.6% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Amit Gandhi, Christopher Sullivan, Christopher Taber: Workload varies by instructor. Sullivan’s homework is completion-based and exams are fair, while Taber’s math problems were untaught and exams were random. Gandhi’s homework was easy, but Taber’s multiple-choice questions were difficult to study for.

Students report frustration with historical instructors who went on tangents or provided insufficient lecture support. Kelly’s practice exams did not prepare students for midterms, and Taber’s reliance on online slides discouraged attendance.

Topics

  • Current economic issues and popular economic literature.

Skills

  • Applying an economic perspective to analyze current issues.

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

5 earlier forecasts · 0.11 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1320 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ECON 100 · Fall 2026

Economic Approach to Current Issues

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:296:005544",
    "course_id": "ECON 100",
    "course_uid": "course_33c82c9ee4b8d3ee016c3a00",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "005544",
    "source_subject_id": "296",
    "title": "Economic Approach to Current Issues",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "f1d56d464b0a1142db55758112db84fa53ac605fcae79aeb101a10c971053357",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}