Current instructor

Alan Sorensen

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.06/5 from 67 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.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

ECON 101
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
I liked him a lot. I wasn't sure what to major in and taking Econ 101 with Sorensen inspired me to become an econ major.
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ECON 101
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
His lectures are very similar to the readings which makes them repetitive. The grading distribution for this class is very frustrating (percentile ranking) which makes it hard to know where you stand. (percentiles are only posted after the first midterm). I would take it again, but skip the readings in favor or attending lecture and section.
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ECON 101
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Lectures are unnecessary towards the exams, but some of them were interesting. Homework and exams were super hard for no reason. He makes the grading super complicated as it's based off of quizzes, homework, participation, exams, and then extra credit points. He 100% relies on TAs to teach the vast majority of the content that appears on the exams.
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ECON 101
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
Pretty engaging lectures and very manageable in terms of homework. By no means was this class easy but if you go to lecture and study you should be fine. Finished with an AB even after averaging around a 75 on each exam so the curve is pretty generous.
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ECON 101
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Sorensen is a great lecturer. They were engaging and entertaining. My only complaint is he doesn't go in depth into the mathematical concepts. He kind of relies on the TA's to do that and the exams are a little more math heavy so I would definitely attend discussion
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ECON 101
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
Excellent lecturer. Explanations of math could be better (relies a bit on TAs to do so), but overall entertaining and knows how to get people's attention at early morning lectures.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Alan Sorensen

ECON 990

Thesis

2–9 credits

ECON 990 is a thesis course for graduate students to conduct independent research and writing under faculty supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026ECON 990Thesis

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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