Historical instructor

PAUL DOWER

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.39/5 from 18 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

AAE/ECON 474
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Can't believe Dr. Dower has a single questionable review. He is definitely not a business type (go elsewhere for a guy in a suit with a mic doing a Tedtalk or for someone claiming he's saving the 3rd world), he is too smart for all that. He is sincere, interesting, and funny, and you won't regret taking his class, esp if you talk with him 1-on-1.
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AAE/ECON 474
Quality 1/5Difficulty 2/5
Dower's lectures sound like he is mumbling things to himself. They are confusing and not well organized and he is extremely hard to hear. The lectures only loosely relate to the readings, and neither really relate to the exams. Nobody in the class had any idea what the exams would be about.
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AAE/ECON 474
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
Although Paul Dower is experienced in the economics field, specifically around developing countries, his entire course structure lacks any awareness of how students operate. Lectures are a mess of text and math heavy slides (which he will breeze over without any explanation or examples), very quiet and frankly boring lecturing, and dense readings
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AAE/ECON 474
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
My favorite professor so far. I cant belief some reviews are negative. Dr. Dower must be the nicest economist anywhere, and probably smartest and funniest. If you struggle with some material (I did) talk to him in office hours. He will go out of his way to help you, even with thinking about ideas for project outside his class.
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AAE/ECON 474
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
The course was relatively challenging for me because I am not an econ major, but I did really enjoy the content. Prof Dower is a very approachable and responsive professor, and I wish this course had been in person so I could have formed a stronger connection with him. I recommend finding other people in the class to work on the assignments with.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with PAUL DOWER

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

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Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026AAE 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2025AAE 635Applied Microeconomic Theory
Fall 2025AAE 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2025AAE/INTLST 373Globalization, Poverty and Development
Spring 2025AAE 642Foundations of Development Economics
Spring 2025AAE 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2024AAE 635Applied Microeconomic Theory
Fall 2024AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2024AAE 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2023AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2023AAE 642Foundations of Development Economics
Spring 2023AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2023AAE/ECON 474Economic Problems of Developing Areas
Fall 2022AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2022AAE 642Foundations of Development Economics
Spring 2022AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2022AAE/ECON 474Economic Problems of Developing Areas
Fall 2021AAE 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2020AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2020AAE 642Foundations of Development Economics
Spring 2020AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2020AAE/ECON 474Economic Problems of Developing Areas
Fall 2019AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2019AAE 642Foundations of Development Economics
Spring 2019AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2019AAE/ECON 474Economic Problems of Developing Areas
Fall 2018AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2018AAE 642Foundations of Development Economics
Spring 2018AAE 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2018AAE/ECON 474Economic Problems of Developing Areas

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
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