Scott Houser

School: Colorado School of Mines
Department: Economics
Location: Golden, CO
Overall Rating
rated by 15 students
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Cons: terrible lectures
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Pros: not a lot of work
Cons: difficult to ask for questions, very boring class
blinks all the time and looks like george lucas
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Pros: looks like ben stien
Cons: i dont learn much in class time
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Pros: Homework and quizzes help a lot, since the exams are pretty much the same questions with different numbers
Cons: Doesn't teach you anything expects you to learn by yourself at least for microecon
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Pros: He likes economics and has flashes of being entertaining. He tries his best at lectures. The online hw helps a lot.
Cons: His tests are usually filled with answers that seem correct in student logic but are actually incorrect. Often he can be arrogant and just say youre wrong and leave it at that. There is no other alternative for economics, so youre stuck with him. His lectures are pointless and are not needed to do well in the class. The population of students decreases with each passing class.
I prefer to play pokemon in lecture.
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I can honestly say he was the worst professor I have yet encountered at CSU. He may know econonomics really well, but has NO idea on how to teach it to the students. The tests were his way of trying to trick you with the wording rather than just testing you on the material you were taught. If I had to retake this class I would make sure I took it from a different professor or college. The only way I learned the information I did was from his TA who actually knew how to teach students.
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Dr.Houser was not one of my favorite professors. I found him to be a little arrogant, and he is very hard to approach when you have questions. He knows the class material very well and I think maybe he should be teaching a upper division class in economics. The exams were difficult, and I never really found out how to effectivly prepare for them because they were so different from the online homework he assigns. He does not curve his tests but you will get one point E.C. for every recitation you attend which sounds great but it actually doesn't make that much of a difference on your grade at the end. If you take this class with Houser, expect to work your ass off for a B or C. Overall, I would recommend maybe taking a different professor if at all possible.
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Dr. Houser at first I thought was a good but Arrogant professor, lectures were fun but however they did not reflect the material that was asked on the test. I think I worked the hardest for the class and I spent the most time studying for the tests and still did not do well. Plus Dr. Houser has practice exams, but again they do not reflect anything that is asked on the actual tests. Dr. Houser himself told me that no matter how well you do on the practice exams doesn't reflect how well you are going to do on actual exams. So I would not recommend taking his class.
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I did not think that Mr.Houser explained the information very well, I learned more from the GTA than from him. He would randomly rant to the class and one time even made everyone out to feel like spoiled brats for being able to attend college. Also, his tests seemed ridiculous for an introductory class and the average for all the tests was a 90-100 out of 150, thats a D. He does however have extra credit through recitation attendance and aplia homeworks help some, so by the end it seems like he curves things up so people are moderately happy. It took a ton of work and the only reason I did well was because I saw the GTA's often. Don't see Houser, he will make you feel like an idiot for not understanding these introductory concepts.
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I am going to have to agree with the sophmore who took ec202 and said he is a wonderfull performance artist. He tries to have fun with the class but when he gets frustrated he has fun at the expense of the students. He spends too much time trying to entertain in class and not enough time on the material. I came away from class each day frustrated and confused. I took this during the summer ( 4 week sesion) pulled off an A+. But only because I busted my butt. I read every chapter. 20 in four weeks. Did all the homework and all the extra credit. I don't think the material is all that hard. Its fairly basic and dumbed down. Houser definitly knows what he is talking about but he shows his inteligence at the expense of the students in class. I can't help but feel that he would rather be teaching upper level or graduate classes.
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Houser knows what he's talking about. I wish I could have learned more in this class with regard to theory; I believe that this feeling is a common feeling among the class. It's possible that there was just not enough time due to a mis-step Houser took in allowing so many people so much time to do individual presentations. In spite of the lack of theory, the almost constant class discussion was helpful. Houser was extremely fair with grading for this course. He allowed us to actually pick our grade, getting an A or B or C simply by completing satisfactorally gradually difficult requirements. The A was easy to get. Just go for the A; it's daunting at first but it's not so bad. Some say that Houser is tough on students. I took a class from him two years ago where I would agree. For whatever reason (response to criticism or because this was a higher level course with more experienced economics) he was easy on us, never berating us for not knowing something, or even criticizing ideas as he did in the past.
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Scott did a great job teaching this course. He was always eager to help students, was always prepared for class and organized the course effectively, and assigned projects and tested over relevant material. There's no reason not to take a class from him, although from other comments here it seems as if some people want their hands held. Scott was always around, so unless you are just phenomenally lazy there's no reason to do poorly in a course taught by him.
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Overall I was very dissapointed in this class. Houser was a horrible professor- he had an arrogant, stuck up attitude every day of class. The book and online homework was really easy, but the tests were stupidly hard. There really wasnt a great way to prepare for them. The TA was even worse..recitations were a waste of time. The only reason I went was to get the measly 1 point of extra credit per session. If you have to take micro, definately try and take it with a different teacher, one that's more willing to help students.
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Instructor is a wonderful performance artist. I mean that he is funny and tells good stories during lecture. The stories help convey the meaning of economic concepts. However, the only thing he does is perform for us. All assignments are done online, completely automated, controlled by computers, with a strict due time of 11:00 pm Monday night. For those of us who had a Monday night recitation we were S.O.L. It makes me wander what Howser actually does? His aid teaches the recitations, which really aren't that helpful. He never gave us one review sheet and tests are 30 questions with a score of 150. So theres a very small margin of error. Tests are not easy so study hard and ask as many questions as possible. I wish I had done so.
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Scott Houser is a good economics teacher, and I would definitely recommend taking this class (intermediate macro) from him rather than a grad student, if possible. The class itself is fairly dry as it is mostly bread-and-butter economic theory, but Scott always seemed to engage us with his quirkiness and applications to real situations. That said, he can sometimes get frustrated easily, or rush through things and assume you know everything.I slacked off for a good part of the semester, getting D's or worse on the first few tests. However, I made a real effort to do better - I got an A on the final (at 7am nonetheless), and finished with a B in the class. I did this by seeing him in-person, running through all the homeworks with friends, and making myself not just another nameless face in class (it is a lot harder to flunk someone you've related to a bit than a stranger).I'd recommend getting a study buddy or study group together as soon as possible, as it helps A LOT for the tests (which aren't too hard if you come to class, read, and do the homework exercises).

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