This class is the definition of an easy A GE. I took it in Winter 2022 when it was online so it might not be as easy for you under different circumstances.
Prof Herrera is very sweet, kind and caring. He is a great person who truly cares about his students and whether they understand what they teach. He has a lively personality too. He encourages everyone to drop by office hours and is super sweet.
Take this class if you want an easy A. Don't take this class if you want to learn something new or useful. Everything taught in this class seemed like common sense or the most obvious things that a reasonably smart person would already know.
We had points for attending and participating in discussion sections and there was a take-home midterm and take-home final which each had me write like 3 650 word essays.

Man, I mean, take this class if you're like hella woke and like when your professor pushes his own agenda rather than teaching the content of the class. I, like many others, took this class for it to be an easy GE, but it honestly just turned into a nightmare. The readings were not interesting, and the lectures just made me groan. It got to the point where this class became an actual burden on my day; I didn't like walking in or logging on and hearing Prof. Herrerra yell at us to "attend class," as we literally sat stark in front of him. This became the class that my friends and I all bitched about, because it was universally despised.

And god, the take home tests. That final took 20+ hours, no lie.

Look, I will be honest. This, like many other classes, are entirely dependent on your TA; you get a good one, you're fine. You don't, you're not. My advice would be if you want a class you can most likely earn an A or A- in pretty easily, sure this class might be for you. But I honestly the amount of mental strain this class took was just not worth my time, regardless of the grade I receive.

Herrera is such an amazing professor. I love dropping in his office hours and enjoy going to lectures in the class. This class would be relatively easy if you do all the readings and go to every lecture. There were only reading reflections (bi-weekly), midterm, and final. For midterm and final, he made them be three take-home essays in my quarter, choosing from 5 prompts. The reading reflection was basically just answered the prompt and integrated at least one reading into your two-page essay. For discussion, participation matters, so speak up in the class. The course exposed you to many different lessons that you had never thought of, and you will find everything interconnected which is super cool!!!

Overall, I would recommend this class to anyone, literally anyone. This class would be a perfect GE in social analysis for you. Even though you are not super interested in geography, I still recommend you to try out this class! Geography is more than just maps and you will discover that through this class. It is a fair A class—if you put in work, you will get a fair grade—and not too heavy in workload. I LOVE THIS CLASS and I believe you would love it too :)

I've had professor Herrera a few times before and honestly, he is THE best professor I've ever had at UCLA. He's funny, kind, and truly cares about his students. His lectures are engaging, educational, and very helpful when studying for midterms, finals, or writing papers. I cannot stress this enough, but he has been so incredibly kind and compassionate during these troubling times (covid/online learning) which has made learning and getting through the quarter easier. Don't get me wrong, his class still requires you to put in 100% of your effort to do well and get an A, but Bottom line, take him if you can, he's amazing.

SUCH AN AMAZING PROF! He is so sweet and funny, and all his lectures were so interesting. He truly cares about his students and all his topics were so inclusive with race, gender, sexuality, class, etc. As a first-gen Latina, I felt like UCLA wasn't a place for me until I met him. One regret I have is not thanking him in person for being an amazing professor.

Going into this class, I thought it was going to be a normal GE that I can easily get through. With that being said, it was an easier class if you engage with the material, but moreover, it became a class that I was very excited to go to and engage with. The professor was very engaging, considerate of his students, and overall one of the best people to listen to and learn from. The class material was very interesting and related to many aspects of everyday life that many people may overlook. As a geography class, it isn't focused on mapping, but rather demographics and how they are affected in society as a whole. The readings and assignments were very interesting, giving you a chance to learn about new ideas and establish your own opinions in relation to them. The tests were very correlated with the readings and lecture material, so I recommend attending every lecture and do teh required readings. Overall, this class had a great impact on me as a person and my overall learning at UCLA, one that I would take again if I could.

Herrera is one of the best professors at UCLA; never turn down the chance to take a class with him. He is engaging, funny, passionate, and helpful during office hours. The class completely changed the way that I think about the world. The class was graded on the midterm, final, participation, and 4 two page reading responses throughout the quarter. Overall, not difficult. Readings were super dense but he went over everything that you needed to know in detail during lecture. Take this class for an easy, interesting GE

Take this class!!! Grade consists of biweekly reflections on one of the readings, participation in lecture, and a midterm and final which are just short essays about the readings and a few definitions. Professor Herrera is one of the most interesting, engaging professors I've had at UCLA and I really recommend everyone to take this class even if you aren't a geog major!!

Loved this class and professor! He's very engaging, funny, and helpful. I felt like I learned about topics that interested to me and applied to what is currently happening in the world. He truly cares about his students. I never got the chance to go to office hours because it interfered with my classes, but I would recommend it because he makes an effort to remember his students and learn their names. Also, all of the readings are now posted online so you don't need to buy any course materials. He also gave extra credit twice throughout the quarter!

Breakdown:
- 25% Midterm: fairly easy if you studied, vocab/ID, then 8 short answer questions (got to pick from 10? questions)
- 40% Final: opted out because of corona (did fairly well in the midterm so I knew I could)
- 15% Discussion Participation: my TA was okay, but I did the readings so I just talked about them
- 20% Response Papers: four of them, based on the readings, fairly short at 300-400 words

My only complaint was that there was a lot of readings. You could probably skim them and still understand based on his lectures, but I still chose to read them to get a better, fuller understanding.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class and would recommend it as GE purely because of how great Dr. Herrera is. You will enjoy going to class and listening to him lecture. He is also just so kind and it really showed this quarter (based on these crazy circumstances)

I am so happy I took Geography 3 with Dr. (Professor) Herrera. Absolutely the best professor at UCLA. Funny, engaging, and open to his students during lecture and about going to his office hours. Grade wise, there are reading response papers due every 2 weeks, a midterm, and a final. Dr. Herrera is very flexible and will hear out your concerns if you have any. 11/10 recommend this course with him as a GE and as a prerequisite.