Since I already took Econ class for 2 years in high school, it goes without saying that the Micro and Macro Econ stuff in this class are quite basic. If you have already taken AP Econ, feel free to make this course a GPA booster. The Materials are straightforward, and she REPEATS the materials a lot, going again and again on some points (which are bound to be in the exams). The microeconomics stuff is roughly 40% of an AP exam, with no mention on externality, market failure, deadweight loss etc. The macro stuff is even less, only 10% of an AP exam: only GDP + fiscal + monetary policy. Other than the economics topics, another BIG topic (40%) is Time Value of Money, which I think she explained pretty thoroughly, breaking everything into separate ppt files and talking about it for 3 weeks, sometimes using 10-12 slides just to explain a single concept.
Now a more objective take on Mel and her class. She is a very, very nice person (objectively). As long as you go to her lectures (hard may be for us engineers), she would give you lots of extra credits just for showing up and paying a little bit of attention, for EVERYBODY by submitting a paper answering a simple question related to that day's topic. She may sometimes go on tangents, but seriously, it's a two hour class, and there's only so much to talk about (which she explains at least 2-3 times a single key concept). The course load isn't heavy at all. The HW can be done in groups. There's one group project that basically gives you 90+ for a clearly organized submission. AND she gives you an optional HW after final exam to replace the lowest HW score. Although my raw score is around A- (80+), with all the extra credit + optional HW, it made itself to A+.

Cons: It is true that her powerpoint skills are not the best.
Pros: She's a very energetic person, she keeps you engaged in class by asking simple and interesting questions, she tries to remember names of the students and is very kind to all sorts of answers. Her exams are pretty easy, you don't have to study a lot, just go over the things she say in class and take some notes. She asks exactly what she lectures so try to pay attention to class. She goes over every topic 3 times, so you don't have the chance to get lost.
Fav: She always does a current events part every class, where there is a class discussion on real tech/finance events, and you can relate real strategical management decisions to class material. I love this part since most other teachers just focus on the theoretical part and leave. One of the most engaging ENGR classes of all and its pretty easy.

Lectures get quite boring after a while but all you need for the exams are in the textbook and ppt she posts online
***Selling textbook, text 424-644-7686 if interested***

I think Mel is a super nice and cool person, but she was not really a great teacher for ENGR 111. I had her for ENGR 110 and she was fine but she was not able to really engage the class or teach the material at a good enough level in my opinion for Finance. Also, I felt a lot of the class got shortchanged on the Extra Credit and the exams, which covered a lot of difficult material that was only briefly touched upon in discussions and not even in the lecture. Overall, I like Mel as a person, but I would probably NOT take this class again if given the choice.

Very interesting and fun class. Many of the lectures were based on discussion of current events. The professor is funny and engaging, and the TA Alyssa was extremely helpful.
Grade Distribution: 2 midterms (20% each), final (30%), group project (10%), hw (20%).

I think that Mel is a pretty chill, laidback person but I can also understand why some people are a little put off by her rather casual teaching style. That being said, the material is not really difficult and much less technically demanding than some of your typical engineering classes in other departments. To add on to that, the textbook in this class is actually really good, so good that you probably don't need to go to lectures.

In my quarter, the midterms were pretty easy such that most people left early, but the final was pretty difficult that not as many people left early (i.e. or if they did, they probably gave up on figuring out how to do some of the problems). I would say that the discrepancy was probably due to the fact that she crammed roughly three weeks of material in the last week of class because she was lecturing so slow in the previous 8-9 weeks. Other than that, I would say that this class was pretty chill and enjoyable and also surprisingly informative (i.e. some of the subject matter could be applicable to your personal financial decisions).

It's true that Mel is not a great lecturer. However, the material is not super hard to learn by yourself, so lectures are optional. Also, I would say that the pace of her class is pretty slow, so she'll most likely cram a lot of the material at the end to make sure that she covered those last topics.

Honestly, I think a lot of people come to this class with the expectation that it will be a free A with minimal work. That is absolutely not true. It is much less work relative to other engineering classes (i.e. computer science classes), but you still have to spend some time studying the material since it will be most likely new to most engineering majors who are taking this class. It's not stuff that you can figure on the fly. That being said, I would say to start studying for the tests two days before, reading the slides (shout-out to Alex Wong, whose slides are really good), and understanding how to do all the practice problems. Other than that, this class should provide a nice breather from your more technically demanding upper divs.

I took ENGR 111 with her. She gives easy homework assignments but the exams are not anywhere close to the homework. The midterm was relatively easy but the final was tough. I honestly never used the textbook. Take good notes and study the slides and you will be fine.

Environmental economics has to be the one higher elective that will help your GPA in the Econ major. The professor always explained rather well in lectures and her exams were always a step harder than her homework assignments. You will struggle a bit to get the hang of the class and many of the terms from Econ 11 and Econ 41 will pop-up here and there. There is nothing harsh about the class, but you need to make sure that your mathematics and economic theory are at least up-to-date. Take the class and ask questions if you ever need advice on the weekly assignments since you can always get together with a group of people and attack the questions. The group assignment is super easy--I think 1 page about a topic of your choice--and will not take up too much of your time.

The professor is hard to get a hold of because of her extremely tight schedule, but you should navigate around that fact, and I am sure you will get to speak to her at some point in the quarter.

Meliha is a great lecturer. She is engaging and enthusiastic.
She posts "lecture notes" but don't rely on them. There is so much in the lecture that is not elaborated or even mentioned in her lecture notes.

She gives plenty of extra credit opportunities, but she seems to procrastinate in grading so expect to not get majority of your assignments and tests graded until few days before your final exam... (keep in mind that I took it during summer, the course was much faster paced).

Her practice exams are not too resembling of the actual exams. The exams are much harder. Exams are based more on the problems visited during lecture. Think of the practice exams as mental exercises to have you explore different concepts, but don't rely on them to prepare you for the test. STUDY YOUR LECTURE NOTES.