Class record · ECON · MCAS

ECON 7720

Math for Economists · 1 instructor on record · 5 sections

What the course score is made of

98BC evaluations5 records · weight ×1.0 · Fall 2021 – Fall 2025

—Student reviewsno reviews — does not contribute

—RateMyProfessorsno ratings — does not contribute

That is the class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it. Who taught it, and how each of them scored, is the board below — that is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between.

What the challenge rank is made of

39thMore challenging than 39% of BC classesranked against every one we hold

89BC — “Intellectually Challenging”5 records · raw score out of 100

Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question for this class only — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score.

What the workload rank is made of

45thMore work than 45% of BC classesranked against every one we hold

55BC — “Workload”5 records · raw score out of 100

Boston College reports workload for this class only as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.

"Economics studies the efficient allocation of scarce resources." It follows almost immediately from this definition that while verbal and graphical analyses are often helpful too, economists derive their sharpest and most powerful results by setting up and solving constrained (because resources are "scarce") optimization (because allocations should be "efficient") problems. Hence, this course introduces first-year graduate students to variety of techniques for doing just that: setting up and solving constrained optimization problems. Specific methods covered include those based on the Kuhn-Tucker and envelope theorems, the maximum principle, and dynamic programming. Note that since this is a "math for economists course", its emphasis is not so much on stating and proving theorems but on developing an intuitive understanding of how and why each method works and determining when one particular approach may be easier or more convenient than all others to apply to a specific problem.

The only instructor on record

5 sections · nobody else has taught itFull record

Instructor	Overall	Workload	Challenge
Peter IrelandEconomics	995 records	45th	39th

There is no ranking to read here: Peter Ireland is the only instructor with evaluation records for ECON 7720, so the number is a record, not a position.

Also taught by Peter Ireland

1 other class

Class	Instructors	Course score
ECON 3379Financial Economics	38 records	96

Other ECON classes

All of them

Class	Instructors	Course score
ECON 1101Principles of Economics	46223 records	73
ECON 2228Econometric Methods	33131 records	71
ECON 1151Statistics	2797 records	72
ECON 2202Macroeconomic Theory	2072 records	69
ECON 2201Microeconomic Theory	1967 records	71
ECON 9900Third Year Thesis Workshop	1440 records	91

The line

All 13 items · means across 5 records

The Professor4 items

Clearly Explains MaterialThe instructor was effective at creating an understanding of difficult subject matter.

9987th pctl

Available Outside of ClassThe instructor was available for help outside of class.

9886th pctl

Brings Out Your Best WorkThe instructor motivated me to do my best work.

9884th pctl

Sparked My InterestThe course stimulated my interest in the subject matter.

9774th pctl

The Course3 items

Well-Organized CourseThe course was well organized.

9889th pctl

Clear Learning GoalsThe learning objectives for the course were clear.

9891st pctl

Useful Beyond the CourseWhat I learned is applicable beyond this course.

9783rd pctl

Assignments & Feedback3 items

Assignments Help You LearnAssignments and exams contributed to my learning.

9788th pctl

Gives Feedback PromptlyI received feedback on my work in a timely manner.

9991st pctl

Meaningful FeedbackThe feedback I received on my work was meaningful.

9989th pctl

Workload, difficulty & attendanceNot ratings

WorkloadHow much work the course took outside class, on Boston College's five-band scale — the band boundaries are not published, so this is not a number of hours.

5545th pctl

Intellectually ChallengingThe course was intellectually challenging.

8939th pctl

Attendance MattersAttending class was necessary to do well in this course.

8728th pctl

Bar length is the rank against every comparable record we hold, not the raw score: BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so a raw-scale bar would be nearly full on every row and would tell you nothing. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one.

Game log

5 sections · newest first

Instructor	Term	Sec	Instr	Course	Work
Peter Ireland	Fall 2025	01	98	98	60
Peter Ireland	Fall 2024	01	100	97	60
Peter Ireland	Fall 2023	01	100	98	—
Peter Ireland	Fall 2022	01	97	97	40
Peter Ireland	Fall 2021	01	100	100	60

How to read this boardInstructors are ranked on their record in this class only, never on their average across everything they teach. Scores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Workload is BC's own five-band figure, not a number of hours, and is shown as a rank. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero.