Great professor, I really enjoyed this class. Section was mandatory but was super helpful for breaking down the material. He provided the textbooks for the class and the reading was about two chapters per lecture. Class is a midterm, paper, and final which were all very easy if you attend class. Would totally recommend!

You can tell he actually likes teaching Buddhism.

Very funny guy who made learning Buddhism super interesting. Lectures weren't mandatory. Sections were, but they helped my understanding. The midterm and final were super easy, just go over the study guide. Final paper was also easy and fun to write. Readings were dense and sometimes long, although I only did a few after the midterm and ended fine.

1 midterm, 1 final, in person but easy. 1 5-7pg paper; also easy. Sections mandatory but very helpful. Readings provided online but are extremely dense and difficult to understand, but read at least the Eight Theories ones bc he doesn't go over everything in lecture. Funny guy. Don't know why someone said the class was boring, I had a great time.

Professor Hillis is a caring person and makes his lectures fun! He made learning about religion interesting for me. There are pretty long readings per week but he goes over the info in lecture for clarification and better understanding. I didn't expect to enjoy this class as much as I did!

Very nice in lectures, though they aren't mandatory.

Professor Hillis was amazing. His lectures were always funny and engaging, and also recorded and posted online. He gave comprehensive study guides, and was very personable in office hours. Would strongly recommend him.

I didn't really like this class. The lectures were long and boring, and the final was a in-person exam and 5-page paper. Sections were mandatory but helpful, and the material can sometimes be interesting (even though there was way too much assigned reading). But overall I would recommending looking elsewhere for an GE.

EACS21 is a great class, very easy GE. Prof. Hillis understands that his class is taken primarily as a GE, and as such ensures that the material covered is not extensive tested. The class is extremely manageable, and reading is only super necessary depending on your TA. His enthusiasm for Zen Buddhism is delightful and I would 100% take again.

If you enjoy religion, this may be good for you (I don't). Exams were going to be online but he suddenly switched to in-person for the final. Prof. said to only read book if we wanted then said we should have read the book if we wanted to do well on the final. TA was a harsh grader and gave me a C on my paper although he said it would be easy.

Easy course

Mixed. Great lecturer; funny/engaging w/ clear lesson + slides. Went on some wild tangents a few times... However, the grading criteria wasn't clear. Midterm was out of left field; questions were bizarre/overly broad. The final paper prompt wasn't clear either... TA told me my thesis was good multiple times before vetoing it days before due date.

Professor Hillis is very funny and made Buddhism super interesting. The concepts talked about in lecture were all very fascinating ideas and allowed you to explore the religion. He posted all the lectures online for you to watch and you just write two papers, which are graded very fairly, and the final. Very good class!

This guy as funny as heck!! You will learn a lot about religion and it might even interest you if it didn't at first. Came into the class pretty reluctant because I'm not religious myself, but it wasn't even biased towards religion. I love the class and actually learned a lot. Could listen to this guy talk for hours hahaha

Going to be finishing my second year of Sanskrit with Professor Greg, very nice and caring Professor. He makes everything accessible and tries not to over stress students. The first year of Sanskrit is a little more intensive and requires a lot of writing but the 2nd year has been very pleasant.

Professor Hillis' lectures can be pretty boring however he does his best to make sure students know the material and are prepared for his exams. The work for this class comes from section; depending on your TA you could have to do a lot of reading every week. If you take notes during lecture and put some amount of effort in you should be fine.

All the assignments are given based on your TA so go for a TA at the end of the week that way you won't need to do extra reading. His midterm and final were very easy if you take notes from the lectures. The reading isn't useful and I never went to class. Be sure to watch his lectures on 2x because he talks slow. Definitely take this for an easy GE

It was a pretty easy class to do well in but dear lord the amount of readings and lectures that went over time nearly drove me crazy. 25% of your grade completely depends on what the TA wants to grade you on (participation or weekly assignments), 25% final paper, 25% midterm, 25% final. My TA offered like 6% of extra credit so :)

Hillis has long recorded lectures, he talks very slowly so watching them on 2x is okay. 10% of extra credit offered as well as study guides for midterms and finals. Section attendance w/camera is mandatory. Great GE class, the quality of your course experience will depend on your TA.

I thought this would be a super easy class and a break from my STEM classes. Nope. The readings were extremely long and boring and I could never figure out my TA's grading system. The lectures would always go over the time slot and it felt like he didn't respect our time at all. I ended up taking the class P/NP-- I don't recommend

My grade dropped from an A+ to a B because Greg decided that attending section was not enough to earn participation points. Worst professor at UCSB by far.

Hillis was a real gem. His lectures were easy to understand and follow along, and if you took notes on them you would be able to get an easy A on the midterm/final. He is overall just a nice guy who loves what he teaches. There is a lot of reading each week, but if you skim you'll be fine. Tests are easy and clear. Would recommend the class+Hillis.

He is a really nice guy with a good sense of humor which definitely helped when watching his lectures, but there is so much reading, like, a ton of reading and it was necessary to read everything to be able to complete the weekly assignments. I loved Hillis and would definitely take one of his classes again.

horrible, don't take any class with this professor