<p>Anyone know anything about these classes and teachers?:
Vanmiegroet for Intro to Art History
Leachman for Econ 51D
Schachter for French 143S seminar
Roland for World Military History</p>
<p>Any info appreciated.</p>
<p>Leachman isn't bad, but her class includes a good deal of out-of-class work. There are weekly online homework assignments, as well as summaries of news articles to do for discussion section. Going to lecture isn't critical IMO as she puts transparencies and audio recordings online. I personally took much better notes listening to her lectures than I did actually attending them.</p>
<p>good deal of out of class work? you must be joking. give it about 2-4 hours of work out of class per week (depending on the week), which is pretty light for a duke course.</p>
<p>Compared to other econ core courses (namely 55 and 105), it's by far the most out of class work I've had. Plus it was mostly busywork, which was annoying. I didn't really see much value in what she made us do.</p>
<p>lori leachman is a duke rite of passage. i love her rattail.
i heard world miltary history was a ton of work, and wasn't very much fun.</p>
<p>Roland is a great professor, but assigns a huge amount of work and grades roughly (at least, this is the reputation I heard from friends). He came and taught one of my Political Science classes for a day, very enthusiastic and knowledgable. I'd say its a good idea to take the class, but only if you're genuinely interested in the topic.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input. Anyone on French or Art History?</p>
<p>I took Art 70 with Hans...it's a decent, doable, educational survey course. You will memorize hundreds of slides a week for quizzes (written by your TA - a grad student...they vary in difficulty, but most are Artist, Title, Date within 12.5 years) and you will likely wish you could spend more time analyzing art than committing it to memory. However, it will definitely open up the art world...there's nothing that describes the thrill of stumbling across a piece in a gallery that you remember from class. I found his lectures entertaining - some students couldn't stand his accent (he's a cheery Belgian who drives a Porsche). It really just depends on the individual. Also, while you may bomb some quizzes, it's fine. What matters is the final paper (you choose the topic) and the final (which is only artist, however most are slides you haven't seen)...and you can end up with a good grade. See how the class goes for a week and drop it if you don't like the style...feel free to ask me any other specific questions.</p>