Classes to take/ Avoid

<p>Hey, I decided to attend Tufts University and doing pre-med. I was wondering if there were any classes and professors that you recommend i should take or avoid.</p>

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<p>Avoid pretty much everyone in the Philosophy department. Avoid Richards in the Economics Department.</p>

<p>Take Devigne in the Political Science Department, Arnold in the Comparative Religion Department.</p>

<p>I'm sorry you had a bad experience in the Phil dept., but I've heard great things about Dennett from my boyfriend and best friend; Bauer, too.</p>

<p>Yeah Bauer's great but there was like a year long stretch where she didn't have any classes, thought she was on extended leave or something. If she's teaching classes again definately catch her on ethics or feminism. Also George Smith is great for Philosophy of Science, Newton, Historiography, etc. He say's he's the words foremost expert on The Principia, I don't know how you'd go about proving something like that but hey, if he said it then it must be true! </p>

<p>As for Dennett, his theories on psychology and philosophy of mind have been almost unanimously rejected by those respective academic communities so he's not much good in that respect. But if you're looking for a professor who is able to devote a large amount of his academic work to propogating an equal amount of hatred towards all religions he's your guy!</p>

<p>I'd take back what I said about avoiding the whole department. It's about 50/50 in my experience. All incredibly smart people but a considerable amount just don't know how to lecture. A considerble amount also have difficulty refraining from pushing their own agendas during class time and that is absolutely not what education is about.</p>

<p>Professors I enjoyed:</p>

<p>Poli Sci: Fujihira, Mufti, Taliaferro (hard, scary, but a brilliant lecturer nonetheless), Eichenberg, Sullivan
Russian: Gassel
Econ: Klein (but he's Fletcher), Fischman, Shimshack
Bio: Reed, Ellmore (funny in class but an ass in office hours)
Spanish: Conchita Davis
Math: Benes</p>

<p>PoliSci/IR: Mufti, Devigne
Math: Borgers (best guy in the world), Ruane
Econ: Hardman
English: Wilson, Rosenthal</p>

<p>Hahahahaha, yeah Kim Ruane! What does she drink about a 40oz. of espresso each morning? Great teacher though for sure. I loved her :)</p>

<p>i heard a similar thing about Hardman, actually, the love of chocolate espresso or something. I'm looking forward to a class I'm taking with her in the fall :)</p>

<p>By the way, anyone who speaks Russian should seriously consider Russian 123 with Gassel. It's a new course that may not be offered for a while, but it's going to be awesome, and we need more people in order for them not to cancel the class. It's so worth, Gassel's the best Russian professor like EVER.</p>

<p>I heard Elmore was really hard from people who have taken classes with him, especially from my friends who took Plants & Humanity</p>

<p>yeah, it can be misleading. His lectures are all so funny, but if you skip them (which is easy, since it's a 9 30 class three times a week, including Friday), then you have NO material from which to study for the exam, which always expect you to know the details. I mean, there's no textbook and no powerpoints to go off of. So what you need to do, to do well, is go to every class, take notes, and then trade notes with a few people - that way you can get a better cross-section of what he lectures about. It's still prob. less work than your other Tufts classes, even factoring in the note-trading, and it's a hell of a lot less boring than Astronomy.</p>

<p>Psychology: Nathanson and Sommers are must-takes for social psychology. Nathanson also teaches upper level seminars on Leadership and Conflict and Negotiation.
Biology: Physiology 1 with Bernheim.
Microbiology with Siegel is always fun though you'll dread him in genetics and introductory bio 13. Bio 16- biochallenge seminars is a wonderful class, as is the other class that was like biology social problems, or something similar.
English: Professor Leavel is a sweetheart.</p>

<p>History: Sherwin and Jalal</p>

<p>^ Sherwin's not there anymore, he's still listed, but won't be teaching anymore, which is most unfortunate.</p>

<p>So, for history: Fernandez-Armesto, Jalal, Gill, Marrone, Fawaz</p>

<p>Yeah he retired this year -- too bad, too, he was one of the top-two professors I had at Tufts!</p>

<p>As a pre-med student, you're not going to have many options, since they only offer 1 of each science class per semester.</p>

<p>Go to ratemyprofessors.com and look up all of your prespective professors the night before you register.</p>

<p>In reference to the premed comment - there are ways around that. You can find out who is teaching the current year compared to the next, as well as double up on science courses to provide you versatility in schedule (or take the much loathed cop-out orgo during the summer at Tufts, but the professor is still very good I hear and still difficult. It's just not fair that people don't have to balance this class on top of everything else :))</p>