<p>The course reviews in Penn Portal very are not as useful as Id hoped. The ratings are more than a year old (most recent is Spring 2004), and are purely numerical, without comments. Many of the instructors for freshman classes have changed, or are listed as staff. So advice on any of the following would be appreciated:</p>
<p>Physics 150: a previous CC thread remarked that Drndic is awesome and good things heard about Kikkawa. The other instructors (Devlin, Lockyear) are not rated on Penn Portal for this course.</p>
<p>Math 104: almost all sections are listed as staff, except for Pimsner (who got slammed in one CC thread) and Freyd (good ratings on Penn Portal, but for different courses). Probably will have to select by schedule rather than instructor and hope for the best.</p>
<p>Writing Seminars:
The Meaning of Money Hafford
Some Assembly Required Porter
Literatures of Technology Gaedt
Economics of Everyday Life Seaquist</p>
<p>I also would be interested in any comments on
Physics 150- Kikkawa
Math 114- (able to place out of 104)-staff
CBE 150-Intro to Biotech- Boder
Economics of Everyday Life-Seaquist</p>
<p>I'm not sure whether to take Intermediate Spanish- (took Spanish for 6 years in Middle and High School) or Econ 001 to possibly dual degree in business and chem engineering. Still have to decide in the next few weeks. I plan to sit for the Chem 101 placement test after being told I had to despite a 5 on AP Chem. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I've heard good things about Kikkawa. Lockyears not that great imo, but I haven't taken frmo him.</p>
<p>Of the writing seminars you listed, the Meaning of Money is the most useless class ever, my roomate took it. Easy A though.. but I don't know if that is the greatest pre-frosh mentality :)</p>
<p>MATH 114 is interesting.. but it really depends on the teacher. Stovall/Crotty are the best lower level math teachers, imo the others make the exams ridiculously difficult. </p>
<p>You should take CBE150, its a good class for ChemEs, and builds the Chemical engineering class :)</p>
<p>The main complaint about Pimsner was being boring (see post by Bern700 and responding comments). </p>
<p>There were also some rather startling comments about grading - indicating that your grades depend not just on how you do, but on how your section does. Allegedly someone with A's on the midterms and and A on the final got a B for the course because his scores were not high enough to place him within the designated number of As for his section (determined by the number of students in the section who got As on the final). Thus the poster thought that being in Pimsners section might hurt your grade because the section was likely to have fewer high scorers on the final. Who knows?</p>