<p>You can get the tension rod and a curtain panel at Target when you get there. That’s what most people do.</p>
<p>Where do you go to see student’s evaluation of professors?</p>
<p>ratemyprofessors.com-- CC and RMP best websites while in college!</p>
<p>Vanderbilt recently made teacher evaluations public, but the information they provide isn’t all that helpful and isn’t organized well. The student comment section is also removed. If ya want to look at it, google Vanderbilt VOICE. RMP is a great resource though. The comments are more valuable than the ratings.</p>
<p>Many students use RMP to take the easiest course load possible. I think RMP is great not only for avoiding getting stuck with a bad professor (though this is basically unavoidable in certain departments, such as math), but also for discovering new and interesting courses. Since I have more credits than I need, I’ve been able to take a few great classes with some of the best professors at Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>“I think RMP is great not only for avoiding getting stuck with a bad professor (though this is basically unavoidable in certain departments, such as math)”</p>
<p>@VandyRealist- could you elaborate on that please? I’d like to hear more about the math professors!</p>
<p>The math professors I’ve had at Vandy have generally been horrible, with one adequate exception. Nearly all math professors seem to be great at math and terrible at teaching. The foreign ones are also often difficult to understand during lectures. While there are a few good professors and you can try to find one on RMP, there is no guarantee that there will be one teaching the class you need to take in any given semester. In addition, the professor for a class will sometimes be listed as “Staff” on YES during registration because the class hasn’t been assigned a professor yet, making things even more difficult. The attitude of most students (non-math majors) towards math is to simply survive it, hopefully without torpedoing their GPA. Even if you like math, as I did (do?), you will probably not enjoy your math classes at Vanderbilt. On the other hand, we do have a Fields medalist (Vaughan Jones), so that’s kind of cool.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback…sorry to hear that as my son loves math!</p>
<p>Rate My Professors has seven pages of math profs at Vanderbilt, and some of them don’t look that bad.</p>
<p>We’ll have to check out Rate My Professors, I haven’t looked at that yet. Thanks.</p>
<p>How is the Engineering department?</p>
<p>Elerry, engineering is an entire school with 7 or 8 different departments, so it depends on the program. Overall, I would say that it’s pretty good. The quality of the instruction is certainly much better than that of the math department.</p>
<p>This our first child going away to college. Yes, I know you can have bad professors in college. It happen to me with math. I was really concern about the engineering department at Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>My son is in CAS and has taken two math classes so far. He has liked them enough to say he thinks he might major in math. I don’t know if his professors have been foreign or domestic. I generally don’t get involved to that degree. I do remember that he did not get into some of the electives he wanted his first semester because classes were full. He still was happy the first semester. I don’t think he waited until the last minute or anything, but keep in mind some classes will be full because upperclassmen have already registered, and freshmen won’t get to until later in summer.</p>
<p>“I’ve been able to take a few great classes with some of the best professors at Vanderbilt.”</p>
<p>VandyRealist
Can you name some of the professors & classes youre referring to?</p>
<p>Technology Strategy with Chris Rowe. Any English class with Roy Gottfried (the English department as a whole is excellent). And there are a few that I’m taking next year that I have high hopes for. If you have a free elective, you can either get recommendations from friends or just go on RMP, pick a subject you’re interested in, and sort by highest rating.</p>
<p>Basically if you want to get the most out of your education you should take good classes with great professors, rather than the easiest courses you can find. Unless you’re planning on going to med school, your GPA is less important than taking classes that will influence your life and that you will remember long after you graduate. It took me a while to figure out that I didn’t really care about my grades as much as I cared about walking away feeling like the experience had been worth $200k.</p>
<p>The required freshman writing course seems to cover subject matters from soup to nuts. Is it more important to pick the course by subject matter or to find one that you are semi interested in but fits well into your schedule?</p>
<p>If you can get a read on the professor doing the seminar at Rate My Professors, the seminar can be an opportunity to experience a small discussion based course. I agree with VandyRealist that it is way worth it to take a course with the professors that are most beloved on campus when it is possible in your electives. Your writing seminar will be topical so it is good to have some interest in the subject although obviously it can be rather random how this plays out and it is aok to go in cold on a new subject. The most memorable professors are the things my new graduate values most when he looks back, and in some cases he was pretty anonymous in these classes if they were not in his future majors.<br>
He was lucky and had a very memorable prof for his seminar and later signed up for two more courses from her (although she is very tough in her expectations…she is also someone who would serve as a reference for him now. No pain, no gain?) There is no need to make the writing seminar teacher a big deal in your son or daughter’s life as some students will totally focus on their department profs later on for references etc, but it is sweet when that happens.</p>
<p>Son will be studying engineering. Will he need a printer in his room? Or is VUPrint the way to go? It seems to me that unless you print a lot, it may be worth just paying for each page - less space taken up in the room and not much difference in overall price.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>there really is room for a printer in your dorm room although you need wireless and bring two strip electric cords…one for under desk and another for near headboard for recharging things at night. My son left his printer in our basement however and refused to bring it although I thought the convenience factor was great. I think I am a bit behind the times as I believe he delivered most of his assignments via email and Word online. Back in 2005 Duke son had a shared room printer and also ditched it for Duke printing…he ordered prints from his computer and picked them up various places on campus…but even that practice is behind the times I think.</p>