Hi,
I am a freshman and would greatly appreciate any recommendations for professors from whom getting As is easy for the follow classes: (or professors to avoid)
There are websites out there that discuss professors. The classes offered in the business school all grade on a bell curve, so you are competing with your classmates for a limited number of A, A-, B+, . . .
There is absolutely no point in this. But this person posted “elsewhere”. The answer is that 3/4 of those are standardized and fin. accounting grades are fit to a distribution so whether the instructors write hard, easy, or medium tests is irrelevant. OP should choose the BEST instructors and do the damned work. Calculus is all over the place (and they switch out the roster each year, so there would be little info. on many of them) and OP may as well come up with a code for each section and do a series of coin tosses and choose whichever corresponds to the code they created because there is no telling what they are going to get . Most sections are run by loosely regulated graduate students and some are run by lecturers/research faculty. I recommend the latter as they have more teaching experience. These are definitely courses where what you put in is what you get out, no matter the teacher. I doubt there is anyone to avoid due to unfair levels of difficulty unless there is someone absolutely horrible at conveying content.
@bjkmom : This person is likely pre-bus and doesn’t have to take calculus 2, and is likely trying to just cruise through ECAS days (I’ve seen some do this) to apply to GBS with a super high GPA. However, I’ve seen this backfire as the transition for those who took such a path is usually a bit rougher than for other folks who challenged themselves more (or at least considered teaching quality more than or as much as difficulty of getting a solid grade) in ECAS. Since the remaining GBS cores and some electives are distribution graded, it is probably best to build a work ethic, knowledge base, and resilience (GBS has a normal load at 5 classes each semester and some, those 5 will all be “real” courses), while also learning how to perform well when presented with a challenge. They should basically choose course schedules that challenge and push them without overwhelming them. It would be hard for them to be overwhelmed with a schedule like that unless they are completely unprepared for Emory, or just flat out refuse to work.
They will be competing against many (25-30%) ambitious enough to continue a double major (often in a STEM/STEM adjacent subject at that). If I were the type who entered Emory’s campus already hoping for only easy A’s in all courses. I wouldn’t want to compete against those people once I place in the BBA program. Also, GBS seems to understand a couple of academic slip-ups here and there and looks for how a student handled it in later courses related to the subject they struggled in (so they don’t encourage retaking of C or higher grades for example. I think they want students who signal that they were challenged in the classroom at some point).
I wouldn’t be so tough on @riverswan . With college days at Emory rapidly approaching, so many of these kids have a good deal of worry going on and this is not an easy transition for many of them. Getting good grades is important and it’s also important to take a balanced schedule. Financial Accounting (and managerial) are tough in terms of time needed to learn the material and do well and getting good grades. The languages won’t take up as much of someone’s time, especially if you’re good at picking up languages (or if you’re taking a Romance language and have done well in another). Good luck @riverswan . You’ll be okay.
@ljberkow I disagree about the language part. I took Chinese and while I found that it was an easy A, I had to put forth a good deal of effort in the class.
@TheTennisNinja I believe I referenced the Romance languages, and I don’t think Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) is easy. I do think many Emory students take language courses knowing it’s little risk to their GPAs (as opposed to the two intro accounting courses). Also, I got no indication from @riverswan that he/she wasn’t willing to work hard. All I got was concern about grades and that is typical of incoming freshmen wanting to get off to good start. I guess I just don’t have that big of a problem with this.
@ljberkow and @ljberkow : I think most languages, regardless of group, are “get out what you put in”. There are no “tricks” or unusually high level cognitive tasks/assignments that can separate between folks who all put in the effort like some other courses. Grades are indeed important, but this person has a sort of “basic” schedule with courses that are not known to have large section to section variations in grading and presentation of content. They’ll be alright and should simply do the best they can whether courses require a decent amount of effort or not. They’ll be better off for experiencing a range of difficulty levels given the environment they’ll be in in about 2 years.
I do think they were worried about having to work (being willing to do so, but flat out already not wanting to ever do so are different to me), because hardly no one posts this in this manner. Like listing every class they are considering and asking us who is the “easy” section among each one of them? People merely concerned about grades (and more so how attainable are good ones) would more so just ask if a schedule or professor is too much in a specific context or maybe more general questions about whether they can do well at Emory, or what would be one particularly easy course to balance out other stuff. This looks like asking for the secret formula schedule and series of profs that ensures they are pushed the absolute least. Complete risk aversion. The framing is just weird versus other posts expressing concerns about performance or difficulty of schedule.
They can Save super ease for rushing/pledging if they wanna do greeklife, job interview season, or senioritis. Surely this person can’t be tired or this scared (of what exactly? I wouldn’t know) already.
I honestly hope I’m wrong and that those 4 are simply 4 choices for “balance hard schedule out” and they want to ensure that it does that, but it kind of doesn’t look like it.
You’re going to get a lecture from the Emory police here but I get where you’re coming from. Use Rate My Professors as much as you can and FYI Karen Ton has amazing reviews. Not sure if her class is “easy” but students seem to really like her.
@collegemom9 : It won’t make a difference with these particular courses. They should just choose the best. These courses have highly standardized curricula and/or grade on curves that can be curved down. It doesn’t matter and is a waster of time to choose these specific courses this way.
If psyche 110 were on this roster, I would say dodge an instructor. They’ll live here no matter who they pick as long as instructor isn’t bad…so says the Emory police…
@bernie12 That’s why I recommend rate my professors highly It helps you avoid the awful professors. Taking a class with a great professor can make a hard class bearable. And it’s ok for an 18 year old to be afraid of super hard classes. I get that. That don’t need to be chastised for it.
@collegemom3717 Meh…it takes very little effort to be kind. I’m willing to cut an 18 year old a break who I don’t know. I’m sure he though he was asking his peers and not a bunch of parents.
Yup, especially in light of these kids heading off to Emory in two weeks for (hopefully) a 4-year experience that will show them grow so much from their first day in August. Any of them who are admitted and go to Emory have already accomplished so much. Ideally, they find professors they enjoy learning from and also do well.
@bernie12 agree that these courses are the basic ones and you get out what you put in, but, as also agree with @collegemom9 about professors like Karen Ton. Again, no such thing as an “easy A” in the business school because you know right off the bat that 45% in the class HAVE to get LESS than a B+ (BBA Core class and BBA Electives have a slightly more lenient distribution). I really don’t want to debate languages and how easy or hard they are. You’re not learning difficult concepts, just a language. Some are good at picking up languages (maybe I was one of those way back when).
@ljberkow : I imagine that professor is great! But I am just saying the difference won’t be in difficulty. You probably won’t find much differences among sections in terms of difficulty in these classes (subtle differences in perception of ease may come from better teaching). If she is the best, than that is what it is. I advocate for choosing instructors based on that, especially with the line-up the OP has. Intro. and intermediate language classes use the same learning methods and assignments.
If they placed in a 300 level language course, then more care should be taken for a freshmen, because those instructors get much more freedom and could “let loose”. That is really what I am trying to say. Much like financial accounting and Decision Analytics, 100-200 level language courses are pretty highly “regulated” and curated within each department if you know what I mean. And you are right in that the work is usually straight forward for those so grading is pretty fair/reflects however you performed (lots of assignments with more “right or wrong” style items).
With the currrent classes, OP should chill, choose the best teachers possible, and do the best they can. No need for this amount of anxiety. I understand it, but they should live a little and try to believe they can do well and enjoy themselves. I believe they can in this scenario without contriving too much. They’ll be alright.
@bernie12 the entire theme here was not about advanced courses or even Chinese. We’re talking ECAS core (some schools call then Gen Ed) requirements. Two are 101 level Romance language courses and one is a math class required for the business school and other is a core business school course. If you’re going into business, financial accounting is important to understand. Yup, take the best professor. The other three courses, not so much. If those are the first semester courses, well, that’s (two 101 language courses, calculus, and accounting) pretty dry and boring. Balance is important and there are options.
The one time I purposely chose an easy teacher over a better one, I always regretted it. It was for steel design, an important class for structural engineers. The guy who was an internationally recognized expert in stability was notoriously difficult. So I chose a visiting prof instead. Ugh, he was horrible. And later, other engineers couldn’t believe I didn’t take a class from the expert when I had the opportunity.
Languages can be fun (mine were and I did start with 100 levels and they made it interesting for us, kind of mentored. I know the German and Spanish department have great reputations for that and put those types even in intro. courses)! And so can the intro. courses if they get someone good. Just sayin’. The only option is to simply have a less enthusiastic teacher giving the same material and assignments as others. Also, we assume they won’t go abroad or take future languages. I’m not operating under that assumption.
Business is very amenable to going abroad and knowing a different language can always be helpful even in countries where most business is conducted in English. I am not saying OP should take everything ultra serious, but to make things as rich, enjoyable, or even as useful as possible. That doesn’t necessarily require courses to be particularly rigorous so much as it does that you have an instructor that cares about the undergrads and puts in serious effort into their course. It could certainly make purportedly “dry” experiences much lesser so.
It helps you avoid the awful professors. Taking a class with a great professor can make a hard class bearable. And it’s ok for an 18 year old to be afraid of super hard classes. I get that. That don’t need to be chastised for it.