<p>First off - is there any way to change HASS classes now? Just wondering.. </p>
<p>I got Intro to Linguistics, 24.900, with Professor Norvin Richards. On RateMyProfessor, he got really good comments but I know that site isn't that reliable ... usually there are really good or really bad comments. Did anyone have him or this class? Anything you can tell me? Thanks :)</p>
<p>You can't change them right this second, but if you want to change once you get to campus, you can do that -- once class starts, you can add the class you want using an add form that you can pick up from the registrar's office. You just take it to the first day of class of the course you want to add, the professor signs it, and you turn it in.</p>
<p>I didn't take 24.900 with Richards, but I've heard he's good. If you want to see his previous ratings when teaching the course, they're [url=<a href="https://web.mit.edu/acadinfo/sse/courses/course24.html%5Dhere%5B/url">https://web.mit.edu/acadinfo/sse/courses/course24.html]here[/url</a>] (certificates required) -- they're almost certainly more reliable than ratemyprofessor. When I took 24.900, I contacted him for help with my final project, and he was very helpful and nice to me.</p>
<p>The one thing I've heard about 24.900 is that most people agree taking it in the Fall is much better than taking it in the Spring. I don't know if that has to do with the professors or such, and even if it indeed does, I don't know if the course is being taught by the exact same people in the same semesters this year.</p>
<p>a BUNCH of people on my hall, all very good students, extremely smart, who get or got excellent grades throughout their time at mit, tried to take 24.900 in the spring when it's usually taught by Suzanne Flynn, and said it was unbearably awful. Only one of them stuck it ought, because she really needed a final hass-d, or something, but was miserable. Flynn apparently was totally nuts, over the course of the term developed a "no questions!!" policy, allowed her foreign ta's to misgrade the psets and was generally unwilling to be at all helpful. Maybe she's gotten better since then (I think that was a few years ago) but I hear she still sucks. So yeah! fall is better.</p>
<p>haha wow then i'm glad i got it for fall.. that sounds miserable. :(</p>
<p>I took it in the spring in 2005, and I did not particularly care for her (oh man, understatement central!). But I have heard that Richards is much better.</p>
<p>yay, I got the same HASS-D! it was actually my first choice, so I'm super excited. :)</p>
<p>I've heard good things about Richards.</p>
<p>I took it the first term Flynn taught it, I believe. I have about the same opinions of her as everyone else here.</p>