McCombs Professors to Take/Avoid

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
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<p>I'm a 3rd year that is transferring into McCombs from another school and am attending orientation on Monday. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on which McCombs professors to take and just as importantly, which professors to avoid. I would use rate my professor or myedu, but since I am registering for classes for fall at orientation, I have no idea which classes I can take. Just looking for general advice on professors that usually teach the 3rd year classes. Thanks.</p>

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<p>I’m in the same situation. Looking for good professors for intermediate accounting, BA101, Marketing, Management, and the USG course.</p>

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<p>Bumping once then letting this die.</p>

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<p>B A 101 - Doesn’t matter, the class is almost all completion, 98% of students get an A, and those that get a B get one because they were absent too much (roll is taken).</p>

<p>UGS - Completely depends on what topic you want. I took Latin American Environmental History and Sustainability with Dr. Knapp. The class was unbelievably easy and I actually found the material interesting. It had the least number of hours of class (2 lectures + 1 TA section) and the tests were designed to be short and not take the whole class period. But really just take a topic that interests you, I recommend a 303 class since it’s not a writing-based class (like 302 is). Most classes you will get an A in if you put any effort (or in my case, very little effort) forward.</p>

<p>MKT 337 - I’ve heard good things about Miller. I am taking Zhang this fall since it had the highest %'age of A’s and it was offered at a good time (before 11am is a no-go for me when scheduling classes).</p>

<p>MAN 336 - Edwards has the highest percentage of A’s (74%), but I hear the class is a bit more work than Passovoy (58% A’s or so). Both have good reviews online, and I would have preferred to take Passovoy but the class was closed/waitlisted very quickly, it’s a popular section.</p>

<p>I don’t know what classes you’ve completed already, so here’s a few more recommendations:</p>

<p>B A 324 - Holmes always has the best reviews and seems easy from what I’ve heard. Donnellan is who I had last semester. He is very OCD about everything being precise, but he gives examples of everything you have to do and tons of instructions. If you follow directions, you will get an A. I did. Don’t take Winslow, my friend did and it was just horrible. Donnellan also has no tests, just the assignments that all BA 324 sections have.</p>

<p>ACC 311 - Charrier is amazing, just had her in the spring. I hear May is also good. Lendecky also teaches it sometimes.</p>

<p>ACC 312 - Lendecky is apparently the best, I’m taking him this fall. DO NOT take Welsh, AT ALL.</p>

<p>MIS 301 - Take Patton. Or Gray. They teach the same class basically. I had Patton and she was just awesome at teaching. The class made me switch from Finance to MIS major actually. Do not take the other teachers, they teach a different curriculum and it’s much more work and more confusing from what my friends have told me. Patton/Gray get good grade distributions and you learn a lot, it’s easy.</p>

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<p>^ Thanks a lot. If you have any info on good professors for finance 357, LEB 323, operations man. 335, or…
Economics 420K
Accounting 326
Accounting 327
Accounting 329
Accounting 362
Accounting 364</p>

<p>let me know. Btw, where did you get the % of A’s the professors handed out? I can’t find majority of the business professors on ratemyprofessor.com.</p>

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<p>MyEdu (formerly Pick-A-Prof) has all the grade distributions sent from the school’s grade records directly. I found it extremely valuable in planning my classes. I would never create a schedule without it! You could look up all of those classes/teachers on that website.</p>

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<p>Wow, thanks again. Exactly what I was looking for, but it looks like its $20 to see how many A’s the professors gave out. Your a member?</p>

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<p>is ratemyprofessor as good as myedu? im skeptical about paying 4 it</p>

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<p>Ratemyprofessor is free and its what I used all the way until now. They don’t have a lot of professors from UT though. Myedu.com looks like its better because it gives you the reviews from students plus an actual percentage of how many A’s that professor gave out. I just flipped through the site and it looks like its worth it but I’ll wait until whytwokay tells me if its worth it or not.</p>

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<p>ratemyprofessor has reviews too, i guess things are always better when you have to pay for them…</p>

<p>$20 isnt too bad though</p>

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<p>@Why Two Kay, thanks a lot!</p>

<p>@DenuMx, did you go to orientation on Monday? If so I probably saw you.</p>

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<p>I honestly find MyEdu worth the money. I have several friends that register for the same classes of me because I always get the best teachers. Somehow, it always happens. It’s because I do my research and look through reviews and grade distributions to figure out which classes to take.</p>

<p>Here’s an example, let’s say I want to take LEB 323 (a class I was going to register for this semester).</p>

<p>If I look it up on MyEDU, here’s what it looks like:
<a href=“http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6233/lebteachers.png[/url]”>http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6233/lebteachers.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>[BTW, right now there is a glitch with UT and MyEDU, the “overall GPA” numbers are obviously flagrantly wrong… no teacher has an average GPA of 0.81, but the rest of the information is accurate, including course GPA and the grade distributions.]</p>

<p>Clearly, I am going to want to pick Pederson! I mean, look at how much better the grades are. I find the grade distributions to be true to what is shown, from my experience.</p>

<p>If the grades aren’t as profoundly different, I check the reviews. For example, here’s ACC 312 for this semester (a class I am registered for)
<a href=“http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1469/accteachers.png[/url]”>http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1469/accteachers.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Now, the grades look pretty similar, no reason to pick one over the other. But look at the “star” rating. Now let’s look at some reviews:</p>

<p>Lendecky:
<a href=“http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2633/lendecky.png[/url]”>http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2633/lendecky.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Welsh:
<a href=“http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6044/welshreviews.png[/url]”>http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6044/welshreviews.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Clearly I registered for Lendecky, the reviews show that he is a great teacher and Welsh is not. If I plan on majoring in Accoutning (a possibility for me) then I probably shouldn’t take Welsh at all if I can’t get Lendecky, and instead take the class the next semester. I likely would not learn the material well with Welsh, since he curves so much to even get most people to pass (what I read in the reviews).</p>

<p>I highly recommend joining MyEDU, really. Remember that the $20 is for a year, so you can use it to register for this fall, next spring, and next fall since current students register for the fall semester in April/May. Also when you make friends at school, you can all share an account to look up teachers and split the cost. Although somehow it ends up being me paying and my friends having me look up grade distributions for them… lol</p>

<p>(BTW, in case anybody was wondering: No, I don’t work for MyEDU nor do I get paid to advertise for them. I am just a huge fan of their product and like helping people out. Really!)</p>

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<p>have you used rate my professor? </p>

<p>also ive heard that Mccombs is pretty slack, so most of their students have high/good GPA’s…</p>

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<p>No I’ve never used rate my professor, but looking at it now it seems to kinda lack in features. I looked up Lendecky and there was nothing there that made me really want to take him.</p>

<p>And it depends what you consider to be a high GPA. My MIS 301 class was curved so that the average would be a 3.3, like 30% A’s, 60% B’s, and a few C’s. Not terribly “high” and the class did have some challenging assignments. My B A 324 class was curved so the average was a 3.0 I believe, there were few A’s (I did get one, but I was borderline and I just happened to do outstanding on the large analytical report paper, most groups did a lot worse) and probably a lot more B’s and a solid number of C’s. Of course it was only a 30 person class.</p>

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<p>the only thing missing is the grade distribution. Were the rating/reviews comparable? on myedu and ratemyprofessor? for the professors you did find.</p>

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<p>Some of the teachers (Hickenbottom, for example) had a decent number that kinda matched MyEdu’s, but a lot were outdated and old. Some teachers (Lendecky) had almost no reviews, or had reviews from other schools (Austin Community College) included too. It doesn’t tell you how that professor performs in that particular class, versus all the classes he teaches. MyEdu does cover both, which is sometimes how I know that a teacher is good or bad if they’ve never taught that particular class before.</p>

<p>I also found a lot more negative reviews on ratemyprofessor. It’s getting outdated because a lot of people are moving to MyEdu. MyEdu does have a free account option, although you won’t get to see grade distributions, I think you can still see reviews? I’m not sure.</p>

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<p>@USofPlutarchy, had to change my orientation date to 6/28 because of my face-paced accounting class. I got a 99 on the test I took 6/14 (day of orientation), so it worked out for me. I’ll probably catch you during McCombs kick off though.</p>

<p>@Why Two Kay, you have me sold lol. I really do appreciate your help. I’ve always knew the professors I took except one. That “one” professor almost broke my 4.0. There were a lot of sleepless nights that I don’t want to repeat. Ratemyprofessor is a useful tool, but not close to the detailed information myedu gives. </p>

<p>@peirr- As for McCombs being slack, I highly doubt that. You probably started saying its slack because a few kids, majority non-business majors, have been running their baseless mouths. May be some classes are slack, but I know from numerous students who took accounting/finance at McCombs and they found it so difficult that they switched back to their old school or chose another major. Upper division accounting is not easy. I see so many people struggling with principles of accounting 1 and that is, by far, a joke compared to upper division. Anyways, I’m hoping its easy so I can stress less, party more.</p>

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<p>well there was a thread on here about how it was slack… </p>

<p>looks like i’ll go ahead and purchase myedu</p>

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<p>That certainly doesn’t mean it is true, and the belief that business is easy in general seems to be perpetuated by certain people that consider it a less than adequate major for some reason.</p>

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<p>@pierr- Share? :smiley: </p>

<p>Lol jk. I know there was a thread. I echoed my post there too.</p>