<p>I typically encourage myself to try my best regardless of who is teaching a course. However, I would really love a good professor for Physics 197 so I can have a strong foundation. Has anyone had one they really liked? I know Bernatowicz is supposed to be amazing but I'm sure that section is going to be full...</p>
<p>I had Trousil (and absolutely loved her) way back when I took 197, so that’s not really helpful to your question. But yeah, Bernatowicz is awesome. You can try for his section, but his will indeed be the first to fill.</p>
<p>Other than that, the only other one I really have an opinion on is Israel. He’s awful. IMO, avoid at all costs. I’ve also heard negative things about Ferrer, but don’t quote me on that. I know nothing about Hynes/Wagoner.</p>
<p>You can also check course evals at evals.wustl.edu to see which ones have the best 197 rantings from last year.</p>
<p>Edit: just realized that you probably are an incoming student so you may or may not be able to access evals just yet (you need your wustl key). So I quickly looked it up. In summary:</p>
<p>4 topics, all on a 1-7 scale:
Overall
Instruction
Organization
Interaction w/ students</p>
<p>Hynes: 5.46, 5.6, 5.81, 5.95
Israel: 4.83, 4.97, 5.93, 5.6
Bernatowicz: 5.81, 6.02, 6.02, 6.37
Wagoner: 5.46, 5.67, 5.88, 6.23
Ferrer: 4.41, 4.48, 4.9, 5.25</p>
<p>(All 5 profs had relatively similar response rates in terms of % of students that filled out evals)</p>
<p>Breakdown: people love Bernie. But you already knew that. My “avoid Israel and Ferrer” seems to be accurate; Hynes and Wagoner seem just fine to me, with Wagoner having a slightly better review.</p>
<p>Note: interaction with students is part of what makes 197 such a good class; it’s why it’s the highest number for all 5 choices, but you can clearly see who’s leading in that category.</p>
<p>Personally, when I look (looked?) at course evals, anything above a 5 in those categories was typically a “good” or at least a decent prof that you won’t hate. Above a 6 being the really good profs, below 5 and you should watch out.</p>
<p>Johnson pretty much nailed it. Bernatowicz is clearly the winner, but his section will fill first and you’ll probably have difficulty getting in. My only experience with Israel was a day when he was a substitute lecturer, and the impression I got is that he is quite dry. Maybe not so bad at explaining things, but I wouldn’t want him as my professor. I’ve heard Ferrer is pretty bad and Hynes is decent. One of my friends has said he wasn’t the biggest fan of Hynes’ personality, but my experience with her has been fine. She seemed pleasant when she introduced herself on the first day of lab (she coordinates but does not run the labs). Also, despite the rule that you cannot switch lecture sections for 198 unless you have a conflict, I sweet-talked her and she let me switch anyway. So I think she’s see pretty nice. I don’t know a thing about Wagoner.</p>
<p>Your best bet when it comes to finding out about professors is always course evals, as Johnson said. I agree that good professors tend to have ratings from 5-6, excellent professors have ratings from 6-7, and you should be wary of professors with ratings below 5.</p>