Professors Opinions

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
1

<p>Hello. I'll be entering NYU liberal studies this fall, and I'm wondering if people here can comment on who they think are the best professors for the required classes, and, on a side note, which is the best CAS Calculus II professor. </p>

<p>I usually prefer male teachers because I feel that I can connect with them most easily. I like it when there's a positive atmosphere in the room and when the teacher is able to balance seriousness with humor. I'm looking for the best educational experience, needless to say. It is of the utmost importance that I am the student of the best math teacher possible. Of course, NYU's professors are great, but I'm trying to get a better idea about how I'd learn best at NYU.</p>

<p>I'm also open to suggestions on how and when to distribute my courses during the week.</p>

<p>I'm looking forward to responses.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>Bump, since is very important.</p>

3

<p>Try looking on the Rate My Professors website. It isn’t always accurate and doesn’t list all the professors available, but it can give you a good idea of who to avoid if a professor is listed exceptionally poorly by multiple people.</p>

<p>As for the core classes, I’m not sure how much a choice you’ll have. Often core classes are chosen based on their time slots rather than their professors, as many students want to get the core classes out of the way ASAP and thus don’t have the freedom to choose between multiple professors. Some core classes don’t even offer more than one professor to choose from. Of course, you can always wait it out and take the core classes later with a different professor if one seems especially abhorrent to you. Nevertheless, I don’t think professors for certain core classes matter at all, because some core classes are so crappy and useless that no professor is going to make it good (e.g. Quantitative Reasoning, Natural Science I & II).</p>

<p>In regards to required classes for your major, you should just get the prerequisites out of the way ASAP otherwise you won’t be able to take the more advanced classes that you need to fulfill the major. My major had one prereq that you had to take before any other class in that major so I took it in freshman year so that I could go ahead and get started on my major. You don’t want to run out of time so try to plan accordingly. Look up your major and minor requirements online and plot out your tentative path for the next four years (and factor in study abroad too in case you want to do that). Nothing is more awful than being a senior and realizing that you can’t graduate on time because you couldn’t get into a certain class, or being a junior and realizing that you can’t study abroad because you need to take classes that aren’t offered abroad in order to graduate on time. Planning is very important to get the most of your undergraduate career, and you have to have several alternate plans and some degree of flexibility because you won’t always get into the class you want for a variety of reasons.</p>

<p>In terms of scheduling, it depends on what works for you. My freshman year I only took classes that started after 11 AM, which was lovely, but that wasn’t an option for me sophomore year because my core classes were only offered at 9:30 AM. However, this actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I found out that waking up at 7:30 AM isn’t actually that bad and that I was way more productive with an earlier class schedule because my classes ended earlier and I had more time to do work, participate in club activities, be social, etc. Walking home at 9 PM is also kind of depressing (not to mention cold) so I actually prefer earlier classes now. Similarly, having class on Friday was a good thing for me because when I didn’t have classes on Friday, I tended to spend Friday just lying around and procrastinating, whereas if a Friday class actually forced me out of bed, I tended to be more productive after that class ended. You’ll just have to see what works for you.</p>

4

<p>I would recommend not doing huge blocks of classes either. Might some obvious but some people book themselves solid 9:30 AM to 3:15 PM (that’s 4 classes in a row with no breaks) and suffer all day because they don’t have time for breakfast or lunch, and when big assignments are due, they’re all due on the same day. I guess some people prefer to get all their classes out of the way in one block like that (which some people do in order to have only two days of class a week), but I think it makes more sense to spread things out. You’ll be able to learn more in class because you won’t be so exhausted, and your assignments will be more spread out. However, many people with internships choose to do that so that they can work the other 3 days.</p>

5

<p>Thank you for your comprehensive response. About the core courses: I’m in the Liberal Studies program, which requires that the student takes three specific courses the first two semesters, and 2 the second year. I only have a slot for one course per semester freshman year. This is why I asked about the professors, since maybe someone at Liberal Studies knows them well. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a seminar-esque course with someone who is incompatible with me.</p>

<p>I’m undecided at the moment, but I really wish to continue my mathematics education because I enjoyed AP Calculus AB, and also feel that I did very well on the exam. So, I was hoping to take Calculus II. That is another thing: I don’t know if I earned a 4 or 5, and I won’t for a while. So, there’s a risk involved, I believe.</p>

<p>My academic advisor told me that Calculus might not be required for my major, since I was looking at Economics. I’m a little torn between–studying what I like and… what I’m being forced to do. </p>

<p>The truth is that I didn’t do as well on the math section of the SAT as I did on the other two, but I feel that this was the result of test anxiety. (I received the answers packet a couple months later and did all of the math questions that I missed–without looking at the answers and without a calculator–correctly. How infuriating!</p>

<p>So, I don’t want to be trapped as you say, but what if I somehow decide to go in a direction that does 100% require Calculus?
(one other note: I sent my SAT scores only, but I can qualify for Calculus I if I send my ACT. I am not sure if I should register for Calculus I as a safeguard and switch later.)</p>

<p>Speaking of mathematics, does anyone know the professors who teach Calculus II?</p>

6

<p>I’m still looking forward to responses. Thank you.</p>

7

<p>Does ANYONE know who the best Calculus II professor is?</p>

8

<p>I’m a junior math major, let me see if I can shed some light on professors.</p>

<p>Before I do, there are two important things you should know. First and foremost, Calculus is not required for economics, regardless of concentration, as they have set up a “Mathematics for Economics” sequence. This, essentially, should teach you calculus, but just things that would be relevant, and in an economical context, I would think. There are 3 courses, Math for Econ 1-3, and they roughly correspond to Calc 1-3, I think.</p>

<p>Secondly, professors. One thing to keep in mind, at least in the math department, is that there is no permanent professor in any of the lower math courses. They tend to rotate less senior/less research oriented/more education oriented professors into the role. Knowing that, I can’t tell you which professor is the best, since they change pretty much every semester.</p>

<p>Having said that, I can make some recommendations. I have had classes with the following professors; Kalaycioglu, Rangan, Leingang, Walsh, Kleeman, Bogomolov. I have sat in a couple lectures with Majmudar Trushant, Hameiri, and LaGatta.</p>

<p>From this list, I highly recommend ANY of them. They have varying skills at teaching, ranging from good to excellent, but they are all incredibly fair and seem to be genuinely interested in helping you learn. From this list above, there are three noteworthy individuals; Leingang, Kalayciougly, and Rangan.</p>

<p>Leingang, I think, is the head/organizer of the calculus sequence. He is actually the writer for the Calculus I, II, and III finals. He’s a solid and reasonable professor, and I feel like taking him gives you an advantage since you’re used to his testing style (All calculus sections take the same finals). Moreover, I believe Leingang is the only professor who consitantly teaches a Calculus II and III section every semester, though I might be wrong. He’s big on education, actually has an online calc text book he wrote being published sometime in '14, so that might be why.</p>

<p>Kalayciougly is very funny and is a sweetheart. Plus, she remembers your face from a 150 student lecture. Moreover, I believe she is actually teaching some part of the Math for Econ sequence consistently now, look into that!</p>

<p>Rangan. Rangan, Rangan, Rangan. He is insane. In a good way. I had him for Calc 2. I didn’t learn any of Calc 2. He pretty much taught us a bunch of random **** from a bunch of random mathematics/physics subjects. The class was pretty high level; he opened most lectures with “I didn’t learn this till after I was a post-doc but…”, but the grading is a joke. If you get over a 50% on homeworks/tests, it’s an A. I’m pretty sure every single person in the class got an A. This is a double edged blade, if you plan on taking more math classes, since the lack of expected knowledge hurts, trust me. Calc 3 was incredibly difficult due to the sheer amount of catching up I had to do (as I never took BC). Totally worth it in my opinion.</p>

<p>Other professors I’ve never seen or talked to but have heard very good things about include: </p>

<p>Jankowski (who is also heavily involved in math for econ and the calc sequence)
Greenleaf (Head of undergrad math)
Buhler (head of undergrad studies in physics/CAOS(?) I think)
Holland (My academic advisor and the Director of CAOS)</p>

<p>As for professors to stay away from, I don’t have any experiences with such but I do have warnings from some other students.</p>

<p>Germain (due to his accent)
Gunturk (due to the fact that he is a mathematical badass)</p>

<p>One last piece of advice; definitely check rate my professor, but take it with a grain of salt. Carefully read the reviews. Ignore any reviews with “really really hard”, especially for the calculus sequence/math for econ. Important things to look for are accessibility during office hours, grading fairness, and frequency of assignments (too little is almost as bad as too much).</p>

<p>Also, check the CAS course evaluations. You can do this by logging in at home.nyu.edu and then clicking on Albert. When the Albert window pops up, click “Course Evaluation Guide”, it should be the 5th hyperlink beneath the enormous “STUDENT CENTER” button. After that click CAS (as both the Calc and Math for Econ courses are all in CAS).
You will have to put in your net ID and password again. From there, you can look who taught Calc 1,2,3 for the past couple of years, and how students filled out the course evaluation forms. You can also just look up all math professors, or you can look up a single professor and find how they were rated across all their lectures.</p>

<p>Once again, take this with a grain of salt. Ignore the Course rating and focus on the Instructor rating and the recommendations.</p>

<p>Hope I managed to help a little, if you have any more questions, I’ll be glad to help if I’m able. Feel free to post here, or if you want a quicker response, PM me.</p>