<p>I was wondering if any current A&S students could talk about the best/worst professors they've encountered at the college of A&S. That's the college I will be attending in the fall and I would like to know a bit about the professors before choosing what courses I take. </p>
<p>I plan on double-majoring in History and Math. Thanks!</p>
<p>A couple of complaints:</p>
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<li><p>Professor Norton is an extremely hard grader. In fact, according to ratemyprofessors.com, she has the lowest “easiness” rating in the history department and one of the lowest in the entire school. She assigned way too much reading and I found her grading to be somewhat nit-picky. In fact, she graded harder on grammar than any English professor I had. I ended up with an A- in her class which ended up being the only non-science course I couldn’t get an A in. <—this is actually significant considering how easy non-science courses usually are.</p></li>
<li><p>I took multivariable calc with Rodrigo Perez and he was probably the only professor I had in my 4 years at Cornell that I thought was a poor professor. He had a strong eastern european accent. He’s a math professor though so I guess that’s somewhat expected. But, the guy would never answer emails. Even the TA couldn’t reach him. His lectures were terrible and people basically stopped going to class (lecture attendance dropped to around 30%).</p></li>
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<p>how did a person with name like Rodrigo Perez end up with an Eastern European accent? (I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m curious…)</p>
<p>I do not have any experience with History or Math professors, sorry. I don’t think my experiences with the chem or econ departments would help you much. fwiw, I have never worried too much about professors, I just take the classes I want to take at the most convenient time.</p>
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<p>I’ve asked myself this very question many times. </p>
<p>I also asked myself why he would bring his bike to class, turn it upside down, and then proceed to spin the wheels for 50 minutes. </p>
<p>We also started on our prelim 15 minutes late because he had to “grab breakfast.”</p>
<p>Lucky for all of you, Rodrigo is no longer at Cornell:</p>
<p>[Cornell</a> Math - Faculty](<a href=“http://www.math.cornell.edu/People/faculty.html]Cornell”>http://www.math.cornell.edu/People/faculty.html)</p>
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<p>How many non-science courses did you take, norcalguy?</p>
<p>Chemistry: Professor Usher is amazing in 2080. DiSalvo was kinda bleck. Didn’t really like him very much. Zax, I dunno. Never went to lecture after a few DiSalvo ones. (They both taught 2070)</p>
<p>Bio: Professor Gilbert is a great lecturer, but I feel like his choice (and schedule) of topics for intro bio were a bit too random and jumbled, which made it harder for me to do well. Definitely enjoyable though, and I’d think he’d be a phenomenal professor in higher level, more narrow bio courses.</p>
<p>FWS: Grad student named Steven Pinkerton. He was excellent. Extremely fair, flexible, and helpful. I know he’s not a professor, but he teaches a lot of FWS’s. Highly recommend him.</p>
<p>American Indian Studies: Prof. Nadasdy is fairly good. Definitely cares more about teaching and making sure you get something out of the course than assigning pointless assignments. Teaching intro to AIS next fall which I’m definitely going to take.</p>
<p>Those are my only notable ones. Others have been relatively lukewarm. I’ve not had any “terrible” ones yet, but maybe that’s just because I never even saw Zax. I heard he was abysmal.</p>
<p>Usher sings, that makes any other travails of 2080 worth it!!!</p>
<p>thank you for all the posts! Comments on ANY courses are helpful.</p>
<p>what does FWS stand for?</p>
<p>FWS means first-year writing seminars.</p>
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<p>I took 12, so around 40% of my credits at Cornell.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, I only took 7 science courses (four math, three biology). That said, I wouldn’t say it is easy to get an A in most non-science/math courses, although it is pretty straightforward to get an A- provided you work hard. </p>
<p>I had to work a lot to get an A- in two of my upper-level history classes, and I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that I was a better student than most of the students in those classes.</p>
<p>professor katzsenstein is tough(versus others who teach the same course) for intro to international relations (many who take this course are not freshman despite it being a 100 level)</p>
<p>professor s. tun aka “san san” for french is tougher than the other TAs for french122…but very nice and helpful :)</p>
<p>professor jose-maria for spanish’s intro to modern iberian literature is tough compared to others who teach it.</p>
<p>I love Prof. Usher! He is such a roflcake and sweet man. His accent is captivating and he makes funny situational jokes which keep the lecture way interesting</p>