<p>Piggybacking off of the ratemyprofessor.com website, I think it would be beneficial and insightful if current students (especially those on a business track) posted reviews (recommendations and warnings) about the specific professors and their classes that they have taken. That way, incoming freshman like me, who would greatly benefit from decent professors, can pick and choose better when it comes to signing up for classes. Thanks!</p>
<p>Let me give you a brief rundown.</p>
<p>A100 - Mike Tiller - Everyone you talk to will tell you he's terrible and it's impossible to pass. However, be aware you are attending a top 10 business school and they have to weed out those who are not serious. This class is only 8 weeks. It's basic accounting centered around the 4 financial statements. There are only 2 tests that determine your entire grade. However, I do NOT think Mike Tiller is a bad teacher. Yes you will fail this class if you don't attend class and study for the tests. But, I came to IU with NO accounting experience from high school and ended up getting an A in this class. I had to work fairly hard for it, but I'm glad I did. Mike Tiller is a nice guy if you get to know him, and he does know his stuff. And he curves the grades quite nicely; even with the curve my class went from about 225 people to about 110, that's how many had to drop it because they did poorly on the first test.</p>
<p>M118 - Sergey Pinchuk - Very thick Russian accent. He is certainly smart though. I got a B in the class but have to admit I could have worked harder and gotten an A. He also curved the grades at the end.</p>
<p>Y200 (political science) - Gerald Wright - Wow. I loved this guy. He is so smart when it comes to politics. He strongly encouraged class participation and always answered questions even if you were interrupting. He's a very nice guy. I ended up with a B+.</p>
<p>X100 - Myron Kanning - This class is not required for DAs. I took it because the advisor told me too. I regret it for only one reason: I could have taken a required course and filled a requirement. However, if you take this class take Myron. He is a former VP of a company and now teaches just for fun basically. He cares about every student and wants to get to know everyone. One of the nicest professors I've had so far. He talks a lot about "real world" situations, not just the stuff in the book. The class in general is pretty easy, I ended up with an A+.</p>
<p>S105 - Honors Seminar (Bio of Cancer), David Bender - This class was a let down. I was excited about it but it turned out to be very boring. It was easy, I got an A, but it was a drag to go to each week. David Bender is a super nice guy, however his class tends to be boring and repetitive.</p>
<p>K201 - Grant Case (lab), Amy Kinser (lecture) - Both great. However, Grant is an MBA student and won't be here next year. He was however a great teacher and very helpful, but that doesn't matter for any of you because you can't take him. Amy Kinser teaches a lot of lecture sections. She is really nice, but I did not like the lecture material we studied. </p>
<p>2ND SEMESTER</p>
<p>X202 (honors x201) - Paul Serex - I have Paul right now and he's great. Explains things very clearly, very helpful. He gave us his cell phone number and said if we ever have a problem on an assignment to call him. I'm really glad I took the honors version of this class. </p>
<p>CJUS 100 (honors intro to criminal justice) - Leon Pettiway - Dr. Pettiway is a nice guy. His class tends to be a little boring however.</p>
<p>A201 - Tom Rearick - Again, everyone will tell you he is unhelpful, too tough, mean, whatever. Again, welcome to a top 10 BSchool. Those things are also lies. Prof. Rearick is a GREAT teacher, maybe the best teacher I've had so far. If you take and succeed in this class, you will be so far ahead of other colleges students it won't be funny. And he is a nice guy and helpful, I have been to office hours.</p>
<p>E201 - Jim Self - This is going to be bias because Econ is not my thing. I'm not a big fan of this class. Prof. Self puts a lot of people to sleep during class, but he's very nice.</p>
<p>X104 - Jeanette Heidewald - Jeanette is so nice and she makes speech class fun. She really wants everyone to do well and give good speeches. I would recommend her for this class. </p>
<p>**Please understand that these are my honest opinions and it is not my intention to insult any professor.</p>
<p>The whole looking for a professor that you like through ratings and reviews is a bit overrated. Look at the grade distribution database on the IU website when choosing your classes - you find out average GPAs of classes, find out which one's are easy, and get the grades you want.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot Jason, that was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. A2Wolves, while I defintely agree with you on some level, and I have looked at the grade distributions, I still like getting opinions that help put faces on those grade distribution sheets. If nothing else, it is kind of giving me a feel for what kind of professors I am looking for. Thanks.</p>
<p>There may be more important things to some people than grades, A2Wolves6. Like whether they will learn a lot, whether the teacher makes it interesting, whether it is challenging or basic. (Some people actually like a challenge.) The kind of information Jason gives could be very helpful to many people.</p>
<p>For freshman business-required classes I have taken:
Tiller - Nothing wrong with him, really a decent prof. Of course you have no choice, so it really doesn't matter what I say about him.
X104 - Brenda Bailey-Hughes - She was great for X104, grades fairly, and really does want to help you suceed. Highly reccomend her for X104
Finite - Andrew Dabroswki - Generally good. He is spacey, but as long as he doesn't get to distracted in class, he does a good job teaching the material. He also is willing to drop your lowest exam score and then increase the final exam percentage.
Econ - Ok, with the two lower -level econ classes, no matter who you get, they suck. For both classes, the two profs are Olson and Self, and I really don't think too much of either. You can try your luck with an AI (if the enrollment capacity is small like 50, it's an AI), but you can get screwed with a horrible one like i did for micro who had no idea how to teach. Your best bet is Olson, but again, they all really suck.
K201/204 - April Heltsey - If you can, take 204 so you can get april. yes, it means you have to do extra group projects, but those can help your grade if you do bad on the practicals. She's really helpful. As a bonus, you only have one lab a week instead of two.
A201/205 - Jamie Pratt - Again, I would recommend doing 205 (honors 201) so you can get Jamie. He wrote the textbook that both classes use, and is really a brilliant guy, and really knows how to teach. It's not that much harder than 201, and definetly worth it.</p>
<p>I appreciate this information.
My IU scholarship and Business Major have GPA minimums. I'm going to IU to learn but need to keep an eye on the bottom line or I come home. So keep those opinions coming.</p>
<p>My son took the classes, but I'll give you his general impressions:</p>
<p>First semester--</p>
<p>CMCL121--Public Speaking--Giorgio Sartiano--fun, great guy--my son loved this guy's class and had a blast every time there. He says the women also liked the fact that Giorgio is good-looking. Although my son did well, not everyone else faired quite as well, though. Final grade: A</p>
<p>ECON202--Macroeconomics--Norma Traum--grad student teaching one of her first classes. Very nice, but the fact that she's fairly new to this made a difference. My son said he had a really hard time understanding the material in this course. Final grade: B</p>
<p>ACCT A100--Mike Tiller's course. Look Tiller's a nice enough guy--but this course is just unbelievably tough for a one-credit first semester accounting course. I'm a CPA and do finance for a living and I was teaching my son this stuff that is similar to what you will get on the CPA exam after your senior year. Like others have said, over half drop this course, or get a D or F (56% last semester). Study his handouts and previous tests in detail or you will be in this bottom group. Final grade: C+</p>
<p>HIST H231--History of the Family--George Alter. Lots of reading and lots of short papers to write. The course is super interesting and covers Jane Austen and French writers, but you need to be able to write well before taking this course. The Great TA in this course really helped. Final grade: A.</p>
<p>HIST A101--The World in the 20th Century--Peter Guardino. My son thought this would be his easiest course--but it was his toughest. He let up early on--thinking he knew the subject, and then was forced to work hard to get caught up. He thought the professor was good, though. Final grade: B</p>
<p>BUS X100--Intro to Business--Myron Kanning. Liked the subject, but thought the tests were somewhat difficult. Made up the points on the projects (got a perfect score of 321 on the largest project). Final grade: A (missed an A+ by 3 points out of 1000).</p>
<p>Second semester.</p>
<p>TEL206--Susan Kelly--Really fun professor--and really challenging projects. Unfortunately, the tests are not on the lecture, but rather on the readings. My son is doing about A- at the current time.</p>
<p>Math M119--Jeremy Bogess--Good enough professor, although the pace of the class is odd. He'll spend 2 weeks on one chapter, 2 weeks on the next, then one day on the third chapter right before a test is due. (and if you don't get it, it will still be on the test). My son likes Bogess, though. Current grade: B+</p>
<p>World Regional Geography G120--Roman Zlotin. Boring class, mostly because it is so hard to understand the professor. Tests are really challenging, but tended to grade easy. Now he's grading a bit harder, but if you study well at all, it's still not too hard. Current grade: A</p>
<p>English Comp W131 --Robin Anglin--grad student who seems a bit spacey. Tells you to do something by Tuesday, then extends it to Thursday, then the next Tuesday. Frustrates those like my son who had it done the first Tuesday, because he turned it in then after being up all night--and then his paper gets judged against those who turned it in a week later when they would have normally have been late. He's really perplexed in this class and is unsure what to do. Current grade: Unknown, but probably a B+</p>
<p>Western Intellectual Thought WEUR 401 (yes, I know, he's a freshman taking a senior level course)--Andrew Douglass. My son just raves about this professor. He says Douglass is simply brilliant. My son says everything he discusses is interesting, and the class just flies by even though it's a two hour class held at 9 in the morning. Andrew and Giorgio above are my son's two favorite professors so far. P.S. There is a ton of reading to do in this class--but my son doesn't care. He said he'd take this class even if Douglass tripled the reading just so he could sit in on the lectures and discussions. Lots of philosophy and psychology and history all mixed together. Current grade: He thinks he's getting an A or A-.</p>
<p>So is there any way for a Business major to avoid this guy Tiller? Does anyone else teach the course? What do the people who drop the course end up doing?
This doesn't sound very encouraging.</p>
<p>No. Upon dropping/failing it, you have two options: take it again, or switch to a non-business major. Tiller himself claims to have been forced to drop it and then took it in the summer. It's a weed-out course. But really, it ain't that bad. Two keys to success: 1) Go over all the practice tests, and figure out the reasoning behind every single answer. 2) During the test, make sure to read the questions carefully, and after you finish, look over it INCLUDING A CAREFULL RE-READING OF THE QUESTIONS. of the 30+ questions, I changed at least 5 answers each test on review because I read the question wrong. Sometimes you don't want to read too far into questions, but in this class, the further you read into them, the better.</p>
<p>So a freshman Direct Admit could conceivably blow the whole thing on this one credit course? </p>
<p>They leave that stuff out of the promo materials.</p>
<p>I'd like a little more insight and guidance from cc'rs at IU if you please.</p>
<p>Tiller is not the problem. Like I said he's a nice guy. However, also like I said, it's a weed out class. Those who aren't serious find out right away they either have to serious or get out. He's the only guy who teaches A100. Look, I had no accounting experience and got an A. Yes, I had to work hard, but I guess it's that time in your life when you have to decide if working hard for 8 weeks is worth it.....I say it is.</p>
<p>Oh, and as far as blowing it on the one credit course....A LOT of people have to take this class 2 times. If you get below a C on the first test, you have to drop and sign up for the next 8 weeks. Trust me, I'm a fine example, it can be done no matter how much you know about accounting going in. And there is a nice curve.</p>
<p>Sounds like the equivalent of ear training for music majors--an absolutely vital class and an extremely difficult class that many people fail. Also my son explained that ear training is a one credit class (even though it meets five hours a week) because they don't want it totally destroying people's GPA's. Perhaps the same theory applies to this class.</p>
<p>And the irony of the name "Tiller" - one who prepares for the raising of crops, as by plowing or harrowing.</p>
<p>haha....that's pretty good, and exactly what he does....Prepares to raise the freshman crop into business people.....and some crops don't make it, and that's the way it goes.</p>
<p>Calcruzer: sorry, but if your son was staying up all night to write a paper for a 100 level writing class, he’s probably one of the students she’s trying to help out by allowing more time. Seriously, those are easy, easy papers to write.</p>
<p>^^^
You are commenting on a three year old post.</p>
<p>admc, I see you are a new poster. Unlike many other pages here on CC, the IUB page is pretty much a snark-free zone. No need for personal negativity here. Thanks! : )</p>
<p>This might sound a little stupid on my part, but what exactly is “curving Grades”</p>