Alright, so you got your grades and you're feeling pretty pissed at Professor Joe Schmoe for dicking you out of the B that you should've gotten.  Well how about you do the world a favor by letting the rest of us know what's up.  The purpose of our Course Critique is to actually do something useful rather than to show you a stupid sheet of stats for previous semester grades.  We want you to be informed...because we all know that here at GT, you can get dicked in every possible way.

    Please feel free to email us with your thoughts on your professors and add to the collection.  Try not to make them too long though or I might have to cut them short.  Also, please refrain from talking shit about the teachers, just give me some facts.  If you send me something, I'm not going to credit your name because I don't want the assholes at GT knowing exactly which classes I've taken so they can figure me out someday. 

    I set up a rating system so you can get an idea of what we think about how well these teachers teach.  Keep in mind that this is only to get an idea of their teaching skills/asshole rating.  They might have 3 stars, but that doesn't mean that the class is easy - just that I think its worth it if you are willing to put in the right amount of effort.  So that means teachers with low ratings either can't teach or are assholes.

	Worthless
	Mostly shitty
	Not great, but I've seen worse
	Undecided down the middle
	Pretty decent
	Not perfect, but pretty good
	Awesome

 

TEACHER	CLASS TAUGHT	COMMENTS
Mark Borodovsky	BIOL 4755	He decided to give me a B for my 97 average in his class my graduating semester (7 classes) since I stopped showing up after acing my last test.  On top of that, he was so disorganized he made us buy $250 in books that traded in for a whopping $9.50!
Dr. David Elrod	CEE/ME 1770	Although many of the 1770 classes are structured the same way you should take Elrod if possible for 1770. He's the best teacher of the bunch. Elrod tries to make the course relate to the real world. He will go back and explain things if you missed them. He's a really nice guy and his office hours can be very helpful because he is willing to help you.
Rick Browner	CHEM 1310	See the page on the Chemistry Department
Robert M. Dickson	CHEM 1310	Wow, this guy is hard. He is used to teaching hardcore chemistry courses and kind of expects all the general chemistry students to know as much about it as he does. His tests are just murdering. Averages were about 60, 40, and 20 for the 3 tests respectively. He had to give 20 free points - or something like that - on the last one just to make the results more normal.  He lectures alright, but very dry and pretty fast too.
George McKelvy	CHEM 1310	Not only is he cool as hell, he tells funny ass stories that actually relate to chemistry.  The best part is his final. During the semester you take 3 tests (and if you are like me fail the fuck out), but the complete beauty is the final.  Not only do you re-take the 3 earlier tests, but if you do better than the earlier tests, the final corresponding to it counts twice!  The other kick ass part about the final is that the final comes solely from the lecture notes.  So I pulled a fucking A from an F in about 3 hours.
Loren D. Williams	CHEM 1310	He came in for our Chem class when good old Rick Browner decided to disappear.  I think he did a damn good job in picking up the slack.  He was fair about changing the grading system and spent a lot of time out of class with us when he really didn't have to.  He does expect students to do their fair share of work though.
David M. Smith	CS 1321	I don't know if it was the 8am class or the way he talked, but lecture was usually nap time.  To be fair, I'd say Smith is about average.
John T. Stasko	CS 1322	Pretty good lecturer.  He's not dull or dry like some CS lecturers can be.  The great thing is he relates the material in a way that you can understand rather than spitting out jargon that nobody is going to understand.
David Brown	ECE 2030	A great teacher. Not only did he explain things great, did not give out graded homework and did not take attendance, but he really tried to help everyone get good grades. He was real cool about everything with everybody. I have many friends who took 2030 and from what I heard David Brown seems to be the best of them by far.
Magnus Egerstedt	ECE 2030	He thinks that C's are very good grades, so no curve, and he pretty much bends you over the kitchen sink and gives you a shit grade. Magnus will try to end you.  On the upside, he kinda knows how to teach.
Donald Wills	ECE 2030	Wills is the man!!!  This guy is the GREATEST teacher I've ever had.  He makes class interesting and enriching, and he's hilarious.  If anyone does poorly in this class, it's their own fault.  He doesn't give homework, and his tests cover exactly what you'd expect them to cover - what he actually taught you.
John T. McLeod	ECON 2100	This guy is probably the most reasonable teacher I've ever met at Tech.  He says he won't fail a student that comes to class and takes every test.  Also the first teacher at Tech that actually realizes that dead week is to study for finals and not to cram in extra material.  Grade distributions are good, too.
Donald Beistle	ENGL 1101	Probably one of the better English teachers out there. He is pretty cool and surprisingly, I did not fall asleep at his 8am class 80% of the time. That’s a real high stat right there. I would advise him to incoming freshmen. I have to warn you that while he doesn’t give out a whole lot of work, it is not the easiest English 1 class.
Angela Flury	ENGL 1101	She expects a lot from students but I think it was within reason.  The thing I hated most was all the reading.  She grades based on content and not BS, but I think I actually learned a lot in her class.
Jason B. Jones	ENGL 1102	Well, I personally thought that his class structure lacked a lot. There was quite a lot of work and he graded it picky too. Other than that, he was pretty nice. I think he had a little obsession with sex and related topics in books – he talks about that a whole lot. Sort of entertaining, though.
Jennifer Wheelock	ENGL 1102	GREAT class, not much work, it was cancelled about 1/3 of the time, very cool teacher, lots of movies, couldn't have asked for better really.
Webb Smith	HEALTH 1040	He is awesome, he's funny, he makes sense, and he ends class early every day. Our last class was the day before Thanksgiving. He gives tests over the material we learned in class not other random shit. All this and we still learn more than the other sections. The guy is just good.
Eleanor C. Alexander	HIST 2111	She tends to focus on American History from the 'African American' perspective, but not at all a bad teacher if you don't mind hearing about that all the time.  I got an A in the class by coming to lectures alone - opened the book once the entire semester. P.S. - She is a really nice lady.
Michael Salomone	INTA 4011	Anyone who has had him knows what I mean. Movies for half the time, interesting discussions for the rest. (Plus since he's ex-military he has some cool stories). Multiple choice, reasonable tests. States at the beginning of class that he expects everyone to get a B or higher, and almost everyone does.
Evans M. Harrell	MATH 1501	He moves through material really fast so you better hope that you can keep up.  I thought the tests were also a little harder than they should have been.  Quiz in recitation every week.  He's decent though.
Enid Steinbart	MATH 1502	Comes to class early so she can start her notes on the board.  Won't EVER stop talking until the very last minute of class, if not after.  The test average for my class was like in the 50s.  Oh yeah, no calculators.
Salome Martinez	MATH 2401	Hmm… A very nice mostly test based course with only a few recitation quizzes on top of that. Whenever she graded the tests herself, she was pretty nice on the partial credit too. Her lectures are kind of fast sometimes though, and you might have a little trouble with her accent.
Hugo Leiva	MATH 2403	Very nice and clear lectures. The best part though is that the class had 4 tests and a final – and nothing else. In other words, no work other than studying for these, which wasn’t too hard since he goes over problems that are almost exactly like the ones he puts on the test.
Tom Kurfess	ME 2110	God forbid you actually need to talk to him about a problem. I got stuck with 2 bum frat-boy losers for partners on a project worth 70% of our grade. When they didn't do any work, show up to any group meetings, or return my emails, and basically disappeared off the fucking planet, I finally broke down and complained to Kurfess. The essence of his 1 line email reply to me was, "Tough shit." Apparently, trying to work out the problems myself is cause to not help me. Then, I approached the ever-helpful head TA, who, after trying to trash our project twice was *SURPRISE* no bloody help at all. FINALLY, the assistant professor, Levent Degertekin, came up with a way to give me credit for my effort so I wouldn't fail the class.
Ahmet T. Uzer	PHYS 2211	Dry, boring, and bad attitude, to say the least.  Takes the entire class period to do about 2 example problems.  I found myself going to other lecturers so I could actually learn something.
Martin M. Jarrio	PHYS 2212	I feel sorry for anyone who has ever had to take this guy.  I've never met a person more obnoxious and full of themselves.  He acts like every student is the biggest idiot in the world for not already mastering Physics before the age of 12.  Rather than lecturing in a normal voice, he chooses to yell at the class without a microphone and he is under the impression that teaching is at its best when you race through the material as fast as humanly possible.  Honestly, he does not pause to even take breaths. He gets 0 stars because it doesn't really matter how smart you are - if you can't teach in a way people understand, then you are useless.
Eric Murray	PHYS 2212	The only thing bad that I can say about Murray is that he moves through material sort of quickly.  But he does cover it properly and in a way that students can understand if they pay attention.  From what I understand, he was pretty reasonable when teachers got to make up their own tests for their class.  But now that everything is standardized, it doesn't really matter who your professor is.

   

 

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