Materials and Energy Balances · Chemical Engineering
Professor Shapley is by far the nicest and perkiest professor I've had on campus. She's an okay teacher. Students basically spend the whole period copying notes. Literally. You will be taking notes the whole entire hour and 15 minutes. This is unfortunate because there is so much material in the book and it's hard to keep up with the thought process. I think if Shapley didn't try to teach EVERYTHING from the textbook I would have liked the class better. She provides solutions to the homeworks sets, which makes it great for practice tests. And it's true, it's either hard for the sophomores or easy for the juniors. If you want a better grade in this class I'd advise taking it junior year. Overall, Shapley isn't great, and she isn't bad. It's just the density and context of the material that makes it dry.
Seven homework assignments, two midterms, a term project, and a final. All are fair if you make a modest effort to keep up with the material. Extra credit available on occasion for homeworks.
about 5 or 6 homework assignments, lab (a few hours in a group over the internet), Group project complete with report and presentation. midterm, final (open book, open notes on final - but that doesn't make it easy). the curve is good, but the class is about half soph and half juniors and since there's thermo and other subjects that the juniors have more experience in involved, the sophomores will have a slightly harder time with it and with the curve
not too heavy:HW assignments that aren't graded1 midterm (30%)1 presentataion (30%)1 final (40%)
Professor McNeill may not be the most dazzling lecturer, but she presents the material in a concise, easy-to-follow manner with helpful and often interesting examples. (Plus, if you pay attention, she has a killer dry wit.) I genuinely enjoyed this course, and I found Professor McNeill to be extremely intelligent, down to earth, and kind. Office hours are helpful if you attend, but come prepared with specific questions or you will just stare at each other uncomfortably. Use the course as an opportunity to meet the people in your major--you'll be seeing a lot of them over the next few years. Also, sidenote: the V stands for Vivian. Mystery solved.
Professor West is a pretty nice guy, although he seems a bit removed from his students (perhaps he's scared of them?) The lecture part of this class can be pretty boring, but the application of the material in the lab and group project can be very interesting (although tedious at times). The professor is the most monotonous I've ever had (no lie!), but the subject matter is pretty boring. Attendance isn't that important, so if you'd prefer to read/skim the book, go for it.
Professor Shapley could very well be inspiration for the portrayal of scientists in movies and novels. Big classes, wild and wacky hair, and a kind of absent-minded disposition. However, this warms your heart to her and you can't help wanting to go to class and feign attention just because she tries so hard. Her main downfalls (and I guess these are prety big ones) is that she teaches straight from the text and gives high school type notes, which make for a very boring hour and fifteen minutes. Never let it be said though that she isn't thorough and very well prepared in class. Overall a pretty decent professor. Tries hard to make the class interesting, is extrememly approachable, friendly and helpful, and grades generously.
lab, midterm, project, final. curve is great. project is not hard and everyone gets an A.
Four HWs, one fair midterm, one fair final.
awfully boring, but the material is that way. admits its a boring class many times during it, but its an easy class. may take a little while to get what to do, but once that happens the class is easy.