Astronomy · Columbia University
I have taken one previous class with Professor Frits and it was absolutely amazing. This time around, my expectations of a positive experience were exceeded. Frits is an amazing and passionate professor. He's super chill (sockless sandles type beat) and explained mind-boggling concepts in such a fun and easy to follow way. He is also very supportive and affirms the class that we shouldn't worry too much about not completely understanding the material our first time around as neither did he.
Amazing teacher. Really good at helping you learn and not judge where you are. Only caveat would be I wish there'd be more practice so we'd understand the concepts better.
One of the easier classes I've taken in college. I rarely went to lecture (the few times I did I encountered a professor who was always happy to repeat things more than once if people weren't getting it), and the home works were still doable if you know high school algebra. While I was super nervous about it as a liberal arts major, I chuckle to myself in retrospect. Weekly problem sets take about an hour or two. The midterm/final was exactly like doing a problem set, and he gave us a week to do each. I'll admit that I would have been more stressed out if I had to take it in person without the ability to google formulas. Midterm Mean -- 99 Final Mean -- 88 He's super sweet, interesting, and easy. This man deserves a gold star
He is the nicest human being. This is the kind of class where you have no idea what's going on but with some intuition, you punch everything into a calculator and you do well. Solid choice for your science requirement.
To any BC student looking to fulfill the math requirement: Take. This. Class. Yes, it's a ton of math that seems insanely overwhelming to those of us who can barely multiply, but Frits is *so* nice and *so* helpful, that you'll never worry about asking for help. More importantly, his midterm and final are completely open note, meaning that as long as you organize your notes and problem sets before the exam, you're likely to find the answers to the questions right in your notebook. No need to spend hours studying the night before! Seriously...take this class. You'll reduce your stress level, and you'll actually learn something!
Frits Paerels led a really easy and relaxed Frontiers of Science discussion section. Yes, most people will find this class incredibly boring but I personally didn't find it that bad. After all, discussion is only once a week and if you pay attention during lecture you will learn something no matter how good you already are at science. Anyway, Frits is an extremely kind, helpful man who assigned little homework and was extremely generous with grading. However, his discussion section is not particularly informative and I never really felt that the lectures were significantly clearer after going through discussion (this may be because the lectures are already quite clear).
I don't know what the past reviewer is talking about. This class is made for non-math people. I got a 1 (1!) on the Calculus BC exam, did not study for the midterm or finals, and came out with an A. Fritz is great person and always willing to help out if you do run into any math-related difficuly. All and all a great way to get rid of one semester of the science requirement with little effort.
Frits is THE GOAT! Without a doubt, he’s the most engaging, dedicated, and genuinely kind professor I’ve ever had the pleasure of learning from at Columbia. His lectures are absolutely captivating and entertaining. From his signature sound effects (if you know the difference between SR and GR, you know what I mean) to his dynamic, animated explanations, and even his hilariously ambitious physical enactments of complex concepts like falling into black holes, Frits makes challenging topics come alive in ways no textbook ever could. A testament to his dedication: toward the end of the semester, he took a 6 AM train from a conference in Boston just to make it to our class. This man deserves a gold nugget!
Frits is an overall good guy. He'll answer any question you have, is lenient on homework, and isn't stuck up. However, there are negatives to him that sometimes overshadow the good. He'll answer a question for 30 minutes of the class instead of actually lecturing about the class. This is good for a lecture or two, but he'll do it consistently, which means we'll get behind and not touch on some stuff on the syllabus. This, as well as his habit to go on tangents, gets progressively worse in the beginning and end of the semester. This is especially detrimental if you want to major in astrophysics, as you'll miss some important topics. Another negative is that sometimes he makes weird noises in class, but that's just nit-picking. Besides this, when he actually teaches about the subjects on the syllabus, he does a pretty good job. He'll make sure you understand and makes it easy for everyone to understand. His workload is also pretty easy and makes you think outside the box at the same time.
Paerels is the best. He's devoted to making sure that students actually learn and understand something and he's not out there trying to trick them and deduct points. All HWs and tests are very doable even with fragmentary knowledge of high school math.