Jack Mcgourty

First off, Jack missed well over half the semester. Columbia is finally cracking down on these nut jobs though. The IEOR department informed me that they will be choosing a new professor for next year. The TA's were awful human beings that looked as if they wanted to shoot your before they shot themselves. I believe no one wanted to be in that room. The "special" presenters were also quacks filled with fluff. These people belong in the Business School and not in Fu. Do not take a class with Jack. Fortunately, those who sign up for this class next year won't have to worry.

Jack McGourty did not show up once for class in the spring semester of Gateway of 2011. Additionally, for anyone who's actually read the Team Developer, a little "treat" we get for taking Jack's course and him writing a "guide" to teamwork, it's completely outdated and useless, I mean, we're supposed to use alongside a program on a floppy disk. FLOPPY DISK. None of this would bother me if the course were not listed under "Jack McGourty." The man needs to take responsibility for a severely lacking design course, or let someone capable and willing take his stead.

(Before reading this, it should be known that STS will not be offered in 2007. Starting Spring 2008, it may be offered, but will likely be in a different format.) STS is a weird class. It is definitely the quintessential science class for people who really try to avoid science. You really need no scientific knowledge to do well in this course. While the class is fairly easy, it really feels like a waste of time, since the class really has nothing do with your work. Nothing, whatsoever. The structure of the class is such: Each class has a weekly assignment, worth 1 point, in which you must cite an article from a recent newspaper, or newsmagazine, etc. about science, technology, and society, and answer a question related to the weekly lecture. There are reading he assigns but they are useless and unnecesarry. The main component of the class is a team research paper (20-25 pages), worth 25 points, and related proejcts, such as a research proposal and topic abstract. There is a book critique, written individually, about a book that you should (theoretically) use in your research paper. So the class ends up being about half group work and half individual work. The grading scale is fine, but is annoying to show up for 2-2.5 hours of class and get nothing out of it. The class can at times be interesting, but othertimes just plan stupid. Perhaps it will tie in more to the classwork in…

This was perhaps the worst class I've ever taken at Columbia. Yeah, it's easy (you can get an A- without having to attend any lectures and even students who do not complete the two pathetic course assignments are known to have gotten Bs) but it's also kind of infuriating when you think about it. You're paying all this money for this? Some may defend McGourty's methods as placing a value on true learning as opposed to the struggle to achieve a good grade. i don't know dude. I think he's just ridiculously lazy.

Truly one of the most amazing professor's here. The nicest most accomidating person, with a world of knowledge in many fields of psychology and beyond. The class was fun and interesting and he was mosly concerned with the students learning and having a good time than the usual class politics. Unfortunately, I don't think he will be teaching this class again, but I recommend coming in contact with this man if possible; he teaches Gateway for SEAS

10 pages per week 40-60 page business plan final 3 presentations NOT WORTH IT!!

I am prepared for a lot of disagrees on this. Gateway WAS NOT THAT BAD. In fact, I could go so far as to say that I liked Gateway. I do agree that this positive turn of events was almost entirely due to the fact that I had a good group. Yeah sure, we had a couple members of our group that didn't do their share, but really Gateway was way less painful that most people make it out to be. Honestly, you can make as much or as little of it as you want. You can go through Gateway bitching about how dumb it is, or you can suck it up and just do the BS. Yes, I agree that Gateway is BS, but at some level that's how the world is. Binding our reports and making them look "professional" may sound useless, but there is something to be said for making kids go through the motions of doing it. This year, we were given the option of making a prototype. But the people so-called "running" gateway have no sense of communication. Thus, although at first it was required to build a prototype, they never told the mech-e lab that suddenly 200 students were going to need to use the tools and instead it was made "optional". The Design Fundamentals Exam was stupid. The questions were either ambiguous or idiotic (Teamwork starts with who? A. your group B. your team leader C. your friends D. you E. all of the above). The modeling exam was fine, as long as you actually understood the basics behind modeling…

This guy is a big phony. He will tell you one thing when you meet with him and then do the opposite. His TA Susannah is even worse. Complete lack of communication and beyond absurd grading. How he grades the final project is beyond comprehension...rumor is he flips a coin. Its a shame because the class could be very interesting but this terrible duo shame the University.

This class is a complete joke and a waste of time. It ends an hour early every week, the professor has nothing of any value to talk about, and there is no need to attend a single class. How this is even a course at an Ivy League school is baffling. I could have learned a lot more by reading the Science section of the New York Times once a week. Moreover, McGourty assigns random grades arbitrarily and there is no way he reads the papers students hand in. I checked out the comments other students received and they were identical. The most amusing part, is that some big shot in the engineering department came in and told us how important and amazing the class was. It's all a bunch of BS.

He is definitely the most compassionate and considerate professor ever. He is very passionate about psych and loves teaching and students. He wants everyone to do well and will tailor the course to student preferences as much as he can. He has guest speakers and puts his lectures on power point slides which he hands out at class so it's ok to miss a lecture now and then. The material is very interesting and he always makes himself available to students.