Jose Sanchez

This professor is extremely rude, has a big ego and is disrespectful to his students, impatient, and possibly worst of all, boring. He mainly teaches modeling courses and I am reviewing his teaching for the infamous Gateway. His courses involve computer modeling, so most of the time he has his computer connected to a screen and then simply sits there clicking things and telling you to click things, which naturally, accomplishes nothing. The classes were extremely boring so naturally, people dozed off or left all together since he does the exact same thing in a podcast. However, when he notices that people don't come, he takes attendance and becomes very agitated and angry and starts threatening students. During midterms week, a lot of people left and he got so angry he gave zeroes for their homework assignments, something not noted in the syllabus. So he is inflexible, can't teach, and unfair. Also, when people actually do pay attention and ask him questions, he insults them and makes thinly veiled comments about their intelligence, and in one class, even their sexuality ("Are you two holding hands down there or something? Keep bouncing and holding hands and i'll kick you out!"- The people at fault were simply talking.) In summary- avoid this guy at all costs. If you don't want to end up feeling degraded and insulted and learning nothing, avoid him like the plague and hope you…

Jose is a great guy and a lot of fun to talk to. He's always willing to help and has a calmer, relaxed demeanor that reduces any kind of stress about problems you might have with the assignments. The class is pretty straightforward and simple. An assignment every week that you complete during class time, a midter project, and a final project. Though it is listed as a 3-4 hour class, I would routinely finish my weekly assignment after about 2 hours. Put a good effort into the midterm and final and you'll be fine. Maybe the easiest 3 credits I've ever gotten.

Jose knows his stuff! He is very excellent at graphic design and is very knowledgeable for current computer technology. He is not that great of a professor/lecturer when it comes to Gateway Lab though! He teaches the class like he is either really bored or he wants to show off. He races through modelling examples so you will often rely on your own mistakes or the tutorials. He is very helpful though as long as you are in attention during his lectures and understand his humour. The modelling assignments are pretty easy in the beginning but then it just becomes difficult (and not progressively). The later ones took hours to complete and Jose is one of the hardest professors I know to get in contact with outside of the classroom. Major points are taken off of modelling assignments for ridiculous reasons like incorrect file names. His final design for the class varies in difficult for all Gateway classes but is relatively easy if you have been doing all the modelling assignments without the tutorials. All in all, I wish that SEAS hired a new instructor for the modelling portion of this class. Jose makes modelling lectures seem like you are already familiar with all the software.

The class is very easy, and you can leave once you're done with the assignment. If you're good with computers, this class is a breeze. Put a few hours into the projects and you got yourself an A. He does have a little bit of an accent, and he does tease people. Just don't take him too seriously and won't be offended. The TA's are always willing to help, but they get swamped the day before the project is due- if you need help, go early.

The problem is not that Jose doesn't know Maya--because he knows more about it than anyone I've ever met--the problem is getting Jose to share his knowledge. He does not lecture at all and usually just watches students complete the assignment (with instructions, thankfully) that he has posted online. While most of the work is straightforward, it can be quite tedious if you have never worked with the Maya software before. Usually, one of the TA's will walk around and patronize you for not knowing the basics of Maya, that surely EVERYONE must know. If you are lucky, you will get the honor of receiving this smirking and condescension from Jose himself. Most times they will rattle off some confusing directions, though they will occasionally stop to watch you struggle. Unfortunately, Maya plays a large part in most team's final project deliverable. It is necessary to learn for gateway and it is fairly time consuming. Don't blow it off (come to think of it, you will probably need Matlab as an upperclassman as well) because it is important. When Jose actually does instruct the class, get off facebook and pay attention because it is something you will need for the assignment. While Jose is not helpful in class, he is less smug outside of class. In any event, Alex is definitely the one to seek for help with a project (Jack has very limited interaction, and Alex is almost as proficient…

Take this class! Especially if you need it for any reason...Jose is awesome--at first he seems a little intimidating, but he's completely harmless and if you actually talk to him he's very cool and nice.

Jose's knowledge of Maya is rivaled only by his arrogance about it. I aced the class mostly by maintaining a pulse for the duration of his lectures. If you've never worked with computer graphics, just follow the online tutorials and don't bother listening to his endless droning. The tutorials practically tell you where each button is on the screen, so his rambling will only get in the way. If you have worked with graphics, you can think of his lectures as a gift of naptime, straight from McGourty to you.

His lectures are very helpful. Make sure you go to them and take good notes because otherwise you can't learn it anywhere else. Grading is very easy so don't worry, most likely you'll get A range. He's got some jokes at times, but no one ever understands them....

He goes through the demonstrations very quickly, and if you fall behind, god have mercy on your soul, it will be impossible to catch up. If your good with computers and you've worked with computer graphics you'll be fine, and he'll be friendly with you. If you dont have experience, you'll simply think he's an ass because he'll talk to you in a very demeaning manner.

a weekly assignment to be done during class (~10%)a midterm modeling project (~30%)a final modeling project (~60%)