Virginia Cornish

READ THIS WITH EXTREME CAUTION. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY REGISTERED FOR CORNISH'S SECTION, IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE. There once was a time when I actually enjoyed chemistry, and I honestly came into Orgo I with an open mind. I was actually excited for this course. Unfortunately, Leighton and Doubleday's sections filled up really quickly during registration, and I was forced to join this section; little did I know that this was going to be the worst decision I have made at my time at Columbia so far. Before I even begin, just note that the other two orgo sections have 150 to 300 students registered. We had 35. Just 35. Sorry, I just had to put that out there because I think it summarizes the class quite well. At first, Cornish's first lecture was okay. She's reading off her notes and copying them word for word, but honestly, it was generally okay! She seemed nice and open, and the pace was normal. Note: this was her first lecture. This was the only lecture I understood, and it all went downhill from there. The biggest problem is that Cornish can't explain a concept to save her life. She is clearly a talented scientist in her field, but she has NO teaching skills. She literally writes down every single word from her notes, that are available on CourseWorks, and doesn't explain anything that's going on. She doesn't define key concepts, and half the time you leave lecture not even knowing…

Students were expected to self-teach the majority of the content in the class. Learned SN1, SN2, E1,E2, and alkene reactions within a span of a few weeks. Youtube is a more informative resource for learning class material than the lectures themselves. Lectures are highly disorganized and impossible to follow. If you take this class, you should expect to teach yourself all of the course material (highly recommend Chad's prep on YouTube). Cornish selects exam questions from graduate textbooks with the goal of designing an exam with a "large standard deviation" (setting students up for failure).

I'm struggling through Orgo II right now and I just want to take this moment to say that Cornish was actually not that horrible as people wrote on this page. I got an A- despite not doing that great throughout the term and probably doing wellish on the final. If I had been a little less careless on midterms 3/4, I might've gotten an A. Or maybe I wouldn't have since I wouldn't have put sufficient effort into the final. Yes: she's condescending, unclear about things, her lecturing is not terribly useful but also necessary to go to since she really doesn't follow McMurray that closely and disagrees with them. She goes off on unrelated tangents about her political perspectives, her thoughts on important social values, and seemingly contradictory thoughts on how hard we should work. You have to memorize pKAs and other details. In retrospect, I think the pKa's aren't that bad, especially since you have to cram a ton of reactions in anyway. On the other hand, her lecturing is clear. She doesn't mumble, and you can actually understand whatever she's saying. Her exams follow the exact same template. You should never be pressed for time on her tests, since they're always 4 or 5 questions with multiple parts. She usually does a few theoretical-ish questions. She loves free energy diagrams, resonance, and usually for midterms 3 and 4, puts some more challenging mechanisms or syntheses th…

I think the first half of this course is quite informative but the second half is all student presentations, so I did not learn much more which I can apply to my assessments or my research. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2024 Course: CHEMGU4312_001_2024_3-CHEMICALBIOLOGY : CHEMGU4312_001_2024_3 - CHEMICAL BIOLOGY Instructor: Virginia Cornish

How to apply concepts learned in class and predict reactions and reagents for multistep synthesis. Stereochemistry, regiochemistry, etc.

Get out while you still can. This class has been hell for me. Her expectations are unclear, her lectures are convoluted and even leave the TA confused, and she expects you to self-teach a significant portion of the material on top of what is covered in class. In addition, almost half of the content she presents in class is "for fun" or "only to be known at a cursory level" so it is very difficult to decipher what will actually be on an exam. She is truly one of, if not, the worst lecturer I've ever had. I think she means well and cares about her students, but her demeanor comes off as being condescending and dismissive. She's a talented chemist and a talented chemist and a talented researcher, but she should not teach organic chemistry. I've heard she's much more enjoyable for Chemical Biology, but for this course at least, avoid her section at all costs.

pKas, stereochemistry, reaction mechanisms, thermodynamics in reactions, functional groups

Honestly people, it gets really old listening to a few overly intense pre med students whine because they can't get the perfect A that up to this point they have always achieved by spooning their textbooks every night and mindlessly absorbing the material word for word. Orgo is by nature a difficult class. People new to it are obviously caught off guard, and apparently quick to lash out and find any excuse for their sub-excellent performance rather than openly admit they struggle to understand novel concepts. Yes, Cornish isn't that great. She could definitely teach way more, tone down the annoying life lesson talk, and stop alternatively treating her students like newborns one day and Phds the next. But is she evil and out to get every student that walks into her class? No. Let's keep in mind that the people most prone to complain about a teacher's lack of approachability are the over-the-top, first-row-sitting, compulsive hand-raisers, who understandably annoy the teachers as much as they annoy every other person in the room. Like many other Professors, Cornish no doubt has a lot on her plate. That being said, she does exude a slight aura of haughtiness and resistance to communicate by email. But when push comes to shove, she is in her office exactly when she says she will be. My advice is this: be prepared to work hard. Maybe Cornish isn't for you if you are incapable of in…

It would depend on the person's goals. If the person wanted to go into research (more specifically a PhD) I would reccomend, otherwise I would not reccomend. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2022 Course: CHEMGU4312_001_2022_3-CHEMICALBIOLOGY : CHEMGU4312_001_2022_3 - CHEMICAL BIOLOGY Instructor: Virginia Cornish

It was nice to dive into things deeper outside of class