How to Choose a Course and Professor in College
Monday, September 8th, 2008Silviu Hagea asked:
The first thing you are going to want to look at when choosing a course in college is to look at your Degree Audit Summary (DAS). Your DAS is specific to your major and includes all the courses you need to take over your four years in college in order to complete your graduation requirements. Usually your first two years of college are spent fulfilling your general core requirements and then your last two years of college are spent taking classes specific to your major and fulfilling electives.
After you look at your DAS and you know which course you want/need to take it is now time to choose a professor. Through my college experience I have found that the following steps are helpful when choosing a professor.
1. Ask older students for advice
Your peers are full of knowledge and love to offer advice to young students. Seek out older students in your major and ask them for advice on which classes and professors to take. A simple 5 minute conversation with a classmate can save you a semester worth of stress or a poor grade.
2. Use SyllabusCentral.com
SyllabusCentral is a great tool when choosing a class and professor. On SyllabusCentral you can download the syllabus of any class that you wish to take. For the syllabus you can get a feel for the professor and look at important factors like grading structure, number of exams, presentation, projects, and a bunch of other important factors that affect your decision. You can also view comments from your classmates on the site as well.
3. Use RateMyProfessors.com
RateMyProfessors is a great tool to use in conjunction with SyllabusCentral. At RateMyProfessors you read reviews from your classmates on different professors. The reviews are usually pretty good, but you have to sometimes take them with a grain of salt. I have had professors that got terrible reviews, but I had a good experience in the class. If there are a bunch of reviews you can usually get a pretty good idea of how the professor is going to be.
My advice is to spend a little time choosing your classes and professors because if you get stuck with poor classes and poor professors it can make for a long semester.
Dora
The first thing you are going to want to look at when choosing a course in college is to look at your Degree Audit Summary (DAS). Your DAS is specific to your major and includes all the courses you need to take over your four years in college in order to complete your graduation requirements. Usually your first two years of college are spent fulfilling your general core requirements and then your last two years of college are spent taking classes specific to your major and fulfilling electives.
After you look at your DAS and you know which course you want/need to take it is now time to choose a professor. Through my college experience I have found that the following steps are helpful when choosing a professor.
1. Ask older students for advice
Your peers are full of knowledge and love to offer advice to young students. Seek out older students in your major and ask them for advice on which classes and professors to take. A simple 5 minute conversation with a classmate can save you a semester worth of stress or a poor grade.
2. Use SyllabusCentral.com
SyllabusCentral is a great tool when choosing a class and professor. On SyllabusCentral you can download the syllabus of any class that you wish to take. For the syllabus you can get a feel for the professor and look at important factors like grading structure, number of exams, presentation, projects, and a bunch of other important factors that affect your decision. You can also view comments from your classmates on the site as well.
3. Use RateMyProfessors.com
RateMyProfessors is a great tool to use in conjunction with SyllabusCentral. At RateMyProfessors you read reviews from your classmates on different professors. The reviews are usually pretty good, but you have to sometimes take them with a grain of salt. I have had professors that got terrible reviews, but I had a good experience in the class. If there are a bunch of reviews you can usually get a pretty good idea of how the professor is going to be.
My advice is to spend a little time choosing your classes and professors because if you get stuck with poor classes and poor professors it can make for a long semester.
Dora
