Review:
I took this class to fulfill my 2nd Writing Foundation Requirement but it turned out to be one of my favorite classes of the semesters. The material was extremely interesting and taught me to think in a different way. While Professor McConnell can be monotonous, his comments on papers helped me improve my writing and my arguing skills greatly.

Workload:
A few short papers and a final essay of 3 short-answer questions.
Some reading, but writing is the focus of the class.
Also, all papers can be rewritten except the final.

review a class you took with Jeff McConnell - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Great teacher - assignments were fair, class discussions were always enlightening, and she really let the students decide the direction of the course.

Workload:
5 essays throughout the term, no tests or exams.

Assignments were very straightforward and for every one we had the opportunity to peer edit.

review a class you took with Susan Russinoff - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Professor Lupu chooses favorites early on in the semester and does not encourage other students to speak up. He seems to grade based on personal preference for students as well. He does not give constructive criticism on papers and barely makes any corrections. He will give you the grade he gave you on your first paper. Furthermore, he did not provide structure to the course and we did not even get through half the syllabus. I do not reccommend this class to anyone, especially to those of you who are looking to fulfill an English 2 requirement because Lupu will not help you focus on your writing. And he often misses classes due to his problems with his commute.

Workload:
There was a light amount of reading. There were three papers: one was written during the semester and the other two were part of the final exam, but it's doubtful whether Lupu reads them.

review a class you took with Peter Lupu - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Professor Link is very enthusiastic about the course material. He is extremely gregarious and courteous. However, that is him as an individual. As a professor, I cannot as highly of him. If you are the type of student that loves being bored in class, get ready! The class in not organized whatsoever and most of the readings and topics covered have nothing to do with each other. This is not a class you take if you have any form of ADD because you will be sorry. If you are trying to get rid of your English requirement do not take this course. Unlike the other intro courses that watch movies and do more interesting readings, this course does not entail any of the above.

Workload:
The workload was manageable, but the reading was extremely boring. Almost as boring as hearing a lecture on the reproduction cycles of green peas. You can do the papers without doing the reading and do well in the course.

review a class you took with Montgomery Link - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Professor Link is very excited about the course material. He is extremely helpful and is very interested to speak with students outside of class if they want. The class material is difficult but it is not difficult to get an A. Class is usually a lecture on the philosophy.

Workload:
Assignments are very straight forward. Not a lot of reading, but reading is dense and difficult. Link makes every effort to be fair.

review a class you took with Montgomery Link - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Jeff's a pretty cool guy. Very laidback, likes to get people talking but don't talk too much -- he may seem "out there" but he knows when someone's kissing ass. Beware of office hours; make sure you let him know you'll stop by or else he might be wandering around. I would definitely take another class with him.

Workload:
5 papers, each 5 pages but he drops one grade. Final is an essay. Lets you do rewrites pretty much all the time. Mostly not much reading but about 20% is really dense stuff (he'll explain it all in class anyway).

review a class you took with Jeff McConnell - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
He is the best teacher I?ve had a tufts in all four years! He gets you to think, he gets the best class discussions going, and he really cares about his students! He may not be the typical "follow the syllabus every step of the way" kind of teacher, but that's what makes him so unique and wonderful! He takes the class where it needs to go, not where the syllabus says it should go.

Workload:
There?s reading, but I never did it, and I still stayed right on top of the class discussions. The papers are easy and interesting. I was actually excited to write them (and that doesn't happen too often), not to mention he let's you do them over if you get anything lower than a B! It?s the only class I got an A+ in. you just need to join in on the class discussion and you'll be fine!

review a class you took with Peter Lupu - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
AMAZING! HE IS SUCH A FABULOUS TEACHER! HE SHOULD GET TO TEACH MORE CLASSES!!!

Workload:
Just papers that are fun to write! He wants everyone to get A's so it's difficult to do badly.

review a class you took with Peter Lupu - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
A great class for anyone who doesn't mind defending their opinions. The class was a bit unstructured, but that?s what kept it interesting. I found the people that get along best with Lupu have a really good sense of humor and don't take themselves too seriously. A lot of people said that he doesn't accept other opinions, but that?s usually because people present them in a way that clouds any real intelligence behind the idea. Lupu has a very concise and clear way of presenting his opinions and I have to say that most of the time I agreed with him. He was available for office hours the two times I attempted to see him.

Workload:
The only assignment he ever really gave was to "think", but you needed to read the assignments when he gave them and actually try and interpret what was said because usually the language is hard to understand. Easy papers. Easy final.

review a class you took with Peter Lupu - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Prof. McConnell is obviously very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the course. The material covered is interesting, although occasionally repetitive. Unfortunately, Prof. McConnell is not very tolerant of views other than his own. He often tries to simplify things into "yes" or "no" answers while many different interpretations of the question may apply.

Workload:
Reading assignments were not too difficult, and were always discussed in class. There were a total of four papers and a take-home final in the class. The papers were a little difficult because if you do not use the professor's viewpoint, you were usually penalized. They were almost never turned back on time, which became frustrating, but re-writes were encouraged if the student got a B- or less.

review a class you took with Jeff McConnell - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
I found it extremely extremely hard to pay attention in class. I always felt like I was watching him have conservations with a select few students that he seemed to have a strange affinity for, rather than engaging the entire class in a group discussion. He has a very one-sided point of view, will not listen to opposing points of view.

Workload:
The workload was what made this class worth taking it, because it was one of the easier classes I've taken at Tufts. We would have 10 pages of reading a week, and you can get summaries of all the readings off Spark Notes. The only frustrating thing was that he would give us little warning about papers, and would assign them to be due the next class (giving us on average about one weekend to do a paper). However, there are only two 3-5 page papers, and a take-home final which is two 4-5 page papers. Not bad at all, if you can stand the boring-ness of class.

review a class you took with Peter Lupu - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Very unstructured class. There would be weeks without any work, and then he would randomly lay down on a paper for us to do with less than a week's notice. In my opinion, he is not very tolerant of other opinions, and will condescend you if you offer opposing points of view. I would not recommend taking this class with this professor.

Workload:
Not very hard, although you have to pay attention in class to get a good grade on papers, because you need to basically regurgitate his opinions on your paper if you want a good grade, and trust me, paying attention in class will be a hard feat considering how repetitive and intolerant Lupu is.

review a class you took with Peter Lupu - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
The professor had an enthusiasm for the course and obvious knowledge of the course material and of philosophy in general. Class participation was heartily encouraged. The class itself was a bit unstructured, albeit fun, and I at least enjoyed going. Others sometimes seemed fed up with the lack of structure. The material itself was pretty interesting, but it got bit repetitive at times, and some of the readings were a bit hard to get through towards the end of them. Overall, a great, easy course to take, especially if you have any interest in the subject area, and to fill the second half of the writing requirement or a humanities distribution.

Workload:
Workload was really light, didn't even have readings every week, and they generally never added up to more than 10 or 15 pages a week, although parts tended to get a bit dense. We had one project paper that he would correct and we would have to hand back in, one 3-5 page paper, and then the final was two 3-5 page take home essays that we could choose from a list of questions he gave us and had a week to complete.

review a class you took with Peter Lupu - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Prof. McConnell definitely knows a lot about his subject and is enthusiastic about class. However, many lectures were somewhat boring. I was sometimes frustrated because Prof. McConnell always discussed concepts in terms of "right" and "wrong," which doesn't really make sense in philosophy. The essay questions were interesting, but the papers were never given back when promised.

Workload:
Not much reading most of the time, total of 4 papers and a take-home final

review a class you took with Jeff McConnell - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Newman is a great professor. The readings he selected were always very interesting discussion topics for the class. Participation and effort are key factors in receiving a good grade in this class--something that always indicates fair grading.

Workload:
The workload was moderate -- 1 to 3 readings per class and about 4 papers of 5-8 pages. Small homework?s as well.

review a class you took with Anthony Newman - help your classmates make informed decisions!

Review:
Professor Denby is one of the most interesting professors that you will meet at Tufts. Considering that it is very easy to go off on tangents in Philosophy, Professor Denby is incredibly organized and challenges his students to think. He reviews all material taught in the previous class before every class. In addition, he presents arguments very clearly, gives vivid examples, and encourages students to challenge the arguments. He is very neutral and will challenge any student that challenges him. He is also very enthusiastic, extremely funny, and available at most times (although he is so popular, there is a line out his office door). It is essential to attend this class because most of the course material is presented there. The readings are supplementary.

Workload:
This class does not have a tremendous amount of work. You can even get away with skipping the readings as long as you attend class. Although the readings are helpful and if you enjoy philosophy, you will love the readings. There are 4 papers throughout the semester (which are about 5-6 pages each) and then an optional paper. The papers are more of an exercise to show that you understand the main concepts than anything else.

review a class you took with David Denby - help your classmates make informed decisions!