COMM 2003

Decent lectures, not that interesting, but bearable. The class is graded on homework, final group project, exams, labs, participation, and take-home quizzes. The class itself isn't difficult; however, Professor Schuff grades harshly, taking off very nitty-gritty points. The homework is not difficult. There is no rubric that we can see on our end until graded, so there's a bunch of stuff in the rubric that was not mentioned in the directions of the HW. Schuff grades HW as he sees fit, with little to no room for explanations. The class itself has so many labs that it's ambiguous as to what will be on the exams, since it's only the "concepts" of the labs. He gives us a study guide, but it is of very little help. As for the take-home quizzes, they are super easy with readings corresponding to that week's unit. For participation, it's fine because he asks about readings and ideas. Overall, the class itself is a little mundane. If you can take with another professor, go for it, but Schuff will do the job.

Class is not difficult but there is a decent amount of work that comes with it. I feel like the difference between A and A- for a lot of people will be based on what he decides your participation grade is. Participation for this semester was based on two parts (which was not explained until after final grades were put in...). The first part (10% of the total course grade) is a holistic assessment of attendance (showing up to class and on time), participation (contributing substantively to class discussion), and submitting lab deliverables completed and on time. The second part (5% of the total course grade) is your quiz score average, with your lowest quiz score dropped. Not sure what he considers a "substantial contribution" but I would say raise your hand as many times as you can in class to make sure you lock this part of the grade down. Apart from that just pay attention to every tiny detail of the homework and you should do pretty well.

Super nice guy, but this class was insanely boring. His lectures were so dull and I could hardly stay awake during them, which sucks since participation is a big part of your grade and he tracks it diligently. The homeworks are graded very harshly, with no explanation as to why. I ended with an A- purely because my homework grades were bad even though I did super well on the midterm, final, and final project. The TA is no help whatsoever and somewhat condescending. Wouldn't recommend this class, unfortunate that it's a comm requirement now.