u/InteractionKlutzy876

Hi everyone! This will be a somewhat longer post, but im an incoming member of the Class of 2030 at SEAS, and with course registration coming up, I'm finalizing my schedule. The reviews for some profs on CULPA are really mixed, or their name simply doesn't come up, so instead of making a bunch of posts about each one im doing it all here. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!! Im premed, so taking courses with professors who have manageable workloads and are relatively fair with grading is super important. Thank you again, and see you on campus!!

PHYS 1401- Intro to Mechanics and Thermo:

Has anyone had Hector Ochoa? I can't seem to find reviews on him. Is he a good teacher? How manageable is the workload? What's the grading scheme? How much physics background is needed for Ochoa's class? For reference, I've only taken Regents Physics (it's the intro physics course all NYC students take)

If you had to pick between James Hill and Hector Ochoa, who would you pick? Is James Hill as bad as the CULPA reviews make him out to be?

CHEM 1403 - General Chemistry 1:

How similar is this course to what is taught in AP Chemistry?

Between Savizky, Roy, and Beer, who do you feel is the best chem professor and why?

Everyone raves about Beer, but his reviews for this course specifically aren't that great. If anyone had him for 1403 and could share their perspective, I'd really appreciate it!

Calc 1

Does anyone know anything about Alexander Hazeltine? How is his workload and grading system? Is the course comparable to AP Calculus AB?

^^ Same question for Andres Contreras and Fan Haocheng; I can't find any of them on CULPA

Im also taking Lit Hum!! Any recommendations on Lit Hum professors would be appreciated as well!

Sorry this was super long, but thank you again for all your help!

The title!! Im an incoming freshman at SEAS, but I really hope to take Lit Hum my freshman year. There's a little over a month left of summer, and I've been wanting to get back into reading anyway, so I was hoping anyone could give some suggestions on books to read to hopefully make the reading load for Lit Hum a little easier! Are The Odyssey and the Iliad still good places to start? I read somewhere that the book list has changed, and if so, what books should I begin with? Thank you in advance, and see you on campus!!

Hi everyone! Im an incoming freshman at SEAS, and I was wondering if you had any insight on the process of internally transferring from SEAS to CC? I initially applied to SEAS as I wanted to pursue engineering alongside a pre-professional track, but im reconsidering and thinking about a switch to CC as I want to focus more on the pre-professional track and take more of the core classes (part of the reason why I applied to Columbia). I would likely do a STEM major in CC as well. How hard is it to transfer? Is there anything I should be doing my freshman year in SEAS to make the transfer more likely? Would switching from SEAS to a STEM major at CC make the process easier than if I chose to switch to a non-STEM major? In the "next steps" section of the welcome portal, we're told we will meet with advisors soon for course planning, so I was also curious to know if this is something I should be bringing up to my advisor. Any advice and clarity would be greatly appreciated! Thank you, and I can't wait to see you on campus!!