Teaching Ability | Availability | Helpfulness | Workload* |   | | | | | Opinion: 3330 3332 - Oh, how do I give dear Virginia a review I could ever hope she would pay attention to?
Where to begin?
First, in response to other comments that say her reviews are “undeserving” …they very much so are well-placed, and Miss Virginia Green deserves all complaints she receives.
I believe, one of the first things she will let you know is that the negative comments are submitted by students who are sensitive and/or don’t put in the work to get a good grade… Slightly narcissistic? Gaslighting? Condescending?
Anyway, we started off the semester with a good (sarcasm) start. Throughout the semester, she had no sympathy for students’ availability. I worked a full-time job while going to school full time and could not make her office hours due to other classes and work schedules. Did she offer to meet at an outside time when I reached out to her to explain the complication? No. Instead, she said that her office hours and times to meet were what they were. So, is it really about “not being able to put in the work?” Or is it more about Virginia Green being a dictator?
During feedback sessions she was condescending, telling people things were bad without explaining the ‘why’ and practically just saying she didn’t like it and therefore it was bad, without relying on artistic choice and objective values like composition, color scheme, focal point, etc... It’s Virginia’s way or no way.
Her attitude was just the beginning of this hellscape of a class. The art department has a strict attendance policy as is, but Virginia’s was worse. Because of such a strict attendance policy, I had an event for law school where I would be able to gain mentorship, reference letters, and networking, so I asked if this could be an excused absence as I would only be missing one day, but I didn’t want it to take away from one of the grace days built within the attendance policy, in case I became sick or had an emergency….the dictator said that networking wasn’t a good enough reason to miss class. I’m sorry, what is college for??? The majority of the college, especially degrees within BA programs like art, rely heavily on networking.
I also attempted to study abroad for a semester, and I would need to take a specific graphic design course to graduate on time. The abroad program offered the course, but only emphasized 2/3 of the topics Green’s course did therefore it was not an already accepted course and would need the dean approval. I went to the dean for approval, and fear appeared in his eyes when it was Green’s course and he immediately said no, I would have to get the course approved by the devil herself- Green. I’m assuming you all know where I’m going with this. She said no. After explaining the reasoning (the missing topic) I attempted to plea for other options so could go. It was a no, regardless of my efforts. A college experience denied by an associate professor.
I’m hoping you all are still reading at this point because the best is yet to come.
The final point, the one that every future student of Virginia Green should be wary of: Is the final exam day.
The dead-days that occur between the last day of class and the final critique day are typically filled with anxiety, stress, and fear of the outcome. Green offered two office days where students could schedule appointments for help. I didn’t go, at this point, I had lost my passion for art and motivation to even comply with Green’s dictatorial, authoritarian teaching approach. But many proactive, engaged, ambitious students feared their grades and feared Green’s condescending feedback, so many went. Come the day of the final critique, which took place in the evening. The late morning of everyone is adding in the last details, mounting, etc., and the witch walks in. She holds her chin up, hands behind her back, and puts one foot in front of the other at a slow pace, all while humming; In other words, she was mocking the anxiety of the students in the room. As I laughed at her strut, a student, one of the kinds I had mentioned earlier, dares to ask a last-minute question. Green refuses to answer, following up her ‘no’ with a comment about how all questions should have been asked in a review meeting. The student pleas as it was a quick question. Green refuses to help again.
Mind you, there are HOURS remaining. If Green came into the room without a willingness to help her students, why come in at all? (Hint: I answered this earlier….to mock). Tired of her (and I mean everything about her), I confronted her and asked her if she was refusing to help her students, she followed it up with the same reply, questions should have been asked during office hours. Again, I asked, are you refusing to help her, now? She told me I had nothing to worry about. Not my concern, as I said, I was done with her and the class.
She never answered the student’s questions.
If you take anything from my experience with her, know that I changed my major at the end of my junior year because she was so dreadful to be with. She lacks remorse, sympathy, empathy, and compassion; and she tries to rebut her cold heart with a ‘people-don’t-like-my-bluntness’ mentality. She’s a bully. Ask a graphic design student how many students she had made cry…no professor should have a reputation like that.
Did I mention she’s only an associate professor, she can’t get tenured because of the student feedback she receives. There might be a small handful of good reviews in here, and you might not have a choice to take her, so you cling to those good reviews, but those good reviews don’t supersede the bulk of negative feedback on here. You better go in expecting the worst and remove any sort of sensitivity you have; Go in ready to fight.
The only thing I will say that is semi-nice of her, she does respect confrontation. So if you take her class, questioning her will not lead to a bad grade; She at least has that going for her.
Good luck! - Grade In Class:B | | Date Listed: 2022-09-30 |
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Teaching Ability | Availability | Helpfulness | Workload* | | | | | | Opinion: Ideas In Math - Your opinion of Steven Cates will entirely depend on how detail-oriented you are, and how much you have in terms of math background. He can often be unreasonably harsh when grading exams, and sometimes it takes some digging to determine where you went wrong. He seems to be particularly picky about rounding, and how your problems and work are organized. It might help to show your work step-by-step, although I never tried that when I was a freshman. He occasionally marks things in red pen without articulating why your answer is incorrect. As a person with ADHD, this was very painful. He seemed to treat my accommodations as an active inconvenience to him. Asking questions usually leads to him restating what was previously said, and I was actively afraid of asking questions for fear of being dismissed or actively annoying Cates. As others have said, he has no set office hours. He meets only by appointment and he seems to use in person meetings as a last resort, preferring to help over email. The Mathlab examples are a good way to understand concepts that you’re struggling with. You’ll have to consult some outside resources if you struggle in math. Be warned that tutoring is also not offered for Ideas, so you’ll be doing a lot of independent work. I generally recommend Cates as a last resort prof, and if you have him, I hope my tips help. - Grade In Class:C+ | | Date Listed: 2022-09-27 |
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