David Rohrlich - Boston University, Boston, MA

Professor: David Rohrlich

Department: Mathematics

College: Boston University, Boston, MA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

It's hard to learn everything necessary, but he's happy to help if you have questions. He's also really enthusiastic and values the effort you put in to the class once it comes to final grades. Go to class, take the quizzes, and go to office hours and you'll be okay. The tests were very different from the work done in class and for homework though.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Tests are hard. Especially in the third part of the course. Don't get cocky that you did well on the first one.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Professor Rohrlich is an amazing mathematician, a true genius. But he is awful at lecturing, and even worse, his tests are infinitely more difficult than the problems he does in class. He does examples in class that are easy and make sense, and then the homework and tests are impossible. His office hours don't help in the slightest, either.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

To be completely objective, this is a professor who knows his stuff. But what I personally didn't like was he didn't understand that students have other classes to take. He was very reluctant to explain concepts that I missed during lecture over office hours. Wouldn't recommend him when you have a tough semester.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: MA123
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Very knowledgeable professor but I don't recommend taking his class. I struggled in this course b/c of the irrelevance between lectures and tests so I then got a private tutor which helped. I visited his office to ask what I could do to improve and he answered with "I'm not sure, but all I can recommend is you do more problems". Little to no help.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: MA411
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Great mathematician, terrible lecturer.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Rohrich is clearly a brilliant mathematician, but a subpar lecturer and teacher. His vocabulary mostly consists of "um", and he has trouble putting together clear thoughts in a sentence. His answers are often vague. He can be very condescending when answering questions, this created an environment in which asking questions was frowned upon. Avoid.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: MA411
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

There are quizzes at the end of every lecture, but they're helpful to stay on top of the material and a nice grade booster. Material is clear and well taught. Would absolutely take again.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: MA123
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Honestly he is not a good professor and he makes you work for your grade through sheer memorization which is not a good way of teaching. Avoid imo

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: D-
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Classes don't make sense and exams don't match anything you do on homeworks or class examples... You study and then exams will be nothing like the homework or class problems. Lectures are boring and he goes on tangents...

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He is very nice and tries his best but he is just not clear. He often goes off on long tangents and forget about what he was talking about. Lectures are really boring and you need to do the homework to pass the weekly quizzes in discussion.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: MA411
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He is very good at making hard concepts easy and he tries his best to remember your name. His grading is very clear and he is very friendly. One of the best professors in the department.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: MA129
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Awesome guy, I'm fortunate enough to have him as my adviser too. He's incredibly clear and really kind but if you don't put in the work he will fail you. He's super awkward and genuinely loves what he does and it just makes the class so enjoyable. I really can't stress how clearly and perfectly he goes through the proofs. Would take him every year.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

You can tell how much professor Rohrilich likes maths from his lectures. Homework problems are similar to lecture examples. If you do homework, weekly quiz should be easy. Midterms are not hard if you understand homework and quiz problems. Final is a little harder but he gave extra credits. He is also a kind grader. Great professor!

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: MA412
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Rohrlich is awesome. His lectures are clear and makes sure that the students understand whats going on. If you have any questions, you can make an appointment with him (if you can't make his office hours) and he'll answer everything. He gave quizzes in this class but they were always based off of lectures or homework so easy to do well on them

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: MA412
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

A really great professor, he is very enthusiastic and cares that his students learn the material. Best 15 out of 24 daily quizzes counted for 30% of grade, and tests were straightforward and exactly like the homework. Pay attention in class and go to discussion to get all the answers for the homework, and getting a 100% on 15 quizzes is easy.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: MA442
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Very clear lecturer, and made sure the class understood everything before moving on. Tough grader on his weekly quizzes, but the quizzes were the assigned homework problems for the week, so you already knew the problems that could appear. Very helpful in office hours, which is necessary to make sure you can do the homework perfectly. Great class.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He is a very friendly professor. His tests are very similar to the homework problems while his quizzes are exactly homework problems. As long as you do all the homework (it is not much), you will get an A. And he is there for you. If you have questions, just check if he is in his office and ask him.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Prof. Rohrlich's lectures are kind of all over the place, as in he often goes from the middle of one problem to explaining some other concepts then jump into another problem. He is a genuinely nice guy, if you go to all his lectures, do all his homework and visit him in office hours you should be fine. Emphasis on SHOULD.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: MA225
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

His exams are extremly hard. He has those problems that never look similar to any of the quiz problems or homework questions on the exam. His explanations are kind of confusing because he skip steps when he do problems on the blackboard.