Owen Astrachan - Duke University, Durham, NC

Professor: Owen Astrachan

Department: Computer Science

College: Duke University, Durham, NC

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI201
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Interesting, funny guy. Class is huge (300+) so can be hard to pay attention but he tries to make it interesting and lectures available online. Gives you a solid foundation of Java and made me want to take more compsci. Throws a ton of free points at you and assignments/tests aren't too tough - median grade is an A-. Is pretty disorganized though

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI201
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Professor Astrachan is a great professor for 201 really cementing these comp sci topics in your head. The class is very project and test based, but the tests and projects are fair. My only critique with this class would be that at times, disorganized.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI201
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

So many things to do neverending!! but lectures are great and the UTAs are fantastic. They make all the difference

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI201
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Great professor! A bit disorganized, but he is a master of the material and really knows how to teach.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: COMPS101L
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Astrachan is a great lecturer and this class was fun! I would often look forward going to class. Work is not too difficult but expect to spend a fair amount of time on the class. One complaint is that we never got feedback on our assignments, but everything ended up working out in the end. Would recommend him as a professor overall though!

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI101
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Keep up with all the assignments, go to lab, do the WOTOs, and GO TO OFFICE HOURS IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS! Lectures are streamed online, which is a definite plus. I bombed two of the exams and I suck pretty badly at CS but still somehow managed to walk away with an A-... THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR REDEMPTION IN THIS CLASS. All hail Ola.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: COMPS101L
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Absolutely loved his class! He really makes his lectures fun!

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CS201
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

This guy is an unclear lecturer. He is also pretty disorganized. CS201 was one of the worst classes that I've taken at Duke so far. The due dates were always up in the air, you don't really know how you're doing in the class until the end of the semester, and he doesn't really emphasize important points in lectures.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: CS201
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Astrachan is really the best lecturer I have encountered so far. Not only is he super hilarious (at least during lectures), but he is able to explain difficult concepts in an amazingly clear and interesting manner. The quality and depth of his lectures have also improved from previous semesters. You should get an A if you work reasonably hard.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: CS342
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Prof. Astrachan is a great lecturer, but taking a seminar with him was awful. He did very little to help mediate discussion, and sometimes it felt like he hadn't even read the articles he assigned. He only graded two of our many assignments, and he regularly missed meetings scheduled with students. He was also rude to some of the students in class.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI201
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

It was hard in the beginning to adjust from Python to Java if you came from 101. Projects were confusing and there was a lot of homework, whether it was projects or APTs. Luckily the APT solutions were posted. Tests weren't too bad and they made the higher midterm grade your total midterm grade.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: CS342S
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Astrachan is a great lecturer, but can't do seminars. What you need for a good seminar -- communication, feedback, guided discussions -- are Astrachan's weaknesses. He frequently talks over students and seems to prefer refuting things we say rather than helping us actually learn. The upside is, since he's so disorganized, the class is really easy.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CS201
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Good lecturer but really bad on turning assignments back to students in a timely manner

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI201
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Astrachan, overall, is a pretty funny and nice guy. However, I don't think he's the best professor, contrary to what people said in previous years. At least my year, grading was quite slow and I felt as if the lectures in the class were disorganized. However, I do think that if you put in effort, you will learn quite a lot in an important CS class!

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI201
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Had no java experience to start but got full credit on APTs and assignments because of help hours. Can be hard to focus during his lectures, but they're recorded so watching them was very useful. Astrachan was disorganized the whole semester. Got brutalized on the first test and didn't do well on the second but a good final can make up for it.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Best professor ever! Take his class even if you hate compsci. I do, and it was still a great experience :)

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI92
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Very funny professor who is knowledgeable in the field, and deserves more credit than he gives himself for his programming skills. However some of the lectures cover a variety of unrelated topics and there is little class participation except for Google forms and class activities. Labs were hands-off and included following premade instructions.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Not a very difficult class. Out of all 101 professors, he's definitely the way to go. There were two professors that semester (him and Rogers). It was obvious that Astrachan was the better professor. He was funny and made CS as interesting as possible.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: CS101
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Great Professor. The class was super easy, but he made lectures interesting and funny.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: COMPSCI101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Learning to code is a really useful skill. I liked the class and APTs were fun but the assignments were so annoying. Get ahead as much as you can because at the end of the semester the assignments get a lot tougher and take more time. Online textbook is free and interactive