Joseph Alter - University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Professor: Joseph Alter

Department: Anthropology

College: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: ANTH1761
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Alter is the most interesting person I've ever met. Med anthro was cool as hell. The quizzes are a little hard but are based on bolded terms from the textbook or concepts he puts in the lecture slides and he curves the quizzes anyway. Taking more of his classes!

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0717
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Alter is such a cool guy. He loves what he's teaching and does it well. Pretty sure he's a genius, I think he's written seven books. Tests are kinda hard, but they're graded on a curve. Tested on reading material, so at least skim the assignments before the exam. Lecture notes are posted online, but i suggest attending lecture

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: ANTH1761
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

There is so much reading for this class. I am a Lit major, and I have never done so much reading. It has become my hardest class, and I am not an anthro major. Its a pretty interesting class, but you have to be prepared to work your butt off. The recitations are mandatory, but the lectures are not, and he puts the lecture notes online.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: INTROTOCULANT
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Just don't take his intro to cultural anthropology class. Just DO NOT do it. If you like your GPA, DO NOT DO IT. If you do, make sure you have a good TA because I had a bad one and it was just an absolute disaster. Just don't. This class is way more difficult than it needs to be for an intro course and it screwed my honors role all up. Just don't.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Excellent lecturer! I took this class as a requirement for my anthropology major and was blown away by how intelligent and passionate Dr. Alter was. He is not at all intimidating. I felt very comfortable approaching him after lectures. He definitely left me feeling inspired to continue with my studies in anthro.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

He is a really passionate professor who tries to give students a better understanding of interacting with different people. His work is based in India and a lot of the examples in class relate to that because its what he knows well. Lectures do not relate to the textbook or the readings he assigns, but they all enhance cultural understanding.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Overall, you can tell that he loves what he does, but the lectures are very long and sometimes very repetitive. I had a terrible TA, but if you're lucky to have a decent TA, it probably wouldn't have been that bad of a class.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: ANTH1761
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I have a strong interest in anthro and I enjoy Alter's class. He explains things well, and has relevant experiences to the course. Material is very focused on South Asia. He makes a lot of grammatical mistakes in his slides. TONS of reading, and it's unrelated to the lectures and there is no discussion of them. Overall good class though.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Don't take this class if you are just using it as a gen ed! He expects you to know about anthropology already and his tests are confusing!

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0350
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Alter is the sweetest man alive. Definitely take him. I took Intro to Cultural with him and he is a WONDERFUL lecturer. Sometimes the films in class could be boring but his lectures were always interesting if you pay attention. Tests aren't all too difficult. Take him!!

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: HIST1761
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Alter's Medical Anthro was great. Amazingly easy and actually cool. I literally did zero studying except for the day prior to each exam and got a B. With a bit more effort on my part, could have been an easy A. And he's awesome, the class is fun, and he looks like a sexy Steve Jobs. Take this class!

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: ANTH1761
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Great class for anyone interested in medicine especially pre-meds working on the certificate. Opens your eyes to some interesting forms of healing around the world. Lectures sometimes were very boring but overall I would recommend the class. Dr. Alter is a great teacher and very fair grader on exams and papers.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: MEDAN1
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Medical Anthro. I did not like him as a professor. I can respect the fact that he is very intelligent and knows his stuff, but class moved extremely fast and covered a huge variety of topics. The tests were very challenging. Go to class, pay attetion, read the book and you won't fail.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0781
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Pretty easy, curve can be weird and will give a few weird test questions but most very straight forward, type of class you can cram for but his online powerpoints dont cover alot of what he says in class so you really should still go, just studying those isn't enough+book reading wont help in studying for test. Nice guy, good at explaining, helpful

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: ANTH780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Test questions had debatable answers. i know one of them 2/3 TA's got wrong but he refused to allow both answers to be considered correct. super clear during lectures, found movies to be rather boring. average class, take the elective if it fits in your schedule well

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Alter is a knowledgeable guy who knows a lot about his field and is an interesting lecturer. Although not the most exciting material, some of it is cool. I would recommend going to class to understand everything/have test info. Recitation wasn't that helpful, but attend for a good grade. The tests were a bit challenging, but not terribly hard.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

To me, this class was pretty challenging. I had no idea what to study, and it was very hard for me to be focused. I had no idea what the professor wanted from me with his papers, and no idea how to do well on his tests. i never took anthropology before this, and i probably will never take a class after.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

For a man possessing a doctorate and having written 8 books, Dr. Alter is extremely down-to-earth and presents his lectures in a very matter-of-fact manner that is easily understood. The course isn't easy and requires attentiveness to readings/lectures, but I walked away from it with an A and the rewarding feeling that I actually learned something.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Pretty easy class... Alter is pretty witty, but class is still generally boring

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: ANTH0780
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

VERY boring. Verbose speaker who takes 100 words to say something that could be said in 10. The class would be okay if the TA Brittany Rast wasn't so terrible. She was absolutely incompetent & could barely answer any of my questions. She grades unfairly and is very lazy; she rarely actually showed up. All im saying is, I had a 4.0 before this class