Ken Boas - University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Professor: Ken Boas

Department: Literature

College: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: SEMINARINCOMP
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Boas has a strong personality along with his opinions, but don't let that scare you! His class is not very difficult, but there is a lot of writing. He generally gives out Bs on essays, even if you are a goodaverage writer. He talks a lot and goes off topic, but he is very wise and really provokes thought.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: 0200
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Ken is a hard grader. He's unclear in what he wants from you and also what he takes points off of in your essays. I was bored to death in every class, and he often makes a point to call out students' weaknesses and criticize them and their essays in front of everyone. Would not take this class -- or at least with him as a teacher.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: ENGLT0627
• 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:

I dont know y Boas has this low of a rating. I thought he was a great professor! I agree w/ prev. comments; hes opinionated & VERY liberal. In his SportsLit class, we had 2 papers (each 3 pg) & 1 final paper. I got an A on all & im an average student. He will randomly take attendance so u should go to most classes. lots of films. interesting class!

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: ENG0628
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Working Class Lit. should be renamed Socialism 101. This pretentious, middle class Prof. jumps up on his soapbox, pumps his fist in the air, & shouts repetitively, "Unite Comrades!" He shoves his raging leftist beliefs down students' throats until they want to vomit. He's unorganized, ambiguous with assignments, & incredibly narrow minded. HELL!

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ENGCM0200
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Boas is an extremely opinionated, intelligent individual. If you happen to have a more conservative worldview, you'll find him hard to get along with. He tends to ramble during class and will only give an "A" to your paper if you wrote it exactly like he would. Overall, he's really not worth the trouble so if you have him, switch out.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: ENG250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

terrible. asks for oppinions, then if you don't agree with him *your wrong* teaches every subject in this LITERATURE course, except lit. what a great professor

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: LIT0625
• 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:

I don't think I understood where he was getting his ideas from. Would go off on long rants that had absolutly NOTHING to do with the subject matter whatsoever. Every book we discussed, he pulled his social issues and homosexuality into it. Barely any A's...but I still liked him for some reason. Don't reccomend him, but can't hate him, either.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: ENGLI0625
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

This man is the worst professor I've ever had. He had no intention in teaching Detective Fiction at all, but rather in attempting to recruit students for his socialist agenda. The man doesn't give A's. He's rude, interrupts students that are speaking, and overall worthless. Do not register for his classes; you will regret it.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ENGLI0365
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He's your stereotypical professor: leftist, stuffy, white, eccentric. He can ramble a bit about politics sometimes - but he usually makes an attempt to tie it to the literature. The books chosen were good, and he's not a difficult grader. Don't be late though - he might call you out on it.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: ENGL150
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I had him at Point Park for English Comp 1. Horrible. Most uninteresting subjects. He would hand back papers with corrections that you couldn't even read. I would also say he is very opinionated. I made sure to get out of his class for the next semester. He graded papers so hard. Barely any A's!

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: LIT0365
• 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:

Classes were boring at times, but usually brought up funny topics to talk about in class. Pretty nice guy.. He would always say hi and talk to every student he knew when he passed them on the street.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: LIT500
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Boas is definitely into politics and is definitely radical. Really knew his stuff when it came to detective fiction, which made up about 90% of what we talked about in class. Don't take his class if for some reason you are happy with the Bush administration.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: FS0006
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

HORRIBLE class. He pretty much ranted the whole period...a lot of b.s. What the others said. If your assignments reflected opinions outside of his he had a fit. I had a check plus on every paper until I decided to go outside of my own opinion and his as well actually, and i got a check. The paper was written BEAUTIFULLY. Beware...you'll regret it!

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: SEMINARINCOMP
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Of course somebody that would describe Ken as "anti-semitic" is going to hate is class. He gets along with intelligent, mature students that aren't looking for the easy A. This isn't the typical "write your paper 2 days before it's due" class. Put some time intot he class and you will be able to organize a darned good paper, one of many rewards.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: FRESHMANSEMINA
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

his complete and utter lack of preparation for class was incredibly frustrating, would show up for class entirely unprepared and take the first 15-20 minutes to figure out what the hell to do that day while you completed busywork. extent of writing advice was -"you should go to the writing center".

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: DETFICTION
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Oops, somehow I ended up in Liberal Propaganda 101. And here I thought I signed up for Detective Fiction...

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: WORKCLASSLIT
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

I admire his passion for politics. However, I feel that more time should have been spent on the readings (it is a literature class afterall) instead of Boas' radical repetitive rantings.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: ENGLIT625
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Just be warned, you're not signing up for a literature class, you're signing up for an hour 15 minute radical, left wing political rant. I am in a class called "Detective Fiction" with him where we listen to him rant about why the US needs to give in to Bin Laden and something about how Republicans might as well "put a gun to their heads."

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: FS3
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Ken is a crazy guy. He utilized our seminar to make clear his extremely leftist political leanings. Writing portion of the seminar was entirely unproductive and took a back seat to political discussions. Easy grader though, as long as you can write fairly well. I wouldn't recommend him.

Rating # 20

Overview:

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

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

Comment:

I withdrew from his class I hated it so much. Boas made a comment that middle class students from the suburbs were stupid and needed to shut up, then went on a rant about the Middle East even though it had NOTHING to do with what we we read. He used the class as a soapbox, and even though I agree with him, I found him rude and in poor taste.