Merry White - Boston University

Professor: Merry White

Department: TBD

College: Boston University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Let me preface this by saying she is incredibly nice and very smart. That being said this is probably one of the hardest courses I have taken at BU. An absurd amount of reading and homework. She seems thinks this is the only course we are taking. Weekly reading write ups, madatory weekend field trips, etc. My other grades suffered as a result.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

She's a nice lady, but assigns a ridiculous amount of busywork. Everything you do involves excessive note-taking, from *weekend* field trips to the movies you watch. There are weekly two page write-ups with vague instructions, and 3 times a semester you need to review all the readings in a 5+ page doc. Only take if you REALLY like homework...

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Great professor!

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

She assigns out-of-class work and field trips like she has no concept of time and that students have other things to do. Her lectures are boring and disorganised. The class isn't unfair and if you pay a little attention & do the readings you'll get an A, it's just excruciatingly boring and there's a lot of busywork, weekend field trips, and movies.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

The lectures are somewhat interesting, with of movies and discussions. However, professor white assigns a ridiculous amount of out-of-class work where the assignments are very vague, leaving you with a feeling that you don't know what you're doing most of the time -- even though these assignments are the lion's share of your grade. Too stressful.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: AN309709
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Best Part: NO textbooks. Took this class you are assigned readings. Mandatory walks. I found this class great as an elective. Final exams for undergraduates were 2 essays which I found to not be too difficult. I would take this class, but remember" attendance mandatory Readings are optional except for when ur writing papers.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: AN505
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I have taken two anthropology courses with Professor White and I loved both of them. She is incredibly intelligent, extremely knowledgeable about her field, chooses great texts and films to study, and leads excellent discussions. Very helpful in office hours, but hard to get ahold of. I would highly recommend any of her classes!

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Terrible terrible professor. Totally unclear about assignments, I had no idea what I was doing more than half the time. Assigns WAY too much work, I think she thought this was the ONLY class i was taking. Field trips every weekend and penalties for not attending trips that were outside class time. Worst professor I've ever had.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: AN344
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Gave vaguely defined "reading response" assignments - which she GRADED. Disorganized, infrequently available, syllabus dates were all wrong. Her lectures were well-presented when she read from her papers. VERY proud of herself, clearly loves media attention. I was very interested in subject matter before, wouldn't take a class with her again.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• 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:

She has a ton of knowledge but utterly fails to pass it on to the class. She has absolutely no structure in her lectures and expects you to know every detail she has mentioned or is in the 1000+ pages of reading throughout the semester for the final because completely specific questions. Plus she never goes over the readings. Field trips are useful

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: AN345
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

An interesting class, but not one for the faint of heart. VERY heavy workload--movies every week, TONS of reading, papers, midterm and final, field trips (outside of class time). The concepts are very abstract and difficult to test. IDs are completely random. If you're just looking for a fun, interesting class, don't pick this one.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

The material is really interesting and she's a good- if totally random- lecturer. The field trips are mostly worth while but towards the end you might lose interest. The grading is really random and if you're taking the honors section, there is a TON of reading.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: AN344
• 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:

As long as you do the readings and can hear her enough to take notes during lectures, you'll be fine. She is vague about the midterm, so that'll require some studying, but I'd say this class was overall rather easy.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

This class would be great if there were no readings or no final. White is a very interesting, well-traveled woman who is clearly very smart. However, she is a terrible teacher. She grades randomly and gives zero preparation for a final that requires an impossible amount of detail. Don't take this class; it's not worth the workload or stress.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: AN344
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Professor White could be a good teacher in a small class, but in my lecture of about 20 people she did not know anyone's names, it was very impersonal, and she just droned on to us for the entire 50 minutes. The subject would have been much more interesting if she hadn't focused so much on a Japanese family in the 80s. Erratic grader as well

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: AN345
• 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:

Great topic (Travel & Tourism); interesting person stories; very interesting readings but WORK LOAD IS VERY LARGE; midterm, movies every week, heavy reading, field work, and research paper; very fun class and she's great (even if a little court in office hours)

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: AN308
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

A class on food is inherently exciting(for most). You go on field trips around Boston and try new food. One midterm and 2 papers (easily graded). Tons of reading (on course website) but they're interesting. Also, lots of films in lieu of classes. She's quite an interesting lady. Highly recommend her.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: AN344
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

What I'd reccommend about this class? just don't. It isn't worth it. A lot of what she says in class is irrelevant, she makes class trips (that are outside of class hours) mandatory [even for students who have class during that time], she's horrible at lecturing, she information is mostly outdated, and teachs from her own texts, and just no.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: AN344
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

This was such an interesting class, but unfortunately prof white sucked. She puts all the readings on reserve, talks ridiculously quitely, and wrote most of the books so its hard to BS your way through. She ended up being pretty easy with grades though, i expected to get a C and ended up with a B+.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: AN550
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Prof White was one of the only helpful professors @ BU. OK, she speaks softly, but as an adult you should ask her to speak up. Her reading materials & videos were interesting & she had amazing personal stories. She was 100% accessible to me re:my paper and gave me an amazing grade. She knows who puts effort into her classes. Take her and enjoy!