Veit Elser - Cornell University

Professor: Veit Elser

Department: TBD

College: Cornell University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2217
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Decent guy. Homework was light (but oddly worded!) for an honors course (4-10 hours per week). He only grades 1 problem per week, and doesn't have quizzes, so it was hard to self-evaluate; I went to lecture and also re-derived content from textbook + online notes. I felt unprepared for exams but did ok. 2217 labs are a joke, regardless of prof.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2217
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I loved this professor! Very interesting lectures. Presents material in a very accessible way, making sure everyone understands. Hope I get to take his class again.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2217
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Great teacher, interesting and easy-to-understand lectures. Makes problem sets himself and makes them related to each other. Loved his class.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2217
• 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:

Professor Elser is great. Super helpful in office hours and tests are fair.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2217
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Prof. Elser is a great guy, he has a weird sense of humor and loves physics a lot. But he's insane, like he expects that everyone in his class is a genius. This class is the hardest thing I've ever done, in my whole life. The homeworks cannot be done outside office hours, but he usually eases off for the prelims since they're in-class.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2217
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

We barely learn anything in lecture - he expects that we read the lecture notes in advance, so there are rarely notes to take. He also is very hard to hear sometimes. HWs are difficult and impossible sometimes to understand what he is asking. And, even though this is "honors" E&M, the "regular" E&M (2213) has harder content and learns more than us!

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6561
• 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:

If Prof. Elser is teaching a graduate level course, take it.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6561
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Elser is a genius, and I felt way smarter walking out of each of his entertaining lectures. He organized the class brilliantly and explained every topic very clearly, with negligible hand-waving. I definitely recommend taking a class with him if you have the chance.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: P3318
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

He prints out extremely comprehensive lecture notes, but unfortunately theres no text to accompany the course. I quite liked him as a professor, he lectures well, but often assumed familiarity with material that many had not seen before. (i.e. tensors, perturbations etc.)

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: 2218
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

No book, and it's a mistake. The class is disjointed and doesn't follow a standard curriculum at all. Did not prepare me for future physics classes. It was more of a random assortment of things he decided to teach, and the tests were out of left field.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PHYS3318
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Overall excellent professor, highly recommended. It's not an easy class, but you will learn a lot and Prof. Elser makes it fun.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PHYS3341
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I think Veit did an excellent job giving us a conceptual understanding of statistical physics. He went a tad too slowly, though.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PHYS116
• 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:

His lectures are interesting and enlightening. Admittedly, if you do not have a really, really good basic physics background, he does not go into enough depth for you to learn physics. The homeworks and tests can be really challenging; however, if you go to his office hours, he will walk you through everything. He's a great guy to learn from.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PHYS116
• 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:

Teaches a very structured way to think about the fundamentals of mechanics. I took AP C in high school so I thought this would be a breeze, but it was very challenging. Interesting problem sets.Very rewarding if you put forth the effort.Deals with vectors especially well.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PHYS116
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

This class is awesome. Elser basically starts each lecture with 1+1=2, and by the end builds up to some ridiculously complicated concept -- but you understand it somehow. Unlike most other professors, he constantly stops to explain things in 3-4 different ways to help you develop intuition for what he's teaching. Homework is easy, exams are fair

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PHYSICS116
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Wow. I got to say, I have no idea where the other commenenters are coming from. His tests are fair, he wrote all the material himself, we talk about really interesting things in lecture, and we have learned an entirely new way of thinking! All my friends are thrilled with the class and always attend to see what new thing we will go over next.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: 116
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Terrible Teacher. I used to love physics, and he has made me despise waking up 3 times a week and going to his retarded class. Absolutely the most ambiguous prof I have ever had. He is always ill prepared to give lectures and can never quite get his point across. If you can avoid him by all means do.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PHYS116
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

His class is HARD. His lectures are useless. His prelims are confusing. And his class is HARD.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: PHY116
• 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:

this guy can't talk normal, but i guess he's pretty smart. doesn't change the fact his teaching isn't good

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PHYS116
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

One word of advice: go to office hours. He will spend a lot of time helping you work out the problems and you will pick up a lot on the way. The class isn't easy, so don't expect free marks.