Gerald Meier

School: University of Pittsburgh
Department: Engineering
Location:Pittsburgh, PA
Overall Rating
rated by 2 students
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Rating Comment
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Professor Meier is amazing. He covers a lot of difficult material, but in a way that you can understand it and really learn.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 I took Phase Equilibria class (MEMS1059) with Dr. Gerald Meier in Fall 2013. Dr. Meier is nice, helpful, and smart professor. He wouldn’t hesitate helping you with any problem you’re facing; whether it’s a qualitative concept that you don’t understand or a quantitative problem that you can’t resolve. In addition, he really, really does understand his material that if someone asks him any related –or unrelated sometimes– question during the lecture he would answer the question immediately with enough details. He never failed to answer a question correctly and concisely.
However, Dr. Meier’s class was not organized and rigorous. Some issues I had with the class:
1. The syllabus stated that homework assignments worth 10% of the final grade. However, he only assigned 1 single homework assignment throughout the semester; and the worst part is that he assigned this homework during the first week of class. Most of us didn’t get a perfect score since it’s just the first assignment. The homework was difficult as well; most of us had troubles solving some of the problems. Moreover, the homework worth only 6 points; thus, a 5 out of 6 score is approximately a 2% deduction from your final grade. The strange part that he gave us 5 or 6 more problem sets, but only for practice. He stated clearly not to turn them in. He could’ve at least assigned few of them as homework assignment.
2. We had two midterms each worth 20% of the final grade. The 1st midterm was acceptable in terms of difficulty and length. However, the second midterm was a joke. He gave us questions that were not covered in the lecture, textbook, or any other resources that he used. I never missed a class and always took good notes. The exam average was around 60. Most of the students –if not all– got low grades and couldn’t solve some of the problems or understand their origin.
3. We had 4 quizzes worth 20% in total. They were very difficult. As I said earlier, I never missed a class and always took notes. However, I still had troubles.
4. He made the final easy just to give us some mercy. He knows that he’ll see half of our faces next semester if he didn’t do so.
To wrap up, I wouldn’t recommend Dr. Meier class. Although he’s very smart and helpful –with the material, not the grades–, he’ll make sure that no one gets an A in his class. Even if you did everything correctly and perfectly (taking notes, attending regularly, studying and solving problems), you’ll get a B in best cases and you’ll be thankful for it. Some of the students failed the class and had to retake it. Choose another professor if available. If not, god be with you.
AAM – Review written for ENGCMP 0400 – Summer 14

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