i don't know WHAT these people are talking about. grading for this class was PSYCHO. apparently, he changed his grading because he felt that he was "too easy" before. so then he decided to be a grading nazi and turn this GE into some elaborate course. the material was pretty interesting, but not enough to keep you up at 8 AM. i spent most of the quarter furious at how ridiculous this whole class was. i'm sure everyone else on here has summed him up pretty well--boring lecture, incomprehensible power points, nice guy.

NOT WORTH IT.

This class was fine. Basically his lectures go like this: he stands up on his stage with the lights off teaching from a powerpoint that only he understands, while the students are below trying to grasp any new information they can grab onto. BORING but easy.

Curry is a real smart professor, understands his material real well and i think he was able teach that knowledge pretty easily to the students. It was a real easy course, you definitly need to put the work in. The material and readings can be complex but i had a really good TA named Alice and she reallllly helped going over what the messages and main points were. If you do the work, the tests arent that bad. Id recommend him but his lectures can tiring, probably cause i took his lecture at 8am.

The material, assignments, and tests weren't particularly difficult, but for one reason or another (according to my TA), he decided to curve the class so that only 8 out of 143 students got solid A's...

*INACCURATE ratings*

Prof Curry is a solid 6.5/7. He has a 75 minute time block for the class and only uses 55 of it, and is an awkward but nice guy.

His lectures are somewhat boring, but they were also at 8 am so that made it much worse. The material wasn't very difficult to understand, and the readings matched each lecture.

The exams were not difficult, and the discussions barely pertained to the material in lecture so they were almost pointless.

Less than half the students enrolled actually went to class, but i'm sure they ended up with B's or had a harder time studying. I did not love the material or study more than a couple hours late the night before each exam, but ended up with an A anyway.

Formula for an A:
a. go to lecture and discussion (participate for points in discussion).
b. read each reading in the course reader because they are the basis of the entire class
c. make flash cards before the exams studying the authors and their philosophies
d. do the simple project where you visit 2 locations for an hour each, take a crapload of notes, and write a 6 page paper on it (not hard).

Definitely glad i took this as a GE.

1) You don't need to go to lecture. His lectures can be pretty slow and redundant. Even though he tests material covered in lecture, you can get everything you need from review sessions(the lecture right before the exam).
2) Do the reading. His tests are 2/3 essay questions and 1/3 terms. The terms are mostly from lecture(but you can get these from the review sessions). The essays are from the reading. Hence, even if you don't know the lecture material that well, if you know the readings and understand how to apply the concepts, you'll be fine.
3) Understand big picture concepts and how the individual readings and scenarios fit into these big ideas. The essays are pretty broad and don't require you to understand the little intricacies. It's much more important to understand the connecting ideas and concepts present in the class and how the readings are manifestations of these concepts.

Overall, this class was surprisingly interesting and not too difficult. I think if you really understand the readings you'll be fine. This might be skewed though, because I never went to lecture.

This class was very interesting and you will learn a lot. The Professor is calm and humorous. He explains himself clearly but sometimes people zone out. But just make sure to go to lecture and take detailed notes. Read these notes for studying for exams. They are essay exams! The course reader is for you to become familiar with the sociological concepts and participate in section. They may be useful to consult for exams if you need something clarified more. But you can't predict what the professor will ask so just study the class notes. The grading was semi-harsh but not too bad. You have to write a 2300 word essay for your final project. Visit a place where you don't fit in and observe your surroundings and the people. You also have to write weekly responses to the readings. As long as you put thought and care into it, you should be fine with these. Participate in discussion--it is encouraged and will help your grade. Take this class though, it is pretty fair. My TA was also so kind and helpful! :)

From what I understand this class varies drastically from one professor to another because they basically choose what they want to teach. Curry has a course reader for the class full of selections that he picks and expects you to read weekly. The lectures supplement the readings and go into more detail. There were a few lectures where he showed a movie but he made that available online. Curry goes over stuff about society like why we have gated communities, the wilderness and the evolution of the virtual world. There are two midterms in the class (22.5% for the first and 27.5% for the second). The second one is on the last day on class and there is no final except for a place project(worth 25%) where you pick a place to observe and write about it while applying what you learned in class. The discussions are the last 25% where you get together and discuss the readings every week. I felt like the midterms were both a little hard because there are two essays and some identifications that you need to do in one hour and fifteen minutes which may be hard for those that aren't good at impromptu writing. Overall I didn't think the class was that bad, as long as you do the readings every week it won't feel like a hard class.

This class is not easy as it sounds. I've received a bunch of bull from other students not in Geog 3 who think that geography is an easy subject where you just learn major landmarks and capitals of cities. WRONG!!! For those of you south campus majors (like me), taking this as a GE is like taking another damn literature class from high school, since cultural geography deals with the symbols/significance of places--basically abstract concepts all around.

In addition, he does not post grades online so you're pretty much in the dark until you check URSA at the end of the quarter.

Unless you are a humanities, geography, international studies, or any other north campus major, choose something other than Geography 3 to fulfill your GE requirements. This class is not worth the time wasting or stressing over, especially if you're math/science orientated and you don't ever want to take any class that deals with lots of reading and writing.

I have not yet received a final grade so I don't know if he curves or does any subjective grading, or whether what you get is what you get.

TAKE THIS CLASS! I have loved this class and am now thinking about Geography/Env Studies as a major. Professor Curry has an interesting perspective on life and, while sometimes coming off a little dry at 8am, presents personal anecdotes that liven things up. As a person, he's pretty odd - he randomly started wearing a hoop earing, talks about how his ex won the lottery, and commutes for NJ every week - but as a professor he's easy to understand and examines some really interesting social phenomena. The coursereader is what you really need to focus on - it provides in-depth analysis on the material covered in lecture. I usually ignore/slack off on course readings, but this class' were essential! And they were manageable and interesting as well. Discussion sections are ESSENTIAL! Your TA will be grading the midterm and final, which consist of a few IDs (you basically write a paragraph for each) and 2 essays. I did really well on my midterm and really didn't study all too much - you just need a grasp on the concepts. I had Jennifer Goldstein as my TA and she was fabulous! Take this class, read the coursereader, and attend lectures to find out what you need to know from the readings.