2.3
Quality3.3
Difficulty38%
Would Retake92
Reviews38%
Would Retake
92
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
10
4
16
3
8
2
23
1
35
What Students Say
“For sure the worst professor ever”
ECE1250 - 1.0 rating“Unfortunately, this does not make for a great experience for students”
CS3130 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
17%
Textbook Required
56%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.33 avg changeRatings by Course
ECE2260
5.0
(2)SBSCOURSE
4.0
(1)ECE2200
4.0
(1)ECE1900
4.0
(3)ECE1250
3.5
(4)Difficulty by Course
SBSCOURSE
5.0
ECE3500
4.3
ECE1000
4.0
ECE1270
4.0
ECE2270
4.0
Reviews (92)
funny and sarcastic
Its the course content thats controversial
No Comments
This is the worst class!!! It is so boring, but it is super easy if you understand the assignments. He is not clear or helpful with assignments, I dread going everyday!
He's a nice teacher, but sometimes he lectures too much of his own opinions, which is okay to learn from but he does not give a chance to listen to students output. If you like politics and sitting for 2 hrs of lecturing then this is the class.
He is not helpful at all. He doesn't allow other people to give there opinions and if they do they are wrong. The assignments are easy but it takes forever for him to explain what he wants from it. You cannot contact him and he is unorganized.
The project has nothing to do with the class. In fact it is a pile of crap.
He's more concerned with his stupid games and computer programming projects then teaching stats.
arriva zapata putos
This class was the biggest waste of time and I learned nothing but still got an A in the class. The class satisfied two ULR's but it was such a waste of time. He is soooo boring. Never shuts up.
Really? HAHAHA! Thats all I could do is laugh. This professor is ridicoulous! Our sylibi wasn't ready until 3 1/2 weeks into the course, he expected us to catch up. Not very fair in organizing what he expected us to do. NEVER organized. I appriciate his opinions and his cultural identity and what he brings to the table. I could see how other students consider him ****, but I only see him as looking through his identity and implementing that on his students. He's a nice guy!
No Comments
One would almost suspect that he is trying to do a terrible job - can anyone teach this poorly without trying?
SUCKS
No Comments
No Comments
This professor is the worst ever!
Horrible teacher. Not flexible at all unless it benefits him. Grading is EXTREMELY bias. If your point of view differs from his, you are automatically wrong. Not clear on instructions at all. DO NOT take unless you have to!
Quality very low, cancelled two sessions one day prior to class. Repeatedly ends sessions early out of laziness. Condescending to students, disrespectful of opinions, disruptive to the flow of class, can't keep his head together to maintain structure. Prof. Oliverez, perhaps a Jr. High School level Civics would better fit your unprofessionalism.
Poor instructor. Spends less time explaining concepts than he does making jokes and offering shortcuts. Tries to offer insight into problems by using graphical methods that are more confusing than helpful. I learned just about everything on my own from the text. Exams are intentionally too long and difficult...don't expect to finish them.
This man should not be teaching at all. Avoid this class as much as possible.
Unclear, Unhelpful, Way Bias(left), unsupportive of individual thoughts/opinions, discussions or debates occur mostly between students and Juan (as opposed to the entire class or other students), class goes way off topic really quickly and discussions tend to become pointless. Juan talks A LOT about his own views opinions.
By far, the worst instructor I've ever had. I learned nothing in his class. Avoid at all costs.
HE IS HARD HEADED. Cannot convince the guy!!! Boring and unclear. Failed the class cause i did not attend but if you do your part: assignments, read, etc. you will pass the class like nothing
Great teacher, very clear with instructions. Lots of reading though, he encourages class discussions.
Ok teacher, Hartnell College
He is Hilarious. Me and my friends make fun of him. Boring class. But now is a much easier than the previous semester that I had him. Way less work and you can most of the time B.S. your work in class. Just do your work and attend class and participate you will be find
BAD.... I am literally less intelligent because I attended this class
Not a bad teacher, good at keeping a boring subject interesting
Dr. Cotter is a pretty good teacher. Makes himself available for questions. Tests are extremely difficult and take a long time; class average was around 60. He does grade on a curve, which lifts everyone up at the end. Find the smart kids in class and form a study group with them; that's how I survived.
Its an engineering class and kinda tuff. Overall a good teacher, He knows his stuff. I do not understand all the harsh comments. The one thing i dont like about him is the tech. Comm. Awful class, but forced to take it. He is teaching an abstract subject to students who most likely haven't seen the material, which can be frustrating to both partys
Tends to disagree with students opinions different from his. ALWAYS goes off on a tangent which can literally take up the whole class time. He is extremely picky on how assignments are done. Tends to cancel class last minute (ex. 2 hrs BEFORE class) Do not take him. Try to get a different teacher if you can.
Disorganized and Very Bias to Students. Easy to B.S. work in class.
Very bias. says "you know what i mean" all of the time. I dread this class. you have to participate and read, he will call on you.
class was literally useless. i dont think i walked away with any additional intellect after this semester. doesnt really teach. just talks. 'u know what i mean' is his catch-phrase. boring class. the atmosphere of the class atleast for me was comparable to a really comfortable bed. i acted accordingly.
Very bias to students.
Cotter is a good professor and he cares about the students doing well. I think he needs to work on focusing his lectures and not getting sidetracked as much. He is a talker. If you ever go to your office prepare to be there for a while it is hard to escape. Overall a good teacher but class and tests can be tough. Prepare to spend a lot of time.
REEEEEEEEALLLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYY?
Least helpful, worst teacher I have ever had to endure. Plays favorites. Rewards students, that do not work hard, for agreeing with him. All learning is done outside class.
Fairly good teacher. Is always willing to help so just stop by his office or send him an email and he will respond quickly. Nice thing is that he gives you the answers to homework problems so you can double check your work. Tests are quite hard though.
Honestly, he doesn't know how to interact with students but when he speaks; he speaks with some sense of humor...
The average test scores on 3 out of 4 of his tests were 64% or below. He spends whole class periods working on one circuit and it's never anything like the circuits he gives on the tests. Teaches complex methods of performing simple circuit analysis rather then straight forward methods. Smart, but not good at teaching.
Dr Cotter enjoys working with students in his office and is more than willing to work around individual schedules to help out his students.
Not a good teacher. Had him for 1250 and 2240. Currently in 2240 and doing horrible. He does not stick to text book and basically does not teach you. All class he just does really complicated circuits when im sure half the class doesnt know whats going on. Nice guy and tries to help but he needs to work on teaching students who dont know everything
One of the worst professors I've ever had.
He basically just stands in front of the class and talks almost the entire class time. Homework is a whole lot of writing and a whole lot of reading. Make sure you pay attention or you will easily get lost.
Worst professor I've had. He expects to much for the units taken, doesn't know how to explain or help people with questions. Pretty sure there is something wrong about him
The class, or seminar rather, is very relaxed. Sometimes we build electric circuits and Mr. Cotter is willing to help students who struggle or have no experience in electric circuits. He loves what he does and is always asking questions when guest speakers come and talk to the class about what they do and how students can get involved.
Test's were open note. Pretty easy class in my opinion and Cotter is a pretty easy going guy. Very easy to talk to and get help.
Probably the worst professor/teacher I have had. Assigns too much work for only 4 units and I do not think he realizes the workload he assigns. Rants the whole 1 hour and 50 minutes. His class has made my life much more stressful this semester.
If youre just starting CE or EE this class will get you pumped. All you do is get points for attending and learn about your future career and build some easy circuits. All these other reviews seem bad but that's because everyone except cotter teaches in this class. He did however spend an extra 1/2 hour of his time helping me with my power supply.
For sure the worst professor ever. Took this class as a retake for better grade will definitely be avoiding him for the rest of my time in collage. His classes consist of him doing problems wrong on the board then telling you to go home and figure it out and he will post the solution when he has time to go home and work through it. Ridiculous!!!
Every class i have taken from him has made me hate the subject he is teaching. Took 1250 and 2240 from him and retook 2240 if i remember correctly. I urge you to stay away from him. Really smart guy and very nice, but unfortunately he cannot teach 3530 either. He makes things much more difficult than they need to be and his tests are very tough.
Dr. Cotter is a very fair teacher. I felt like his class was well balanced and if he taught more classes on my track I would definitely take another class from him. Very helpful and always willing to work with students who come to office hours. His tests are reasonable and he provides adequate material beforehand to study.
Awesome professor. The homework helps for the Exams. (Almost) all of the HW solutions are available prior to the due date. 3 exams, during the final you can retake any or all of the exams. He allows notes for exams. Very generous grader.
Dr. Cotter is a really nice and funny guy but his lectures are confusing and doesn't explain things well and doesn't stop to check for understanding. As long as one person (always that really smart kid in the class) answers his questions he thinks the whole class is up to that understanding. He is available in office hours to help though.
Cotter may ramble occasionally when lecturing, but the lectures still give a great introduction. His homeworks are great for the starting EE or CE classes as they teach a lot, but are not impossibly difficult. (The solutions are posted!) The tests are challenging, but always reasonable if you have done the homeworks.
ECE 1250 is a tough class in general no matter who you take it from, mostly just a lot of lab work and the tests have only 3 or 4 questions. However, there are so many practice exams you will get a good grade on tests if you practice all of them! He passes out notes to help you and you can use them with exams.
A lot of people complained about his lectures but I think the lectures are a result the way the class is structured. They call it a "flipped classroom" so you're supposed to get the concepts from watching lecture videos before class and then class time is dedicated to working on examples. Overall a good professor if you can get past his jokes.
He gives LOTS of references (almost too many) and completed homework solutions with work for each homework (VERY helpful). Tests were harder than any prior material or references, but he drops the lowest of your 4 test scores (3 tests make up 75% of your grade). All in all not awful, but take a different prof if you can.
He gives you all of the answers to the HW, and offers extra credit opportunities. However, his tests are difficult and most of the questions on the tests are difficult/different than the HW or lecture examples. He does drop the lowest 2 HWs and lowest exam. Biggest tip would be to look at his lecture notes and only study from his previous exams.
Cotter is overall a solid prof for the subject matter. This class is not extremely difficult while introducing you to the concepts for the first time. Overall I liked his teaching style and everything clicked. Also his dad jokes can sometimes be pretty funny
Super outgoing and easy to talk to. His lectures are pretty boring and the notes are all on canvas. To be completely honest, watch Professor Leonard's statistics playlist on YouTube as it mirrors the class very closely and its a huge benefit. Tests are straightforward and mirror what he posts for examples but he will mix up things to trick you.
Nice guy, cracks a lot of jokes... But I learn absolutely nothing in his lectures. He never gives any type of explanation of the simple, basic, necessary knowledges and goes into unnecessary tangents of deep proofs because I think he's bored of teaching the same material. Unfortunately, this does not make for a great experience for students.
Professor Cotter is literally the best professor you can get, he is always trying to make sure everyone is on the same page and always makes himself available for help although his labs suck he's great! He will always make jokes while lecturing which is very delightful and he is great at spacing things out so you don't feel overloaded
Cotter gives difficult exams but prepares you for them very well. His tests reflect the homework, and the homework reflects the lectures. If you take good notes and pay attention in class you are set. His homework comes with solutions and he is happy to help outside of class. He gives solutions to past exams so you have can prepare for the exams.
Highly recommended not to take this professor. He loves to joke but I wished he had teaching skills instead of pun skills. He literally asks very very vague questions on exams which are ridiculous to even understand let alone solve them. His classes are super boring. He teaches 1+1 and asks about 1/0?
He does not teach the meaning behind the concepts, only walks through using the formulas. I eventually stopped going to class and just read the textbook and watched youtube videos to learn the material. He does have a nice course layout though. He dropped the lowest test, gave extra credit, and offered previous exams and homework answers.
The class is set up so that you watch lectures at home and then come to class and ask questions and get extra information. He gives lots of useful handouts that you can take notes on and have during exams
Neil Cotter tends to go on tangents all the time during lectures, so I didn't find attending very helpful. He provides the answers to the homework, which is helpful, but can also very easily be abused. I found tests to be very difficult. He provides old classes' notes/material, but there is so much of it that it's unclear where to study from.
Professor Cotter is a nice guy, but he should not be teaching. His lectures are just him rambling about nothing you need to know. Showing up to lecture is a waste of time. The class is easy to pass, as almost all the grade is exams which are based off of the previous years. Do not take this professor.
Professor Cotter is easily one of the worst professors you will ever have. I took his 1240 class twice and couldn't make sense of it. If you're considering ECE here's a tip... Don't. This man is too unorganized to be teaching and, unfortunately, he teaches the next 3 levels in ECE. I can not believe this man has a PhD.
Picture a happy grandpa & you'll have Prof. Cotter! He is passionate about ECE & his student's success. He made class entertaining and engaged everyone. He provides lots of resources to help you learn the content in addition to his recorded lectures and notes. There wasn't a lot of homework, but it wasn't spaced out very well so it felt like a lot.
Nice Guy and all, but his lectures are ridiculously hard to follow due to his rambling and inability to focus and engage with his students. His tests would likely be far easier and reasonable given the limited time frame if he could effectively teach. If you are not confident in your ability to learn on your own, do not take this from Cotter.
His lectures have too many cluttered notes and disorganized materials. His tests are short but go by fast and you're bound to make mistakes. If you can take a different prof, do it. Otherwise, form good study groups and go to his office hours. I honestly think if his exam periods are longer, I might get a better grade.
Worst Professor I've ever taken. Rude, arrogant, and purposefully made the course extra difficult presumably to weed out students. The content itself was pretty easy but he spent most of class going through ridiculously complicated problems that he'd not always get through, instead of teaching us. Tests were awful too and had things we'd never seen
Best Professor in the world
Last week of school he gave us a Midterm, a final, a lab final, and a quiz. All during finals week.
I felt like I had to teach myself most of the subject, However he does have homework solutions and past exams posted. I would recommend for the start of a unit to just look at the past exams see what concepts are commonly tested on and start teaching yourself those concepts over the weekend and you will be fine.
Never in my life have I had a teacher like Cotter. Without fail, every single time I watch a lecture video, I end up more confused than before. Attempting to learn from him is a joke. I understand the material learning independently, and do great on tests and quizzes... but that is all learning from outside resources. Avoid at all costs.
Professor Cotter's lectures are pretty much zero help, and he doesn't give homework to reinforce concepts. I've pretty much learned the material in this course from looking at past exams and the solutions to the assessments he gives us. I feel like my understanding of fundamental EE concepts is rudimentary at best due to Professor Cotter.
Professor is of no help. Some homework problems do not reflect the actual material learned in class. Not to mention his work is unbelievably hard to follow. I would've preferred a different professor teaching. Use the textbook, you'll learn more from the textbook than from him.
For the very base introduction to circuits Lab, Neil Cotter was pretty good. For the very top level stuff with circuits he does a good job at teaching the topics alongside the TA who helps explain in class as well. During lecture he sometimes just goes off on random tangents but its honestly kinda fun. Not a hard course by any means.
Dr. Cotter's exams are challenging but not ridiculous and he loves to throw in a curveball. However, if you attend lectures you will always have a clear understanding of what is required to do well on the exams. Also, he is always in his office and will stop whatever he is doing to help you out with any problems. No homework grade.
Absolutely terrible professor with his style of teaching being more akin to an excuse for him to brag about how much smarter he is than you. Lecture's don't help with him skipping steps for topics you haven't even covered yet. Tests are the only thing that matters in that class and even with thoughts he will change your score when he pleases.
Cotter is a good guy, his lectures are dry. He will go on confusing tangents in the middle of a thought. He talks in a monotone level, records all lectures, and works though problems in class. Highly rec going to the lectures. The grade was 75% exams, the rest trickled into assignments. TA and working though labs saved my grade.
I hate giving him a bad review since he was a delight to talk with, but this was such a disjointed class. Cotter is a mathematician who went into electrical engineering, the class is very difficult as Cotter didn't explain material or give many examples. Avoid at all costs
A very, VERY poor lecturer. The lectures don't match the homework. He gives very little examples. His exams don't match the homework. His exam reviews don't match his exams. By far one of the worst experiences I've had in university. Please don't think it'll be different with you, it won't.
Your grade is almost entirely dependent on the exams. The only reason I did well on the exams was because of Angela Rasmussen since Cotter just uses her quizzes and learning materials. I attended EVERY lecture, but I genuinely believe that attending his lectures is only detrimental to your own understanding of the material they are so disjointed.
Lectures are terrible, you dont learn much of anything. The canvas page did have lots of learning material, which was about the only good thing about the whole course. Tests are super hard, so study up and good luck. would not recommend.
His lectures are very fast paced, often quoted by others "not worth going". He's very smart but enjoys overcomplicating concepts and techniques. There is no correalation between his lecture and materials to real 50 minutes exam, where he makes sure to present you with something you have never encountered before. No curves No extra credit.
He just didn't want to teach this class and made it very obvious on several occasions. Tests are 80% of your grade, and we got barely any actual study material. For one of his exams, he gave us two practice examples where we found 10+ errors. His response? The "correct" solutions 10 pm the night before the exam. No credit, no recognition. Awesome.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
17%
Textbook Required
56%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.33 avg changeRatings by Course
ECE2260
5.0
(2)SBSCOURSE
4.0
(1)ECE2200
4.0
(1)ECE1900
4.0
(3)ECE1250
3.5
(4)Difficulty by Course
SBSCOURSE
5.0
ECE3500
4.3
ECE1000
4.0
ECE1270
4.0
ECE2270
4.0