Mood swings and contradiction galore!

Terrible

Prof. Kalter is demanding, narrow-minded, and utterly tactless. Taking her course was a traumatic experience.

She is the worst teacher I have ever had. She assigns way too much reading and then has no plans for you to actually understand or learn from it. Also, I had a death in the family and she okayed my missing class for it. Then at the end of the semester took points off for me missing those days!

Horrible Prof....way to much reading, does not explain the reading in relation to the class as a whole...does not care that you as a student might have other things (tests, quizzes, papers, ect) in other classes. Hers is the only one that matters.

This teacher is AWFUL! Get out while you still can! She was not helpful when I met with her and told me to get out of her office when I met with her because I disagreed with one thing she was saying! Her class concentrates only on 4th world literature which is fully inapropriate for a PROSE class.

The worst English professor at ISU. I am not sure why she is in the position that she is...politics I guess. She is very argumentative and biased - she does not appreciate anyone else's opinions or ideas, which is interesting as she supposedly promotes equality. Very questionable professor. Avoid her.

Absolutely the worst experience I have ever had as a student. The reading load is excessive, which is not objectionable if it were followed through with appropriate pedagogy. As it stands this is not the case. I no way shape or form are key textual points addressed--nor are any minor ones addressed. Awful. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID.

Absolutely awful!

Awful. So specific as to be ineffective in every sense of the word. Icky!

Professor Kalter is unimaginative, although not uninformed. If you value your sanity, do not take a course from this instructor. You will deeply regret the experience.

If you can avoid taking a class with this professor, then I highly recommend picking another option. You receive ungodly amounts of reading during the week and very difficult quizzes. She doesn't clarify what she wants and you are left guessing and end up with a bad grade. AVOID THIS PROFESSOR AT ALL COSTS

The worst professor EVER!!!! I cannot express how awful this professor is. She seems to hate students. She chooses poor quality text to subject students to abject horror and to make them hate the English language forever. Avoid this person at ALL costs if you value your sanity!!

Kalter is the worst professor on campus. Avoid this person unless you are into being abused. She will make you feel like a cockroach under the heel of oppression.

Kalter is the worst professor I have ever experienced. Cruel, difficult, abusive, ill-informed, sadistic, hate-filled, and unhappy only begin to describe the pedagogical method to which this so-called professor subjects students. I deeply regret ever experiencing this person's approach to teaching.

This professor engaged us with a perversion of educational experience. The readings were never covered. The professor's guidelines were vague or non-existent. It was the most horrible experience of my academic life. I now hate Native American lit. and will never take another English class as long as I live.

This professor spends a lot of time in class discussing trivial aspects of the reading, providing students with notes that do not help in writing midterms or final papers. Her comments on papers are not helpful. She is not encouraging and does not present the material in a way that is friendly to students who have never encountered it before.

She wastes class time discussing unnecessary aspects of the reading, which will not appear on exams or be helpful to studying for midterms or the final. Her grading is confusing--she will make a couple of comments, then dock 10% off your grade without explaining why. The workload is huge--9 to 10 hours every week.

Expected a lot of work out of senior seminar, but the work leading up to the final paper seemed pointless. Also gives unreliable grading. Two students can do the same thing, and one can get an A, the other a D.

I have a few words of advice for you. 1. Pee before class. 2. Talk at least 5 times during each lecture. 3. Get ready to read at least 50 pages and write a paragraph summary for each page, for every class. Strongly do not recommend.

Better be ready to read until your eyes fall out and type until your fingers bleed. Its a survey style class with the expectation of grad level analysis. If you're lucky she will give you the chance to read 1 of the 12-15 novels all the way through. You'll only read 2/3rds of each text. You won't understand most of it as she says its post-grad work

She seems really nice at first but she doesn't care about student's other work outside of her class. She gives really vague instructions when it comes to the midterm and final and then gets mad and fails you for "not understanding the instructions". There are at least 15 books for this class and online readings that you don't read all of.

I had more work for this class then my other 5 classes combined and I can definitely see an impact if my grades in my other classes. She gives us so much homework that you dont have time for anything else, it doesnt help that if you miss one assignment youll basically fail the class.

Would give a 0 if I could. Do not take any of her classes. Was never willing to help or answer questions. You will have no idea what your grade is in the class until after the final grades are posted. She only grades by if she likes you or not no matter how hard you work in her class. Stay away from her classes.

DON'T BLOW OFF HER BAD REVIEWS, I DIDN'T BELIEVE THEM AT FIRST EITHER. HER CLASS IS WHAT KILLED MY (AND MANY FRIENDS) 4.0s. Texts were WELL beyond an appropriate level for a 200 level course, expectations for out of class daily preparation were ridiculous, and her grading punished minor flaws instead of rewarding good work. Avoid.

The worst teacher I have EVER had. I literally had no time for anything but this class. Susan assigns MULTIPLE papers each week, and is a very hard grader. I hated this class, and dislike Susan very much. I took this as a freshman, and it drained me off the bat. DO NOT TAKE SUSANS CLASS. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

Kalter was by far the worst professor I had at ISU. She bullied her students, bragged about how difficult it was to get an A, & assigned so much reading that we didn't even have time to discuss all of it in class. Her instructions were never clear, but if you didn't follow them EXACTLY as written, you'd receive an "E" & have to redo the assignment.

She is the most boring professor I have ever had. DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH HER. She expects way too much and assigns TOO MUCH READING. she shouldn't be a professor. She just likes to hear herself talk.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I literally wanted to unalive myself the entire time. Take it with someone else or find a different class to take. TRUST ME!!!!!! She assigns so many unnecessary readings. I'm talking 60-80 pages every day, as well as writing regarding EACH reading. Please save yourself the stress. Horrible professor.

Probably my top worst class I have ever been in at this university. You will have papers due every single day and she will grade unrealistically if you don't enter in every detail of what she talks about. She assumes that all her students have no lives and sit around staring at her Canvas page waiting to do work all day. AVOID HER AT ALL COST

Way too overwhelming in every single sense possible

Please do not take this class, in fact avoid all her classes if you can! This class gives you enough work for at least two other classes. The readings are tough and sometimes you have to read up to 60 pages a night plus all the other stuff that is due for the next class period. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE!!! AVOID!!!!

I cannot STRESS ENOUGH that you should NOT take this class with Kalter. This class was the bane of my existence and made my entire semester miserable. Had 80 short stories to read on top of pages upon pages of handwritten notes and typed essays, 15 source annotated bib and 5000 word research paper. Would rather be hit by a bus than do this again.

This class was like having a newborn baby. It was so much work-reading long stories and lots of writing every class period. You don't get to see your grade the entire semester and at the end of the course there is an insane annotated bibliography and long ass research paper. This class made me grow 2 gray hairs.

DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH HER IF YOU WANT TO HAVE ANY FREE TIME DURING THE SEMESTER!!!!! she literally assigns soooo much reading each week and you have to take a crap ton of notes as well. I had asked for tips on how to improve my grades on one of her assignments and she did not help me at all

I cannot emphasize this enough. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Professor Kalter somehow managed to take a somewhat easy class and make it a nightmare. she removed the grade book option so you have to go and personally ask her about your grades. every week you have to write about 10 handwritten papers along with short stories and the final isa 5kwordessay.

17-page final with an additional 2-page explanation. Run.

Dropped this class while she was going over the syllabus, don't bother.

I dropped this class the moment I left the first day. I was literally emailing my guidance counselor during class. No phones, no laptops, and 5-6 decently sized assignments, some with multiple parts, a week. Take literally any other class for your own sake, please.

I would never recommend this professor and class to anyone. More than half of the students dropped this class after our first meeting. There are way too many assignments to complete in a very short amount of time, especially for a gen-ed class, and she ignores the fact that students have other classes their attention needs to be more pointed at.

She is a very unreasonable teacher which led to many dropping her class after the first day. She assigns way too much to be completed in very little time, especially for a gen-ed class and fails to understand students have other classes their attention needs to be more focused on.

I will never understand professors such as Susan Kalter because she took what could've been a fun class and turned it into a complete NIGHTMARE. There is a reason her ratings are so low and I don't understand how the university hasn't let her go yet. I have always enjoyed school but her/this class made me legitimately depressed. DO NOT recommend!

She assigns a crazy workload... Avoid her prose course like the plague and pick something else unless you wanna spend all of your free time doing homework for her class (because you won't have time for anything else). I'm a senior and this is the most difficult class I've ever taken. You've been warned.

Professor doesn't understand that students have other classes during the semester. Assigns a minimum of 6-8 readings per week that are 10-40 pages long. Along w needing to take thorough notes and write 300 word close readings for each class. You're also expected to write a 4800 word research paper, annotated bib, and short story for the final.

DO NOT TAKE WHATEVER YOU DO AT ISU DO NOT TAKE

You will be doing 9 hours of homework at minimum a week for this class and there is no way out of it. If you can avoid this professor DO IT!

When I had this professor, I was taking five other classes for my major. I have never taken a gen ed class with as much homework as this one. I was spending a minimum of 6 hours a week on the note taking that was due in this class twice a week. Professor Kalter is clearly unaware that students are taking other classes and have other obligations.

Absolutely horrible professor, assigns way too much homework and doesn't share your grade with you until after each test, so you don't know what you have. One of the strictest professors grading wise that I've ever had.

This class was only lectures. She asks for student participation but then lectures on whatever the student says. One of the most harsh graders and does not realize that 1. students don't care about the subject like she does and 2. they have lives outside the classroom. She is a very nice person but that is the only positive. Don't make my mistake.

While i thought that maybe these many many warnings couldn't be as bad as they claimed, i was wrong! this class had me doing at LEAST 4 hours of homework a night. She is an extremely harsh grader and i did do my work, but that wasn't enough apparently! listen to the warnings.

Expect to read at least a full book a week, take mandatory notes so she knows you're not skipping anything, and spend all of class time listening to her ramble about a fraction of that reading. You will then have to complete 20 page tests while still being assigned the same amount of reading. She lacks mercy for her own hubris. Stay far away.

If I were you, I would avoid this class at all costs. This class is a is a gen ed but tell me why I am doing more work in this class than in any of my other major related classes. She grades you on your participation both vocally and passively, and we read a book a week that has sexual scenes. The midterm and final exam are 450 points. Do not take!

While she seems well intentioned, Dr. Kalter is an extremely difficult professor to have. I put in a lot of work, and still felt overwhelmed and like my grade didn't reflect it. she seems sweet, but i'd avoid avoid avoid. it is HARD work. u don't even get to see ur grade until its in ur transcript.

I would eat a cactus or tame a lion before taking this class again. So. Much. Reading. Only allows hand written notes on reading assignments she assigns for 9-10 chapters of reading at a time. Only graded on notes, midterm, and final. 0/5 if I could.

Prof. Kalter has seemed to have forgotten that students have other passions and interests outside of her class. She makes students read two novels a week basically and take notes on them to be turned in for a grade. I find the way she teaches to be inefficient and unsupportive of students goals. I do not recommend.

STAY AWAY from this course if you value your sanity. She takes points off for leaving the lecture even if it's to quickly use the bathroom or get water, makes you read and handwrite SO MUCH, and the papers? The lectures? I only put the “inspirational” tag because I hope this inspires someone to not make the same mistake I did in enrolling in this.