Reviews for Robert E. Koulish
Average Rating:| Anonymous Course: GVPT479I Grade Expected: A- April 11, 2012, 2:02 pm | Professor Koulish's class on immigration was perspective changing. It can be difficult to begin a discussion about immigration with people outside of class because of how thoroughly uninformed I realize I was before taking the class. Immigration is a collusion of society, law, sovereignty, economics, and the list goes on, and Professor Koulish is an expert. This class was the tip of the iceberg, and I have since hit the ground running with reading and thinking about immigration and social philosophy on my own and in my course studies. I would recommend reading his book at the beginning of the semester, as it is dense and fascinating, and helps you see where he is coming from. I'm surprised to see the negative reviews of Professor Koulish, but I will say that his teaching style was very effective in a small class setting with an interesting topic and engaged students. I'm not sure how he would teach a course like GVPT100. Koulish is receptive to students who want to engage more deeply outside of class. Though he is busy and doesn't always have the time, he has been consistently willing to talk outside of class. He is an inspiration, a very intelligent person, and a formidable individual. If you engage and are interested, you will receive. |
| thejaybird2013 Course: GVPT331 Grade Expected: A- January 27, 2012, 11:04 pm | The class definitely was not my favorite and I was not what I thought it would be. Koulish teaches with slides so its easy to follow along and take notes, but the way he teaches this course apparently is really different than how others teach it. As with any class, some material was really interesting and other stuff was really dry. Best advice always go to class because he does not post slides and above all always go to discussion, participate and get close to your TA because they do all the grading. |
| Anonymous Course: GVPT331 Grade Expected: A July 27, 2011, 11:09 am | After the first day of this class last semester, I was really excited and felt sure that it was going to be an interesting course. However, after that first day, the original professor resigned, and Koulish stepped in. Then the class became a joke. I don't blame the course material, I blame Koulish. He is not an effective professor. His power points are often uninformative. Which would be fine if the words he spoke were informative. But they're not. He constantly puts down the legal profession and talks negatively about lawyers as if he is trying to talk his entire Law class OUT of becoming attorneys. Which doesn't make since if he is a law professor. I don't think Koulish is a bad person, he just shouldn't be teaching a 300 level GVPT class. Lectures are almost pointless, he posts everything on ELMS. Discussion isn't really worth it either but I think you get participation for going. There was a short paper (easy) and a research paper (also easy) as well as a midterm and a final. I may have gotten an A but it was not a fun experience. |
| JoeCalderon Course: GVPT100 Grade Expected: July 22, 2011, 9:58 pm | Koulish is a Douchebag and also not to say that the class is pointless, which makes it a bad combo. The System that the class works on is total BS. This man has 8 different TAs for a class of less tham 200 students and each TA has their own philosophy which greatly differs from Koulishs. This also reflects on the way exams are graded! Koulish is a wicked man. He knows how hard it is to to come by money, but yet he makes you go out there and buy a custom book that he complied for 100 dollars when in reality you can pass the class without the Book. I can go on forever but i am sure you get the gist of it. IF YOU love yourself, you'd stay away from Koulish! |
| Anonymous Course: GVPT100 Grade Expected: A June 9, 2011, 1:33 pm | Koulish was a good teacher. He made what is rly a boring topic relatively interesting. That being said his lectures were really boring despite his efforts. TAs are not bad. One midterm One Final One Essay and Participation are your grades. USE GOOGLE DOCS AS A CLASS!! IT HELPS! |
| Anonymous Course: GVPT100 Grade Expected: B May 23, 2011, 5:23 pm | class was soooo boring. honestly i didn't learn jack. there was one midterm, one essay, one final. every thursday we had to email in 2 questions about lecture for our discussion section. Some genius created a google doc where everyone studied together for the midterm and final so dat made everything essay. Got on A on the essay but that's only because my TA Chris was real chill. participation is worth 20% of your grade so keep dat in mind. I would recommend the class if u get chris as a TA. Heard the Anne lady was an a*% tho. |
| Anonymous Course: GVPT331 Grade Expected: A May 21, 2011, 10:34 am | This was my least favorite class in my four semesters at Maryland. I had a lot of problems with Professor Koulish, although I must first say that he wasn't originally intended to teach this class. The intended professor had to leave after the first week, so Professor Koulish stepped in. Nevertheless, he did a poor job with this class. His class is not particularly difficult, yet I wouldn't consider it fair. For his exams, he provides a powerpoint "review," however none of the topics were on the test. He gave us a 10-12 page paper near the end of the semester, and a final exam. The paper was assigned too late in the semester, and he gave very little guidance about what to actually write. My biggest problems with Koulish came from his lectures. Not only were his powerpoints messy and hard to follow, but they were also covered with grammar and spelling mistakes. He rarely seemed prepared. In addition, his own political beliefs were evident throughout. He wants you to believe that lawyers who work for the private sector or with the goal of making money are terrible people. If you're looking for a LAW class, this is not it. It is focused primarily on sociology and Koulish's beliefs. The topics are somewhat related but not cohesive, and the readings are a little random as well. In addition, he often would not post the reading until the day before it was due. He never responded to a single email I sent him. Overall, he was unorganized and not a good lecturer. I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first because of the exceptional situation of having to step in at the last minute, but by the end I realized that he is an overall bad professor. |
| Anonymous Course: GVPT100 Grade Expected: C May 13, 2011, 1:07 pm | Not as great a teacher as everyone is saying. He is totally distant during lectures and packs as many run-ons as possible. He is not easy to follow. I'm a straight A student and knew the material like the back of my hand but expect a C in this class because I had a ridiculous TA. If you have Anne, switch immediately. She is insanely pen-heavy and an unfair grader. For the first exam, the average in her discussion was a C-. When the average for an exam is that low, you can only blame the students so much. There was clearly a problem. There are 2 exams. The final is cumulative. He told us the whole semester that it was non-cumulative until a few days before the exam that it was. You have discussion sections and a 6-8 paper. I would suggest taking this class with someone else. |
| slam591 Course: GVPT100 Grade Expected: May 7, 2011, 11:56 am | So I had prof koulish for GVPT100 im not a huge political theory person but i took the class to get a better understanding hes a solid lecturer and what not but something about him gave me a vibe saying im a douchebag he was a dick to students sometimes the TAs were ok decently helpful but he is a pretty boting lecturer |
| Anonymous Course: GVPT100 Grade Expected: A February 21, 2011, 6:03 pm | Great teacher. His lectures were interesting and enthralling. His tests were really straight forward in that he gave you the essay questions beforehand. If you do the readings and practice writing the essay questions before the exam, you will do great. |
| terps8 Course: GVPT388I Grade Expected: A January 29, 2011, 4:23 pm | Great professor! Had him for GVPT388I (the Public Policy Internship seminar) fall 2010. As it is a course that we are required to take if we want academic credit for our internship, he gave us good advise if we needed and asked us every week to talk about the progress we have made at our internships. He did not lecture a lot, it was mostly based on discussions. Since a lot of students were doing internships in campaigns we talked a lot about that. As far as work goes, we had one 10-12 page paper to write by the end of the semester related to public policy. We had to choose a topic related to our internships. He asked us to submit a paper proposal and an outline of our analysis for our paper so he could give us feedback in the process. This made it easy to have most ideas organized before the end of the semester and have the 12 page paper done without cramming too much. We also had 2 guest speakers who were pretty interesting. Overall, great class. |
| Anonymous Course: GVPT100 Grade Expected: A- January 2, 2011, 5:49 pm | most boring class ive ever taken. he was a new teacher and i absolutely hated the class. i learned nothing the entire semester but somehow memorized the important stuff and got an A. Course consists of 2 midterms, a paper, and a final. i have friends with other gvpt100 teachers and they either had one less exam or their paper was the final |