Comments on Math/Stat Department Education
Graduation Date:
Graduation Date:
Graduation Date:
I feel that the math courses I took broadened my
knowledge of mathematics, and provided me with a strong content knowledge for
teaching. More
specifically, for math education, the
"teaching math" courses I took with Dr. Liebars and Dr. Cunningham,
were extremely helpful in my field.
Graduation Date:
I received a superb training from the Dept. of
Mathmatics and statistics necessary to perform well in my graduate studies.
Each class in
mathmatics that I took at TCNJ was rigourous and
through enough that I feel I graduated for TCNJ with confident knowledge about
pure
mathmatics. i took three classes: Advanced
Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Geometry. Geometry was an elective and the other
two were
requirements.
The content I learned among the various calculus classes enabled me to
perform well in Advanced Calculus on the graduate level. I
was also
fortunate to hae taken Linear Algebra 2 at TCNJ. This was an excellent
reinforcement of the concepts of LInear Algebra, which without a
doubt helped me in graduate school. Although the Geometry course I took on the
graduate level was quite different fromthe Geomety i took at
TCNJ, it still prepared me well for graduate
school.
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Overall, my experince in the stat program was a
great one. Not only did I learn a lot but I truly enjoyed many of the classes,
in particular the stat
options (design of experiments, regression,
nonparametrics.) My first semester in grad school was a very successful one and
i must give a lot of
credit to TCNJ for that.
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I have a very stong statistics, probablility,
and math background which proves to be helpful on a daily basis while at work.
It would have been helpful
to have training in using particular computer
programs, most importatly, Excel. So much math work is dont using Excel, and
the benefit of its use,
makes it seem worthwhile to learn and know.
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See Sec. C
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It’s hard to evaluate this properly at this time
since I have not acturally begun my job,
but I do feel well prepared,especially regardig strategies and
theories. The only thing I wished was improved
are the methods courses. Specifically, I
would have liked to explore how to tackle a curriculum
decide what to cut out and not cover, learn to
make decisions about grading, and how to set up and keep a grade book. In short,
the hands-on stuff.
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Again, math classes and professors were
wonderful. I liked how they made an effort to be there for everyone. They are
all very dedicated to their
jobs. I owe a lor of my success at TCNJ to the
prof's.
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I think of one less mathmatics content class was
included in the curriculum and reaplaced by one additional semester of
"teaching mathmatics"
calss, I would feel more prepared.
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I have greatly enojoyed the majority of my math
classes and feel like I have learned a lot from them. I only wish that more content from the
earlier
courses could be reinforced later so that I
would remember it better.
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Overall, I learned a lot from the
department. However, I think that a few
of the courses should be more geared towards preparing teachers rather
than preparing mathematicians.
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I felt that the math department was great in its
classes, but because math is so dificult I felt that some upper level classes
should be taken into
account and weighted so as to compare fairly
with other majors.
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I enjoyed most of the teachers and the workload
was bearable, but I had some complications with obtaining my stat minor.
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Overall, the TCNJ math department is great. Although some teachers are harder than
others, I realize now that I'm finished that I was challenged
just enough and that I learned a lot of things
that I can take with me.
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Once again, great teachers
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I do feel I was challenged with the material,
but I am leaving with a bad taste in my mouth because of some professors lack
of helping students that
were struggling.
I have had mostly great professors who I enjoyed having and taught me
invaluable information.
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Overall pretty good.
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I am hesitant to give a 4 because there were
things that could have been done better.
I feel like some teachers curve the bottom end of the class to
better non failing grades, but a student with a
B will not get curved to a B+ or A-.
However I do feel that the Mathematics Professors I have had
worked very hard to prepare coherent lectures
for students. I feel like the time I
spent in class was well worth each moment.
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Every class I have taken within the Mathematics
and Statistics department was challenging and well organized. I enjoyed the experience and felt as
though my
knowledge of mathematics was truely deepened.
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Some of the professors here have done a great
job getting me ready, but on the contrary some of the professors here I dont
believe should be
teaching
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Top-notch department, professors were generally
available and cared about us.
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Math classes were very challenging, but many
topics were not necessary to study in such depth for a teaching position. JPE and student teaching,
in addition to the Methods of Teaching courses,
were extremely beneficial and worthwhile for my future jobs.
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Again, the only problem I had was during the
transformation. Students were confused as to what classes counted as electives
and, also, what was
now rrequired of them.
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I believe that there could have been more
teaching based courses and less math courses.
Although I do believe that many of the higher level math
courses helped my understanding of the high
school level concepts.
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I received a good background in Mathematics.
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The Math Department has the best teachers I had
in college. They seemed like they were
the most prepared out of profesors from other
departments, and they loved what they did. The math profesors demanded the students to
work hard
and learn the beauty of mathematics. In math classes the teachers made it
impossible to just memorize the hard problems, instead I feel I have
ingrained in my head the major thms and concepts
of the courses (which will probably be with me forever).The only thing I feel
this department
needs is more hands on work. I feel the students should be required to
take more courses in applied mathematics.
And be familiar with Maple,
Mathmatica, and Matlab. Anyone going into research today is going to
have to face computers. The Math
department needs to train their students
better in
technology (ie maybe in require courses in CompSci). In my own personal experience, through an
internship I felt my Math background
gave me the intuition to solve a variety of
problems, just by the way I analysis them.
This was probably the result of writing proofs and doing math
problems.
When most people were hung up on the Math part, I understood. Although, when it came to computer stuff I
was definetly at a
disadvantage.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2005 Major Code: MATT
I feel that since geometry is required for MATT,
that it should concentrate on Euclidian geometry since that is a subject, that
MATT majors will
have to teach.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2005 Major Code: MATA
Overall, I was very pleased with the mathematics
department at TCNJ. Almost all the
teachers seemed highly motivated to help students succeed
and commanded respect for the knowledge each
clearly held in mathematics. Very few of
the classes lacked the drive and focus I desired.
Monday, November 20, 2006 Page 3 of 6
Graduation Date: 5/1/2005 Major Code: MATA
I was very prepared with an overall mathematics
background. However, it would have been helpful if the department focused a bit
more on the non-
theoretical side. Whether or not the department
is happy with the fact, it remains that nearly all pure math majors do not
continue on to theoretical
graduate studies. As an actuary, a more
practical program of study (and even possibly a minor in actuarial science)
would have been immensely
beneficial. I have entered my profession at the
position of having to 'catch up' to other actuarial students whose colleges
better prepared them for
the 'actuarial real world.'
Graduation Date: 5/1/2005 Major Code: MATA
Many of the mathematics courses were difficult
for me, overall the mostdifficult courses I took at TCNJ. However, I feel that I learned the mostfrom
them as well.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
I am so glad to have had the experience of being
a student in this math department. My math professors challenged me to work
hard and spent
many hours helping me to be successful. I
enjoyed studying with other students, working with them on projects and having
the opportunity to present
our work.
The goals and requirements of the math program were clear, and the professors
and secretaries were always there to help with any
problems along the way. The support and high
quality of the math department have made it a wonderful place to learn.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
I was constantly being challenged and worked
harder than I could have imagined. The professors offered a lot of support and
helped to make the
experience truly rewarding.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
There were some classes with some professors
that I felt like I was wasting my time and not really learning anything
relavent to what I would need
in my future.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
Overall my classes were great in the mathematics
department. The reason that I gave my
experience a 3 is that when I had great
classes, they
were amazing, but then when classes were bad,
they were really bad. For example,
methods for teaching middle school mathematics was an
amazing class and I was able to implement what I learned during
my student teaching. But when it came to
my methods of teaching high school
mathematics, that class gave me very
little. But the good class by far
outweighed the bad.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
I think that the classes were very challenging
and although I didn't like that at the time, I do feel very prepared to be a
mathematics teacher.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
In most cases, mathematics classes in this
department are good. I struggled through
some of them, although you can't entirely blame a professor
for that.
The required courses at some points seemed unneeded for a math education
major but it also does help when you have to look back during
teaching
and the students asks 'what are we going to use this for?' Sometimes it can be difficult with the math
department to schedule classes
because there are some professors that have
policies that seem unfair to students. We
are in college though.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
I feel very well prepared to enter the
educational field due to the extensive mathematics course provided at the
college.
Monday, November 20, 2006 Page 4 of 6
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
Overall, my experience with the Math and
Statistics Department was very good. The
faculty and staff were always available and willing to help with
anything I needed.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
throughout my experience, the courses were
challenging and the professors were always helpful tried their best to allow my
to understand the
material.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
I had exceptional professors that made my
educational experience here at TCNJ so successful and enjoyable. Some of the professors were
slightly below par and were not as fair
others. But, overall I feel the math
department here was better than other departments at TCNJ.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
My mathematical background that I developed was
very strong, although I wish I had gained more knowledge in educating high
school students for
math education.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
Also excellent professors; work was challenging...
at times very difficult; I enjoyed the fact that homework for most of my
classes was a collaborative
effort
(groups of 4 students or so). this was
very helpful to work with others; wish there was more tutoring available for
some of the higher level
math courses (eg. Geometry and Abstract Algebra)
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
I have no problems with the department, the
professors are all very knowledgeable and good at what they do
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
Very challenging courses. Professors able to teach well. I feel like I learned valuable information
and ways of thinking in each class.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
This department is full of caring professors
with both professional accomplishment AND an interest and ability to teach. I
only wish that I had fallen
in love with the higher order aspects of
mathematics and the possibilities of working closely with professors earlier in
my career.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
The math department in particular was excellent,
in 4 years I did not haveone professor that I would have considered below
average, and most of
themwere well above average. Also, the faculty is generally available for
anycomments or concerns I have, and they keep the students' priorities
abovetheir own in almost all occasions. I learned A TON of helpful informationover
the years, not just specifically math related, but real world
adviceas well.
I can only hope that the next department I encounter can comeclose to
this one.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
small class size, and I found the some
prof.are approachable to helping
students.
Monday, November 20, 2006 Page 5 of 6
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
I have some radical education ideas, so that is
primarily the reason for a 3 instead of a 4. I dislike going to class two times
a week for an entire
semester, especially while taking 3 or 4 other
classes. If I had the choice, I would want to have a high concentration of
studying for a subject over 2
weeks (an only one subject), and then one or two
practice quesitons a week for the remainder of the semester. Basically, I wish
all of my math
courses were independent studies. I learned the
most from my independent studies, and established the best relationship with my
professors while
doing so.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
Presence of Math Ed. majors tend to change the
scope and depth of classes. Often, their
discontent does not reflect the opinions of the rest of us.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
Had lots of great teachers and learned plenty
and thought the department was for the ost part great. Loved the challenge of being a Math major.
Graduation Date: 5/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
I really enjoyed most of my math classes, and
with topics classes and independent studies, I felt that I was able to tailor
my education to what I was
most interested in, which was nice.
Graduation Date: 8/1/2006 Major Code: MATA
Overall, it wasn't a good experience. The
students are all over the map because so many of them are teaching majors which
makes it difficult for the
classes
to move at the appropriate speed. The classes are all different difficulties,
and not in such a way that it gets harder as you go and so you
are ready to tackle the one or two hardest at
the end. Some classes are just difficult because of teachers and not the
material. Some of the most
difficult material I faced was well taught and
well structured so that it was manageable and I still had a chance to succeed.
Some teachers focus on
memorization of proofs which is time consuming
and doesn't feel worthwhile. But teachers like xxxx and yyyy make this
program worthwhile. Not that I don't like the
others (there are only two teachers that I don't like), I just feel xxxx and
yyyy are truly
exceptional.
Graduation Date: 8/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
The professors I dealt with were very helpful.
However, my advisor was changed three times without my knowledge. My advisors
were careless and
vague in their advice related to my course
selections.
Graduation Date: 12/1/2006 Major Code: ELMA
The faculty and the classes in the Mathematics
Department are both excellent.
Graduation Date: 12/1/2006 Major Code: MATT
Professors always willing to give extra time,
help, and guidance. Solid math background for future employment.
Monday, November 20, 2006 Page 6 of 6