William Bill Cowan - University of Waterloo

Professor: William Bill Cowan
Department: Computer Science
College: University of Waterloo
Rating # 1
Overview:
  • Course: CS452
  • Grade Received: A+
  • Overall Rating: 3.5
  • Course Difficulty: 3.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: Yes
  • Would Take Again: Yes
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
Best prof I have ever had! He will come into the lab on weekends to check on people, I've even heard of him making 3am visits. He likes to spend lectures talking about problems instead of solutions, and expects students to be able to get to the solution on their own.
Rating # 2
Overview:
  • Course: CS452
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 5.0
  • Course Difficulty: 3.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Best professor on campus. Always available for help outside of class. He has done a tremendous amount of work for the class, and is very knowledgeable about all course related (even non-related) content!
Rating # 3
Overview:
  • Course: CS457
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 3.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
He is dedicated. He prepares before lectures, and his office is always open. He is great if you follow his style, but most students don't...
Rating # 4
Overview:
  • Course: CS457
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.5
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: Yes
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Disappointing. Before taking this course, I had heard that he was an incredible professor. This is simply not true. He shows disrespect for students, he is very hard to follow, his lecture notes are disorganized, his exams are miles apart from the examples he gives in class. Midterms/Assignments take MUCH too long to get back. Not recommended.
Rating # 5
Overview:
  • Course: CS457
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
If you see him on your list of professors GET OUT! He is extremely unorganized, marks take an extreme amount of time to get back, delays assignments, and most of all simply teaches you nothing. He spends more time telling pointless stories than teaching material, does the same repeated examples repeatedly before pouncing hard questions on tests
Rating # 6
Overview:
  • Course: CS457
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Bill Cowan is the kind of guy you want to like at first, but you soon realize that he should simply not be teaching. His lack of organization makes attending his lectures terribly frustrating, and assignments/exams are not in parallel with what is taught in these lectures. Assumes that if you don't understand him you aren't fit to be in university.
Rating # 7
Overview:
  • Course: CS457
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Bill Cowan at first seems like a pretty like-able guy, even though he is absolutely god-awful at teaching, his lecture notes are useless and he does nothing but draw the same diagram over and over on the board. Later you'll realize he doesn't care at all about his students, doesn't return emails, nor accept responsibility for his crappy teaching.
Rating # 8
Overview:
  • Course: CS457
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 2.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: Yes
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Likes to Talk, hard to figure out what is relevant. Goes on rambles about random things. Does not use the blackboard enough. Midterms not follow any plan. Impossible to study for.
Rating # 9
Overview:
  • Course: CS488
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 3.5
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
This guy is memorable character. He does have a tendency to ramble, but that's not his biggest flaw. His biggest flaw is that he has a tendency to be hypocritical. For example, he might say that he has a certain philosophy about exams and then write an exam that clearly violates his philosophy. Cool guy though.
Rating # 10
Overview:
  • Course: CS251
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.5
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: Yes
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
This guy does not teach. He just rambles about the most random stuff you can think of. Best strategy to deal with this guy is to bail or skip classes.
Rating # 11
Overview:
  • Course: CS251
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.5
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
interesting prof.. though his lectures and notes are completely unrelated to the course ciriculum. He knows ALOT, but most of the time he gets carried away when he's on subjects related to hardware design. Actual quote: "A slave is good because he will do whatever you tell it to but a slave is also bad because he will do whatever you tell him to do
Rating # 12
Overview:
  • Course: CS349
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.5
  • Course Difficulty: 3.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Describing him using his own oral style: "Self-Centered" didn't quite know its purpose in the language until he met Bill Cowan. I thought he was cool until I decided to ask him for help. That occasion conditioned me to feel pain everytime after, when I saw him still in position of authority.
Rating # 13
Overview:
  • Course: CS349
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.5
  • Course Difficulty: 3.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
I personally dont give 2 monkey craps about how a user 'feels' when he see's certain colours. This a CS or PSYCH course? Interesting and entertaining lectures...too bad they have nothing to do with material. The course notes have more spelling/grammatical errors than my chinese grandma's english paper. Assignments are ridiculously long and tedius.
Rating # 14
Overview:
  • Course: CS349
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 2.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
i'll give him this: his lectures are entertaining & interesting. BUT, they DO NOT have anything to do with testable material. assignments sucked ass- long, tedious and useless. the coursenotes (or the poor excuse for them) were simply crap. the class was trully a waste of time, money and effort!
Rating # 15
Overview:
  • Course: CS349SE382
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 3.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
The course notes: holed, unedited, rambling, and sometimes unrelated. Does this perfectly describe his teaching? Absolutely. The course: tedious assignments, anal & long remarks by himself, some very interesting lectures, some pointless ones. It's a toss. In general he's friendly but to sporatic.
Rating # 16
Overview:
  • Course: CS349
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
No Comments
Rating # 17
Overview:
  • Course: SE382CS349
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
No Comments
Rating # 18
Overview:
  • Course: SE382
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Doesn't seem like a bad guy, but..wow, sucks as a prof. Lectures and course notes are useless. Assignments are unnecessarily long and tedious. Marking is largely subjective and anal.
Rating # 19
Overview:
  • Course: SE382
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Just realized that the comment "this prof is horrible because he talks using big word" was meant as a compliment. The reality is much worse... Any prof who wants to be Jack Nicholson is doomed to have a bad attitude, and shall be avoided like a plague!!!!!
Rating # 20
Overview:
  • Course: SE382
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: N/A
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Worst. Organization. Ever.
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