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Schuster, Peter

Cumulative GPA: 2.82/4.00 with 28 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.75
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.82

Mechanical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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ME 404 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 5:34 pm, Apr 9, 2013 Report Evaluation		Great professor. Conveys material well, he is kind, and great in office hours. HOWEVER! He is a total slave driver. I put more hours into this class than any other at Cal Poly. Be warned

ME 329 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 12:11 am, Aug 1, 2012 Report Evaluation		Schuster obviously knows the material and can teach it realatively well. But, Schuster was horrible. He Does not take into consideration that students take multiple classes every quarter and assigned way too much work, especially MATLAB assignments. He for some reason did not like me and gave me a really hard time even though it was obvious I knew the material. He always decided to give me just the right amount of partial credit on tests to where I just barely failed. He always has a stupid shit eating grin on his face that you just wanna slap right off. He acts like he is a really nice guy, but you will find out that he is just really passive aggressive. If you are a suck up type student, you will probably do well in his class because you can tell that was the kind of student he was in school. If you aren't a brown noser, then you will probably end up hating this class. The material is by no means boring. It is actually very useful, but I'm the type of person that can see through the facade that this spineless prick puts on, and therefore ended up failing.

ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 6:18 pm, Dec 21, 2011 Report Evaluation		Don't be scared by some of the comments about ME 329 below this one. Prof. Schuster made dramatic changes to how he teaches the class before Fall '11, so the workload is a lot more manageable now than it appears to have been for past sections. There are ten fairly straightforward homeworks, about eight quizzes based on reading and paying attention in class, a few multi-week labs, and two midterms. The MATLAB programs the people below me were freaking out about are now incorporated into the lab periods instead of posed as additional work, which makes a huge difference. In addition, half of each midterm is take-home. That might seem to prolong the stress, but it's actually pleasant to work on an exam without worrying about time (in any case, the take-home portions padded my grade significantly). This is by no means an easy class, but it's sure as hell easier than the horror stories below would imply. Take Schuster. He knows how to teach this stuff and has industry credentials to back it up.

ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Dec 5, 2011 Report Evaluation		The post below this isn't far off from the truth. In the beginning of the quarter, the workload was ridiculous then it seemed to ease up a little bit, not much, but a little. I learned a lot in this course (and actually like a lot of the material), but it is not easy. Sneaky Pete gives 2 tests during the quarter and a final. If you do well on the tests, you don't have to take the final, but I hear he switches his teaching style up every quarter. Sometimes his lectures are all over the place, but most are clearly laid out. It's hard to dislike the guy even though he gives a crapload of work. I graduate in a year and so far this class takes the cake for workload. It helped that I only took 12 units this quarter, and if you do take Schuster, consider doing the same. He has pop quizzes on the required reading, about 10 of them in the quarter. I didn't read a page of the book before I came to class since he already gave enough work, but if you pay attention in class, you can do okay on the quizzes. I think I ended up with an average of 6 out of 8 on most. If he's the only professor teaching ME 329, just take him. It doesn't suck that bad. Oh, and one more thing, He was pretty fair on the tests I thought. Each exam was an "in class" exam and a take home test, so when you're done with the exam, you're not done. Lotsa material! Well, there you have it. After all this, I gave him an "A"

ME 329 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 9:49 pm, Apr 7, 2011 Report Evaluation		20 hours a week on matlab. And thats not even thinking about the 3 big lab projects. Take him if you want to die...like I am right now.

ME 504 Graduate Student Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:55 pm, Jul 21, 2010 Report Evaluation		504 is the hardest ME class you can take. Work hard and you can get an A. Schuster is good for 404 as well. You\'ll learn a lot but you can\'t slack or be a noob in general.

ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:35 pm, Apr 2, 2010 Report Evaluation		He\'s a good teacher who does a good job of drawing from his industry experience to relate the material to the students. He seems to always manage to quiz on the material you spent the least amount of time studying, but he\'s a good teacher and if you listen in class and do the homework you\'ll do fine. I would recommend him.



ME 404 Graduate Student Grade Earned: A Elective 7:11 am, Jun 25, 2009 Report Evaluation		I thought Schuster was great for ME 404. Yeah, the workload was heavy, but I thought it was very pertinent and helpful when going into industry. I didn't think FEA is really that exciting (except for the color pictures), and I'm the one who usually falls asleep in EVERY class, but not this one. Schuster gets the class involved often to help keep everyone's attention. I also thought he was VERY lenient when it came to grading the labs. Overall, I've noticed he likes to make the class tough and then build everyone back up by being lenient on the grades.

ME 234 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 9:52 pm, Jun 17, 2009 Report Evaluation		Very unspecific on what he wanted, yet graded very hard. It was a constant guessing game the whole quarter trying to figure out what he was looking for. Add the fact that you don't really know your final grade until the very end and this class becomes frustrating. It's a lot of work for a bullshit Philosophy of Design class, I'd take Harding over Schuster.

ME 404 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 9:07 pm, Feb 23, 2009 Report Evaluation		Schuster is a straight up slave driver. He somehow assumes that you don't have any other classes or senior project, and therefore FEA should keep you occupied 24/7. Seriously, this was one of the most work intensive classes I've ever taken, and it was a fucking tech elective! Extremely uninteresting, every day was a struggle to stay awake, and I couldn't believe the constant workload. Expect all the labs to take at least 8 hours outside of lab, and the homework will either be easy or absolutely impossible. Schuster is a nice guy, but he is a crappy teacher and has no understanding of the intended workload for a tech elective. Avoid this class like the plague.

PHYS 132 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 7:38 pm, Jan 21, 2009 Report Evaluation		Briefly, someone needs to slash his tires before each class. otherwise your grades will be slashed. there is more to life than physics and homework schwartz

ME 234 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:46 pm, Jul 24, 2008 Report Evaluation		Schuster will give you work, no doubt about that, but he knows the field. For "philosophy of design," he used a lot of his past experience as a design engineer to help us understand different ideas and what could arrise when designing. If you just get the work done rather than complaining about it, you will realize you can gain a good amount of knowlwedge from this class, and get a feel for a group design project.

ME 401 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 8:29 pm, Dec 10, 2007 Report Evaluation		ME 401 is the theory behind CE 204/CE 207. I actually like solid mechanics and so this class was pretty enjoyable. Schuster was a good lecturer for this Tech Elec. The one disappointment, however, was that the labs are actually problems you work out. No experiments. Schuster was pretty lenient on the grades, since I totally tanked the first midterm (F-) but did well on the second midterm and final, and came out wit an A. Office hours are very helpful, but be sure to spend a few hours on the homework first.



ME 502 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: C Elective 1:52 pm, Nov 13, 2007 Report Evaluation		Schuster is a nice guy, but his 502 class killed me. The class was on the theory behind Finite Element Analysis, but it felt like a math class. It was not very related to actual FE which I found troublesome. This may or may not have been Schuster's fault, but his lab assignments were very lengthy. Meanwhile he would leave after the first hour of lab while the whole class stayed late. Nice guy, lacks organization.

ME 328 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:34 am, Jun 8, 2007 Report Evaluation		So the beginning of ME 328 is a review of CE 204 an 207, then it just gets hard and stops making sense. Schuster was reasonably good at presenting the material and forgiving when it came to grades. Put in a good effort on the homework and you should be prepared for the exams. The lab was also cool too.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 6:26 pm, Dec 19, 2006 Report Evaluation		Not happy with Schuster in this class. When the professor struggles with the material himself, you know the class will be a nightmare. Schuster is a nice guy and he taught a very fair class, however he didn't present the material as clearly as he could have. He RARELY did examples, and almost never completely finished lecturing on the topic, so homework was always a shot in the dark as the textbook is the biggest waste of paper I've ever seen. This class was also very behind compared to other statics classes, so we received no time to review for the final. Not enough time is alloted for the quizzes so almost no one finishes. There is also no curve for the class, which there should be because the average was a low C.

ME 328 Senior Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 10:37 am, Oct 19, 2006 Report Evaluation		Dr. Schuster likes to talk over your head a lot and doesnt ever do sample problems. In lecture he just derives formula after formula, and you have to go because he has pop quizzes on the reading thats do BEFORE the lecture. Text books are hard to read, granted, but reading uber-complicated engineering textbooks help. I read before each lecture but I could never score more than 5/10 on the quizzes because he always asked obscure questions. If you have the solutions manual he is a fine teacher because you can teach it to yourself as you do the homework. I didnt have it until finals week and that is probably why I failed since everyone else did have it. I am retaking with Dr. Widman and he is a 10 times better, clearer, and friendlier teacher.

ME 328 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:20 pm, Jun 14, 2006 Report Evaluation		Schuster is a good guy. Definitely take him if you can. Two Midterms at 15% each, Lab 25%, Quiz 8%, HW 7%, and Final 30%. The quizes are tricky T/F and multi-choice only over the reading you should have done ahead of time. The lab rocked with him even though it was pretty hard to get a check plus(I think that is an A) and they took quite about of time. His tests were fair and curved to make up for them if they were to difficult. If you do badly on the midterms you have the opportunity to do better on the final which can count up to 75% of you grade, that is everything besides the lab. Overall great teacher look forward to taking ME 329 and ME 401 with him.

ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:57 am, Nov 2, 2005 Report Evaluation		So 329 is pretty much plug-and-chug, so the lecture is pretty easy and pretty boring. Not much can be done about that. The lab, however, kicked ass. Take Schuster for lab if you can. This guy really appreciates the stuff we (students) come up with. No matter how shitty your design turns out, Sneaky Pete will find some aspect of it that is very cool. Oh, watch out for the quizzes (hence his nickname). The T/F questions are often confusing or deliberatly tricky, but the problems are always fair and usually pretty easy. The best way, IMO, to deal with the T/F is to skip the reading and just use common sense. Once he assigns the lab project, you won't have time to read anyways.



ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 3:14 pm, Aug 31, 2005 Report Evaluation		great statics teacher. helpful during office hours. challenging class but do-able. nice guy. he tries to help the student and he is sincerely genuine. i recommend him for statics. i got a lot out of his class. you must work hard to get an A.

ME 328 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 9:01 am, Nov 1, 2004 Report Evaluation		great professor, very fair with tests and grading, hw, etc. definatly a guy to go out of your way to get. im looking forward to having him for 329.

ME 328 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:30 am, Jul 28, 2004 Report Evaluation		Schuster is a great guy. He really cares about teaching and his students. He is very helpful during office hours and if you have questions during lab. However, he hasn't been teaching for a very long which sometimes shows, but with time I think he will be among the best ME proffessors at poly.

ME 328 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:42 am, Jul 12, 2004 Report Evaluation		Peter Schuster is a good guy. Eventhough one can tell that he still needs more experience as a proffesor, he still does a good job. I took him for statics and i thought he was an ok teacher but after taking hard ass professors like locassio, I actually appreciated having schuster for another upper division course (328). Homework is cake as long as you start with enough time, exams are medium difficulty just go over all notes AND HOMEWORK HE ASSIGNED (thats where all problems come from almost exactly), and lab is ok too. I would recommend schuster for 328 since it is still challenging but you will have plenty time to do everything.

ME 328 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 3:20 pm, Apr 22, 2004 Report Evaluation		Schuster is an alright professor. It may just be because it was his first time teaching design but it seemed like he didn't know the material as well as he should have which made it more difficult to understand. I will say i enjoyed the lab part of the class. For our class, we had to design a crane to meet the criteria while costing the least amount. That was a fun, although difficult, lab.

ME 211 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:13 am, Sep 9, 2003 Report Evaluation		Good prof, always in office hours, presented material clearly, midterms were fair, would answer questions in class, 211 is a hard class whoever you take it with and I think he did a great job.



ME 211 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:27 pm, Sep 3, 2003 Report Evaluation		Schuster is a pretty good teacher who cares a lot for his students. I had him for his first quarter of teaching statics and was impressed at his level of organization. I had a few problems understanding some parts of this course, maybe the fault of his sometimes unclear lectures, but he was more than willing to help me through it in his office office hours.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 12:01 am, Jul 21, 2003 Report Evaluation		He is an awesome teacher who really cares about his students. His office hours are really helpful, go to those.

ME 211 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 4:22 pm, Jun 27, 2003 Report Evaluation		Schuster had only taught Statics once before I had him, and I am certain that most of his difficulties came from merely being inexperienced. He was a better than average teacher who definately cares about the students learning. He is helpful in office hours and very approachable, but he doesn't always get through everything in class. There are 3 midterms each worth ~18% each, homework (about 4 problems per section) worth ~15%, and the common final. However, he doesn't really stick to this scale. Basically, he curves the class and looks at improvement to determine final grades. For the midterms, he takes problems directly from the book and homework, only changed the numbers. Overall, not a difficult teacher, who should only get better as time goes on.

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