Home       Professor Search       Professor List       Evaluate a Professor       About Us       Contact Us       Staley, Clint  Cumulative GPA: 3.38/4.00 with 137 evaluations Presents Material Clearly: 3.55 Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.26 Computer Science Department, Cal Poly, SLO Full Statistical Analysis Evaluate This Professor

CSC 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 11:10 am, May 21, 2013 Report Evaluation		Staley is an extremely intelligent person, and a knowledgeable professor. Yes, this class takes a lot of time, but it is do-able if you take a lighter schedule while taking this course. That being said, I do find the amount of work in this course to be excessive. No 4-unit class should take as much time as this does, that it harms your ability to put strong efforts into other courses in your schedule. Rumor has it that he will continue to water down the course, or that he already has... it is just unfortunate that this class has to have the online lecture format. I think it would be a totally different story (much better experience) if you had the opportunity to take 357 with Staley in person.
CPE 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:49 am, Apr 4, 2013 Report Evaluation		If you put the work in, you will become a great programmer. Hate it or love it.
CPE 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 9:41 pm, Apr 3, 2013 Report Evaluation		This teacher expects you to spend day and night for 10 weeks working on his class alone. This class would be possible if you had only this class, as this class will easily eat up 60 hours a week. You basically teach the material to yourself, and take online TIMED quizzes (which is unfair because his instructions are so damn vague), that need to meet his strict complexity outline. You need to have a photographic memory in order to absorb all of the material this teacher is trying to shove down your throat, or else you will spend ALL of your time on this class (not even guaranteed a C). If you miss a single assignment, you fail. Good fucking luck.
CSC 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 10:54 am, Apr 2, 2013 Report Evaluation		Cry.
CPE 357 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 12:47 am, Mar 28, 2013 Report Evaluation		Wow, by far the hardest class I have ever taken at Cal Poly. If you are planning to take this class, take no other hard classes or no other major classes, because all of your grades will probably slip. He gave out the Cal Poly study thing towards the end of the quarter that usually says study 25-35 hours/week. But instead it said study 125-135 hours/week. Even though this may sound like a joke, you will probably have to put in this much time, even to just pass the class. That being said, I learned a lot from this class. The class is built around online lectures which you can watch anytime as well as LMQs, which are online mini quizzes that you take after you watch a particular lecture. For the LMQs the time limit is a real challenge but even more of a challenge is the complexity requirement. But, on top of the LMQs are 4 projects that you have to do and which take up a massive amount of time. For the class my advice is to START EARLY ON EVERYTHING, otherwise it will be really hard to pass the class. You also have programming quizzes. The reason I got the grade I did was that I didn't do well on the midterm/final since I'm not that good at taking tests. Overall, you will probably learn more about C than you would care to and you'll probably learn a lot about yourself.
CPE 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:36 pm, Mar 26, 2013 Report Evaluation		The other people aren't lying. This was the hardest class I've taken so far, and mostly because Staley was a really hard professor. I took this class when he's trying out the new model, which means everything was online. It had its pros and cons. The lectures are online, so you can view them whenever you want. He does a really good job explaining things in the lectures, and the transcripts are very helpful. Do them and the surveys ASAP, since you'll miss some points if you don't do them early. The lecture miniquizzes were the main source of pain in this class. Make sure you're comfortable with the material and complexity rules before doing them. The projects were the second source of pain, but you won't get them till a couple weeks into the quarter. The general advice is to stay ahead, and DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Otherwise it's extremely hard to get back on track and you'll likely fail. Everything is timed, and the more you exceed the time limit, the more penalty you get. This class takes a huge amount of time, so don't take other hard classes with it. Be prepare for a real challenge if you're taking this. But if you pass, you'll be a better programmer.
CSC 357 Junior Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 10:16 pm, Mar 16, 2013 Report Evaluation		Half way trough the quarter, this class made me realize that CS is not the major or career I want to accomplish. I am happy that this class opened my eyes before it was too late. This class was super hard!
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 8:15 pm, Nov 12, 2012 Report Evaluation		Some students think that you take a class to learn the algorithms. Some think that you write code for a linked list so that you can write linked lists in the future. This is not the case. In reality, you will likely never again write a linked list or any other famous algorithm: they're all available online for every imaginable language. What Staley teaches you is how to think, how to rationalize and debug your way through a problem. Especially with 349, there's a heavy emphasis on efficient code, which requires actual understanding of the material and abilities taught in the lectures. It's the hardest programming class I've taken thus far, but it's certainly not impossible, and you will come out a much better programmer. Besides, if you're a CSC or CPE, you should take Staley at least once. You'll be better off for it.
CSC 234 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 8:00 pm, Sep 10, 2012 Report Evaluation		This class was extremely challenging for me. Being a non-CSC major, I had a lot of trouble picking up certain concepts and skills. We only had to go to class twice a week but there were so many mandatory online lectures that it more than made up for the in-class time. I had a hard time with the LMQs (Lecture Mini Quizzes) that he assigned after every class which were more like timed brain teasers than anything else. It was satisfying once you figured out the code and finished the projects but it took a crazy amount of time. The grading system he had in place was really weird so I would recommend checking in with Staley personally about your grade every so often. Also, for this class, the internet is your friend. If you can't figure out an LMQ, google it-it'll at least help point you in the right direction. Oh, and Staley is prone to making mistakes in his lectures, quizzes, and tests so make sure to ask questions. I got the highest score on his midterm, had an A for most of the quarter, but since I take a looong time to write code, I failed the programming half of the final and got a B in the class-which I think is fair. Overall, I wouldn't recommend non-CSC's to take him (especially if you aren't interested in a future in CSC) but you can learn a lot from his class if you put the time in.
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 4:26 pm, Mar 29, 2012 Report Evaluation		If you want to learn how to solve problems, take Clint's classes. If you want to memorize solutions to answer sheets so you can get a good grade. Don't take Clint's classes. If you want to get better at programming and how to be a more useful human being, take Clint's classes. If you just want to get a degree and just don't really care about anything else, then don't bother. Clint works extremely hard to provide his students with the best opportunities *if they work for them*. A recommendation from Clint is gold in the industry. This might not be "how the industry works", but its definitely a good way in.
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: B Elective 3:46 am, Mar 28, 2012 Report Evaluation		To the student who said: "He is very good at teaching us how to survive in the real world of computing." This is patently false. I've had internships with some of the top (and highly successful) high tech silicon valley companies (Google, Apple, facebook), and his methods don't apply at all to the real world. In fact, if employees at these companies acted in the manner Staley does, they would completely collapse. Collaboration is highly emphasized in the real world. You work with a team; you do not go on trail blazing by yourself. With that being said, Staley's teaching methods are the epitome of horrible. It fosters competition among students instead of collaborative efforts. The mere fact that he has you sign a non-collaboration agreement is questionably unethical. There are many studies demonstrating that team based learning is much more effective at retaining information in the long run (by all means, Google about) than simply attacking a problem by yourself. As an experiment, I've tried discussing algorithms with other students who have taken Staley. My sample size was around 20 (and growing as I continue to meet new students). So far, approximately 80% of them didn't retain the detailed knowledge that many claim Staley does so well. They remembered learning the algorithms, but couldn't remember details about the implementation, or even simply calculating the runtimes. A lot of these students admired Staley as well. But, if they could barely retain information from the class, what does that say about the professor?
CSC 234 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 11:36 pm, Mar 25, 2012 Report Evaluation		Staley is a very knowledgeable professor, but his ability to teach was very difficult to understand. I had no prior knowledge of computer science and no matter how hard I tried, I could not pick up this subject through his online lectures. I felt that the lectures expressed the basic concepts and then the weekly quizzes had you apply these concepts, but in a more advanced way as is natural in any course; however, it was very difficult to bridge this gap between what was taught and what was expected. My advice is to definitely put in the time and go to the csc tutoring center because they are a huge help. Most of my learning was accomplished in those hours at the tutoring center as they were able to clarify concepts and help me to find the errors in my code. It was a very challenging course, and I felt it was too overbearing for a course that is designated for non-computer science majors. I would not recommend this class unless you truly truly LOVE computer science and would like to marry the subject for the 10 weeks + final. That being said he must have had a pretty steep curve!
CSC 234 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:00 pm, Mar 22, 2012 Report Evaluation		If you're looking for an easy CSC 234 class this is not it! That being said, Clint is one of the best teachers I've had so far. You only have to go to class 2 days a week, but he assigns online lectures to do on your on time and YOU HAVE TO DO THEM if you want an A. These lectures are accompanied by online quizzes, but they really aren't too hard. If you actually want to learn the basics of programming REALLY WELL then Clint is your man. Overall, one of the most enjoyable classes I've taken.
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 1:38 pm, Feb 8, 2012 Report Evaluation		Staley is really good at explaining concepts in a way students can understand. He puts a lot of thought into his lectures and is always willing to clarify material. The class is a lot of work, and he definitely gives you enough rope to hang yourself. If people have a tough time in his class, it is often because they are not keeping up with the work.
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 8:36 pm, Jan 1, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professor Staley is a hard nut to crack. The reason why he is so noninclusive with student questions is the fact that he wants you to learn how to solve the problems for yourself. That is why the way he teaches is so interesting, he can't just give you the answer, but he does teach you without giving you a cheat sheet. He is very good at teaching us how to survive in the real world of computing. You want a hint: do the work early PERIOD. -IF66
CPE 305 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Elective 4:40 pm, Jul 26, 2011 Report Evaluation		This is one of the most time-consuming CSC/CPE courses at Cal Poly.If you take 305 with Dr. Staley, you will learn to become very comfortable programming in C++. In fact, the course might as well be called "Advanced C++ programming". In the course, you will be required to write and test game programs. The test covers all the major features of C++. If you do the programs on time and study hard for the final,you should be able to get a good grade.
CSC 303 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Elective 4:26 pm, Jul 26, 2011 Report Evaluation		This is one of Dr. Staley's easy courses. Obviously, a course with Dr. Staley is not going to be that easy. Although there was no programming and no Bender, there were still written assignments due every class. This is a great course to take if you're interested in teaching. We covered the best approaches for teaching STEM subjects, and we were required to practice presenting a lecture and tutoring CSC students outside of class.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 4:20 pm, Jul 26, 2011 Report Evaluation		Dr. Staley is tough, but you will learn algorithms if you take him. His lectures are always interesting and conveys the material well. Like almost every course he teaches, there is a heavy programming component that has to pass strict test cases. These will take a lot of time, but your grade will be determined more by the tests.
CPE 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:15 pm, Jul 23, 2011 Report Evaluation		So by now you've read comments about Dr. Staley, and you can tell he's a tough professor. If you don't have decent programming experience before college, taking 108 is probably not a good idea. If you do have experience, and you'd like to challenge yourself, this can be a very rewarding class. You will learn the foundations of programming early on, and save yourself from having to take 102. The programs are time consuming, but remember to study for the tests if you want an A.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:56 am, May 4, 2011 Report Evaluation		If you don't think he's a good teacher, then you aren't doing the work. If you actually do everything he tells you to do, the IHS exercies, labs, and in-class Bender exercises that everyone else says are super-hard become trivial. But make sure to READ ALL OF THE MATERIAL CAREFULLY, INCLUDING CODE COMMENTS. And, if you do all of the work, you're guaranteed to pass, unless you superbomb the midterm or final (and I mean like < 35%). However, this does mean you have to everything 100% right.
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 8:25 pm, Apr 12, 2011 Report Evaluation		If you would like to know how to be a model human being, take Staley, and then do the complete polar opposite of everything he does.
CSC 349 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:26 pm, Apr 10, 2011 Report Evaluation		The class is filled with interesting topics, but Staley's maniacal obsession with his IHS system, online lectures, and other proprietary business ventures completely ruin the class. He has now decided to use his classes as involuntary beta-testers for his products. He also offers no schedule for the class, creates assignments out of thin air and assigns them the day before they're due, doesn't show up for his office hours, *doesn't show up for class sometimes.* The class isn't hard because of the material, it's hard because of his incompetence (or malevolence perhaps). Also, if you question his methods or provide feedback he will ignore you. If you ask why, he will justify it with fallacious arguments or simply dismiss you curtly.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 7:40 pm, Apr 9, 2011 Report Evaluation		So whenever Staley says the words 'online' or 'experimental', drop the class. Bender is one thing. IHS is another. It's not a learning tool, it is a failing tool. He wants you to think about your answers before he brutally tells you one of your twelve responses was wrong. He doesn't tell you which one(s) or how many. Just that you failed. I'm only on week 2 and I know I'll fail this class because this guy is lazy! Online lectures and exercises, my ass! Do your job or GTFO, Staley...
CPE 101 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 8:16 am, Apr 4, 2011 Report Evaluation		I earned a C in Staley's class. I worked my butt off for that C. I spent sleepless nights every weekend coding. I was worried about every test we took. I fried my brain the week of finals to the point I could not do addition and subtraction correctly (and I really mean that, it was embarrassing). I am now vowing to check every class I take to see if Staley is the professor. If he is, I am going to take his class. That was probably the hardest I've worked in nearly any class I have taken in my life, and I'm glad I went through it. Thank you Clint. -John Bowers
CSC 234 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 7:49 pm, Mar 28, 2011 Report Evaluation		Clint is really quite passionate about his teaching. At the beginning of the quarter, he told us that his class would not be easy and nobody would really skate by. He worked himself up to be an extremely difficult teacher, but I actually really enjoyed his class. Clint cuts out the bullcrap and gets straight to the important stuff. His style of teaching gets the class involved more and kept me entertained and coming to every lecture. For this class, a non CSC-major class, you are instructed to buy a book. Don't bother. The lectures that Clint has put online for this class are very instructive and make way more sense then the book does. Clint is very good about emailing students back and keeping everyone well informed on any changed that have occurred in scheduling and such. If you've never programmed before, you may have a little trouble. Like I said, Clint cuts to the important stuff and teaching people the basics of coding is not included in the important stuff. He expects you to learn it, and learn it fast. For this, use the internet. Look around for some C coding hints. If you do that, Clint's a great teacher and CSC 234 will be a piece of cake.
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: A Elective 11:22 pm, Feb 9, 2011 Report Evaluation		Your submission passed tests. We'll do a style check shortly.
CPE 101 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 11:24 pm, Feb 7, 2011 Report Evaluation		This guy gives teaching his all, and is definitely an amazing teacher. If you are a CPE or CSC, take this guy. You'll build a very strong foundation for all other classes. After being fed up with a project of his, I actually sat down and tried to understand it. It was the most elegantly designed puzzle. He had given us 4 functions and starting from there, everything he had taught us fell into place. It was the most fun I've ever had programming.
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:30 pm, Jan 10, 2011 Report Evaluation		Staley is the worst professor the CSC department has to offer. Period. Let me preface this by saying that I'm not stating that based on him being difficult. There is a difference between being challenging, and difficult for fun. The subject matter isn't inherently difficult, but Staley chooses to make it difficult for no reason other than his own personal pleasure. His lectures were okay; they certainly weren't the best. Office hours were completely useless. If you want to feel like an idiot after attending his office hours though, by all means, take Staley! Not only that, he frequently would miss office hours and not inform students. The class consists of ten or so labs, a midterm, and a final. You need to pass all ten labs to perfection (or whatever arbitrary amount he comes up with) in order to pass the course. If you get a lab wrong, it's given back to you with a penalty, and you also get docked 5-10% a day. It's a range because it's not clear cut; he decides to make up his late policy as you go along the course. It's also not covered in his syllabus, which is a breach of contract and illegal according to university policy. Not only that, he will give surprise assignments between classes via email. He decided to "experiment" with us in doing class online every Friday. This turned out to be an atrocious experiment, with him revising policies all the time to the point where it wasn't the same format from the beginning of class. During the last couple weeks, Staley seemed to abandon class and didn't really inform the students about it. Here's an example of how horrible and absurdly difficult he makes the course: one of the algorithms that was lectured on required some knowledge in linear algebra. Linear algebra isn't a prerequisite for the course, but he decided to lecture on it anyway. The class as a whole had to request that he not test us on that algorithm. After many attempts and pleas, he finally decided not to test on the algorithm. This is an example of how god awful he is. I've come to the conclusion that people love him due to the psychological effect known Stockholm Syndrome. When people accomplish something seemingly insurmountable, of course they will love him. If at all possible, do not take Staley, and do not believe people who say he is the best professor. He really isn't.
CPE 305 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:14 am, Jan 10, 2011 Report Evaluation		If you take this class, only have 12 units total for the quarter. NO EXCEPTIONS. The workload in this class is about equivalent to two computer science courses. Lots of programming...Clint presents topics pretty well during lecture. If you have questions be sure to ask them during lecture, he is fairly useless during office hours...Clint, PLEASE KEEP YOUR SPEC UP-TO-DATE, because it is often times incorrect! Again, please please please take this class with only 12 units for the quarter. I made the mistake of taking 16 units, and I could have done better in this class...
CPE 305 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 7:31 pm, Dec 6, 2010 Report Evaluation		This has to be the most time consuming class at Poly. I can\'t even imagine any class requiring more work than this. The only class I\'ve taken that can even come close in workload is 357 with O\'Gorman. This class is very difficult, although, the sheer amount of work is likely what will get you. There\'s something like a 50% pass rate. Be prepared to spend at least 40 hours a week on this class alone, if not more. That being said, once I got over the fact that I\'d be having no life this quarter, I actually really enjoyed this course. I learned far more than I have in any single class before this. Clint is an excellent instructor. Very clear lectures, excellent examples, great at answering questions (when he wants to be that is). My only complaint is his Specs are always our of date! If you\'re willing to put in the time, you will definitely get a lot out this class. Plus, you get an amazing sense of accomplishment once it\'s finally all over, and you\'ll know that you can easily handle anything else Poly might throw at you. Highly recommended, just know what you\'re getting into!
CSC 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:25 pm, May 11, 2010 Report Evaluation		Staley is so sexy. I only took 101 from him but I could tell he knows his stuff very well. Take any class you can with this guy.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 5:58 pm, Mar 18, 2010 Report Evaluation		Ok...first things first...this guy thinks his shit doesn\'t stink....he is really into himself and his idea of how intelligent he is. Try not to let this put you off, because it could interfere with your ability to learn in the class. But I learned more useful stuff about algorithms than i thought i would, and the subject was actually much more interesting than i thought it would be. He is a hard grader, and thankfully for this course we only had the labs, midterm, and final graded. However, do not underestimate the labs. My advice on finishing them...start early, and actually concentrate on them..only one of the labs involved actual programming, but his labs need your full attention. There were a total of ten labs throughout the quarter, and i assume this is about how many there are every quarter. the average time to complete a single lab is 4-5 hours (of concentrated time) i would say... Also, he is only OK during his office hours. he gets his rocks off by asking you questions and watching you struggle (a 30 min. process) versus just giving you an explanation of the material (a 2 min. process). Overall, he is the BEST GODDAMN COMPUTER SCIENCE PROFESSOR at Cal Poly, he isn\'t perfect, but the CSC department should fire everyone else and just have staley teach all the courses.... oh, and also, read the book\'s explanation about the current topic right before you do the lab for it...that really helped me.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 12:25 pm, Feb 28, 2010 Report Evaluation		Professor Staley is the hardest professor I\'ve come across to date. He\'s also the professor I\'ve learned the most from. He\'s a renowned professor for being tough - his name strikes fear into the hearts of some ;) You will work very hard in this class if you expect to pass, and if you do pass, consider it an achievement. He fails about half his class, but that\'s because he expects us to be some of the world\'s best students - which is a proper expectation to make of a Cal Poly student. Of the half that doesn\'t fail, he rewards their grade generously - a vast majority of the passing students get As and Bs. Worthy of note about his style - he teaches at a very fast pace, but he will answer any questions you have in an interesting way - he forces you to think about problems in a certain way and pound them out yourself - he will guide you instead of showing you. Also, you must complete all of the projects (completion passing his rigorous system of two graders) before the end of the semester or you automatically fail - which is why so many students fail. To finish a project is not good enough - you must finish the project CORRECTLY in order for it to pass, and you have a 5% deduction per day for late projects. Also, Professor Staley is a really nice guy - he might be tough in class, but he wants students to succeed for themselves. Definitely take him - but only if you have the time and dedication to go through what may be your toughest class at Cal Poly (including all nighters).
CPE 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:11 pm, Feb 25, 2010 Report Evaluation		Clint Staley is one of the most interesting professors I have ever had. He adds his own flair to each lecture/lab session to make the class fun and the material easier to understand.
CPE 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:44 pm, Dec 28, 2009 Report Evaluation		Staley\'s new 349 class was not as challenging as I thought it was going to be. Especially after reading evaluations and hearing from past students in his class how difficult it is going to be. There was not much programming involved and he instead focused on strengthening our understanding of the algorithms by making us play with them and alter them in a specific way. Overall, he is a good teacher and presents concepts clearly, but I do not like how he presents himself. The way he talks and responds to people makes it seem like he is cocky and kind of a know-it-all. But this should not really affect you unless you let it. However, I would still recommend taking him because there is no doubting his ability to teach.
CPE 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:31 am, Dec 28, 2009 Report Evaluation		this guy is hella hard, but i go back and look at the code i wrote under his class, and wow, its beautiful.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 4:35 pm, Dec 25, 2009 Report Evaluation		Clint is a great teacher, no matter how much I hated the class at points, felt like I couldn\'t program, etc. If you run into problems, get over your embarrassment and go to office hours! He really will help. You come to realize that as tough as the class is, it\'s a good thing. I failed the midterm, still don\'t know how I did on the final, and struggled with a lot of the assignments, but I got them all in and went to office hours a lot, show that you care and he\'s a pretty nice guy (with a nice, but fair, grading policy). You\'ll come out of 108 (if you survive) a very strong programmer ready to tackle almost anything. I don\'t want to make this too long, but be flexible, his methods are good. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
CSC 101 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:54 pm, Dec 21, 2009 Report Evaluation		Staley is a good professor. He IS tough, but if you put in the effort it is possible to do well in his class. I went into it having no programming experience, and came out with a B+. Labs count as much as the midterms in your final grades, so if you bomb a midterm don\'t worry you\'ll probably still pass if you get the labs in on time. The midterms are pass/fail, so practice programming fast and working out bender bugs (you\'ll understand that later). If you have trouble, email him. Staley always responds (into the early hours of the morning), and if he can\'t help you through email he can at office hours. As long as you try and put an effort in, you\'ll do fine.
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:28 am, Aug 24, 2009 Report Evaluation		Clint Staley is very good at explaining the material. With that said, the amount of work required to pass this class is straight up barbaric. If you are taking this class, make sure you do not plan on doing anything else the entire quarter, and try to make the rest of your classes GEs if you can. Also, remember, suicide is never the answer.
CPE 305 Graduate Student Grade Earned: A Elective 11:43 am, Jul 11, 2009 Report Evaluation		This is a hard class. As other post indicate the time this class takes is what kills you. This was my second time to take the class. On the second time around I barely got through after many hours, blood, prayers, family support, tears and a "forgivable F". I kept track of how long it took me to do the assignments in the class to give you an idea of what this class entails. Keep three things in mind: 1) Clint reduced the workload for this class by roughly 30-40%(due to adopting a new son) 2) I am an average/slightly below average coder. 3) This includes time spent during both quarters e.g. I finished Milestone 0 my first quarter, but only part of Pylos. Here are the numbers: Milestone 0(finding bugs in Clint's program): 23:37(includes the 3:28 to setup a testing framework). Milestone-Pylos: 157:34. Reflection system: 10:11. Checkers(including meeting style for everything): 73:06. TOTAL: 264:28. Did I mention this class was time consuming? Good luck! Take it and you will probably be 20% better at coding. A MUST if you ever will be coding in c++.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:43 am, Jun 23, 2009 Report Evaluation		Another Staley class down! It wasn't too bad since I knew what I was getting myself into. The programs are challenging but not ridiculously hard. Think them out, and write them down on paper. The midterm and final were pretty easy compared to the rest of the class. He is a great teacher and is always there to help.
CSC 349 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 9:50 pm, Jun 18, 2009 Report Evaluation		Clint is quite possibly the BEST professor at Cal Poly that I have had to date. He is very difficult however if you can make it through (and even if you cant), you will probably learn more material than another professor. His grading style is you MUST have perfect assignments to pass the class. all programs and assignments have to be 100% correct by the end of the semester. This is the reason why people fail the class, do not get the assignments correct, and the assignments are NOT easy. Expect to spend MANY hours thinking about the programs and assignments before starting to write any code. If you are the type of individual who just starts writing code with out thinking about how to solve the problem expect to change that habit in this class! In addition expect to spend hours fixing bugs in your programs once done. This is ok though as Clint has a grader robot (bender) that auto-grades your program 4 times daily (1AM,6AM,1PM,6PM) and sends you a report back approximately 15 minutes after these times with your status. The test cases for the most part are secret and simply say what test cases you failed. If you speak to Clint ensure you have your own test cases written up before he will give you much help. After he knows you are putting in reasonable effort testing he will sometimes give you a broad idea of what the test case is doing but wont tell you the exact details so expect to spend a lot of time coming up with your own unique test cases and running your program against his....diff is your friend!!! His exams are....well like everything else in the class HARD! However he curves, as is the case for the whole class, so dont feel terrible. As long as you get everything done and show some comprehension on the tests expect an A or possibly B in the class. His curve is fairly lenient so dont be afraid, take the class and enjoy as he is a FANTASTIC professor who grades very fair in the end!
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:50 pm, May 12, 2009 Report Evaluation		Staley is the most intense professor I have ever in my education career. This is, however, not a bad thing. He is very opinionated about the "right" way to do it, and you will obey his rules or fail. However, his way is also the way of the industry, so if you should survive (and many do), you will have a very solid foundation and clear understanding of programming. If you are serious about computer science, take Staley. It will be hard. It will be work. It will be many sleepless nights. It will be worth it.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Elective 6:34 pm, Mar 23, 2009 Report Evaluation		Staley has a lot of subservient students that practically worship the ground he walks on. At his office hours, they will show up and crowd you out just so they can bask in his glory. He acts like the big cheese, so people treat him like some sort of programming God. But, all his appearance aside, hes allright at teaching. Occasionally his lectures were confusing, and he was only ok at answering my question in class, but hes good. On the whole, his lectures are coherent, and he is clear, so take his class, but try not to show up at his office hours just to beg for his attention and love.
CPE 101 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 2:41 am, Feb 20, 2009 Report Evaluation		Although his pass/fail grading system seems draconian, don't worry too much about your percent grade because at the end of the quarter you'll be graded on your overall work quality, ad not be screwed over by being stuck on a program. Clint is a great teacher who knows what he's doing. I have no idea why he teaches 101 but I'm glad that he does.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 4:48 pm, Jan 12, 2009 Report Evaluation		From what I gather from other people, you'll need prior programming experience to do well in Staley's courses. If you meet this requirement, he provides excellent reinforcement on key concepts and will provide enough of a challenge so that you will not be bored (well, except during lecture.) If you do not have prior programming experience, then it is probably not a great idea to take Staley's class unless you have an otherwise light workload. This class will certainly take most of your time. Note that if you're going to take his class, procrastination will certainly kill your chances of passing. Also, be sure to fully understand what is discussed in lecture--it will be used in projects or on the exams. I only wish his class was more challenging (seriously, what happened to CSC 109?)
CPE 101 Freshman Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 12:29 am, Jan 7, 2009 Report Evaluation		Dr. Staley is a very good professor and certainly knows the material very well. His lectures can sometimes be boring, but you have to pay attention anyways, because he will call on people to answer questions. This class will be extremely tough for you if you don't have prior programming experience, because he teaches at such a fast pace that if you get left behind, or if you don't understand a concept quick enough, you will be too far behind to catch up. His labs were extraordinarily tough, and often took longer to do than the time you were given. If you turn in something late, it will be 5% off for each day. Don't take him unless you are taking very few units, or you WILL fail this class. This class takes a lot of time and is very challenging, so unless you are willing to dedicate most of your time, don't take him. You are required to finish ALL labs and projects in order to pass the class. That's right, if you can't finish a lab before the end of the quarter, YOU CANNOT PASS. This was why i failed, so be aware.
CPE 101 Freshman Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 8:14 pm, Jan 6, 2009 Report Evaluation		Staley is a great teacher IF YOUR A GREAT PROGRAMMER TO BEGIN WITH. If your like me and had no prior programming experience you will become overwhelmed and lost. There is also a lot of work given in this class so I would suggest going light on units if you want a good GPA. Staley's class is great if you have a lot experience already in programming in C but if your weak on it then don't attempt it. I know many students that dropped out because they were overwhelmed. He moves at a much faster pace compared to the other csc 101 instructors.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:05 am, Jan 6, 2009 Report Evaluation		It was lovely to take a class like this.
CPE 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:04 pm, Jan 4, 2009 Report Evaluation		Do not take Staley if you're in 101 as an elective. He teaches as if everyone in his class is CPE/CSC major, and applies a pretty hefty workload. I was still working on my projects after all my finals were over. He's a great teacher though, so if you are willing to put in the effort and you're going to benefit from a tough teacher like Staley, I'd recommend him.
CSC 101 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 10:45 pm, Jan 3, 2009 Report Evaluation		The thing about Prof. Staley is he is a great teacher because he knows computer science material really well. But he's a great teacher if you've had experience with the material before hand or if you are fully confident that you know what you're doing. If you have no computer science background or have a bit of a background where you don't know it immensely well.....DONT TAKE STALEY!!!! I went into this class hardly knowing a thing about C programming and it stressed me out like crazy!! It took up so much of my time mostly because I didn't have a clue what I was doing! I almost fell into despair too and was crying a lot!! I sure learned a lot but this class killed me! Anyways, to sum it up, Staley is a great teacher for you ONLY if you are advanced in this stuff and you really know whats going on. Actually, he's perfect for more advanced kids. If you are advanced, take him. You'll get a real world experience with programming! Otherwise, take a different teacher....you'll regret it if you don't. Trust me on this one....unless of course you like a real challenge....and Staley will surely give you a challenge.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:58 pm, Dec 19, 2008 Report Evaluation		Professor Staley really knows what he's doing, and if you want material presented to you in a clear and interesting way, you can't go wrong. All of the project we received in class were interesting and practical, and I really appreciate the "Bender" grading system, despite the large amount of expletives my computer got to hear from me when my program got bounced. Still, there's really no fairer grading system than "Only 100% perfect is acceptable, try as many times as you want." The only complaint that I would have is that there was almost no hands-on time in class. This is due to the fact that 108 covers 101 and 102 on the same quarter, of course, so double the lecture time is needed. Still, a few labs earlier in the quarter between Project 0 and Project 1 would have been appreciated instead of at the end of the year when everyone (myself included) was in a panic to get the last project done. Staley will turn anybody into an efficient and powerful programmer.
CPE 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 9:13 pm, Dec 18, 2008 Report Evaluation		If you are taking Clint for 101, you need to be mentally prepared to work dozens of hours on every single project/lab. I already took 3 years of programming, two of computer science, and I still worked 15+ hours every week on each project/lab. I failed another class because I put all my time into Clint's class. I have no regrets and it is completely worth it, you learn so much in 10 weeks and Clint is one of the kindest professors there are. It is completely worth it and don't skip out on him because he is a hard teacher, which he is :)
CPE 108 Freshman Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 8:39 pm, Dec 18, 2008 Report Evaluation		Clint knows his stuff. This was the most challenging class I had taken to date (being a freshman), and it was very tough. I was not as prepared for the class as I expected, but even while failing I learned more about computer science in ten weeks than I had my whole life. Clint presented A LOT of different concepts, and if you didn't have a complete handle on one of them, chances are the following ideas would trip you up. However he is more than willing to work with a determined student in office hours, and will guide you along the right path. The class takes a lot of mental strength and will to complete the projects, which is what the final grade is mostly comprised of. I highly recommend Clint for his knowledge of the field and his willingness to teach new students the most important things they need to know.
CSC 435 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 12:04 am, Jun 30, 2008 Report Evaluation		took 435 a quarter or two after it was created as an experimental course. clint interviewed us before he'd let us add the class. the other comments sum up his abilities as a professor quite well: hard as hell, endlessly time consuming, but worth it. pretty sure i learned more about writing software in this class and x436 than i did in every other csc class i took for bscsc and mscsc. from another perspective, after i got bored with software and moved on to patent law, i don't think any of my law school classes created the kind of workload that clint's classes did. and man, that is saying something.
CSC 303 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 10:45 pm, Apr 27, 2008 Report Evaluation		Clint's 300 class(how to teach CSC) is a great class to take. The work load is very, very light. He makes it clear from the beginning that this is an extremely easy class. You will only spend 2-3 per week on the class. It is a very relaxed environment. Projects done for the class consisted of: Tutor in the tutoring center with a partner. Design a lab. Design a test question. Crit and fix a wikipedia article. Do a presentation as a group. Visit another professor's lecture and comment on their style. Clint stresses writing in the class(the English major side of him coming out) which is really great. I felt it was a little too writing heavy with not enough time spent on presenting/delivery of lectures. Clint only used one period of the assigned lab time. This was nice in some ways, but it would have been nice to have more hands-on labs in presenting lectures. Overall, this is a great class. With some slight refinement they should make it part of the CSC required courses. The biggest thing you learn is how to teach someone which is an invaluable skill in industry.
CSC 349 Senior Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 6:35 pm, Apr 11, 2008 Report Evaluation		Clint is an amazing instructor. I failed the class because I didn't do all of the homework. It was completely my fault for not managing my time well between classes, life, etc. Clint taught me what I needed to know and I did fine on the HW I put time into. Basic breakdown of the class: We had 6 HW assignments. All of the hw must be completed 100% to pass the class. Clint allows as many resubmissions of your hw as you like. There were 3 programs in his class. The lectures were great; test were challenging. If you want to know algorithms(and especially dynamic programming) take Clint. If you want an easy quarter take the other(unnamed) prof. who often teaches this course. Things to be aware of: -Clint uses a grading program(Bender) to grade all of your programs. I know some of the students in the class had no experience with this type of grading before. It takes a bit to get used to, but is really helpful. -The first program was extremely difficult. It was a dynamic programming problem. It really needed to be broken into two smaller sub problems. The first sub-problem should have been the textbook dynamic program version. With the second sub-problem being the real thing. I think alot of students ended up failing because they either 1) didn't get this program done or 2) got the program done so late that they were playing catch up the rest of the quarter.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 9:19 pm, Apr 1, 2008 Report Evaluation		TAKE THIS PROFESSOR _BECAUSE_: (1)He is, flat out, an excellent teacher. He explains concepts well, and you will learn more by failing one of his classes than by doing decently well with most other teachers (which is why you'll see polyratings from failed students who still say he's an excellent professor). (2)He likes teaching. He puts in the time (holds online office hours, even came in once on the weekend to hold an office hour) and will put in the effort to help you understand (without giving you the answer!) provided that you put in the effort as well. He interacts well with students - he takes the time to understand difficulties and, in my experience, is not condescending when a student doesn't understand. (3)He will challenge you. Over and over again you get the high of figuring out something extremely difficult after hours of beating your head - there is nothing like that feeling! Seriously, who doesn't like a good challenge? You will get the challenge here, and also the aforementioned support. (4)He makes the class interesting. I often wished the class would last longer, and never once checked my watch before the end. He is able to tie this theoretical course into real-world applications. DO NOT TAKE HIM _IF_: (1)You don't like to be challenged (seriously, if you're looking to just put in minimal effort to scrape by, or if you're looking for an easy course, look elsewhere). (2)You don't have enough time to spend on the class (you will need to put in the time - this class didn't take over my life, but I did devote a lot of time to it. Be prepared to do the same). That said, you should make time to take it with him provided you like the challenge. Don't be scared off - it's worth it!
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:37 pm, Mar 16, 2008 Report Evaluation		Okay first off if you take this course you will absolutely hate it. You will hate the lecture, you will hate the robot Bender, and most of all you will hate the style grader. I look back on it and it was one of the best courses I have ever taken. It was challenging and relentless with the work that I had to put into the class. Without it, I would not know most of the Java I know to this date. Staley drilled concepts, rules and common bugs so deeply into my brain that I will never forget them. The projects were a challenge but he helps you with any questions while making you think for yourself. Be prepared to work hard because if you do not complete a project you will fail. His midterm and final are extremely difficult but don't worry!! As he will explain to you the average of his midterms are around 50%! So if you feel like you got over half of the questions right you probably got an A. The final is easier than the midterm because you learn so much more throughout the second half (that's just my opinion). Overall it was a great class. I was failing up until the morning of the final because I finished the last project the night before. If you feel confident and have past programming experience take this class. Even when things are looking down, don;t give up.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:06 pm, Mar 15, 2008 Report Evaluation		The 108 class is not for people who just have programming experience (this is how I have seen it advertised). The class is for people who are innately good at programming. Many of the people in the class had taken one of the AP Computer Science exams in high school and done fairly well, and then still failed the class. If you don't have a preexisting knowledge of data structures, be prepared to learn them fast. The class starts with a (relatively) simple program that essentially evaluates your ability to code. If you don't have experience with Java, read up on it before hand. Almost all of the class is in Java (with a small amount of C that you should be able to pick up if you don’t have prior knowledge). The lectures are very good, and very informative, but nothing is repeated, so if you don't understand something the first time around, you will have to see him in Office Hours. I would not recommend ever skipping this class. His class has an emphasis upon practical code, and applications to industry. He always indicates if something is an academic concept, or an industry practice, and defines the difference between the two. He expects you to remember any and all vocabulary he uses, and will test you on it. This comes from the idea that "Even if you know what you are talking about, if you sound like an idiot, you will be considered an idiot." His tests are unbelievable hard. On a midterm of about 230 points, the class high was 166, and the average was 114. You should understand that Staley takes an aggregate of all tests and assignments for a final curve at the end of the quarter, so a 114 should be fine, just remember that the best student only got a 166. After the curve, then general spread of grades are As and Fs, with very few grades in-between. Your programming projects are expected to be PERFECT. If there are any errors or bugs, you have to try again. That being said, the due dates for the projects are really just ambitious goals to shoot for. The projects are graded as 100% when turned in, and marked down only 5% for every late day, so lateness is sort of how Staley grades ability, since functionality of the program is expected to be flawless. You also can’t be too proud about your coding style. He requires that you adhere to his style specifications (3 space indent, 80 column line width, etc.), and will takes this into account of whether or not your project is perfect, and therefore acceptable. Your grade is entirely dependent upon projects and tests. He lectures the whole class, even during the Lab period, he lectures more. He gave only one lab assignment, and that was just to teach you how the schools Unix system works. I have never heard anyone say that Staley is a bad teacher. Many people avoid his classes for their notorious difficulty. Many who take the courses fail them, and may generally dislike him, but I haven't heard a bad word against his abilities to teach. I have someone say that he failed a higher level Staley class, and that he learned more in that class than in any other. Staley is not for the feint hearted, and is a very ambitious class to take your first quarter, but the quality of education is very high. If you want to keep a high GPA, regardless of education received (then you should probably be a Business major), do not take this class. This class has a lot of benefits, such as the ability to knock out 101 and 102 in a single term. If you are a student that would do well in this class, then 101 and 102 would be nothing but a bore for you, and if you are like me, you would start slacking off and end up with lower grades than you should. Staley also uses this course to recruit interns to work at a company he also works for. If you are one of the best students in his class, he will probably offer to set up an interview for you, which is great for resume building, as well as firsthand experience in industry. Ultimately, you will learn a lot, and if you can handle the workload, and if you feel like you are doing well, you will probably get an A.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:36 am, Mar 15, 2008 Report Evaluation		Dont take this class unless you really do have a decent background in programming. The class is a huge challenge, just like any other staley class. I really do think that staley's classes should be worth more than 4 units, but anyways, dont take this class with other hard classes in the same quarter, you will die. Believe me you will be spending a HUGE amount of time on his assignments. But if you can get them all in, and prove to him that you wont give up, you will pass.
CSC 108 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 9:42 pm, Mar 14, 2008 Report Evaluation		Clint is by far the best professor at Cal Poly, but some programming experience is a must! I transfered in and took this class because I only knew c++ and not java. I could have taken 103 but felt that I should take this class to ease my way into java. Clint is by far the best professor I have had at Poly and my junior college. He explains things amazingly well and makes sure you understand the concepts. Just attend all the classes, attend all the office hours you can, and take easy classes, because you will spent A LOT of time (if not all) on this class.
CPE 108 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:48 pm, Mar 14, 2008 Report Evaluation		I was an average student, with some programming experience, and despite his class being ridiculously hard, and a ton of work... he was always able to help in sticky situations. He was an excellent teacher, you can fail both finals, and still pass the class if you "survive the wrath of Staley's coursework". I'd recommend taking him if you have a solid background in programming, it taught me what I needed to know and more.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:10 pm, Mar 14, 2008 Report Evaluation		Clint is probably one of the best, but hardest professors you will encounter at Cal Poly. Do not take his courses expecting to do only most of the work because if you don't do ALL of it, then you will fail. 108 is really a welcome challenge for those who have had a fair amount of programming experience in the past. Had I started in 101, I would have been bored out of my mind the whole time, wondering when it was going to get hard. In 108, I was constantly fighting time and trying to get my projects done, and in retrospect, I really appreciate the difficulty of the class. 103 is a complete joke now after taking that class. I have barely paid any attention this quarter in 103 and I am still getting an A, very nice really. So, if you are determined, have a good amount of programming experience, then I highly recommend this class.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 7:16 pm, Mar 14, 2008 Report Evaluation		Staley is one of the best computer science teachers here. But he also has very, very high standards. He does this intentionally, in order to prepare you for your eventual career, and he does it very effectively. If you can survive a Staley course, you will emerge knowing the subject material like the back of your hand, and it will make future courses that much easier. 108 gives you credit for 101 and 102, but you also learn most of what is covered in 103, so you'll be well prepared for that course as well. You're going to be assigned several projects during the quarter, and each one MUST be completed 100% correctly in order to pass the class. However, you can submit each assignment as much as you want, and the only thing he ever takes points off of is -5% every day it is late. If you already have programming experience, this class is a fantastic way to get ahead and to put you on the path to being an excellent programmer. I'm going to be taking Staley any chance I get, because I felt I learned so much in that single quarter.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Feb 25, 2008 Report Evaluation		Other teachers will teach you how to program, but Staley will teach you how to BE a programmer. If you take his class, don't be surprised if experience fatigue, loss of appetite, night sweats, severe mood swings, stomach ulcers, and occasional programming nightmares.
CSC 108 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 6:42 pm, Jan 7, 2008 Report Evaluation		Clint Staley is all about the "industrial reality" of Computer Science. His class is run almost as a primer for the Amazon-subsidiary development house he runs called CreateSpace. He grades assignments with a grading robot known as Bender (usually surrounded by explitives) which checks to see that the program's output under test cases is character-for-character the same as his. If it isn't you have to resubmit in eight hours. If you pass, your code gets sent to the style grader for a rather anal style check. (If I had a dime for every time someone used a string of four-letter words talking about Forrest the style grader...) Thankfully, "industrial reality" also means that you only lose 5 percent for each day a program is late. Watch out for his tests! They are insane! The average score on the midterm was somehting like 47%! He curves the class and all assignments insanely though. I turned all my assignments in a few days late, got a 50% (pre-curve) on the midterm, and something better than that on the final, and got a B. His teaching style is straightforward followable (if you're awake after the previous night's all-nighter, that is) Staley is also the creator of the photoshopped "Study 125-135 hrs/week" signs you'll see throughout the department. He gave us all one after the midterm, and i'll say I pretty much had to study that much to pass! 108 is technically worth eight units, so if you pass the midterm and pay the cashier 25 bucks you can get 4 4.0 credits. His class is so incredibly strenuous it will make the classes after it seem easy if you can pass. Take him, if you think you have what it takes to be a killer coding ninja monkey!
CSC 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 11:20 pm, Dec 1, 2007 Report Evaluation		Definitely one of the better Computer Science Professors, but unless you can dedicate your entire life to his class you WILL fail. I think I learned more from him than any other class I have taken, and I failed. They should make any class he teaches count as 16 units.
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 2:30 pm, Oct 31, 2007 Report Evaluation		What others said is true. Staley's class is TONS of workload. He does great..and poor lecture. The great part is that it's interesting and keeps you awake. The poor part is that he doesn't allow you to ask questions until he's done talking. The problem is that...he often talk for so long that by the time he finishes, you already forgot about your question. Oh, and Bender is an a-hole, he should bite my pinkish meaty ass.
CSC 357 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 7:27 pm, Aug 12, 2007 Report Evaluation		Best computer science teacher I have had at Poly. He puts the bar high and doesn't lower it. He teaches you how to reach the goals set forth. Class is extremely hard. You will spend most(if not all) free time trying to get through. Clint is very approachable. He will help you find the answer; he doesn't just give you answers. If you want to be a good C/Unix programmer take him.
CPE 305 Junior Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 11:57 am, Jul 31, 2007 Report Evaluation		Expect to spend the first 2 - 3 weeks testing his program, looking for bugs in his games. Then the rest of the quarter is working on your own version of the games. HUGE workload. I got burnt out about half way through the quarter and decided to work on my other classes. Literally 26+ hours a week on his class alone. Ask him questions and get started early. It would definitely be beneficial if you had the book and read it before the class started. That way you can get a head start on the programming project. Lab's are spent continuing lecture until later in the quarter (8th week) when you do design group labs.
CSC 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 12:50 pm, Jul 24, 2007 Report Evaluation		This class was a giant pain in the ass and a giant stress fest till the very end. Don't plan to take too much more than this for the quarter. You need to spend several hours a night on each program from day 1 and never seeing the test cases makes debugging amazingly difficult, although you do learn to get more creative. You learn a lot. You work hard. And if you work hard enough you'll pass.
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:12 am, Jul 22, 2007 Report Evaluation		Clint Staley has created the hardest class I've ever taken at Cal Poly, by far. That being said, don't come into this class feeling like you can't survive. The programs in this class are really time-consuming and pretty difficult, but they are doable. His testing robot, Bender, will run your program against his test scripts to see if your programs work the way that they should. This was one of the biggest hurdles in the class because you never actually get to see what the test cases are or how you are failing them. Clint is a great lecturer, but it does get hard to focus at times because for the first few weeks, he lectures for lab also, so the class becomes a 2 hour lecture 3 days a week. He is willing to help, and he makes himself readily available through office hours and AIM. The midterm isn't really something you can study for because if you've been paying attention and working steadily on the project you'll do okay; otherwise, don't be too worried because he does curve. My strongest advice is just to never give up. Commit a couple of hours to this class each weekday night, and 5-8 hours over the course of the weekend, and you should be okay. Also, read his specs and don't be afraid to ask clarifying questions. I made the mistake of not asking him to clarifying something which ended up eating away hours of my time while I tried to figure it out. I failed the midterm, was 2 weeks late the first program, 3 weeks late the second, and almost a month the 3rd; however, I ended up with an A-. Take Clint if you want a challenge, but don't expect to pass if you have the mindset that you aren't gonna make it.
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 12:12 am, Jun 6, 2007 Report Evaluation		Clint is an absolutely outstanding professor. Period. However, if you're looking to sleep through lecture, pull programs out of nowhere the night before they're due, and half-ass your way to a C, then you should look elsewhere...because you won't survive in Clint's class. He sets high standards for his students and holds them absolutely (unless you have some genuine reason for failing to meet them). His grading policy is simple: 30% midterm, 30% final, 30% programming projects, and 10% lab work and in-class assignments. The midterm and the final are difficult (average at 50% or below, and a scores ranging from maybe 20% to 80%), but that's fine because he curves them anyway. They're the kind of test that needn't be studied for too much so long as you've attended lecture, done the labs and assignments, and understood the concepts presented there. Clint does, however, point out vocab terms throughout his lectures and asks students to keep a list of them; these should be memorized fully before the tests (and spelling counts). The labs aren't too difficult, nor were the in-class assignments. We only had two labs, consisting of a total of 18 lines of code. We also had two group design exercises that were worked on in the lab periods; these involved diagramming systems without actually writing code. The programs are what gives this class its reputation. They are difficult, and you have to do them perfectly. As stated in other reviews, Clint presents you with a spec and a working model program, and you have to match his program's output exactly. A grading robot runs on program submissions every 6 hours, and notifies you via email whether you passed or failed. If you failed, it tells you which tests you failed (such as "Mancala/test6") and any assertions the test triggered, and no other information. The test cases are hidden for the majority of the programs, so it can be very difficult to find the discrepancies between your program and his. Once you finally get past the robot, you must then pass the style check, performed by Clint's grader. Clint publishes an extensive document regarding style guidelines, and you have to follow it to the letter. If you miss even one rule (such as using a tab character instead of three spaces) you'll get bounced and again have to submit to the robot. The style bounces aren't bad, though, because the email you get tells you exactly which style rules you violated and thus it's easy to go back and fix them. The only problem with this process that I had was that the grader often wouldn't do the style checks every day as he's supposed to, and you might have to wait two or three days to hear back. Once you pass the robot and the style check, you get 100% on the program, minus 5% per day that you're late. Most people are exceptionally late, so if you get it in within a week of the deadline then you're doing fine. The beauty of this grading system is that you're in control of your grade, because you can start early and start submitting your program before it's due (there's no penalty for getting bounced). If you're 14 days late, however, you fail the class automatically...unless you talk to Clint (he waives that rule if you can demonstrate that you've at least made progress, and he's fair about it). Yes, the programs are tough. But Clint is there to help you. He's incredibly receptive and helpful during office hours, which he holds in his office during the week and on AIM on weekends. He also responds quickly to email questions, generally within 24 hours. He doesn't just give you your answer, but he leads you there...as long as you ask specific questions and not things like "why isn't my program working?". Clint knows his stuff, and he knows how to communicate it with students. His lectures move quickly and are informative, and they aren't boring either (except for the 25ish design patterns covered in the later part of the quarter). He also lectures in a good portion of the lab time. The bottom line is that Clint wants his students to be prepared. If you survive his class, you will be. You'll hate it at some point during the quarter (if not for most of the quarter), but if you make it to the end it will have been worth it. And the good news is that if you didn't fail, you'll probably get a B or better.
CSC 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 7:54 pm, May 10, 2007 Report Evaluation		This teacher give me a job and I declined, becuase after his class I wanted to off him. His program require you to complete it to his spec 100%, so the only way you lose points is by turning it in late. He also prides himself on being an a$$hole. He decided to assign a program during deadweek. He couldn't even finish the program himself so he slowly started taking away requirements. It doesn't matter what you get on the midterm and final. Just get the program's done and you will pass with a B or better. I would recommend this teacher if you haven't had a tough class yet because he will prepare you for more hell in later CSC classes. Also, don't take him at 8 am in the morning becuase theres not a god damn thing I could learn from him with one blood shot eye.
CPE 357 Sophomore Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 11:59 am, Mar 28, 2006 Report Evaluation		I don't think Staley should be teaching higher level courses because he likes to complicate things. His grading policy is brutal especially if you don't do that great on the midterm. He doesn't have quizzes and no homework assignments other than reading which makes it really hard to get extra points. There were three projects for this class and although I passed the first two and wasn't able to completely pass the last one(only one test case failed) he failed me for the class. He requires that you pass two out of four programming tests which are somewhat easy if you have some experience as a programmer. Honestly, I would avoid taking this class with Staley because it doesn't follow the 4units/12hours rule. You might find yourself spending so much time on this class that you barely have any time for your other classes. However, he is good at explaining stuff and his lectures were worth going to. At the same time, he can be really anal about little things like programming style and deadlines.
CSC 349 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 5:04 pm, Jul 28, 2005 Report Evaluation		This man is great. He blew my mind every lecture. He made class interesting. Don't get me wrong, it was hard, but I took away so much from it. He is the man, and as frustrated as I got, he "helped" as much as he could without GIVING you the answer (the nature of the class) and I respect him so much for toughing it out with me. I probably struggled the hardest in his class and he never stopped helping me. Cool guy. Got my vote.
CSC 349 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:55 pm, Jun 17, 2005 Report Evaluation		By far the toughest CSC course I have ever taken. Clint is a great professor, but it took me sometime to figure out the stuff he talked about in class. You might grasp the material rather quickly if you are a nerd, and if you love math and algorithms. His proof and programming assignments on paper as well as ETP were really challenging. Most of the quizes were rather easy, but the final exam was tough. I could get only 2 problems out of the 5 in ETP, and this was the case with most people. The paper part of the final was not too tough. What annoyed me was that Clint is really unorganized. We missed 2 weeks of class, and I was kinda out-of-date with the material. In short, he is a great professor if you have a passion for algorithms, and if you are good at math. Otherwise you might get frustrated over the tough homework assignments. Clint is on sabatical this year, and if you belong to category #2, then take it with somebody else. And...he is much reasonable than Brady.
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: No Credit Elective 9:57 am, Jun 15, 2005 Report Evaluation		Clint's legendary stature precedes him, but he seemed off his game this quarter. I know he was probably thinking about his sabbatical for the upcoming year and adopting his new kid, but this class was, I think, frustrating for all concerned. First, the game we had to implement, Knights and Castles, was incredibly complicated and ended up taking up far more time than Clint indicated. Second, Clint's tests were annoying, to say the least: rather than test on the game (ostensibly the important part of the class), he largely tested on detecting and responding to erroneous input, which led to dozens of re-readings of the poorly worded spec. Third, the help network wasn't really present. I admire Clint's ideas of independence and figuring things out on your own, but I think it went way too far this quarter: he was proprietary on aspects of the code that were quite trivial to the game, and one such aspect turned out to be a bug in his implementation that I (among others) had correct, but he just told us to look more closely at the spec. I think more people failed this class this quarter than usually did, and I can only speculate to the reasons why. One poorly-run Spring quarter class doesn't put his status as the eminent CSC prof in jeopardy, but let's hope that this doesn't recur.
CSC 305 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 12:27 am, May 12, 2005 Report Evaluation		As an alumnus who was a Staley survivor and has gone on to work in industry, I'll chime in here. Of all the courses that I took, 305 was the most important class. At first glance, it is a very hard, time consuming class in which you learn C++; however, you learn how to write quality code and you learn the details of Object oriented design (there is a lot more to it than just inheritance and composition). No one is kidding when they say this class is hard, but you will come out better prepared for programming in the real world.
CSC 435 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 5:29 pm, Apr 1, 2005 Report Evaluation		In this class, we did a minimax application with a GUI in C# and then we translated it to Java. The game we implemented was connect 4 (just the view) and then one game from 305 (both the logic and the view). Honestly, I think this class had some really great material, and I did gain a lot more experience doing GUI development, but Clint was just out of it this quarter, and the sample programs were rather late. That said, I am glad I took this class. <br>Hey on a side note, anyone know why Clint doesn't teach any 500 level classes? It would be nice if there was a grad class we could actually use in the real world. Besides, this class was harder than most grad classes anyway...
CSC 349 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 4:33 am, Mar 24, 2005 Report Evaluation		Without a doubt one of the hardest classes I have ever taken. What annoyed me about this class was the inconsistency in how students performed as a whole. Some people could bang out the homework in less than an hour (hell, I saw one dude working on it during class) while it would take others an agonizingly long time (15-20 hours), unfortunately I fell into this category. Despite that I would still highly recommend taking this class from him ( or any other class for that matter ) because he has the amazing ability to make clear the most obscure and abstract mathematical concepts. Even though you think you're doing bad make an effort to stick it out, chances are everyone else is doing pretty bad too. Everything depends on the curve so don't think that all is lost. If you can survive a Staley class the rest of the Computer Science cirruculum will seem like a cake walk, I wish I found that out sooner.
CPE 435 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 1:45 pm, Mar 23, 2005 Report Evaluation		Staley's been stretching himself too thin lately, and it's causing him to go soft. His various other time commitments kept him from getting out specs and demo programs in a timely manner. He even handed back the midterms on the day of the final. He's still leaps and bounds above just about every other professor here (especially in the CSC department) though, so take him anyway.
CSC 303 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 1:16 pm, Mar 16, 2005 Report Evaluation		Clint is by far one of the best teachers on this campus. His courses may be demanding (aside from this course) but he goes out of his way to make studetns actually <i>learn</i>. I appreciated his opening up and explaining his theory in teaching and inviting other professors to do so. I learned to respect many of the faculty here much more for both the difficulty of their job and their honest attempts to do the best they can. If you want to <i>possibly</i> be a teacher or you have a gripe about the faculty here (you'll definitely at least have an informed stance) then I highly reccomend this class. I also appreciated the hands on learning that we did (we tutored and observed others tutoring) This class should definitely be made perminant
CSC 303 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 12:19 pm, Dec 15, 2004 Report Evaluation		This a class the CSC department should keep. It's a good introduction to teaching and tutoring. It shows some more career opportunities to people who like CSC but don't necessarily like the idea of programming as a career. Personally, I've always been interested in teaching so this just kind of reaffirmed my interest in teaching. That said, this is my second class taught by the favorite prof of almost everyone I know. There is a reason why everyone likes him. It isn't because his classes are easy, far from it. It's because he challenges you appropriately for the class and rewards you for your hard work.
CSC 303 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 11:04 am, Dec 15, 2004 Report Evaluation		This little class is one that I would recommend. If you are considering teaching, computer science in particular, then you came to the right place. This is not a typical Staley class: only about one hour of class per week (ignore POWER--other classes generally grab the Lab time), there's little more than a few hours of work a week, most of it is actually fun. Hey, you can only register for 14 units anyway: why not pack this one in come next fall? The format of the class is still experimental, but it largely consisted of three components: 1. Lectures from Clint and other CSC department faculty on their craft (Clint gives a lot of valuable information on his methodology and patented teaching style). 2. Outside assignments--there were maybe 4 during the quarter, none of which were incredibly time-consuming: writing test questions, preparing a presentation for entry-level CSC students, and, this quarter, writing a lab for the 101 students (although it was radically changed before making an appearance in class). 3. Tutoring exercises--this was done by logging time in the SSC and examining peer tutoring styles and writing a short paper on the subject. There actually was a final, but it was pretty short and was not a typical Staley test--a couple of short essay questions based on the material. This class is a great way to network and meet other CSCs that share your interests, but the best reason to sign up is this: MONEY! The class time isn't paid, but you are first up for paid positions in the SSC as well as one-on-one tutoring jobs. There is enormous opportunity here for a little learning, it looks good on a resume, money: these are all good reasons to take the class. The best one, though, is to be able to say to your other CSC friends, "Yeah, I took a Staley class--piece of cake." Then they'll beat you. I would highly recommend this class to anyone who is interested in entering the teaching profession, or is interested in looking at entering the teaching profession.
CSC 101 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 10:38 am, Oct 14, 2004 Report Evaluation		Staley is a good professor. He presented the material clearly in lecture and provided assistance to students while in lab. He also held extra lab sessions for students falling behind and worked with students one on one to complete programs. The class is extreamly fast paced and and requires a lot of hours out of lab and lecture work. The test are fair in the sense that you are tested for a basic understanding of the course material and improvement throughout the quarter.
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:27 pm, Jul 28, 2004 Report Evaluation		As a 109 and 349 survivor, I was looking forward to this class. It's a lot of work, but it pays off. I learned how to program in C++ in this class (much better than before). I highly recommend to take a Staley course anytime you can.
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: A Elective 2:22 pm, Jun 17, 2004 Report Evaluation		I took Staley's 305 course after taking 109 and 349 with him, and this class was by far the best and most educational in the Staley series. But, as a warning, if you like board games at all, avoid this class - you will hate them with a passion at some point in the quarter. The 305 project is a console C++ app which plays a number of MiniMax games - which games varies each quarter. This quarter the focus was on Checkers. This class covers the major concepts of C++ and hammers them into your brain until you're dreaming in C++. It's also provides great coverage of many object oriented ideas and design patterns, which I doubt are being covered in any other CSC course. The class delivers on it's tagline - it will prepare you for the professional workplace if you put in the time. Overall, it's probably the most educational (and difficult) class in the CSC major. And Clint is the best professor in this school, hands down. Real down-to-earth guy who's just one of us.
CSC 101 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 7:48 am, May 25, 2004 Report Evaluation		INCOMING FRESHMAN...READ THIS: Staley has to be the best teacher ever in the CSC Department. However, he WILL prepare you for the real world. If you're a CSC/CPE major, he will make you do hardcore stuff that will takes HOURS to do but will make you a better CSC/CPE. At least half the people failed the first time they've taken (becuase they're trying to rid those who are lazy). But if you're willing to take the HARD work and willing to spend at least 10 hours on programs, then you are definitely looking for the right teacher. Highly recommended even though his work might be hell.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:16 pm, Mar 31, 2004 Report Evaluation		Another 305 survivor (I missed out on 109). I'll outline the main difference between 305 and 349 right here. In 305 the work wasn't hard, there was just a lot of it. But here, there were instead a few really hard problems. With some of the problems in this course, one person could sit down and figure it out in 15 minutes and it could take someone else 15 hours before they got it, thats just how it was and I found it rather abnoxious... However, Staley is a great lecturer which helped and I really don't think the other professors would have been much easier...
CSC 349 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 12:08 am, Mar 31, 2004 Report Evaluation		Chiming in as another former 109 and 305 student, er, survivor. There were good and bad sides to the way this class was taught. First the good side: Typical of any of his classes, Clint is an excellent explainer of concepts. He explained what material is important and why it is important, adding in his personal experience into the fold. The bad sides: As previously mentioned, the courseload certainly exceeded his announcement that he expected the class to take about 6-8 hours per week of time. It wasn't as bad as the 30 - 40 hours a week I spent on 305, but still quite a bit. True to his style, he implemented the usual perfect completion of all assignments to pass the class rule. Unfortunately, unlike a programming course where one can simply figure the answer is bouncing because of an undiscovered bug, this course was more oriented toward finding the little trick that makes everything fall into place. I also, like some other reviewers, have a hunch that material was sacrificed as compared to the Brady or Phillips courses. Clint's intent was that we had to understand the algorithms well to be able to find the little tricks, whereas Dr. Brady's approach is more along the lines of proving things left and right. Both are valid approaches, but I don't the implementation of Clint's approach worked. Brady's course may be more tedious than Clint's, but I would recommend Brady over Clint for this course.
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:58 pm, Mar 30, 2004 Report Evaluation		I think this class was kind of hard. I've never taken any classes with this guy, and this particular classes turned out to be one of the hardest classes I've ever taken. There wasn't much programming, but the few programming assignments were very difficult. Tests were pretty hard too, but if you are intelligent and learn the material and spend a lot of time on the class it's passable.
CSC 349 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:50 pm, Mar 30, 2004 Report Evaluation		Like many others that have posted here, I have taken 109 and 305 as well. Both of these were fantastic classes. I'm still having trouble figuring out what the hell happened with 349. I understand that Clint has a lot of stuff going on in his life, but he was so unprepared for our class it was ridiculous. The homeworks were supposed to take 6-8 hours a week. Somehow this turned into more like 30+ hours. I have to say I probably spent a good 20 - 30 hours without exaggeration on the last problem alone. Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of alternatives for this class unless you feel like doing BS for Brady. I would suggest flipping a coin between the two.
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:42 pm, Mar 30, 2004 Report Evaluation		Having taken 109 and 305 with Clint, I found 349 somewhat disappointing. Clint advertised that the course would be of 'average' difficulty as opposed to his other courses, which was true for the first few weeks, but as Clint got further and further his mandatory excellence requirement forced more and more work towards the end. Midterms were on par with his other classes, and his online system could be aggravating at times, as problems were given no hints, versus previous courses' homework, where a TA could help out. I'd recommend Brady for algorithms for a more in-depth look with more weaning into concepts, rather than Clint's aggressive few-problems-but-really-hard approach. Clint's workload is necessary to understand the concepts, but I'd rather have more simpler problems to introduce a concept rather than be thrust into a more difficult problem. So I'd recommend Clint for practical coding classes where those sorts of hurdles seem more appropriate than theory classes where it can seem overwhelming and unnecessary.
CSC 349 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:28 pm, Mar 25, 2004 Report Evaluation		This was my first Staley class. I was not impressed, mostly for the lack of preparation. Clint did not seem properly prepared to perform a proper instruction of the class. The homework assignments (which were all done via an online instant grading mechanism) were being coded by students (some currently in the class) and seemed to be posted immediately without testing. This led to many nights of struggling on problems which were being incorrectly graded. Clint's requirement of "mandatory excellence" is really tough to handle, especially when the program grading is incorrect. Also, his comment about just emailing him if you think the grading program is incorrect doesn't do much in a course as difficult as 349 (you're never quite sure who is correct). Anyway, in brief - 2 midterms (25% each) hw (20%) and final (20%). All hw has to be completed 100% correct (5% off per day late) and the average on the midterms and final will be about 50%. Getting Average on the midterms and the final will get you out with about a B (if you finish all the hw (if not - F)). His claim about "average" classes versus "challenging" courses or whatever he calls them is crap. The average student should only spend 6-8 hours as he advertises, but most i talked to it was more like 15 per week. Staley is an extremely difficult professor and i would say only worth it f you are very interested in the topic (and he has taught the class before).
CSC 349 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 7:09 pm, Mar 24, 2004 Report Evaluation		I preface this review by saying that I am a tried-and-tested Staley graduate, having had and successfully completed his 109 and 305 classes in years prior. With that in mind, I must say that this course has been, by far, the most disappointing Staley course I've ever had. His lectures were, of course, stimulating and excellently presented. However, he failed miserably when it came to testing and homework. Insisting on "mandatory excellence" (as he calls it) was, in my opinion, a mistake. He sacrificed material coverage to mandate that every little section of each homework be completed to perfection. This, I think, does not provide the solid coverage of theory and material we need to be successful algorithm designers. I highly recommend considering Dr. Brady, instead.
CPE 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:48 pm, Feb 4, 2004 Report Evaluation		Staley is extremely intelligent, and, as such, expects intelligence from those in his class. I came into 101 with a programming background and watched as many struggled with concepts he worked very hard to clarify. 90 plus percent of the time he succeeded. The A is "easy" but hard earned. Fast-paced, enjoyable, what more are you looking for in a teacher?
CSC 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:14 pm, Jan 10, 2004 Report Evaluation		Professor Staley was an extremely good professor in my view. You can tell that he knows programming very very well. I've never programmed before csc101 and luckliy Professor Staley is very patient and can explain things with much detail. I did get lost sometimes in his lectures because I've never seen code before, but he always has a time when you can ask questions. Speaking of questions, his office hours are extremely helpful! Go to them if you need them! I remember one time he stayed an 1 hour after his office hours to help me and another student out. I was stuck on a lab, and he sat there and hinted to us and told us to tell him this and that and basically got us to come up with the answers ourselves (he called out the programmer within us =) lol.) Seriously, Staley is awesome and he knows that the class is hard and is quite generous on the curve. He once said that if you get a 'c' you won't because he knows that you've worked much harder than that. STALEY IS AWESOME!
CSC 101 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:33 pm, Jan 6, 2004 Report Evaluation		Staley is DEFINITELY knowledgeable on the subject. I was impressed on how quickly he responded to your e-mail and didn't give you bullshit. I found him extremely helpful if you asked a question but I didn't find his lectures that helpful. It was often hard to pay attention because he would put up a slide of code and kind of read through it. He wouldn't do it in order though so I'd often get lost. He sometimes goes to fast paced and if you get lost, it's hard to get caught back up. Basically, the way I feel about Staley and this class is be perpared to learn on your own but if you have questions, he'll be there for you.
CSC 101 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:31 pm, Dec 18, 2003 Report Evaluation		If you are a first time programmer you will have to work very hard in this class. In the end you will learn a LOT and he's more than helpful in office hours. I got hammered by the second midterm so I was pretty worried about my grade but it worked out ok. He knows this class is hard and it was curved.
CSC 101 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 3:44 pm, Oct 22, 2003 Report Evaluation		He definately knows what he is talking about. His teaching style is definatly helpful, if you have any prior knowledge of coding. To a first time programmer (like myself) he is extremely hard. Others that I talk to that have even the smallest amount of background love the way he teaches. Those who are extremely computer literate also love his teaching style. If you miss one thing that he is talking about you will be screwed for a while. Yes there is a help session with the class but many (not all) of the TA's don't help very much. He is accesible and will help you himself though. Don't expect to be able to miss a lecture and make it up in the book. Probably his biggest fault is that the way he talks about coding is much different than the order he teaches the material.
CPE 101 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 11:15 pm, Oct 11, 2003 Report Evaluation		I actually had him for Java Workshop that taught us C++ users how to learn Java and all of its concepts in 101 to prepare for 102. I must say that you must be fairly fluent in computer programming terminology to understand what he says, but he expresses the concepts very well to the intermediate programmers. Part of the material in this session is not learned in 101 or 102, so he either keeps us informed of coming attractions or makes us think real hard. His assignments are very demanding, so you must be committed to working in this class to do well. Nevertheless, he is a certified genius who knows computers inside and out. Overall, a great professor who explains things in the best way possible, but his workload and expectations are very demanding. Take him, if you can.
CSC 305 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 1:59 pm, Jul 29, 2003 Report Evaluation		This was probably the most satisfying course I've taken so far at Poly. The first few weeks we learned C++, then we implemented the game Othello and then we designed and implemented Chess with AI. Don't take more than 3 classes the quarter you take 305 and make sure the other 2 are easy! Don't plan on doing anything but coding in your spare time and start the projects early. As far as Staley goes, he is by far the most clear and concise teacher I've had. Go to office hours even if he makes you more frustrated, it helps. Good luck!
CSC 305 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:17 pm, Jun 20, 2003 Report Evaluation		Clint is an excellent professor and I am truly glad I had the opportunity to take another of his classes. I had Clint for 109 in Fall 2001 and was simply amazed by his teaching prowess and understanding o Java and abstract computer science concepts. 305 was no different. He regaled us with C++, horror stories (funny ones, too!), design patterns in a manner that made the class exciting and truly worthwhile. I came away from the class knowing more about design and with a firm grasp of C++ in most of it's pecularities and eccentricites. The only beef I have with Clint this quarter was his total lack of preparedness in regards to the project. He assigned Chess before completing his implementation and let us dive first into a project of proportions too immense to imagine. While this might be argued as "industrial training" it was more that he was so busy with other things that he didn't sit back to realize how hard Chess and project 1 really was. In the end, he had to drop project 3 and bite a sizeable chunk out of project 2 to make the remainder of the class manageable. However, the game of Chess is surprisingly fun to implement - you really get the opportunity to see patterns and how the intracacies make for a really awesome game. All in all, I'd rate Clint a solid A (with a lot of plusses) on his ability to teach and a B- on project preparedness (which is "forgivable", I suppose :-) Thanks Clint, looking forward to your 435.
CSC 435 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 11:26 pm, Apr 13, 2003 Report Evaluation		Clint Staley is, as far as I am concerned, the best (and possibly only) reason to attend Cal Poly for a Computer Science degree. I am a graduate of three Staley courses (CPE 109 Freshman/Fall, CPE 305 Freshman/Winter, CSC 435 Sophomore/Winter). I have many computer science friends at other universities, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UCLA, and through conversations with them I know I am a far more capable programmer than they. This is not because of our "award-winning" computer science department. It is because of one man: Clint Staley. The amount of knowledge I have acquired from Clint is immeasureable and far outweighs the cumulative knowledge gleaned from all other professors in the CSC department. Staley graduates as a group are the most talented and knowledgeable computer science students at this school. We are told to not brag or look down upon other students, and we do not, but the truth is the truth. Staley graduates find the best jobs (many times hired by Clint, like myself) and are the best-prepared students for graduate studies. Clint is simply a far better teacher than any other professor here. You cannot fairly compare his ability with any other professor. There are dozens of reviews following mine that deal with his teaching ability, and I agree with nearly all of them and will not repeat their comments here. Unfortunately, CPE 109 has been canceled permanently, and I am certain this will only serve to punish and damage incoming advanced students. However, Clint will be teaching CPE 101 in the Fall. If you are an incoming student reading this, you MUST take Staley for CPE 101. Clint takes students with high potential and turns them into masters of computer programming. He did it with me, and he WILL do it with you if you apply yourself.
CPE 305 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Elective 3:42 pm, Apr 4, 2003 Report Evaluation		Clint Staley is beyone a doubt the best professor I've had so far. I'd be willing to bet he's the best professor in the computer science department. Clint also plays an active role in industry and shares alot of first-hand experiences he's had in the industry with his classes. In class, he clearly and more than adequately describes and explains the material in an intellectually-strong, intuitive manner. He is an excellent teacher and really knows his stuff well. Most often he provides several different way of thinking about things. Especially in 305, where the code begins to become much more complex, he puts all the concepts into words in the most perfect sense I could ever imagine. He's truly an excellent professor...what all other professors should be like. On top of that, he's a very admirable, good natured guy. Everyone in CSC or CPE should take as many classes as possible with him!
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:09 pm, Jan 9, 2003 Report Evaluation		Staley is hands-down the best teacher at this school. His class is ridiculously hard, but if you're up for a challenge no teacher does it better. Everything he presents is explained very clearly, and his tests are very fair. And don't worry, he knows his class his hard and will adjust the grades in the end accordingly.
CPE 109 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:39 am, Jan 6, 2003 Report Evaluation		Like everyone else says... this class is lots and lots of work. Instead of going over that, I will tell one story that I think exemplifies Clint's great understanding of his students. My HW 2 was done on time, but due to some mix up with the TA's, it was lost. 4 weeks later (finals week), I recieved an e-mail stating I had only completed one of the hw's. I sent an e-mail to Clint explaining that I had finished the HW, and one of the TA's would vouch for me. He sent an e-mail back and said that he would give me credit for having turned it in on time. This was without talking to the TA too. If you are in the 101-103 series, I would really reccomend taking 101 and 102, then waiting till fall to take 109 the next year. You will have to work a lot harder than taking 103, but what you will gain from 109 will be well worth it.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:59 pm, Dec 19, 2002 Report Evaluation		This class is crazy. The projects aren't that bad. You have three, and a extra cedit project. The projects will take about a week max for the average student. But start it as early as possible. The robot (server) that test it is annoying. The stuff i hated was the homework. You have four but the thing that sucks is that you have to have it prefect in order to turn it in and get credit. Everything has to be prefect. That means that you will get 100%. But you have to minus late penalty. This class, at least for me, doesn't take too much time. You will have time when you have nothing to do for this class. But when you do have something to do, it will be crazy and you will spend massive amounts of time on it. Believe me, this class will take more time than most. But the benifit is that when you finish this class, you will be able to get credit for CPE-101 and CPE-102. SO you will be at least 2 quarters ahead.
CPE 109 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:36 pm, Dec 18, 2002 Report Evaluation		Clint was an -excellent- teacher. But the rest of the ratings will tell you that. Here's the class info. This year, there were 3 programs and 4 homework assignments. In order to pass the class you have to complete all of them PERFECTLY. Individual homework questions have to be signed off by the TAs. The robot is as bad as everyone says. But the class isn't quite AS bad. The work is easy, if you just sit down and work it out. However, with the time you're given, stress is likely to interfere. Calm down, breathe, and you'll survive a Staley class. But take this class, or 305, or 435. His lectures are clear, his tests are fair, and you'll learn a lot. What more is there to say?
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:59 pm, Dec 18, 2002 Report Evaluation		I was amazed at Prof. Staley's teaching style. It was simply amazing. I wish that every one of my proffessors loved their subject the way Clint does. Yes, the projects made me pound my desk, but 109 was definitely worth the time.
CPE 305 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:17 pm, Mar 31, 2002 Report Evaluation		All I can say is Clint is the best teacher I have had in 13 years of school. I took 109 fall quarter, and 305 winter quarter. It was a lot of work, but it was well woth it. He is very smart and knows just about everything there is to know about the material, but most importantly, he is very good at teaching. If you take this class, and put in the effort, you will come out a better programmer, no matter how good you are now. Period. Clint is a great teacher and wonderful person to know.
CPE 305 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 3:39 pm, Jan 27, 2002 Report Evaluation		This professor was the reason I chose to attend Cal Poly in the first place, never ceases to amaze me how clear his lectures are even after having taken him 5 years ago for CSC x249 (now CSC 109). Plus he has the best deal with the final exam I've ever seen with any professor. If you do well on the midterm and complete an extra-credit assignment you earn an automatic A with no need to take the final (something I've taken advantage of in every class I've taken with this legend)!
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:48 pm, Dec 20, 2001 Report Evaluation		Finally. What a war hell ride. It wasnt so bad... I got an A- in 109, even though I got a D on the midterm, and handed in the projects about a week late each. It felt good leaving that final exam. I think I slept that night. Wait, no, I did the GUI extra credit. Thinking back, I didnt get to sleep before 3am once this last quarter. The oddcases testcase for project 2 was the most trauma I've ever endured. When the projects were due, I seriously spent about 60 hours a week programming. But its worth it for those euphoric 6 hours between finally passing the style check and receiving the specs for project 3. I chickened out of 305, but I'll definitely be back for it and the followup GUI class when I feel I'm ready to let go of any social responsibilities again. When you take this class, try adopt a philosophy that you need to go through hard times to appreciate the good times - it'll lessen the pain. I am a survivor.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:25 am, Dec 20, 2001 Report Evaluation		Clint is simply amazing. He loves what he is doing and is absolutely dedicated to helping his students learn. His lectures, while a bit dry at first (intro to Java), were interesting and attention-keeping. The solid three hour lecture didn't seem to last very long at all. Apparently the class size of this year's 109 was much larger than a regular section, so he introduced a new system. He hired 5 TA's to help field questions and hold office hours for homeworks and projects. There we're a few rough edges, but it seemed to work ok. The class was made up of projects (large time-consuming mind-challenging beasts- required to pass), homework (smaller, mind-challenging mini-beasts- required to pass [new this year, I think]), a mid term, a final, and quizzes. The class turned out to require about 30 hours of my time a week, but it was certainly worth it. I learned more than I ever thought I could learn in a single quarter. The work was worth it. Thanks Clint.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 3:16 pm, Dec 19, 2001 Report Evaluation		What to say about Prof. Staley someone else hasn't already raved about. Although this is but my first quater at Poly, I honeslty believe that I will be hard pressed to find a BETTER prof in my years to come. Clint really REALLY knows his stuff, but that is only the half of it - he ENJOYS what he teaches, and it shows, immensley, in every lecture, in everything he does. He is one of the most articulate people I have ever met (considering his original English major), and he speaks so well (and writes so well, both in English and code) that you can learn without even realizing it. His class is very difficult, but now that it is over, I am very glad I stuck it out (I can now say I am offically a 109 survivor!). All I can say is, if you want the most out of your CPE/CSC education at Poly, you MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST take a Staley class (or two). You rock Staley!
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:11 pm, Aug 20, 2001 Report Evaluation		Clint is one of the best professors I've taken. He grades on 3 things. Projects, quizes, and tests. He assigns homework (reading assignments or problems) which aren't collected but he tests weather you learned from the assignments by giving easy quizes that are graded on a curve. This way if a project is due and nobody does the homework then a 7/30 could easily still be an A. Projects are the main source of points and are hard to complete, but Clint always thinks up new projects for his students and is working on them at the same time as you are along with working 2 other jobs outside of school. He asks alot out of his students but the amount you learn from him is worth while. Just don't take this class while taking any other tough classes. The best part of this class I thought was we had a celebration BBQ at the end of the quarter for all of the students in the class which was a fun way to actually meet people in the class. Clint is by far the best professor I've met at Cal Poly and I would take any class he teaches regaurdless of if it is part of my major or not.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Homework load is extremely difficult. Do not take this course with a tough schedule. Staley is an incredible professor who I would highly recommend to anyone with a desire to learn programming (and willing to work for it).
CSC 435 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Dr. Staley is the best professor I've had at Cal Poly. He is one of the few teachers that is *truly* interested in everything he teaches.
CSC 435 Junior Grade Earned: A Elective 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Without question, Staley is the best CSC teacher in Cal Poly. If you can survive this class you will have the real world skills you need to get a job.
CSC 102 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		This professor truly simulates the real world environment. He puts forth projects with some basic guidelines but room for personal interpretation and implementation and you have to get it PERFECT. He will come at your code from all kinds of angles to show just what might happen if it was mass distributed. He is not a good prof to take if you are weak of heart or don't have motivation. This is one guy who will make you step up to the challenge or get blown away in the dust. I loved him.
CSC 435 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Clint is the best computer science teacher at Cal Poly. He expects a lot out of you, but if you're willing to work hard you'll come out of his classes knowing more than you could ever imagine learning in 1 quarter.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Clinton Staley is an excellent teacher. While his courses are difficult, by the end of the course you are really prepared to code in the work place. Every project you work on has real meaning, there is no "busy work" in a Staley class.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Extremely difficult work load, but not without purpose. Staley is an excellent all-round teacher, and I have yet to meet an individual who did not find him likeable as both a person and a professor. If you don't overload yourself with your other classes, and are interested in the material being covered, take any Staley class you can - you're practically gauranteed to learn all you want to and more.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		In terms of computer science, Clint is about the best teacher that I can imagine. While the workload is intense, you will feel eternally grateful that he pushed you to your limit. His lectures are not only clear and meaningful, they are INSPIRED. This man has a true passion for his work, and, if you can stand a bit of geeky humor (mostly from the students that he attracts), then you should highly consider his courses.
CSC 109 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		This guy is a lot of work but I've never learned so much before. I remember programming on Halloween night - you have to meet deadlines when it seems impossible. But I learned a TON. He IS a great teacher if you're willing to put the time into it. I thought I was doing OK, and I had to work my ass off in the end but then I got an A- in the class so it shows that he knows EXACTLY what's going on and how you are doing and he'll reward you if you put the time and effort in.
CSC 435 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		His classes are tough, but you learn a lot. He requires all programs to be done correctly (minus late points). It's an incentive for doing it right the first time. You'll get an F if you don't turn it in at all. His required coding style makes a lot of sense, and it helps you to quickly understand your code in the wee hours of the morning. I consider his style to be the industry standard, as opposed some other teachers coding style. After taking CSC 435, all the other classes and jobs seem easy. I guess that is why his name has been on the teacher of the year plaque so many times.
CSC 109 Junior Grade Earned: A Elective 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Everyone else has stated what I wanted to say, so I'd just like to add my support. Professor Staley is the greatest CSC professor at Cal Poly IMO. I've learned so much in his classes and it has really put me ahead of the rest.
CSC 202 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Elective 11:34 am, Apr 3, 2001 Report Evaluation		I worked my ass off in this class :) and it paid off. Before I took this class I was not very confident of my coding skills but now I am. I didn't think I will survive in his class but I worked REALLY hard and I did. I STRONGLY recommend Staley!!!
CSC 202 Junior Grade Earned: A Elective 9:02 pm, Mar 27, 2001 Report Evaluation		Stearns? simple. Brady? piece of cake. Staley will kick your ass and won't stop beating you until you get up and fight. The work load is intense, but it's worth every minute. You will find yourself basing your day on 6 hour segments, in accordance with the grading robot. Staley will keep you awake and interested though solid 3 hour lectures. How many other profs can do that? I learned more in this class, about both C++ and Java, than I have in my entire college education. Clear and concise explanations. Caters to all abilities. Tests are impossible, good thing he grades on a curve and the average is usually around 50%. diff -w is your friend :)
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 4:24 am, Feb 22, 2001 Report Evaluation		Very good professor, makes the material interesting, teaches very well. But be careful of his programming projects, they're incredibly difficult. Since he requires all projects to be completed before passing the class, some people who do well on tests and quizzes recieve F's in the class and have to finish their projects before having their grades changed. DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN TO YOU. I definitely recommend him though, he's a great teacher.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:45 pm, Feb 14, 2001 Report Evaluation		Prof. Staley is probably the hardest teacher I've evr known. He will give you a huge workload, and you just have to keep focused or you will lose it. Also, you WILL fail all of his tests, and you just have to keep a positive outlook and know that everyone else failed too, so there is a hefty curve. Its a great way to get a few quarters ahead, but damn, be prepared for a whole lotta coding. I'd recommend only taking two other classes at the same time as 109, no more.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:26 pm, Dec 14, 2000 Report Evaluation		The Boomers remember where they were and what they were doing when J.F.K. died. We remember where we were and what social life we *used* to have when we first took a Staley class. I really have nothing to say that hasn't already been said above except that you may hate him with all your heart, then he'll do something unexpected and again become the best professor at Cal Poly.
CSC 109 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 8:04 pm, Jun 4, 2000 Report Evaluation		Staley has a unique approach to his teaching theory. He likes to throw as much information at you as possible (and he's got quite a wealth of it) and then he tests you on it. He stretches you to your limit and then keeps going. Start on assignments as soon as he grades you on them, do not fall behind. If you manage to keep your head above the water by the end of the quarter, you'll end up learning a great deal more than you would in any other class.
CSC 102 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 12:14 pm, Mar 7, 2000 Report Evaluation		I don't know if CSC 240 is still offered, but it was basically programming fundamentals with C. I NEVER would have learned as much as I did if I had taken this course with any other professor. However, he does not accept imperfect work. I had to finish my assignments SIX WEEKS INTO THE FOLLOWING QUARTER before I got a grade. Great professor, but be prepared to work your ASS off.
CSC 109 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 12:54 am, Jan 11, 2000 Report Evaluation		Don't take a Staley class if you're not up to a BIG challenge. But if you are prepared to go an entire quarter without a social life, it is one of the best opportunities you have during your career you have a Cal Poly. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, and this is definetly the case with 109.

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