Bomstad, Linda  

In taking Philosophy with Dr. Bomstad, I received a split opinion of her. The first half of the quarter, she was unapproachable and seemed frusterated when a student asked for help in class. She was not accommodating when I or other students came to her office hours, and told me that if I needed help, I would have to pay for a tudor. However, the second half, after returning from an absence of two weeks, she seemed ready to help and answered questions in class with fairly little hesitation. She had a lighter air about her, and didn't seem so uptight. I would be ready for an uphill battle if I had to take any other class she teaches.

I found Dr. Bomstad to be extremely vague on many topics. In class the answers to her questions were obvious,however, the questions on the test were not representative and often ambiguous. I received A's on the homework and C's on the exams.

Dr. Bombstadt is an extremely intelligent woman who really knows her stuff. The only problem with this class is that she was expecting junior level quality from mainly freshman students. Sometimes she would get genuinely angry at students when they asked stupid questions. If you enjoy logic and want a truly knowledgable professor, I recommend her highly. If you want a breeze course, this is the wrong person to take from.

Dr bomstad is very knowledgable but i think that she could use some work on her interpersonal skills. she seems irritated when students approach her with questions. her lectures are often vague and not very well organized. the homework isn't very hard and she lets you challenge her grades, which is nice. i hated her tests; i felt that they were difficult to understand even if you studied for a long time for them. fortunately much of your grade depends on homework and in class writings. even so, i wouldn't take another class from her.

Professor Bomstad is definately a top-notch, fair instructor. Her standard cut-offs for grades are a little steeper than normal, though. 92% for A, 82% for B, etc. However, those are guaranteed grades and a curve can only help you. There is little homework, so make sure you do each assignment well. Bomstad is an extremely competent, fair and decisive instructor. I would go out of my way to take her, but just know PHIL is the hardest of the 125 and you will work and be challenged.

The midterm and final multiple choice tests are hard to get a good grade on, so I recommend trying to do well on the homeworks and inclass writings. The inclass writings are easy if you just use a lot of the terminology from the chapters you studied.

The workload for this course was very reasonable. There were only three homework assignments, which were just exercises from the book. The midterm and final were both scantron. Reading wasn't all that important(the book isn't bad at all though); the test questions came right from the lectures. She's not overly generous with extra credit, but there is some. I got a long with her fine, but I think that some of the other students had personality conflicts with her. There's no proving this woman wrong. Word of advice: don't get on her bad side. Overall I really enjoyed this class. Bomstad is great at leading interesting class discussions and she is passionate about logic.

This professor is very knowledgable about the subject, yet she KNOWS this and seems to make students feel like idiots when they don't know what philosophy is all about(I didn't have a clue). She also canceled class a lot, so it wasn't helpful in getting all the material covered. Try to avoid taking her.

I think a lot of the problems I had with this class was not so much her fault, but that this was a new class that hadn't had the kinks worked out yet. Phil 126 is a combination of Phil 125 (Critical Thinking) and English 215 (Argumentative writing). They seemed to go together but they really didnt work out. She is not an english professor and it shows. She wants to approach everything from the critical thinking aspect of things and it just didn't always work out. You write one long research paper in her class and then have one midterm and several inclass essays. She did not plan the time very efficiently because we ended up having 3 in class essays the last two weeks of class when we had one the previous 7 weeks combined. The research paper she seems to put a lot of emphasis on at the beginning of the quarter but then by the time it is done she doesn't put very much time in it at all. The midterm was rather difficult, especially for a 100 level GE class. She seemed to expect a lot out of the students and even went as far as to say that if you have over 16 units you should think about droping one because her class is so difficult. (BTW, don't beieve her. I took 18 and her class was a joke in terms of time spent outside of class.) On the plus side she is very approachable, but doesn't have a lot of answers. Many people had questions about the GE requirement of the class the first few days of class and even though she was on the board that changed all the GE requirements, she couldn't give straight answers to half the people that asked. If you had a problem with your essay she was more than willing to stick around after class and help. In conclusion to this essay, if you can take another teacher do it. A friend was in the other section of this class and that teacher didn't even make them buy the book. They did half as much work and had easier midterms and finals.

Definitely recommended for your A3 GE! 3 "quizzes" (you can have an index card for each), 2 essays, and then journal entries. Go into her office hours with your essay a day or two before it's due and she'll tell you anything that needs to be fixed. She is such a genuinely nice lady and really wants her students to learn and succeed. Fair warning class can sometimes be painfully boring but it's doable.

Very very hard class. Her midterms where extremely difficult. This class in general is just hard and takes a lot of effort but I did learn a lot. If you go to lecture and go through the textbook and go over problems with her in office hours and in class you will learn everything you need to do well in the class.

Dr. Bomstad is a fantastic professor. She presents the material clearly and her tests rely pretty heavily on the lectures and reading. There is a term paper of a scant 5 pages, adn the prompt is very cool. The readings for the class are not complex, nor particularly time consuming, and the material as a whole is very interesting. I do suspect, however, that Linda could make the worst material in the world seem mildlyt appealing.

WOW WHAT A NEAT TRICK, HEY MY TEAM SHE IS A WOMAN AND A PROFESSOR. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES THAT WE WILL GET TO LOOK AT FELLOW CLASSMATES IN A CIRCLE. VERY HIGH DONT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU CAN'T READ OR ARE TRYING TO EXPERINCE OUTDOORS. KEEP COOL IN THE SHADE AND ALWAYS WHERE A SMILE. A BASIC FEMALE TEACHER WITH NO SURPURISES JUST KEEP EVER OTHER PAGE OF THE BOOK AND ONLY USE ODD NUMBERS . LUKE WALTON IS A ONE OF A KIND PASSER, WE REPORT YOU DECIDE

Professor Bomstad overall was a pretty good teacher. As long as you put a little time into the essays, go to class, and study a little (I'm talking a little, like go over the study questions she gives you) you are guaranteed at LEAST a B. We only had 3 essays and she dropped the lowest one, so if you were satisfied with the first two, you didn't have to do the last one. She presented the material pretty clearly and made it semi-interesting. I hate the subject of philosophy, but it really wasn't that bad. Some areas were a little confusing, but she made sure to go back over it until the majority of the class understood it. One thing I would say is, don't count on catching her in her office hours. If you actually made an appointment with her, she would be there, but other than that you are taking your chances.

This instructor is very disorganized, so her classes are confusing. One meeting she says one thing, then another class she says the opposite. She missed several office hours when I needed help, so don't count on that! I kept up with the reading and study guides, which are helpful. Just getting her to focus and explain something fully is another story.

Dr. Bomstad is an amazing professor. I took her class during my first quarter at Poly as a freshman and felt like she did a wonderful job. She knows the material inside and out and was always willing to clarify anything to better hlpe you understand. If you attend all her classes and read over the notes you can easily pull an A in her class. The tests are VERY fair with most questions coming DIRECTLY from the lectures. Each exam also has an essay portion, and she hands out the prompt before the final so you could better compose your thoughts, how awesome! I highly recommend taking phil 230 with Dr. Bomstad, she really enjoys teaching this course and works hard to make it interesting for everyone. As long as you attend class and give your opinion during discussions there is no reason why you cannot do well.

Linda Bomstad is a very nice teacher. At times, I found myself getting bored in the lecture, but it's philosophy, can't expect it to be exciting. The multiple choice portion of the tests weren't too bad, but some of the questions seemed to be very specific, so play close attention to what each question asks. On the essay portion for the first midterm, we were given the prompt ahead of time to choose what we'd write. It was a pain in the ass to finish the MC and essay in time. Second midterm, we were allowed to bring a sentence outline of the essay for the exam, and the third midterm, we were able to type the whole essay ahead of time and bring it in for the test, so that was awesome.

do not take this professor! she is unfair and a subjective grader!

I don't know what the hell some of these people are talking about. Linda is a great professor. She presented the material very clearly. If anyone had a question, she made sure that she explained it a different way so that everyone understands. I emailed her several times and she ALWAYS responded within a reasonable amount of time, usually a day or too. She was very understanding and willing to work around a trip I'd had planned. There's 2 midterms, a scantron and an essay. There's a study guide that the questions for the test come from. You're allowed an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of notes for the essay. She gives you 2 choices for an essay about a week before the test so you can prepare. The final is just another midterm. She's a really good professor.

Dr. Bomstad is SOO nice. She is also extremely lenient; she totally got rid of one essay because students told her that they had to write too much in the class. Her midterms are very simple: 30 multiple choice questions that are very straightforward and an essay that you can work on at home beforehand. The only problem is that philosophy isn't the most riveting class at 9 am. But she tried her best to relate the books to modern day and we did have a few cool debates.

this professor is one of the worst professors that i have had at cal poly. she consistently was late for class and office hours, she preached about being easy to contact and that she would be an email away but I have still not recieved email responses from many, many, many emails, and here cell phone continually went off. she does not follow thru, her grading is very subjective, and she is not a professional professor. i think this woman has little initiative toward helping students. DO NOT TAKE HER!

Take this class if you want a pretty easy G.E. She assigns three books and has one test on each. If you\'re in a big class, there\'s only one writing assignment and it\'s extra credit so it can only help you. Class is kinda boring because she only goes over what you were supposed to read, but it\'s definitely worth it to go to class. Her tests are all based on her notes and she literally says \"this will be on the midterm.\" Pretty easy A.

This class was pretty easy, she assigns 3 books with a test on each one. She\'s pretty straightforward and literally says \"This will be on the midterm!\" If you email her with questions, she\'s very nice and understanding. Overall the class is an easy A but you\'ll probably end up with a B because you don\'t try very hard cause it\'s so easy.

I was in a large lecture class, so things are probably a little bit different in smaller classes she teaches, but overall the class was pretty easy. There was really no need to even read the books because the tests were based pretty much completely off of her notes which she put online for us so there was no need to go to class even. I usually went anyway though because it was kind of helpful (but boring). The tests (all multiple choice) were still somewhat challenging though and some of the questions were kind of tricky because it seemed like there could be more then one right answer. The final was optional though, which was nice.

Bomstad is a pretty good professor. The subject can be a tad be dry and boring at times, but she does a really good job of actually teaching the material to students. There isn't a real reason why you shouldn't pass this class if you take it, she gives you notes, etc, prepares you well for the midterm with a review session. If you have to take a C2, Philosophy with her is a solid choice.

I think Dr. Bomstad can be considered an expert in British empiricism. She has a complete grasp on the subject, and can relay that information to the class with clarity. She anticipates questions, and thus gears her lectures to cover the most difficult concepts to grasp so that the answer is given before the question is asked. Dr. Bomstad considers all points students give and believes that there are no stupid questions. Thumbs up to this professor.

Dr. Bomstad does come off as a bit disorganized, but she definitely knows the material. She gives an excellent presentation of all the major figures in British Empiricism. Philosophy majors will have no problem in this class, and should learn alot in the process. I wouldn't recommend this class as a GE, though...there's definitely easier ones out there.

She's not consistent with her grading policy. I spent a lot of time on the first assignment on Hobbes and received a good grade. However, since the class average was awful, she decided to drop that assignment for their benefit and thus my loss. And, a lot of people didn't turn in the comment sheet on Berkeley (500 words) so she said she'd give them a break and let them make it up and that those of us who did our assignments could do an extra credit assignment. When she handed back the graded comment sheets on Berkeley, she said that we could rewrite the papers if we weren't satisfied with our grades, but I was satisfied with my grade so I wasn't interested in a rewrite. So when it was time to do the final comment sheet on Hume (500 words), she told us that the people who didn't do the comment sheet on Berkeley had to do this comment sheet on Hume and that those of us who did the comment sheet on Berkeley would get extra credit if we wrote a comment sheet on Hume. I spent a lot of time on this thing thinking that I would receive extra credit, but the last day of class she said that the comment sheet on Hume would only replace the grade (if it was better) we received on the comment sheet on Berkeley. She once said that she grades essays according to what type of mood she is having that day, and now I agree with that. She is so lame and unfair to those of us who put forth the effort in doing the work. This class is beneficial to people who don't come to class regularly who strike her as philosophical geniuses with their big words.

Taking this instructor is like being in a Twilight Zone episode. You just can