[KAPital PHINUst]

Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't have as many best/worst college professor stories as perhaps I did in grade school, but these ones come to mind:

I would have to say the best college professor I had was my College English 2 instructor Susan Murray at Kent State. She taught freshmen level Literature to primarily adult students (I had to take that course in the evening due to scheduling problems). Would you believe on my first assignment I turned in she ripped me apart (and a whole lot of other students as well). She said in no uncertain terms she gives out very few As on the papers she grades. So on the next assignment I try harder--matter of fact I stayed up all night one night trying to write a simple 3 page paper on The Horse Dealer's Daughter by D.H. Lawrence. And she STILL gave me an F on it for not being able to follow a thesis statement completely throughout the paper.

(sidenote: I had to write another paper on the very same reading 2 years later for an English 200 class at Columbus State and I tore that mess up--I was writing some deep, bottom-of-the-ocean type of stuff and aced that paper without breaking a sweat).

Anyway, she challenged me into writing clear, concise, well thought out papers that improved my grades as time went on. The most challenging paper I had ever wrote was a 3-page research paper on Hamlet and his personal struggle between good and evil, complete with 3 research sources, footnoted, and with a bibliography. I had NEVER done anything like that before. Anyhow, I was up to the task, and actually got a B on that paper for content. Btw, at this time I was pledging Alpha Phi Omega, so I felt that at least for this course, I was academically pledging that as well, and for that, I was a better writer and researcher for it. How fitting the circumstances were. I passed the class with a C.

Worst professor: Joann Bossenbrock (a 50-something white woman) who taught Precalculus. I didn't like her because her teaching style was incompatible with my learning style and when she would tutor me, she would get audibly frustrated when a concept didn't click with me or I just couldn't catch on. And I would bust my butt in that class. The only reason why I didn't drop the course was because I was graduating from Columbus State that quarter and I didn't want to delay it by waiting for another professor to teach me. I took that final, which was the most challenging final exam I had ever taken, and learned I had BARELY passed the course with a 61 percent (D). I was as estatic as crossing the burning sands AFAIC. That to me was as good, if not better, than getting a A.

Sidenote: I had flunked a previous college math course taught by a female teacher (Kathy Struve), retook it with a male teacher (Ken Seidel) and breezed through it (perhaps my already knowing the course content helped matters). But his teaching style matched my learning style, so that could've been the other factor.