has anyone taken this course? is it 12able? and who was the prof?
thanks

Personally, I have not taken the course. I have heard it is excellent though. It is an elective course, and it has a fairly light workload. The Professor throughout the year is Dr. Michael Mercier, who I cannot strongly recommend enough. He is a superb lecturer and a pleasure to be able to learn from.

However, he is not teaching it in the summer. I was going to take it, but am dubious because on the GEOG site, they had a posting for a sessional lecturer to teach the course. This would mean they could not get anyone in the faculty to teach it and they are looking for an outsider.

If you are just looking to get a 12, and do not care about the prof, then by all means take it. I think there is one major paper ~30% and a MT and a final (at 30 & 40 respectively). It is a regional geography course, so you will be studying the United States broken up into sub-sections "regions". If you put in the work, you can see the results. If you care about specifically taking it with the best lecturer I have found to date, then hold off until the regular academic year to take it with Dr. Mercier

Hope this helps.

I'm going to second the recommendation of Mercier. One of the best profs I've had so far.

Great I was gonna take this class second term and wasnt sure but you've made it sound better
Also, the course says that Geo 1HA3 or 1HB3 is recommended... it doesnt say "strongly" recommended... think itll be a problem that I havnt taken those?

Originally Posted by Melanieee

Great I was gonna take this class second term and wasnt sure but you've made it sound better
Also, the course says that Geo 1HA3 or 1HB3 is recommended... it doesnt say "strongly" recommended... think itll be a problem that I havnt taken those?

Not at all Melanie. It is only 'recommended' because it is nice to have some background knowledge into geographic methods and thought, etc. But by all means, GEOG 2RU3 (and GEOG 2RC3) are specifically designed to be able to be taken without any background knowledge. They are, as I mentioned 'elective' courses in the GEOG program, and as such designed to meet needs of students just looking for a general course.

I would like to mention that you should not be hindered by the fact that there is a posting for a sessional faculty member to teach the course. I am just biased towards Mercier because I've had him before, and will wait so I can have the pleasure of having him teach again. I have no doubt the course will be taught well. The Geography department has excellent standards for teaching, and would not hire second-rate Professors, even if it was contractually/sessionally.

This course is great! Mercier is a great professor. I took this class just this past year. There was only 2 midterms (25% each) and the exam (50%). I should mention that I didn't take any of the 1st year geo courses and I did fine.