Fabrizio Cariani

This professor has taught: LING888, PHIL209M, PHIL209U, PHIL210, PHIL271, PHIL318G, PHIL408W, PHIL418X, PHIL478, PHIL498F, PHIL688B, PHIL808K, PHIL808L, PHIL808M, PHIL808V, PHPE308G, PHPE308N, PHPE308W, PHPE408X

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Fabrizio Cariani PHIL209M Expecting an A Anonymous 02/11/2026	I wasn't capable of evocating a review last semester, however now being bestowed the opportunity I shall continue forth. Professor Cariani is a thorough and eloquent individual that encourages open discussion rather than denouncing it, much like his other fairly incompetent predecessors. He certainly ascertains many conjectures and ideologies in class, which conjures a much more inclusive and encouraging environment for all those associated. Of course, as a philosophy teacher, he must be critical of others' ideals inept or not, Professor Cariani provides a descriptive summary on his stance and how it can be improved academically. Unlike other professors, Cariani seems to be indoctrinated in an academically competent environment, which allowed him to accumulated such sophisticated ideologies, many of which I haven't summoned. He is always available for office hours and provides an adequate response to ones inquiries. Regarding the final, he allowed students to reference a one page sheet of paper with notes to leverage during the exam. Out of 9 questions, he chose 3 of which were not necessarily difficult, allowing students an hour+ to write. As long as you show improvement and a willingness to learn the fascination of philosophy, you will be destined toward the righteous path. Of course this must be determined by free will, if it ever existed.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL209M Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2026	Overall, Professor Cariani is a great professor that cares for his students and makes sure that they always understand the material he teaches. For every reading, he makes detailed slides (that he also posts on Canvas) that go over everything about it. So even if you don't have enough time to do the reading you can basically understand it from the slides alone, which also came in handy when I stopped doing the readings all together towards the end of the semester. Even during the lectures, he makes sure to stop and ensure that everyone understands the topics or the MANY tangents he can go on during lecture, even when the questions he is asked are no-brainers which got really annoying during class. He is very accessible through his office hours and is open to helping anyone with the essays we have to do during the class or if we want to just talk/debate him on anything. The two times that I went to his office hours he was overly friendly and gave useful notes on how I could improve my submissions. Even if someone cannot make it in-person he also holds Zoom office hours and is very flexible with students. The class is formatted by 3 in-class writings, 3 essays, and a final (that he handpicks from a posted set of questions on Canvas). The in-class writings are really easy where if you demonstrate knowledge on the reading and can actually analyze its arguments then it should be an easy 100. His essays are also generally easy with the only worry being the word count and our commentary on the author's arguments. The only complaint I have for Cariani is that he rarely gave a 100 to ANY student for their essay. He always emphasized that he wants to give us tips to be better at our writing no matter what. At first it seemed annoying, but it was rewarding towards the end where he was happy that I demonstrated improvement based on the notes that he gave me. You are only really impacted by his essay grading if you barely put any effort into your writing. The final was also extremely easy as like I said before, he gives the questions beforehand for us to prepare for, and even giving us an extra credit question which was nice of him. You can tell by his lessons that he is very passionate about AI and is willing to discuss it in any capacity (as long as we have class time). He also tries his best to make sure that nobody fails the class which really shows that he cares for all of his students. I would 100% recommend anyone to take his class as it ended up being my favorite class of the semester
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL209M Expecting an A Anonymous 01/12/2026	Y'know what of the first things he did during the semester was complain about his reviews which I found hilarious. Very cool professor, he seems very interested in what he teaches and often likes to go on tangents that can sometimes get hectic very quickly whether that's through him ranting or students debating with each other. He constantly checks to see if everyone understands the paper that we are reading for that day and is completely willing to slow down or break down the content even more than he already does. He makes the papers almost unnecessary to read as he goes through them in complete detail with his slides although reading the papers will make your arguments in the papers/final stronger. He has good availability and is always willing to help you with your paper during office hours or discuss any related topics with you. I remember going twice to his office hours and he was more than willing to talk to me and loved the ideas/counterarguments that we would go back and forth on. If I had to complain, I would say he is a hard grader but he tries his best to help everyone succeed whether that be through offering detailed feedback or giving as many points as he can as decimals (like 4.25/5). The only problem is that rarely any students get full marks on his papers but as long as you show improvement throughout the semester, he will be more lenient. A common complaint he had with my papers was that I always had a neutral tone on the argument and he noted on my last paper how he was proud that I did exactly what he wanted in response to his feedback which was nice. The final is also incredibly easy with 9 questions that are given in advance with 3 of them being chosen by him to be on the final. Overall, great professor and would 100% recommend even if you are not a philosophy major like me.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL271 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	Awesome professor! He really wants everyone in the class to succeed and will double back as many times as necessary to make sure that everyone understands the material; he literally embodies the phrase "there are no stupid questions". Some others have said he's a harsh grader, but he makes up for that in the final curve, which essentially makes it impossible to get a bad grade as long as you try your best. He's super fun and passionate about the subject, and his lectures were super interesting to attend.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL318G Expecting an A brendanlapuma 12/22/2023	Really interesting class, he knows what he's talking about. Entirely essay-based (plus the final), and some mini quizzes throughout the semester. Nothing unexpected, and he tells you basically exactly what to study before each quiz. Also gave us 9 of the possible final questions beforehand, of which he picked three, and allowed a cheat sheet. Would definitely take another class with him.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL318G Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/19/2023	Fabrizio is an okay professor. He has weird preferences for essays like shorter sentences, no intro paragraph on a short essay, and specific phrases, and he is DEFINITELY a harsh grader (he himself says this and yeah, he really is). But, he also brings an energy to class that helps foster student discussion and does his best to grade as fast as he can. He is enthusiastic about the class material and it definitely helps. Overall, he's somewhere between mid and good.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL318G Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/13/2023	The professor cared a ton about improving our writing skills (he does have standards and grade harsly, but he arbitrarily boosts everyone's grades for completing the outline), and he was so passionate about the subject.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL210 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/25/2023	Don't take this class if it is for a gen-ed. It is not easy to get an A, in fact, it is very difficult. The content was interesting, and there wasn't that much work in the class. So you might be wondering, why did I end up with a B+? Well, the professor is clearly knowledgeable, but he intentional made this class hard to get a good grade in. I got a 50% on my first paper. When I submitted it, I knew it was not very good, but it certainly was not THAT bad, especially given that I have no philosophical background. I thought that the grading would be understanding of that fact, but it was not. He told the class that he told the TA to grade us strictly, and later told us that much of the class would end up receiving a B or lower. The future papers I got B's on (only a few students get A's on the papers), but clearly, that wasn't enough to make up for the first paper. If you have some room in your schedule, I don't recommend taking this class, unless you want a class that requires a lot of attention.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL210 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/18/2023	This class is a GPA destroyer. I expected it to be super easy and interesting, but it was much harder to get an A than I had expected. There was very little work, but there were a few papers that were graded extremely harshly. The TA graded the papers but Dr. Cariani specifically ordered him to grade the papers harshly to bring our grades down, and he was proud of that! He was very open about his desire for only about 10% of the class to end up with some sort of A. I did manage to get an A+, but that is only because I had a meeting with the TA and we connected well enough that he went back at the end of the semester when he saw I would get either an A- or B+ (I don't know exactly) and he gave me a few extra points on some past assignments to boost me up to an A+ intentionally because he wanted me in particular to get an A+ out of the kindness of his heart. For most of the semester there was no way of knowing what our grades were because of a weird grading system that did not translate into ELMS very well. Dr. Cariani said he would update us throughout the semester and give grade cutoffs so we had an estimate of what our real grades were, but I don't think he ever did. Very often he would say he would upload an assignment or slides or an announcement by a certain time or a certain day, but he rarely if ever met his own deadlines. He would typically upload things about a week after he said he would. In the end, everyone's grades and GPAs were ruined and everyone regretted taking the class. It's nothing short of a miracle that I got an A+, and I can only thank my TA for that, not Dr. Cariani. If you take the class, you might find it interesting, but be prepared to not get any type of A. Instead, you should expect maybe a B+ at best. This is not the easy gen-ed you probably think it is.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL478 Expecting a B Anonymous 02/10/2022	Amazing professor. I would definitely take him again. Not sure what the other review is about.
Fabrizio Cariani PHIL478 Anonymous 12/25/2021	Professor treated students with respect throughout the semester but once the review period ended, he kind of changed his behavior. He graded most of the assignments after the last day to enter reviews and he did us bad on the grades - He didn't want to assign everyone an A so he picked some students to assign B's to. He has participation/attendance grade but you would learn a whole lot more if you use the time to read the book by yourself or watch YouTube videos, than attending class.