Fabrizio Cariani

This professor has taught: PHIL209U, PHIL210, PHIL271, PHIL318G, PHIL408W, PHIL418X, PHIL478, PHIL498F, PHIL688B, PHIL808K, PHIL808L, PHIL808V, PHPE308G, PHPE308W, PHPE408X
Information Review
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.