Philip Cohen

This professor has taught: SOCY100, SOCY105, SOCY243, SOCY245, SOCY380, SOCY443, SOCY498F, SOCY616, SOCY623, SOCY630, SOCY644, SOCY653, SOCY661, SOCY699D, SOCY699F, SOCY699P, SOCY699V, SOCY858, SOCY889

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Philip Cohen SOCY245 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/24/2025	This was one of the easiest courses that I've taken at UMD. The course has 14 online homework assignments that can be completed at any point before the end of the semester and each takes around 30-45 minutes to do. The midterm and final which represent pretty big portions of your grade were all multiple choice, the questions were fair and both exams were pretty easy as long as you went to class and did the homework. There was one small project that involved an interview and ended with a 1000 word paper. The project also involved reading Maid by Stephanie Land, but I never did and got away with just reading a couple of summaries and talking about a few specific details in my paper. Cohen himself is a nice person who gives you everything you need and more to succeed in the course. The lectures are pretty boring and he doesn't allow technology, but since the class only meets twice a week and has minimal work I think it's a fair tradeoff. One thing I did notice was that the professor spent a lot of time talking about his political beliefs which wasn't related to the course but he still always left a lot of time for content so I didn't mind. If you're looking to knock out a gen ed I'd definitely recommend you take this class with Cohen. As long as you do the bare minimum of going to lecture, taking some notes, and doing the assignment you should have no issues.
Philip Cohen SOCY245 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/20/2025	The previous negative reviews of Professor Cohen and his class are so funny to me because they were clearly written by someone who did not attend class or played on their phone the whole time. Professor Cohen is an amazing professor who genuinely cares about what he is teaching. He is passionate about the subject and relates the class topics to real-world issues and events. The no-technology rule that a few people mentioned is completely false--you are 100% allowed to use a laptop or tablet to take notes just as long as you sit in the front 3 rows (to prevent people from playing games or online shopping during class). I will say that the professor is very passionate about politics and openly anti-Trump, so if that bothers you, I suggest you find a different professor. However, I found that his opinions made the class more interesting because he is very smart and has great insight into specific issues. Professor Cohen has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor which I found to make the class funny and entertaining, but I think some students interpret it as him being rude and dismissive, which he is not. If you actually talk to him you'll find that he is extremely helpful and wants to help his students succeed. In terms of work, this class was super easy. There are 14 simple chapter quizzes that are all due by the last day of class, meaning you can go at your own pace throughout the semester. There were also 2 easy assignments and one easy 1,000 word essay due around finals. In addition, there is a midterm and final exam that were super simple as long as you re-read your notes on the material. The questions were pretty straightforward and even though the final is cumulative, there were only 4 or 5 questions that were about previous material from before the midterm. Attendance isn't necessarily mandatory, but about every other week there will be a very short an end-of-class question to answer on a piece of paper that will serve as your participation points for that day and factor into your final grade. Overall, this was easily one of my favorite classes that I have taken at UMD because of how passionate the professor is and the light workload. I highly recommend anyone to take this class or any other class with Professor Cohen if they have any interest in sociology or they need an easy A.
Philip Cohen SOCY245 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2024	Cohen is a chill prof and seems cool to talk to, and the class itself wasn't hard. I will say the material gets a bit redundant and it feels like everything we learned after the midterm is just a revised version of what we learned before, but that does make it easier honestly. The material is decently interesting since you learn a lot about social phenomena and demography which can inform your opinions and how you see the world irl. Attendance does count so that was kind of annoying, but every Thursday we had small attendance assignments that you could only miss 2 of during the whole semester. I go to class anyway so it was fine, but I was always so tempted to skip since the lectures were kind of boring after a certain point. The Inquizitives are very annoying but doable, and the exams were mostly straightforward and sometimes taken verbatim from the slides or the Inquizitive assignments. He did give some trick questions from just the book that no one could answer, but that's because you really don't need to read the book. He also hosted review sessions for the midterm and final the lecture before each exam, but I actually think he didn't even have the exams completed yet by the time of review, so any time you asked him if something would be on the test he would mostly be unsure.
Philip Cohen SOCY245 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2024	He's a chill guy and the class is pretty chill too. I actually thought the course material was decently interesting, since you do learn a lot about social phenomena and demography that can inform your opinions in real life, though I will say the material does get redundant as the class goes on. After the midterm I felt like all the content we learned was the same stuff from before lol but it's still easy. The exams were fine, very straightforward and often taken verbatim from his slides or the Inquizitives. There were some trick questions on the midterm that you could only answer if you read the book (you're supposed to, but I didn't and turned out fine lol) because he openly said he wanted to incentivize people to read the book and not just the lecture slides but you really don't have to. The Inquizitives are kind of a pain in the ass but that's not his fault, and they're doable just a little annoying. Overall an easy class just a little boring.
Philip Cohen SOCY245 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/22/2024	The class itself was extremely easy all throughout the semester up until the final exam, which was cumulative and no study guide, he recommended looking at all of the slides posted throughout the semester since we are "liable for all this information" which seemed a bit unfair since there was a lot of niche information. There were 14 total work problems that had no due date, just had to be completed by the end of class which was super easy and 2 really easy essays. The problem isn't so much the class but the professor. I found the professor's approach to be dismissive and unprofessional, which made it challenging to engage with the material effectively. I don't care at all what anybody political beliefs, everyones entitled to their own opinion, but every class he would go on a 20 minute rant about President Trump and his family, which had no correlation to the class, and the second you ask a question that goes against his narrative he looks at you like you have 3 heads, and it simply added nothing to the class, ended up taking notes on stuff that wasn't even related to the class. Really was not a fan of this professor at all. Also the class was extremely boring, I don't think I took away one thing from this course, other than the fact he made us spend 150$ to BUY HIS OWN BOOK. Than he had the audacity to say he doesn't make any money off of book sales which is a complete lie, there was around 40 people in the class so he definitely got a nice little bonus check. Also the grading marks seemed a bit unreal, A (92-100), A- (90-91), B+ (88-89), B (82-87), B- (80-81), etc. Overall if you think you are going to go to class every day and take handwritten notes, since there's no electronics allowed in the class, by all means good luck.
Philip Cohen SOCY105 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2024	Chill course and professor is very interesting. He does bring a fair bit of politics into the classroom and he definitely has his opinions (I would look him up and read of his articles before entering his courses bc if you don't agree with him/don't wanna hear his personal views you should avoid him), but he keeps his biases out of his exams and grading so no matter your opinions you still can get a fair education and be graded fairly. He will incorporate his articles into the course content and exams but will mostly be "what are my opinions on this topic" rather than asking for opinions. Exams are easy asf and this course is a cake walk as long as you show up to class (there is attendance thats worth about 30% of the grade). Dudes definitely a character but I enjoyed his lectures and hearing him speak.
Philip Cohen SOCY245 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/17/2024	Took this as an "easy class" for a gen-ed but ended up with a B+ because of only MCQ exams with the final being 35% of the grade (first was over 50 questions, final was over 80). If you're taking this to get a good grade and complete a gen-ed requirement, there are much easier ones to take than this. I feel stupid for staying in the class since my schedule was pretty hard this semester and couldn't dedicate that much time to study before the exams. The class itself is fine as well as the professor, but I would've much rather preferred another big assignment than two exams that add up to 60% of the course grade with basically no practice material given other than the lecture slides or the book.
Philip Cohen SOCY105 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/05/2024	Honestly this class is so chill. There is never any HW or work outside of class, nor any essays, however this means that the entirety of your grade is based off of the one exam and the final, so if you are a good test taker, I highly recommend this class. Also the exams are common sense.
Philip Cohen SOCY245 Expecting an A- Anonymous 08/29/2024	This is simply not a good professor. Do not take this class to satisfy your diversity requirement. He has a no-technology rule and forces you to either take handwritten notes or sit front row next to the TA. His exams are extremely hard and the questions are all ambigous and purposely constructed to be hard to get correct. He also mandates attendance and has random attendance sheets. The class is also extremely boring
Philip Cohen SOCY245 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/17/2024	Dude isn't a great professor, but he's passionate which makes the class a bit interesting. Show up to lectures as attendance/participation counts. I would sit at the back and do work for other classes. There is a midterm and final combined worth over 50% of your grade. There is no study materials given besides the textbook which annoyed me. No curve, and project is a 1000-word paper so it was pretty light. You don't even need to buy the book for the class.
Philip Cohen SOCY243 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/27/2024	Professor Cohen is really nice and straight to the point. He told us that he was available for us to talk to, even if we wanted to talk to him about things other than the course, like stressors happening in other areas or outside of school. This class was an hour and a half lecture twice a week, and not every lecture was super interesting because he goes over notes from each chapter of the textbook. It was boring at times because I had already read the chapter and taken the notes. That being said, this can be helpful if you miss a reading or don't finish one. There was just one midterm, and oftentimes he included a song or video in the lectures for us to think about and discuss if we wanted to. The content of this course was really interesting, and I learned a lot. It is kind of a lot of reading, but it was an easy A and taught valuable information, so I would recommend.
Philip Cohen SOCY243 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/23/2023	Professor Cohen seems like a nice guy! His lectures were engaging and the videos he chose for class were interesting. There are weekly InQuizitive assignments (13 total) that correlate with a chapter in the online book for the class (written by Prof Cohen). These are self-paced, so you could do them all at the end of the semester until you get 100% on each. There's no limit to the amount of questions you answer, you just have to get the accuracy point value to 100%. Attendance isn't mandatory, but he does randomly give out a simple written assignment in class responding to a video or filling out a survey to take attendance for the day. You never know when these are going to happen so that's an easy way to lose participation points. There is one midterm and a cumulative final which are all multiple-choice. There were some other books that he wanted us to read, but there were only ever like 2 questions on the exams about them.
Philip Cohen SOCY243 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023	SOCY243 was a really chill class. Just do the reading (or pay attention during lecture...really no need to do both) and you're easily on track to get an A. Some lectures are really interesting. In general, Professor Cohen is an amazing person who shows sympathy and understanding for his students.
Philip Cohen SOCY243 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/12/2023	Very nice guy, and really seems to be passionate about his work. He's very funny and has engaging participation. The only downside is participation is random every few days so you have to attend every class to ensure these points. Once-a-week inquizative about the weekly chapter, semester-long reading, and lectures are pretty similar to the textbook since he wrote it. One midterm, One Final, all multiple choice.
Philip Cohen SOCY243 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2022	Professor Cohen is fantastic. The course was very interesting; I learned a lot about society.
Philip Cohen SOCY243 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/25/2022	Professor Cohen was the greatest professor I ever had. You have to take this course.
Philip Cohen SOCY105 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/02/2021	Prof Cohen is very nice and extremely knowledgeable, but he's very awkward and is so lenient that people in class take advantage of him by not doing homework and not coming to class. I was genuinely interested but the class was just not engaging enough to make me want to keep going. I ended up going to most of the lectures online.