McDonald, Rob  

Trump 2016 -> Kanye 2020 -> Vermen Supreme 2024 -> ??? -> Profit

Great class, learned a lot, my favorite aero class in my time at poly. Thanks Dr. McDonald!

Absolutely horrible. If there is a way to avoid McDonald, definitely do so. But since he teaches mostly required courses, avoiding him could be difficult. His assignments are generally BS and hardly help you learn the material that the class is about. Furthermore, he won't tell you which assignments are worth a good part of the final grade (he makes that up after finals week.)

Shut up Scriber

Mr. McDonald without a doubt has the largest ego of any professor I have EVER had. No joke- I am not kidding, and I've had some professors who were pretty full of themselves (you know the type- those ones who wouldn't last a day outside of academia). Sometimes I feel like I'm going to be smothered by his ego, and I just want to jump off the third floor window of building 192. Seriously, this guy does this thing whenever you ask him a question where he gives you this weird smile that's like "You are so stupid and I can't believe I'm wasting my time with you" and tightens his lips like a 75-year- old who just had a Botox job gone wrong. He also always starts off class by asking us questions that he already knows the answers to, which really pisses me off! I swear, if he comes into class one more time and starts off with "How we all doing?" I'm gonna have to strangle him! Lousy, now leave me the f*&k alone so I can work on my design! Also, all of his questions always attempt to provoke panic in the students- which I don't think is professional or of any pedagogical value. He also pretty much does the minimum when it comes to preparing for class. His lectures during the combined aircraft/spacecraft lectures during fall quarter were totally useless. And he never publishes his expectations in writing, which is really irritating when you're trying to figure out what he wants. He always claims he does this because he "wants to see what you come up with," but I think he's just too lazy to type anything up.

I totally agree with the ego thing. His ego has caused him to get involved as the advisor to aero engineering clubs and projects, all of which have inevitable ended in catastrophic failures. It's learn by doing, but McD doesn't seem capable of learning from his mistakes because he is in denial that he makes mistakes. He'll probably have the same effect on aircraft design. His influence on the aircraft design sequence and the aero department is akin to the dumping of raw sewage into the reservoir - it was working just fine until he got there, and now it has been poisoned in a way that will take a long time to repair. I wish we were still in the old design lab instead of the one that was planned out by a man who had no idea what he was doing, and I especially wish Dave Hall was still around. McD was a total charmer at his interview lecture, and yeah, he does have that kind of personality. We were all fooled. The department ended up hiring a guy with zero teaching experience and zero experience designing aircraft. The two alternatives each had one or the other. He's also a total sycophant of Dr. P.

I have had "Ronald" McDonald for several courses now, and all I can say is he is a clown. I hope our department will be smart enough to not give him tenure. Doubt it though, given the imcompetince of the rest of the faculty.

Practice in novel thinking, tied in with my work over summer, and wish I had the time to continue on the aero science path. Go into a class for the material, not for a grade.

Like Dr. Marshall, McDonald is highly into theoretical work and derivations and lots of Matlab. You will learn a lot about coding in his class, which you will inevitably need sooner or later so you might as well learn something while you are here. He presents material very clearly and puts his notes online so you may download them ahead of time. I can't really understand how people can complain about Dr.McDonald when they know some of the other teachers we have in Aero. His classes are reasonably structured and his grading is based on how the class meets the challenges he puts forward. Also, unlike most other aero profs who are basically impossible to track down for senior projects and thesis work, McDonald makes himself very available and holds weekly meetings with all his grad students to keep track of progress.

I don't know which is bigger... Mcdonald's ego or his fat belly? I was always scared that during lecture, he would scream at me in a bad scottish accent "GET IN MY BELLY!" Maybe he can use his precious grant money to join jenny craig?

Most useful class I\'ve ever taken. Thanks RM!