Leitzell, Ashley  

Not a bad professor. Very harsh on grading, but seeing as this class is drafting and design it makes sense. Wish she spent more time helping her students though. She does let you leave once youre done with your quiz which was nice so that you don't have to stay the full 3 hours. Overall, I was satisfied.

Ashley is great for 129, she's fairly sarcastic so if you're a sarcastic person as well you'll get along great. If not, just know she is and you'll do fine too. In this class it's critical to take good notes for reviewing before the final. Additionally, if you ask her to critique your drawings during class/office hours, she will tell you exactly what's wrong and why. Never stop asking why in this class, it'll be rough if you don't understand why things happen.

Leitzell knows what she's doing. Her lectures are informative and her tutorial videos are incredibly helpful. There are weekly quizzes so DON'T MISS CLASS. There are weekly assignments that are not too hard to complete with the assignment sheet. She tends to favor specific students, mostly boys. During office hours when I asked her questions she reluctantly answered with an annoyed tone as if the question i have is stupid, but she does answer them. She seems like she is always slightly stressed an annoyed, but she's not completely horrible.

By far the biggest bitch alive. She is the definition of an asshole. Legit, for every fucking assignment that we did in class, she would dick everyone in the grading. I did better than most of the other kids in my class on the quizzes, and I got 6/15 on half of them. She is such a shitty person. I heard her complaining in class how someone called her a stone-cold bitch in some review and she was hurt because she is so nice. NO YOU FUCKING CUNT ITS BECAUSE YOU'RE A STONE COLD BITCH. I have never hated a teacher more than her. The fact that Cal Poly hasn't fired her is shocking. Take this class if you want to spend ten weeks at the mercy of the icy bitch that is ashley leitzell.

Ha, the whiner who said he got a 6/15 on every one of the assignments was clueless the whole quarter, and when he actually did show up to class he was usually hungover or drunk. Leitzell was great, the class was graded fair and the assignments were actually fun once you know what you're doing. (The previous reviewer was one of those crybabies who needed his hand held the whole quarter, I can't believe he hasn't gotten kicked out of Cal Poly yet.) Seriously, if you don't get at least an A- in the class then you've got problems - she goes out of her way to help everyone throughout the class and her office hours, and she responds to emails for help all the time. Overall most of hte people in the class did well and enjoyed the class, I'd recommend Leitzell and will definitely try to take her again.

^^^ Above review probably written by Leitzell

I had her for ME 151 and she was always prepared and good at explaining everything we needed for the assignments. They're a lot of work though. I didn't really have to go to office hours but she was helpful in class and graded fairly.

A nice person, but not a good teacher. She just keeps saying “see how this is related to this” without explaining it. No one had a clue what she was talking about. And she isn’t very helpful one on one. And then grades really hard on the assignments due each week. I felt more confused and frustrated when I left the class then when I first got there. I’d suggest another instructor for ME 151.

Dives into the lectures without explaining what she is teaching. Labs were dead silent the whole time. Not clear. Could promote class interacting and be more prepared as she came into class late a few times and had technical difficulties

Overall a good professor. If you have trouble with drafting, she'll really try to help you. She cares about her students and wants them to do well.

For my class, Professor Leitzell was new to this quarter for teaching. At first, I would admit that I was a bit scared because she went over the material pretty fast, but the examples that she gave in class were pretty straight on to the homework. There was only one test for this class and then the final. Her test aren't as bad as long as on the cheat sheet you put all the pictures of how each this could have a moment and or where a force is.She is a good teacher, she tries to help you in anyway that she can. So I would take her!

I know what you're thinking, "oh he got an F so he's complaining about the teacher and whatnot." Well, hear me out. Leitzell's class isn't hard, but she does NOTHING TO PREPARE YOU for the final. Her classes are ridiculously boring, and she did bitch me out 3 times for arguing on a quiz. I had the answer right on one quiz with full work, she took of a -4 and gave me a 6/10 for "sloppiness." Take someone that can teach you statics properly and not this person.

I was very scared at first because statics is supposed to be a hard class and it was her first quarter teaching. I was surprised to learn that she is actually quite a good teacher. There's a quiz on every day you turn in homework which is usually once a week. They are usually pretty easy if you did the homework. The midterm was kinda challenging but overall not too bad. I felt very well prepared for the final when it came, but I studied very hard and did a study group. Leitzell did a great job of teaching the general concepts and I would take her again.

Prepared us really well for the common final, gave sample problems for final and midterm, did tons of examples, easy to understand, answers questions well. Really a fantastic teacher. I have no idea why her ratings are this low.

a very young, new, pretty, teacher. the first day she kinda scared me, there was a lot of talk about all the ways you can fail. but the class was taught very well as a whole. she is a new teacher, and you can tell because she can get flustered and relies on the notes she prepares before hand, however she knows the material very well and all you have to do to understand the material is pay attention and ask questions, she goes fast. she basically just does problems the whole class every class, so if thats how you learn then she is a great teacher. i felt like she prepared me well for the common final (i got a high be when the average was a 57%) and she is very accommodating to questions. a very easy going class, a fair grader (she even let us redo a quiz once), homework is only whats necessary. bottom line she cares about the student and if you pay attention you dont need to do much studying on your own. dont let her intimidate you ask questions!

She is clearly a new teacher. However, she does a good job explaining concepts. She spends every class doing example problems, which I liked. She makes some mistakes in them, but they are all small things like sign error and actually makes the class pay attention more. She gives weekly quizzes and homework and the two midterms were much easier than the final so don't skip studying for it. Statics isn't a bad class, don't worry if you are. Way overhyped.A

Pretty cool professor. Good looking too.

Professor Leitzell was not a bad professor at all. Each day, we covered example problems that related to the chapter we were currently on. Some students did not like this only because they wished that she was more conceptual. I thought that she prepared us very well on the final exam though. I ended up getting an A on the final and did not have any trouble with a single problem. There was not that much homework. The only homework assigned were the ones that were the most relevant to the quizzes and exam. The only bad thing was that sometimes, Professor Leitzell would skip steps. If you got confused and tried to ask her a question about what she did, she would explain it again but it ends up not being clear anyways. If she teaches another class, I would take her again though.

Professor Leitzell did such a good job of explaining and clarifying things in class that I did not feel the need to go to office hours. Attend class, pay attention, and complete the assigned work. (Class is also worth attending because she's a beauty!)

She conveyed the material in a pretty straightforward manner. However, I don't think she prepared us for the common final at all. Her quizzes and midterms gave everyone unrealistically easy expectations, which did not help prepare for the final at all. I recommend taking a more strenuous teacher who will force you to learn all of the material - this course is important for engineers and needs to be completely understood.

Her lectures are pretty straight forward, and go over the basic stuff you need to know to complete the hw. The hw is a lot more challenging than the lecture examples or the quizzes, but I think it's better that way because there isn't exactly a lot of class time to do problems that require more steps. If you study all her hw you will do well on the midterm exam, and the final exam. I recomend not studying the quizzes since those are really dumbed down questions for the sake of saving class time, but hey at least we get easy quizzes. Leitzell is really good at clearing up anything you might be confused about during the lecture as long as you ask it while she's still on the topic. She's really easy to listen to, no monotone voice which was helpful in helping me pay attention. Overall I recomend her. I didn't do well in any of the physics classes so I was kind of scared about this class, since it's known as a weeder course, but a good professor and decent study habits make a big difference. Also I liked that she didn't give any random projects like other professors apparently do.

Leitzell was not terrible. However, she really moves way too fast through material. I didn't even pass the class which I suppose I deserved, but she gave just ONE midterm the entire quarter, and Statics is tough. I failed the midterm, and then had no real clue what to expect for the final... which I also failed. I'm just going to choose a professor next time that explains material better without assuming everyone understands what is going on. Also, she's pretty awkward in class like a typical engineer which is a shitty quality in a university professor. She's also hot as hell ;)

10/10.

Nothing to complain about here. The class was just fine - material was explained clearly and concisely and we were very well prepared for the common final.

Professor Leitzell should stick to 100 level courses because she is by far the worst professor I've had during my time here. Her understanding of the material was worse than a good amount of students in the class. After comparing with students with other dynamics professors, I was horrified to see how much less we learned as well as the fact that her daily mistakes lead to incorrect notes. As a heavily failed class, I would hope that Cal Poly would use professors that can actually teach the material.

Completely useless.. As a third year she is by far the worst teacher I've had here. I was really excited for this class but Ashley turned it into a complete hell hole. She gave more hw than CE 204, Fluid Mechanics, and Thermo Dynamics combined. For an intro class no less. She gave back hw six weeks after it was due so that we were screwed for all the other hw due during that time. She said that it was difficult for her to grade that many hws by herself. Ok. Turns out she's a liar too. She gave the entire work load to her grader. Not that she ever communicated with her grader. She did the solidworks labs with us and when we asked he to check our labs said they were perfect. Not according to the grader who landed us with C's and Ds for those assignments. Then she said she would curve those. Curve? Why curve it? Why not just fix it because you're the one who told us they were good. Besides that she was completely useless during office hours. She could never clearly answer a question without being confused herself. It's no wonder she couldn't make it in the industry. Avoid her.

I think Leitzell was a good teacher. She moved fast over the material, but covered everything efficiently and answered questions clearly. Granted, this class required a lot of time spent doing homework assignments, but signing up for it everyone knew it is 2 quarters of drafting/solidworks material and homework crammed into one quarter. Its not leitzells fault that the ME department decided to combine ME 151/152 all in one class. Also, the grader docked everyone a ton of points for small mistakes on homework which made everyones homework grades really low. However, the grader has never taken ME 228 so they didn't know what was right or wrong, they were just following a key. Leitzell recognized this problem and decided to curve everyones homework grades, which I thought was a fair and reasonable solution. Overall, lots of work required for this class, but once you make it to the solid works portion it becomes fun.

Overall, Professor Leitzell is a good teacher. Pros: 1) She gives you most of the lab periods to work on the assignments/projects. 2) She is really helpful if you ask nicely. She usually walks around the lab room asking if students need help. 3) I thought her assignments and projects were interesting. If not interesting, they at least prepare you for your upper courses. Cons: 1) Lectures are a bit too fast. 2) She does give back homework late so you can't really prepare for your exams. But, I would say read the book and just ask her questions during the lab periods. You will learn more that way than getting feedback from the homework. Things to watch out for: 1) She gives quizzes out of the blue, so make sure to come to class.

Leitzell is a very dedicated teacher and will help you in whatever grade you attempt. This is by no means an easy course even though it's 2 units. Maybe the difficulty of the course was a result of the teacher. Regardless, I'm glad that I was given as much work as she did give because I feel better prepared. Overall, Leitzell is a great teacher, but the coursework is heavy.

I think a lot of people are too harsh on Leitzell. Although she is not an excellent professor, to call her completely useless is absolutely incorrect and rude. I can imagine that teaching this class would be stressful from the amount of material that was supposed to be over 2 quarters just crammed into one, so I'd give her some slack. Honestly, I blame the graders a little - we got our graded assignments back way too late. I feel Leitzell was very generous about our grades, though. Since everybody did so poorly on homework assignments, she curved them all and gave several opportunities for extra credit. Plus she dropped our lowest quiz. This class is not hard, just a lot of work. She is a bit confusing during lectures though, so just be patient if you get her as a professor. The only thing I did not like about her was her somewhat short temper.

I thoughtshe was incredibly generous with our final grades in this class. This class was a comination of two former quarter long classes smashed into one. She had to race through to meet all the objectives that the department had outlined. People like to cry how hard it was but most people would leave half way through the scheduled lab time. I would always stay to the very end and constantly through my assignments at her until all the errors were fixed. If you got anything below a B in this class you truly deserved it because it was near maddening how many points she gave on extra credit assignments. My end class grade was over 100%

The course - As you might have read in the ratings below, this class is A LOT of material for a two unit class. It’s not hard work, it’s just busy work. For me personally, I actually enjoyed most of the assignments. It’s divided two parts (which are technically two classes). Hand drafting and SolidWorks. 99% of students will probably like the SolidWorks part better. And since you are given 6 hours of lab a week (3 hours, 2 days a week), you are given a TON of time to finish your assignments in class (her lectures are usually over after the first hour). I think there was only one/two assignments that I actually worked on outside of class. Not as bad as people make it seem. The professor - While I agree with some of the ratings below that Leitzell isn’t the strongest professor, I think if you take this class seriously, you will appreciate her more. So she might not be the most clear in her lectures, but if you ask her to clarify something for you one on one, she’s really good about it. Plus, as I mentioned above, you’re given about 2 hours each lab to work on your assignments, so she can answer all your questions before you leave lab. The one thing that did annoy me about her class (and this isn’t even her fault) is that her graders suck. Either they had NEVER taken this class before or they have some sort of vengeance against this class after they took it. There isn’t the problem of getting them back late like it used to be in the past luckily, but they’ll take so many off points for the tiniest, stupidest details. Luckily, Leitzell curved many of the assignments because of this, so most assignments I got around or even over 100% on. Not only are we given extra credit here, she offered well over 100 points of extra credit in extra credit assignments, quizzes, etc. throughout the quarter which is BEYOND generous. So you’re pretty much guaranteed an A or B if you put effort into this class.

Honestly just an OK professor when it comes to actually teaching. Goes VERY briefly over topics and doesn't usually touch on them again later on, so if you don't understand right away you're basically screwed (unless you get lucky and have friends who are really good at drafting). She may seem kind of standoffish and mean, but if you actually make an effort to talk to her and even joke around a bit, you will realize she is just an awkward person (not in a bad way). She is extremely understanding. Here are a couple examples: She turned back a graded SolidWorks project and the paper said I had received a B on in, polylearn, however listed my grade as an F. I asked her about it and she said I had only turned in half of the project, then said that I could go and print off the other half and turn it into her right then (mind you this is almost a month later). I received full credit on the project, which even I do not believe I deserved. In addition to this, computers hate me. Solidworks crashed several times on me on different occasions before I was able to save my projects, causing me to have issues turning them in on time. She told me that I could turn them in when they get done and that I would receive full credit. I wouldn't suggest you take her if you have a choice, but if you have to it isn't the end of the world.

Though she can be a little awkward at times, she has a great heart and cares about her students. She presents the material well and is willing to help when needed.

She is very monotonous and flirts with all the boys in the class. I am female and sat next to three boys and she would always help them and then briefly and with much attitude, reluctantly help me. There is an excessive amount of work for a two unit class. She goes fast in her lectures and grades extremely harshly on the homework and quizzes. Unfortunately I think she's the only one that teaches this class so good luck.

Ashley is greatly misunderstood by many, in my opinion. her lectures are ridiculously fast, but that is not her fault. this class is a mesh of 2 classes; there is a ton of material to go over. and because of that, THIS IS A CRAZY AMOUNT OF WORK FOR 2 UNITS. 6 hours of lab a week, and a few hours doing the assignments at home. she may seem blunt, but she is just tough; you cannot give her shit and expect her be a pushover. and honestly, she's really just an awkward person. if you actually put the effort to ask questions and even engage in conversation with her (usually at the end when most students leave early), you will see how a cool person she is. she can be nice, only if you break the student-professor gap. overall, ask questions-she is there to help, but only if you ask. stay the entire time to finish your work, so you don't have to go to office hours and can display you actually care about the class.

I'll start off bluntly: Ashley is rude/passive aggressive. She will speak her mind blatantly, even at the expense of her students. Some people find that amusing, some people don't. It depends on what kind of person you are. Also, she won't move her schedule for you (which I can't say I blame her, considering what she teaches). If you ask for her help because you're struggling but you can't make it to office hours, she will straight up tell you that she won't set up a time with you, so ask for help during the time in class after lecture if you need it. I would suggest getting past that professor-student barrier quickly with her, because she is much easier to deal and simply a much more pleasant person to be around if she knows you. She was very intimidating until I actually took the time to talk to her. One last thing, that you've probably heard already: THERE IS TONS OF WORK IN THIS 2 UNIT CLASS. She will assign you hand drafting homework as well as Solid Works homework every.single.week. and each one takes multiple hours. She does give you an hour or two at the end of class to do these things, but it is seldom enough time. Come in to this class expecting to do lots of work, but also to learn a lot. Ashley is very knowledgeable, and her class is one I would suggest taking, but not one I'd ever want to take again. Good luck!

ME-228 is a useful class with material that's not very difficult, but it takes practice to do well in it. I found Leitzell to be really knowlegable and helpful in getting the material across. There's a 50/50 mix of hand drafting and Solidworks, which is a lot of stuff to squeeze into two lab units. She spends about an hour going over the material and the rest is more or less an open lab period. During that time Leitzell runs around helping everyone on just about any question that people can ask, so she keeps really busy during the lab and is really caring about making sure people understand the material. I'm not sure where people get that she's unapproachable or rude. If anything she's too nice, but she tries not to hold your hand and you should come in expecting this to be a class of the same format as upper division major classes - the professor teaches and guides you, and you're responsible for actually studying the material outside of class. I got a lot out of the class and I tried not to ask Leitzell for too much help, but when I did she always steered in me in the right direction. She also had her office hours right after class in the same lab, and there's another section right after that you can come to for more help... so there was no shortage of times to get help from her. My guess is that anyone who complains about her class are used to being catered to by Cuesta college babysitter teachers and have never taken an actual challenging ME class before.

I didn't particularly like this class, but I don't think that it's really Ashley's fault. As many of the previous reviews have noted, 228 is a smashup of hand drafting and Solidworks and so is a ton of work for 2 units. Ashley's a very dry lecturer but she's usually pretty helpful when you have questions or when you screw something up in Solidworks. The grader was picky, especially on the hand drafting assignments, but I think that's because there's supposed to be only one way to correctly dimension an engineering drawing. I eventually learned to go to OH the day before an assignment was due to have Ashley check my assignment and make sure it wasn't too messed up. Said pickiness was also balanced out by plenty of EC - definitely do the Solidworks EC! Overall I'm glad I took this class now that it's over, but I can't say I enjoyed the process.

She can be snappy and come off rude at times, but she definitely knows her stuff. If you ask questions in class, especially about hand drafting, she will often just do the problem for you as opposed to explaining it in a way that helps YOU understand it. Two finals, one solid works, one hand drafting. Many extra credit opportunities that will boost your grade

Leitzell is a great professor. I would highly recommend her. She can come off as cold sometimes, but thats just her personality. Shes very nice and is pretty understanding. She gives plenty of extra credit opportunities and makes it an easy class to coast for a B. put in a little effort and you can easily pull an A. The course is a difficult course for some people, but it mostly just takes up time doing the drawings. Overall, I would highly recommend Leitzell

Ashley is fantastic. She's an experienced engineer, and a very no-time-wasted style professor. 228 is usually out of peoples comfort zones because of the hand-drafting, but it is something that helps you be a better designer. She goes through everything very quickly and doesn't like to be stopped. Always ask your questions when shes ready for them, try not to interrupt. She will backtrack as far as she needs to help you out, or table your question to help you later one-on-one. She can be harsh, but a lot of students need that to grow a little. She's one of the hidden gem professors at poly.

Ashley was a machine at solid woks and hand drafting. Sometimes it was hard to follow her, and sometimes she did grade harshly. She is also very attractive (like a solid 10), so it was hard to concentrate at times. But I highly recommend!!!

By far the biggest bitch alive. She is the definition of an asshole. Legit, for every fucking assignment that we did in class, she would dick everyone in the grading. I did better than most of the other kids in my class on the quizzes, and I got 6/15 on half of them. She is such a shitty person. I heard her complaining in class how someone called her a stone-cold bitch in some review and she was hurt because she is so nice. NO YOU FUCKING CUNT ITS BECAUSE YOU'RE A STONE COLD BITCH. I have never hated a teacher more than her. The fact that Cal Poly hasn't fired her is shocking. Take this class if you want to spend ten weeks at the mercy of the icy bitch that is ashley leitzell.

Wow. Posting the same thing twice just to bring her ratings down? Really classy bro. I mean, come on, I didn't particularly love Leitzell either, but this kind of stuff is just uncalled for and takes away from what this site is meant to do.

Holy moly

Yikes. Sounds like the cuesta-poly transition is too much for him

Honestly this class is not that bad. Leitzell gives a lot of hw, i didnt think it was that much till i started it and realized it takes literally all day nonstop. I suck at hand drafting so I got a C because all of the quizzes are hand drafting and the homework is really harshly graded, like u forget one line, minus 4 points. She is kinda snappy and can be sort of rude, but at the end of the day, she is super duper helpful. Go to her office hours and get help if you need it, and make it known that you try, and she'll definitely be much nicer and seem less harsh. She doesnt curve anything, or change grades (idk about the polyratings that are earlier but she didnt change any grades this quarter) but she curved the hand drafting final cause everyone got hella low scores. Shes the only person who teaches this class but I think its a lot of work for 2 units so if youre switching into ME i guess youre just gonna have to get through it.

Honestly Professor Leitzell is really not that bad. If you ever have a question or what something looked over for you she will gladly do it to make sure you get a high grade. Also she gives a ton of extra credit opportunities which is super nice since sometimes one assignment can really screw your grade up. I never went to office hours and I constantly left class early and I did absolutely fine. She is really not a bad teacher at all. Sometimes the lectures are confusing but if you just ask her a question she will 100% answer it.

For this hand drafting and Solidworks class Leitzell is a great professor. Sure, she can be a little unapproachable in the first few weeks but go to her office hours to get stuff checked before class and she will seem nicer. Grading is hand drafting homework, Solidworks homework, hand drafting exam, Solidworks exam, and quizzes (take home). This class will take up tons of time so NEVER UNDER-ESTIMATE how long the assignments will take. I swear I spent 20+ hours each week on this 2-unit class. That being said I learned so much and they were great skills for any ME or BMED.

What the guy/gal below said. Amen. I too took this class and have long since graduated from Poly, but I was cruising Poly Ratings for a kick and thought that I should pipe in and let you know how much of a joke this prof is.