This class is super boring if you're not an abstract thinker. Lecture is almost completely irrelevant and extremely inapplicable. The reading sucks, but you should start the Shabkar chapter summaries from the beginning because it's a lot of work. The papers are relatively short, but your grade will depend on your TA. I'm a science major, so take my advice with a grain of salt because my international affairs major roommate loved the class.

Germano's lectures can be hilarious and engaging; sometimes, though, they're entirely content that we've been over before. The specific guidelines for the first two papers came out very haphazardly and close to the deadlines, but the third paper is very straightforward. Flavio was good at condensing and organizing lectures, and he's also helpful when it comes to paper guidance. The content is very interesting; if you take this class, though, be prepared to be freak out at Germano around paper-writing time.

Germano is great. Hillarious and engaging lectures. However, grade is 100% determined by your TA as there are not tests - the only graded assignments are papers and discussion participation. Switch into a new discussion if you think the RA will give you a hard time.

Overall a good class only because Germano was so intense. He's pretty inspiring while also being very approachable and hilarious. People complain about his tangents but I honestly enjoy them and it wakes me up. Three papers, which involve reading in order to be able to write them, but over all took me about three days to do. Also had to read this awful book and do chapter summaries but it's something you just had to struggle through. For a T.A., get Flavio or Eva. Dominic is really strict and watches his students in lecture to make sure they aren't on facebook.

This class wasn't too bad overall. There are no tests, only 3 essays, so the lecture notes aren't always important. Germano is passionate about the subject but sometimes he is redundant and the essay instructions can be vague. He tries really hard to incorporate technology but usually doesn't work out. It's all about getting a good TA as they grade all of your assignments. Flavio was an enthusiastic TA and i definitely recommend him. Overall, this class was good.

My TA Dominic was terrible. If you are going to take this class make sure you don't take it with him.

Not a huge fan of this class. The information is interesting, but the assignments are very vague.

Biggest mistake I made all semester was staying in this course. Germano is brilliant and you can tell that he knows it all, but the way the grading is done is terrible. Instead of a test or midterms there are only three ambiguous essay assignments throughout the semester. It is pretty much impossible to figure out what you're actually supposed to do for these assignments and the TA's/Germano don't offer much guidance. Plus the fact that it was all digital was confusing and just made the papers more annoying. I wouldn't recommend Matt as TA. He is a really nice guy but a hard grader and tends to ramble in discussion. The way the grading is set up ruins a really great, thought provoking class.

The lectures is this class were sometimes extremely interesting, and other time extremely boring. Germano took an interesting approach to explaining Buddhism. There were no tests, so the the information in lectures was never tested on. There were 3 projects that were pretty time consuming, but are completely graded by the TA's. I would definitely reccommend Bill McGrath over the other TA's.

I'm split on this class. Germano is one of the most engaging professors I've had... at times. Some classes would be an experience that was almost out of body and really made me think about what it was actually like to practice Buddhism, but I didn't pay attention at all during some of the others because they were so redundant. Bill was a great TA and he's the kind of guy I would definitely like to hang out with, but his grading is really hard. It's hard to figure out how to please him to get a good grade. Overall, if you're interested in Tibetan CULTURE, take it. If you're interested in just Buddhism, I might suggest another class.