You only take this class because you have to. The TA's grade extremely harshly and vary dramatically, a lot of your grade depends on a random group of kids that are difficult to meet up with, and the homeworks are the most dry and boring assignments possible (and are graded harshly as well). For such easy material, it is near impossible to get an A in the class. That is the problem with Comm 1800. They aren't grading on your understanding of the easy material, it is a subjective mess. Leopold is a good guy and professor, but the class structure is setting students up for failure.

Pre-comm or not definitely take this class! Jeff is the man!! Love his teaching style, so straight to the point and easy to understand. It's a great intoduction to the business world so everyone should take it. Readings are about actual stuff, no boring textbook readings. Homework is definitely a thing as are group projects and what not. Doesn't matter I still give it a big thumbs up.

Professor Leopold is such a nice guy and I really enjoyed going to lecture. If you show up and pay attention, the midterm and final are extremely easy. The discussion part of this course caused me the most "stress," but if you're naturally one to participate in class, you'll be fine. I thought participation would be graded harsher, but I felt like the grade I got was extremely fair. The group projects were easy, but it 100% depends on your group members. My group always tended to wait until the last minute ( which I really didn't enjoy) but we always got the work done in the end. Overall, I liked the course and would recommend.

Professor Leopold is a fantastic professor because he only lets you know what he believes will be useful to you. If you do the readings and review the Powerpoints you'll do well on the Midterm and Final. I recommend this class to everyone because commerce is a very practical subject.

Final scores haven't yet been released (probably will be in a day or two), and I'm pretty sure I got an A- in the class. The content in this class really isn't that new/useful, and you don't feel like you're learning anything (yes, business basics, but it includes the most elementary stuff like: profit = revenue - costs, marketing and innovation is important, platform markets are a thing, a lot of case studies on companies like Uber, Apple, etc.). Most of the readings are case studies on companies, which is expected, but I never really felt that engaged, and I also definitely didn't know how exactly these companies strategized their way to success (of course, if you could distill that down into an article, then you've struck gold, haven't you?). You definitely do have to work a bit for the A, although it's pretty easy to get an A-, like someone else said, especially if you aren't great at presenting (which I'm not; I tend to get stage fright, and it's really stuck with me my entire life unfortunately), since the presentations and group projects count for a lot. The midterms and the final are pretty easy, and so is the rest of the course. Professor Leopold seemed like a pretty okay lecturer, although I just didn't get a lot of knowledge out of it, so most of the time I wasn't at all incentivized to pay attention during lecture; I also felt like he enjoyed divulging his life stories a bit too much, even if he did have some business experience with Circuit City and Capital One.

Even if you aren't taking pre-comm classes, 1800 is worth taking just develop a very basic understanding of how business works. Attendance is required, but Leopold's lectures are entertaining and notes really aren't necessary most of the time. Most work (group projects included) is easy, and the exams aren't challenging unless you have no logical thinking skills. Overall, hard to complain when the class is interesting enough and fairly low-effort.

This class was awesome and it really confirmed that I wanted to be pre comm. I recommend this course even if you are not pre comm because it will teach you some valuable information. Leopold is amazing and he keeps the class very engaging. I recommend doing all of the reading because there are details that show up on the exams that are not explicitly discussed in class. There are also a lot of guest speakers which is great!

Professor Leopold is a very nice teacher and I really enjoyed going to class; however, the class material itself is pretty boring and really dies down after the midterm. Group projects are really annoying but they are manageable and usually result in a decent grade. The Excel assignment was graded really harshly so take your time on that. The final was much better than the midterm and typically boosted everyone's grade at the end.

Like most others have said, some things feel like they're graded a bit subjectively (and sometimes arbitrarily), but an A is definitely doable as long as you listen well/take detailed notes (Leopold has some exam questions based on things he mentions that his PowerPoints don't show), review slides, go to Leopold's office hours to ask questions, etc. COMM 1800 makes a big point of pushing you to work in a business-esque way, so definitely take initiative in group projects and discussion sections and meet with Professor Leopold to show that you're putting in the effort for this class. My TA was great with meeting with me whenever I had questions about any of my assignments or wanted feedback on my group projects. Homework assignments and readings are fairly simple and graded leniently and the individual projects are maybe just a bit more tedious. Group projects definitely need more effort, especially since your presentation grade is peer graded (which can be a bit harsh at times). The exam questions can be tricky, but the key is to look at the questions from Leopold's perspective and think about how he would answer the question (which is easier said than done, but he did curve the final by 5 (out of 50) questions so it wasn't too bad). Professor Leopold is a really great guy and he's genuinely trying to help his students -- I've been to his office hours and just talked about life and my concerns for the future with him for like 40 minutes -- and he's got a lot of business know-how and experiences that he shares during lectures. The course isn't perfect since it's still going through a massive transformation, but I think it'll only get better from here, so I'd say give it shot if you're considering commerce.

If you are interested in business or the comm school then this class is a prerequisite and definitely offered a lot of information. I recommend it to anyone interested in business at all. I do think that the discussions and the grading are highly based on TA and also how well your projects go can depend on your group. The lectures were engaging and when we had guest lecturers they were fun too. The midterm and final were both multiple choice and the questions were kind of tricky and lots of times could trip you up so make sure you read the readings, do the homeworks, and try to understand the big concepts fully. Otherwise the course is ok, not an easy A though so put in the work.