David West

ECSC 201 is the quintessential geology class at Midd, taught by none other than Dave West. Absolute beast. He's a veteran hard-rock geologist who wears flannel and carhhart to every class and can bench 270lbs in the gym. If that is not enough to convince you I'm not sure what is. But you probably have to take the class anyways to fulfill the major requirements. We broke the student faculty ratio with our class this fall... (the department is working on fixing this!!) Okay real review time: In its core, 201 is a weekly field trip followed by a lab report, usually about 3-5 pages double spaced. It is a CW course but don't let that scare you. Dave walks you through everything you need to know, and you have the option to rewrite a couple labs. That being said, I would HIGHLY recommend taking mineralogy (ECSC 311) BEFORE taking 201. It is beyond helpful when in the field and for writing reports. Luckily I had a couple summers of fieldwork and mineralogy under my belt before taking this class which helped immensely and made the report writing a breeze. Super fun class, Dave is hilarious. 10/10

ECSC 201 is the quintessential geology class at Midd, taught by none other than Dave West. Absolute beast. He's a veteran hard-rock geologist who wears flannel and carhhart to every class and can bench 270lbs in the gym. If that is not enough to convince you I'm not sure what is. But you probably have to take the class anyways to ful …Read more

Dave is an extremely enthusiastic instructor. His teaching style is very clear and effective if you pay attention in class. He has minimal readings, and they're usually just an overview of the slides he will show. The papers are a bit harder, but he is willing to accommodate and writes back exactly how he would want it to be. Overall, I loved the class and thought it was a great intro to the ECSC department.

Dave is an extremely enthusiastic instructor. His teaching style is very clear and effective if you pay attention in class. He has minimal readings, and they're usually just an overview of the slides he will show. The papers are a bit harder, but he is willing to accommodate and writes back exactly how he would want it to be. Overall …Read more

Professor West did an excellent job teaching this course. He is very enthusiastic about this subject and it was a very fun class. He made the information very digestible as well. I really enjoyed going to the rock quarry also last spring.