BOOM. Roasted.

I recently finished a grueling semester of graduate school with three classes taken while working full time.  It was in this semester that I encountered the absolute worst professor I have ever met. I tweeted a lot about this guy and his class, all out of impulse and (at times) rage. I won't link to said tweets, but they're there if you want to read them enough, I guess [I don't believe in saying stuff publicly and then issuing hasty empty apologies or stealthily making retractions-- that's just weaselly. So they're still there].

It got so bad, that I actually began eagerly looking forward to the inevitable automated email from UAB asking us to complete the end-of-semester online course evaluation surveys. In anticipation, I actually DRAFTED my comments and sent them along to the Course Evaluation Survey Reader in the Sky (and yes, the professor will supposedly see and read these, too, though I don't know whether he will in reality). After thoroughly ripping the guy, I copied my comments and plunked them down here.

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Dr. X is by far the worst teaching professor I have encountered in my academic career. I do not doubt his knowledge or enthusiasm for the subject matter- at issue is the fact that he barely taught the subject matter at all. His lectures were littered with off-topic tangents and rambling monologues about vaguely-related research topics; of our 75-minute class time, he would spend an average of about 15 of those minutes actually addressing the stated topic of the lecture, and he would spend the rest of that time, our time, talking about something else. As for his grading policies, he has on several occasions emphasized quantity over quality and makes little effort even to feign concern about the quality of the content of our work; he seems to be captivated by form rather than substance (although the mere implication of publication potential has not failed to pique his attention). It is my opinion that Dr. X and the students who would otherwise enroll in his classes would all be best served if he were allowed to spend his time doing what he clearly loves best- research- rather than inconveniencing him and his students with the task of actually teaching graduate level engineering material (or, in the case of students, teaching it to ourselves/themselves). In my conversations with classmates and former students, I am convinced that this opinion is shared amongst the majority of students, not only those who are enrolled in this class with me but also those who have ever taken a class from Dr. X in the past.

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I won't tell you the name of the professor- there is a line I don't think I'll cross. Again, if you really want to figure it out, you can either go through the tweets and put 2 and 2 together, or you can be an electrical engineering graduate student at UAB who needs the scoop on a professor or two... otherwise, just know that I could not stand the guy as a professor and am endlessly grateful to be finished with his class; you better believe there's no way in hell I'm subjecting myself to another one of his classes. Ever.