Ralph Aldredge - University of California Davis, Davis, CA

Professor: Ralph Aldredge

Department: Engineering

College: University of California Davis, Davis, CA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: EME165
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Over the years, teachers can fall into patterns/habits. When trying to work with him, he always put himself above you and treated feedback as nonsense. I got 5/25 on a question due to a wrong assumption, my method was correct & would've gotten 25, I understand the material of this course, but I don't understand why he likes a 51% avg in his class

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: EME165
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Awesome prof, very clear lectures with real world examples, makes sure you understand the material, tests understanding not just ability to do homework so the course is harder than most other courses. I worked very hard but learned a lot and got an A.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: ENG105
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

One of the best professors. Clear lecture with many examples. He really teaches things, also easy to talk to during office hour, willing to answer questions in class. Midterm and final are fair, very similar to homework (10 problems per week). I got 99% and A+ by reading every textbook section and doing every homework problem.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: ENG105
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Aldredge is tough. He gives you the resources you need; it's up to you to learn it all. Expect a lot of independent study, but you'll learn a lot. Grading: 30% quizzes, 30% midterm, 40% final. He does not provide all equations necessarily; youll be expected to know the fundamentals. Mean score on the final was 40/100, but the curve was reasonable

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ENG103
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

prof. Aldredge did an excellent job explaining hard subjects which he made it very interesting by telling us about problems in the real world. I would recommend taking this course if you really want to understand fluid mechanics, not just get a good grade. You have to work really hard to get a good grade though.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: ENG103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Cold emotionless monotone robot. No credit given towards HW or any other form of effort. TA's do all the grading no partial credit. Covers highly advanced material that shrouds the basics. Terrible writing, no structure to in class solutions, notes are worthless. Copy and pastes the solutions manual and calls it teaching. No review for tests.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: 210A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

What are we even learning? Course has no structure. It's not clear when we move from one topic to another, or even what topic we're on. Covers the same material each lecture. Basically just spends the entire time doing practice problems poorly. 2 months into the quarter and I have no idea what the purpose of this class is. Doesn't respond to email.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: EME165
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I learned a lot in the heat transfer class during summer 2015. Prof. aldredge was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and inspired me to learn more that the minimum expectation. The class is tough, but if you are willing to put in the time, very rewarding. You will have a good understanding of heat transfer if you get an A in his class.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: 32332
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Being a professor is only a job for him, he does't care about his students at all. If you are not a very brilliant student, I would recommend not to take his class!

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: ENG105
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Quite a bad prof. in that he just doesn't care enough to help us understand the material. For a summer session compared to a quarter, he wasted a lot of time, thus it didn't feel like an intensive class. He has zero control of the class or the willingness for us to listen. Within a week of taking the class, you'll feel the same, so study hard.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: ENG105
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Took this class during Summer Session. Class was challenging and a lot of work. But this was mitigated by Prof. Aldridge's clarity and helpfulness. I thought that both his quizzes/exams and his grading were fair. I highly recommend this prof. if you truly want to learn Thermodynamics.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: EME165
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Brilliant man, terrible professor. He needs to start teaching how undergrad students learn. The way he teaches right now is as if he's discussing heat transfer with a Ph.D student, which is an awful way for suit learn. His tests contradict the homework and he gives no guidance on what/how to study.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: ENG105
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I took the class during the summer of 2013. The course was very hard but I learned a lot. We had to do most of the reading outside of class and got to work on homework problems with the prof in class. We also had to do group presentations in class. Prof. Aldredge really cared that we all learned the class material.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: ENG105
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

This was the hardest teacher I have ever had. Homework was useless as he doesn't test off of the homework. Gives you a cheat sheet for mid terms and exams only that has a bunch of stuff that if you didn't know already you wouldn't know the concepts. Before the curve 65% would have failed, after 25% did fail, which was 30 students.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: ENG105
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

the class is HARD. Didn't click for me until toward the end so i ended up with low grade. hw alone won't be very helpful. you need to really understand material to pass. no plug and chug. that might be a good or bad thing depending on what you wanna take out of it. but i found the material to be potentially useful so worth the grade hit imo

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: ENG103
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I took ENG103 in summer 2013 and learned a lot in he course. The course was taught differently from most. We were selected randomly to give presentations on peassigned topics and there were weekly quizzes. The tests were very fair. Professor Aldredge seemed to put a lot into the course and really cared that we learned the material.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: EME106
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

The exams were very fair and the prof was very helpful in class and at office hours. He spent a lot of time answering questions in class from over 100 students who attended regularly. You will learn a lot if you take this course with prof Aldredge, but be prepared to work hard.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: EME106
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Obvious he loved combustion, BUT his lesson plans were poorly constructed and made very little sense. You have to really struggle to know what he is trying to get across to you AND what may be tested. In the end, the material proved too much and we fell behind significantly, which he disregarded and did 2 chapters in a day. If you can, AVOID!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: MAE210
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

the prof was fair with grading and making expectations clear. i learned a lot from the student presentations and from the prof's discussions about his research. the prof was very helpful in office hours and seemed to care a lot about helping me to understand the course material.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: MAE210
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Do not take his class unless he is the only instructor left on campus or MEA 210 last class for you to take. Worst professor I even had. Completely useless. Not helping all. Boring lecture. Sometimes he does not even know what he is lecturing on (that might be the nature of the MAE 210A). Save yourself, and stay away from this guy.