Kathy Shea - St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

Professor: Kathy Shea

Department: Biology

College: St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: BIO261
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

She will literally get up and just show you pictures of animals, graphs, and equations while only talking about them at maybe the surface level. Then she will expect you to know every single little detail about them on the exams. Grades insanely hard (like took points off because it wrote "works cited" instead of "references cited" on a paper).

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: BIO261
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Kathy expects you to understand her rambling, confused speech during class. If you ask questions, prepare for a nonsensical answer that leaves you more confused. Don't count on using either logic or the evidence in the textbook to help you, because her world is beyond these things.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: BIO261
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Kathy was one of the worst professors that I've had in my 4 years here. She is forgetful, stubborn, often misspeaks, provides horrible direction, and requires mundane and busy-work tasks. I honestly enjoy a hard class, but not a class that is hard due to bull. Avoid at all costs and make sure you take this class with another prof in the fall.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: BIO371
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Kathy is a very nice person, but is simply not a good teacher. She is unorganized and unclear in her instructions. She doesn't really teach this class, you're on your own. Not as awful as she might be in a larger class, but still avoid taking if at all possible.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: BIO261
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Ecology with Kathy was not a pleasant experience. She has a great heart, and I imagine she has great strengths when it comes to research in the field. These strengths however, do not come through in the classroom. Lectures were painful. If you love ecology (plants in particular), you might have a better experience. I wouldn't chance it though.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: BIO261
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Has a good heart but by far the least captivating professor I have ever had. She struggles to explain simple concepts and lab is usually pointless. I doubt she'd be able to complete the tests that she gives out. Avoid at all costs.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: BIO371
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Very unhelpful to students. She would not reply to emails with important questions pertaining to class and lab, only if said email applied to the entire class. Very scatter-brained. I was unsure how lab related to class often. Overall I can honestly say I did not learn a single thing from taking her class.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: BIO261
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I think a lot of these reviews are old. I really liked Professor Shea. She was clear about what she wanted and class ran really smooth. She focuses a lot on plant ecology which is great for some (like me) and not so great for others. I learned a ton from her maybe she had a lot of difficulties in the past but she has seemed to overcome them now.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ECOL261
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

avoid at all costs. She is an incompetent instructor. She shouldn't be teaching this class.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: BIO371
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

She is amazing. This class changed my life and my overall outlook on field ecology for the better. She did have her moments of being scatter-brained and I do too, but overall it was a very worthwhile experience.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: BIO261
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Seemingly simple things get turned into baffling ordeals. Though she's a nice woman, she seems to have her head in the clouds most of the time. Not real direct. Real organizational problems--lab is sometimes a joke, other times a huge hassle. Lectures are pretty sporadic, and test info is random knowledge. Try to AVOID!

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: BIO126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Approachable in general but defensive when you ask her about a test. Unclear in terms of expectations for course and test material. Avoid if possible

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: BIO371
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Prof. Shea finally triumphs over what seems to be an overwhelming social anxiety when placed in the small discussion setting of Field Ecolgy. She is still as scatter-brained as ever, but at least the more intimate setting and longer class periods can sometimes bring sense to her circular reasoning.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: CONSERVATIONBIO
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

One of the worst classes I've taken. Prof. Shea is a very nice woman but not a very good professor. Her lectures are disorganized and tend to repeat exactly what the book said.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: BIO121
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Shea is aloof and clumsy during lecture, giving almost no direct answers to questions outside of exactly what the book says. Ugh. Avoid like SARS.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: BIO126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Lets just put it this way. . . I wanted to kill myself. I have never been more frustrated with a class. She is absolutely impossible to deal with. She is all over the place during lecture and her tests have little to do with what we talked about in class. Shes a very smart person but is by far the WORST professor I have ever had.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: BIO126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

This class was very frustrating. It's obvious that she's a nice person outside of class, and she make an attempt to get to know students, but Shea doesn't know what's going on in her class. She searches through notes, asks other profs, etc. Some of her tests were just pointless, and lab was time consuming or just too difficult for what we learned.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: BIO126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

An extremist egalitarian approach to teaching shows she doesn't have any idea what she is talking about, is scatterbrained and grades in a way that she can do the least amount of work possible. She is also unapproachable, tactless and condescending. If you like to be snubbed, take a class with her!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: BIO126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I didn't really like Shea as a prof. She was fairly straight forward in her testing, but I didn't really feel like she knew the material she was teaching very well.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: ES125
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Not helpful at all. Likes to take a lot of field trip walks around campus. Isn't in touch with her students. Beward of her slide shows, they are the recipe for sleep.