Hugh Aller - University of Michigan

Professor: Hugh Aller

Department: TBD

College: University of Michigan

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Aller is definitely not exciting. His lectures are pretty dry. However, he knows his stuff and the class is fine. Halfway through the class the professor switched and was much better. Overall, tests are easy if you find Mastering Astronomy Questions online, and homework and labs are easy but annoying. If you try a bit you will get an A easily.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Aller was pretty boring and I had to force myself to pay attention. You need to read on your own to do well. But the subject matter can be interesting, and it's not that hard of a class if you do some work. Attendence isnt mandatory but you need to go because of iclicker questions

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO101
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Professor Aller is a great guy and definitely knows what he's talking about! However, he's getting a bit old so he tends to get really excited and goes off topic a lot. I recommend definitely reading the assigned chapters. Though attendance is not mandatory to lecture I REALLY RECOMMEND going b/c clicker questions count for grades and are helpful.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Terrible lecturer. Only reason I'm coming to class is because of those iclicker questions. Very easy material just need a better teacher to make going to class worth going to.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I did other homework in class, and didn't listen at all. I then read the textbook before each midterm (non-cumulative), and did great. The people who fail are those who enroll in 102 and expect a class with no work.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• 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:

Do not take this class for NS or QR credit if you aren't really interested in astro. The professors were incredibly vague, unclear in their grading criteria, and honestly just boring. The tests were impossible and had little to do with what we studied in labs. I did all the homework, went to every class, and will probably still fail. Awful.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Never really went to class because it was extremely boring, but had to read the textbook a ton.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Aller and Ridgestone are incredibly vague and difficult to understand. Plus, the workload for this class is too much for an intro class. Exams are difficult and the professors don't provide you with any practice problems or anythign of that nature. Look elsewhere for NS credit

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS AS A BLOW OFF. Actually do not take Astronomy classes in general for you NS requirement, unless you are actually very interested. Poor teaching, boring, and way harder than you expect it to be.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

This guy is the man. This class is so easy. I literally googled every question for the online hw. I didn't open up the textbook at all and got an A. Take this class if you want an easy A and if you want to party hard with Hugh.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO201
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Professor Aller is extremely boring and almost never stays on topic. Lecture slides contain errors, don't cover all the material, and are never uploaded on time. Read the book and do the homework, but going to class isn't really necessary.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO361
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

He may be a good astronomer and researcher, but he's a really mediocre instructor. He spends most of class time talking about his history with astronomy, rarely about astronomy itself. He is unclear, has very little interest in teaching. There is no usable textbook with him. Thankfully most of the homework could've been answered using the internet.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO361
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Didn't learn a single thing from him. Had a few homework assignments that could only be done by searching the internet since there's no text. Luckily there were also no exams. He's hard to follow during lectures and very boring. By the end of the semester, we ended up just spending class time counting how much he said "essentially" and "actually."

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• 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:

Dr. Aller obviously loves astronomy, but he should not be teaching it. He doesn't cover test material in lectures and goes off on tangents about other aspects of astronomy that have no relation to what's being learned in class. Read the book, and you should be fine.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Prof. Aller is probably one of the most adorable old men ever. Very grandfatherly and sweet. However, he does tend to go on about "the olden days" at the expense of class material. He also breezes through complicated and important info. Read the textbook and you'll be golden, though! Easy class.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Professor Aller is like a nice grandfather figure. He is very friendly and does his best to be helpful and is full of interesting stories. That said, his lectures are kind of hard to follow since he isn't the greatest public speaker. He often goes off on tangents and excludes information from his lecture slides.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Aller is incredibly nice and helpful but his lectures tend to involve a large amount of stories that don't really have anything to do with the material. Many of the notes he covers are not on powerpoint slides which makes it so you end up leaving lecture with little or no notes taken.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO102
• 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:

Read the book, bring your computer to class to take notes & listen to your GSI and you'll get A's on the tests for sure.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO112
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

terrible

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: ASTRO101
• 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:

Goes off on completely random tangets and makes the material more confusing than the textbook made it. If attendance hadn't been mandatory I wouldn't have bothered going to class.