Larry Shapiro - University of Wisconsin - Madison

Professor: Larry Shapiro

Department: TBD

College: University of Wisconsin - Madison

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PHI101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Larry is awesome! Do your readings (which aren't very long) and show up to lectures, discussions, and review sessions and you'll have no problem doing well in his class. Office hours are also extremely helpful if you are struggling with a paper. Great choice for Philosophy 101, regardless of your familiarity of the subject.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: PHI101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Larry leads a challenging, yet very interesting lecture, every lecture. I was always engaged in the content, and his jokes in lecture always brightened my morning. Highly recommend taking his class!

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PHIL101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

In his Philosophy 101 class you are graded based on 3 papers, 3 quizzes, and participation. You will get an A on all of the quizzes if you pay attention during lecture, which is very easy to do considering how hilarious Larry is. He's by far the best professor I've had at Madison, and also one of the best teacher's I've ever had. Highly recommend.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PHI101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Larry's great. He's funny and great at his job. Attendance is mandatory though, and he cold calls 2 students a class. If you pay attention or understand the readings, you'll get an A

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PHI101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

I love Larry. He's hilarious and makes the material super easy to follow. Attendance is mandatory and you have to go to lecture, but if you go to review sessions and pay attention, it's an easy A

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PHIL101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Larry is great! He was extremely passionate about the topics we discussed and added humor too which made lecture a lot more bearable and interactive. I took this class not knowing anything about it and I loved it! The discussions were actually really interesting and it is a pretty easy A, just go to the review sessions before the tests.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PHI101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Shapiro has been by far my favorite professor here so far. He is absolutely hilarious and his lectures are really fun. His dad jokes are the best and he makes the material really easy to understand. I look forward to his lecture every week and his tests are very fair. I would highly recommend taking one of his classes!

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PHILOS101
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Larry is the best. Gives lectures that are easy to follow. Tests/papers super easy if you take the time to review (I did about 20 mins studying for each test). Textbooks super interesting (I'm keeping it after semester) but you really don't need to read it. Larry gives informal feel to lecture and is super awesome in general Made me love philosophy

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PHIL1O1
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Lectures are mandatory and highly informative/entertaining if you like Philosophy. Larry absolutely knows his stuff. Occasionally he rambles on a bit too much on specific examples, but otherwise he's a great lecturer. Also note that reading the texts is almost optional because all of the content in them is explained in class. Easy essays & exams

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PHIL551
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Excellent professor. Explains everything very clearly. Gives options for paper topics and due dates by letting you pick from a set.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PHI101
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Although the lectures were pretty boring, they are very helpful. Shapiro adds funny hypothetical scenarios to describe what he is lecturing about in order to make it more interesting, while also making a valid connection. The readings are certainly tough, but do-able; but, Shapiro's lectures clear it up. Not a bad choice if you're taking Philosophy

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PHI101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Doing the reading helped a ton, but as long as you're in class, you'll learn everything you need to know. Had one quiz, a midterm, and a non cumulative final. Not hard at all.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PHILOS101
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Larry is great and he lectures very well! He gives good, relatable examples to illustrate the concepts he's talking about. Exams are extremely writing-heavy. Watch out for them-- I bombed the final because I just plain misread one of the four (!) questions.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PHIL101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

This class was extremely difficult, and the reaction papers were graded very subjectively. Honestly, it is hard to do well in this class unless you get help from your T.A. or from Shapiro himself. Didn't know what I was getting in the class until the very end. Don't take if you don't have to!

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PHIL101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Honestly, this class sucked. Reaction papers are very hard to do and are graded subjectively. The material he taught was hard to comprehend at times. Do NOT take this class if you don't have to.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PHIL101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Larry is one of my favorite professors. The material is very interesting and thought-provoking, and Larry does an effective job of being as objective as possible with his explanations and examples. He also has a fantastic sense of humor. You can probably get by without having to read all the readings, but the reaction papers are tough.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PHIL551
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Professor Shapiro is very monotone in his lectures. The readings are quite dense and he doesn't explain them in class in an interesting manner. Class size for this was very small, but still not much discussion. He is a REALLY HARD GRADER, but doesn't give much feedback other than "you don't have this correct." Overall, I really disliked the class.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PHIL101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I took this class out of mild interest. The lectures are always entertaining and Larry does a good job at summarizing the readings. You are assigned a paper due every other Monday, the rest of your grade is two exams. Larry makes it obvious hes very liberal and is atheist. Sadly, he constantly criticized opposing political & religious viewpoints.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: PHI551
• 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: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Boring, monotonous and sarcastic!

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PHIL101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Basically all he does in class is recap the readings, so it's not always exciting, but he makes it interesting most days. It should be easy if you read before class.