Reviews of professor John Soares

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Extremely dense readings all semester long, and slides have minimal words. Laptops banned in class (even for note-taking). As a second semester senior, just avoid this dude entirely. Very tough grader as well

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
The material in this class was very interesting, but the workload and grading did not make this class worth it for an elective. Prof's grading was insanely hard and the lectures were very long and dry. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this class to a non-history major.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Class was interesting and I enjoyed the material covered, but there was a ton of reading (probably 50 dense pages per class) that you were expected to fully digest for class. Papers are graded fairly harshly, but it did make me better at writing them. If you're looking for a challenge with a good prof, I would recommend.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Prof Soares is a really kind guy. That being said, his class is all him talking TO the students who rush vigorously to write everything he said down.. He is also an insanely hard grader and has very specific expectations. The highest score he gave on a paper was a 92. There is also a TON of work & the readings are rly boring.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
The grading in this class was crazy. It was really difficult to get an A on the work handed in. I have taken a lot of history courses and received better grades than this course which I thought would be fun. The topic is really interesting, but the grading and lectures were not worth it.