Reviews of professor Sabrina Smiley

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Smiley did an awful job during the COVID-19 situation. Once we moved online, she did not upload lectures for 4 weeks. This class is lecture heavy and there's a few papers/ a group project all on the same topic, so it gets very repetitive. Redeeming factors: not a hard grader and if you know the material enough you'll get an A. **Do not get the book

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
She genuinely respects and cares about her students + their learning experience -- during group project presentations we accidentally went way over the time limit (cutting into her own lecture time) but she encouraged us to finish and even asked questions at the end with the rest of the class instead of cutting us short like most teachers would

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Honestly, she was okay. She wasn't terrible. Her lectures were a little dreading but she is definitely educated in her work and loves what she does which helps.

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Would've had a much better experience in this class had it not been for the TA. Although Smiley is great and very respectful towards her students, both she + her co-instructor give the TA too much agency - this would've been fine if our TA was actually responsive to emails, didn't take forever to grade things, and actually cared about pub. health.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Smiley is really sweet. She is definitely very inspirational and is passionate about what she teaches/does. She is a bit boring in lecture but overall the material is interesting. Really likes when you participate and genuinely tries to know every student. I would highly recommend.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
I was excited to take this class; the 2 professors sharing the lectures (Soto and Smiley) both are accomplished women. Unfortunately, the class was extremely boring: it was too general to be an upper division. The assignments were not well-thought out, and our group presentations (40%) were graded differently depending on which professor was there.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
She has extremely descriptive and straightforward rubrics for papers and assignments, so you just have to get it done. She even provides thorough examples of the papers so nothing is unclear. If you ever need help just reach out, she and her TA's were extremely accommodating. If you're interested in public health, take her class.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Dr. Smiley was the best professor I have had at USC up to date! This was her first class ever teaching and it was a great one! She is extremely easy--gives you exam questions ahead of time, extra credit--but still challenges you to think intellectually about her topics. She allows everyone to speak, even when it cuts into her lecture time. The BEST