Reviews of professor Laura Ciolkowski

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor C is the best professor I've had at UMass. She's great at facilitating discussions and explaining difficult material. She assigns of lot of reading, but it's all interesting and you will LEARN in her class. She's also super nice and approachable; the material can be dense but she makes to easy to understand. Take a class with her.

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Prof C is a little disorganized, but she was mostly OK. She definitely has a tendency to interrupt student led discussions, sometimes in an uncomfortable way. For a first-year seminar Pass/Fail class, it was just fine. You absolutely can't reach her outside of class - don't event try. The topic is an important one though and she's knowledgeable.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
She's great! It's unfortunate that SBS students can't get major credit from any WGSS classes, because what I'm learning from her is VERY relevant to what I'm doing in Soc. Still, take her classes if they interest you. Material isn't too demanding, and she's passionate about the subjects. Her classroom's a safe space too. Kind and warm demeanor.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Prof C. is a great prof that's really passionate about her work. The concepts and readings are very dense and abstract, so she does her best to break things down and ensure understanding. That being said, SO MUCH READING. Sometimes 5+ hours per class. She can be a bit scattered and disorganized, but overall she has a good heart + good intentions!

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
She is no doubt passionate about these subjects. However, majority of the classes are intended to be student led and she is CONSTANTLY disrupting. If she wants to speak the entire time, she should just lead the class as a typical lecture. Her intentions may be true, but the interruptions take away from student participation and seem narcissistic.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Professor C. is one of the most passionate and inspirational professors you will ever have. She give A LOT of dense readings so do not wait until the last minute to read them because they are time consuming and difficult to understand. Do not take for a gen ed requirement and you have to be interested in WGSS otherwise you will not make it through.