Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.23 GPA, 59.6% A/AB (n=151 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.42 GPA, 69.1% A/AB (n=152 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.35 GPA, 63.3% A/AB (n=109 letter grades).
Fall 2026
The Evolving Universe: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology
ASTRON 103 explores the universe, covering stars, galaxies, black holes, and cosmology.
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Nicholas McconnellAbriana Joy HimantogAlejandra Lopez Holguin +3 more
Summary
1 / 7
Historical reviews of Matthew Bershady, Thomas Beatty: The course involves significant textbook reading and algebra, with some instructors providing difficult exams that diverge from homework difficulty.
Grade history
↗ average GPA
letter grades
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F
All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapSatisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A. Not open to students with credit forASTRON 200.
- Satisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A.
- not eligible with
“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- All of
- Satisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A.
- Not eligible with
Professors
Fall 2026No course-specific feedback yet.
No course-specific feedback yet.
No course-specific feedback yet.
No course-specific feedback yet.
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2012: 3.12 GPA, 43.9% A/AB (n=139 letter grades); Fall 2016: 3.22 GPA, 59.0% A/AB (n=412 letter grades).
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Historical reviews of Christy Tremonti: Christy Tremonti reads from slides, which reviewers find boring and disengaging. While one student found her helpful, others reported grading delays and difficulty staying engaged. Organization issues with emails were also noted.
ALEX LAZARIAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2012, Fall 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
CHRISTINA TREMONTI is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Fall 2022, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
JOSHUA OPPOR is recorded teaching in Spring 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
MATTHEW BERSHADY is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2015, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
NICHOLAS MCCONNELL is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
RICHARD TOWNSEND is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
THOMAS BEATTY is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Fall 2026Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEC 001 | Classroom Instruction | 115 / 279 | 0 |
| DIS 301 | Classroom Instruction | 0 / 0 | 0 |
| DIS 302 | Classroom Instruction | 23 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 303 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 304 | Classroom Instruction | 4 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 305 | Classroom Instruction | 9 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 306 | Classroom Instruction | 0 / 0 | 0 |
| DIS 307 | Classroom Instruction | 8 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 308 | Classroom Instruction | 15 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 309 | Classroom Instruction | 3 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 310 | Classroom Instruction | 7 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 311 | Classroom Instruction | 0 / 0 | 0 |
| DIS 312 | Classroom Instruction | 6 / 28 | 0 |
| LEC 002 | Classroom Instruction | 149 / 350 | 0 |
| DIS 314 | Classroom Instruction | 0 / 0 | 0 |
| DIS 315 | Classroom Instruction | 23 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 316 | Classroom Instruction | 10 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 317 | Classroom Instruction | 8 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 318 | Classroom Instruction | 8 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 313 | Classroom Instruction | 9 / 28 | 0 |
| DIS 319 | Classroom Instruction | 10 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 320 | Classroom Instruction | 29 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 321 | Classroom Instruction | 11 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 322 | Classroom Instruction | 22 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 323 | Classroom Instruction | 14 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 324 | Classroom Instruction | 8 / 30 | 0 |
| DIS 331 | Classroom Instruction | 11 / 10 | 0 |
| DIS 332 | Classroom Instruction | 6 / 10 | 0 |
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Historical reviews of Thomas Beatty: Thomas Beatty delivers an engaging, inspiring experience with high-quality lectures and supportive teaching, making the class highly recommended for interested students.
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 59.2% A/AB (n=282 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.37 GPA, 66.2% A/AB (n=284 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.34 GPA, 64.1% A/AB (n=231 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Historical reviews of Matthew Bershady, Thomas Beatty: The course involves significant textbook reading and algebra, with some instructors providing difficult exams that diverge from homework difficulty.
Historical reviews of Christy Tremonti: Students find value in provided slides for exam preparation, though some report that lectures can be boring or disorganized.
Topics
Grades
Fall 2026 · Projected
Before grades are released– average GPA
Approximate 80% prediction interval
About this estimate
The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.
The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.
8 earlier forecasts · 0.16 GPA average error.
Grades over time
Through Fall 2026
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Where this course fits relative to
Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels
GPA
Higher than % of other courses in this group.
Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range
letter grades
More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.
Typical course in this group: letter grades.
About this comparison
1283 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.
Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.
Sources & history
UW–Madison
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.
Selected offering source records
The Evolving Universe: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology
Recorded 2026-09-07Raw records
[
{
"run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
"semester": "1272",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"offering_id": "1272:188:001538",
"course_id": "ASTRON 103",
"course_uid": "course_0ad8c1bf7a9e83ae4fb4e5a0",
"term_id": "1272",
"source_course_id": "001538",
"source_subject_id": "188",
"title": "The Evolving Universe: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology",
"credits_min": 3,
"credits_max": 3,
"typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
}
]Rate My Professors
Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
Madgrades
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesModel outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
{
"model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
"model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
"task_version": "14",
"output_id": "e90fac5ea2648558a5d401f7be1889db2d49ee906cc12843a70a8f93970a7aa8",
"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}