Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.69 GPA, 85.3% A/AB (n=129 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.42 GPA, 75.3% A/AB (n=73 letter grades).
Fall 2026
Amer Hist to the Civil War Era, the Origin & Growth of the U S
HISTORY 101 covers American political, economic, and social development from the founding of the colonies to the Civil War.
Summary
1 / 7
Historical reviews of Gloria Whiting, John Sharpless, Justine Walden: Workload varies by instructor: John Sharpless assigned heavy reading and difficult blue book essays, while Gloria Whiting used quizzes and papers. Justine Walden’s quizzes focused on specific textbook details unrelated to lectures, creating high difficulty.
Grade history
↗ average GPA
letter grades
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F
All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapNone
- None
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- None
Professors
Fall 2026Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Historical reviews for John Sharpless describe him as passionate and knowledgeable, though some find his humor repetitive or his lectures tangential. Reviewers note that his exams are rigorous blue book essays, despite providing questions in advance, and require significant reading.
FRANCIS RUSSO is recorded teaching in Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
GLORIA WHITING is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
JOHN B SHARPLESS is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
JUSTINE WALDEN is recorded teaching in Fall 2020. 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 | 165 / 166 | 0 |
| DIS 301 | Classroom Instruction | 16 / 18 | 0 |
| DIS 302 | Classroom Instruction | 18 / 18 | 0 |
| DIS 303 | Classroom Instruction | 18 / 18 | 0 |
| DIS 306 | Classroom Instruction | 18 / 18 | 0 |
| DIS 307 | Classroom Instruction | 18 / 18 | 0 |
| DIS 308 | Classroom Instruction | 18 / 18 | 0 |
| DIS 304 | Classroom Instruction | 18 / 18 | 0 |
| DIS 305 | Classroom Instruction | 18 / 18 | 0 |
| DIS 333 | Classroom Instruction | 23 / 0 | 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 Gloria Whiting: Gloria Whiting’s lectures are engaging and make history exciting, with participation adding to the fun. Reviewers highly recommend her course, noting that the structure is well-suited for students managing other classes.
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.23 GPA, 64.2% A/AB (n=120 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.69 GPA, 85.3% A/AB (n=129 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.42 GPA, 75.3% A/AB (n=73 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Historical reviews of Gloria Whiting, John Sharpless, Justine Walden: Workload varies by instructor: John Sharpless assigned heavy reading and difficult blue book essays, while Gloria Whiting used quizzes and papers. Justine Walden’s quizzes focused on specific textbook details unrelated to lectures, creating high difficulty.
Historical reviews of John Sharpless: John Sharpless was knowledgeable and passionate, using humor to keep students awake, though some found his jokes repetitive. Reviewers noted his lectures were interesting but sometimes tangential.
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 · 0.20 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
Amer Hist to the Civil War Era, the Origin & Growth of the U S
Recorded 2026-09-07Raw records
[
{
"run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
"semester": "1272",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"offering_id": "1272:448:009043",
"course_id": "HISTORY 101",
"course_uid": "course_2b4d35ea75108be033dce1d9",
"term_id": "1272",
"source_course_id": "009043",
"source_subject_id": "448",
"title": "Amer Hist to the Civil War Era, the Origin & Growth of the U S",
"credits_min": 4,
"credits_max": 4,
"typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
}
]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": "d8d4051077b05ca3d3f039e5f2244ea27dce69e7d6edc33cfa163dfc2a038163",
"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}