Spring 2027

Theoretical Physics-electrodynamics

Electrostatics, magnetostatics, Green functions, boundary value problems, macroscopic media, Maxwell's equations, the stress tensor and conservation laws, electromagnetic waves, wave propagation, dispersion, waveguides, radiation, multipole expansions, diffraction and scattering, special relativity, covariance of Maxwell's equations, Lienard-Wiechert potentials, radiation by accelerated charges. Knowledge of electrodynamics (such asPHYSICS 322) strongly encouraged.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Stanislav Boldyrev3.1/5

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Jeffrey Schmidt

The course used Jackson E&M as a tough text, with a significant workload of many problems assigned every week.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Graduate/professional standing

  • Graduate/professional standing
PHYSICS 721

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Graduate/professional standing

Professors

Spring 2027

Stanislav Boldyrev

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.62/5 from 24 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.17 GPA, 39.1% A/AB (n=23 letter grades); Fall 2022: 3.34 GPA, 64.5% A/AB (n=31 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.17 GPA, 41.7% A/AB (n=12 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JEFFREY SCHMIDT is recorded teaching in Spring 2015, Spring 2020, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

STANISLAV BOLDYREV is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 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

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 400

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Jeffrey Schmidt

A past student found the lectures incredibly enthusiastic, engaging, and hilarious, describing the instructor as the best lecturer they had ever had.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.75 GPA, 86.4% A/AB (n=22 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.77 GPA, 86.4% A/AB (n=22 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.33 GPA, 60.0% A/AB (n=15 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jeffrey Schmidt

The course used Jackson E&M as a tough text, with a significant workload of many problems assigned every week.

Past student reviews · Jeffrey Schmidt

The instructor solved homework problems in class, was super helpful in office hours, and explained advanced math extremely well.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PHYSICS 721 · Spring 2027

Theoretical Physics-Electrodynamics

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:754:015672",
    "course_id": "PHYSICS 721",
    "course_uid": "course_3cd96617fa9bcb858e3cd214",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "015672",
    "source_subject_id": "754",
    "title": "Theoretical Physics-Electrodynamics",
    "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
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "b3ea74382016aff275b9de6e47b014b6efa2eb5375847c533ae75e62c3c3250b",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}