Looking for a gentler semester? Start with courses where students have earned higher grades.
Highest historical GPA first. At least 100 letter grades over the five years through the selected term. Grades reflect past outcomes, not workload or a guaranteed result.
22 courses
Ranked courses have at least 100 recorded letter grades.
Introduction to theory, techniques, and analytical methods for geospatial big data, covering storage, processing, analysis, and visualization using advanced Python programming.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Song Gao
One student described the class as one of the most challenging they had taken, though they felt more confident in their coding afterward.
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2023–Spring 2026An undergraduate colloquium orienting students to geography as a scholarly discipline, covering its development, concepts, methods, and research skills.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · William Gartner
Students reported a difficulty level of 4, indicating the course presented a significant challenge.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Making the American Landscape traces the history and evolution of the American cultural landscape from precolonial times to present.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2024–Spring 2026Examines user interface design for manipulating maps, focusing on Interactive Cartography, Geographic Visualization, and Geovisual Analytics with insights from HCI and Usability Engineering.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Introduction to the City investigates urbanization processes and contemporary city forms, emphasizing spatial and social segregation by race, class, ethnicity, and gender.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Maha Ziadeh
The class required a final group project, tedious walking tours, and prompts requiring citations, with no exams.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Principles and algorithms for spatial analysis in GIS, covering point, line, polygon processing, interpolation, smoothing, overlay, query, network, terrain analysis, and classification.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Axing Zhu
Students had to read an online textbook, which one student believed the instructor wrote, to understand what was happening in class.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Surveys American environmental policy and regulation, focusing on specific statutes, policy arenas, and primary-source case material to examine legal/regulatory structures and geographic/social contexts.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Morgan Robertson
The class requires a heavy time commitment for reading and assignments, with outcomes depending significantly on the effort students invest.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Fall 2025Green Urbanism explores how urbanization impacts ecological processes and environmental outcomes, examining design strategies and policy responses to urban environmental problems.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2023–Spring 2026Overview of Wisconsin's physical and human geography, emphasizing the physical, historical, and cultural processes that shaped the state.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Elsa Noterman
One student reported seven grueling papers and never-ending readings, noting that rubrics were not very helpful.
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2023–Spring 2026Introduction to Cartography covers the theory and practice of map-making, including mapping basics, data acquisition, thematic mapping techniques, and cartographic abstraction and design.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Bill Limpisathian
Lectures were long and dense, and grading was described as pretty tough, though not designed to be impossible.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Introduction to Latin American culture and society from an interdisciplinary perspective, covering historical developments from pre-Columbian times to the present.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Kathryn Sanchez
Lectures delivered a lot of information quickly, requiring diligent note-taking to succeed on tests. One student noted that multiple-choice questions often targeted small details mentioned only once during class.
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2023–Spring 2026Introductory overview of geoscience technologies including GPS, Google Earth, satellite imagery, and GIS, focusing on geospatial data collection, representation, and critical evaluation of spatial maps.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Qunying Huang
Assignments were few and clearly instructed, with generous time to complete work. Exams and quizzes carried heavy weight, featuring random questions from a bank that varied in difficulty.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Survey of development and change in world regions, focusing on environment, society, history, economy, demographics, culture, politics, and future challenges.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Catherine Cathy Day
The course required discussion posts, essays, and quizzes, which reviewers found to be a significant time commitment.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Introductory survey of African society, culture, polity, and economy from prehistory to contemporary developments, covering nationalism and social change.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · James Delehanty
The workload included a heavy reading load, but exams and a five-page paper were considered manageable if students completed the assigned work.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Fundamental study of global warming causes, scientific evidence, future predictions, impacts on humans and ecosystems, and societal debates over solutions.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Jack Williams
The course involved lots of readings, though assessments focused on lecture content rather than external sources.
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2023–Spring 2026Global Environmental Issues explores climate change, food, energy, biodiversity, and justice through an interdisciplinary geographic lens, connecting global scales to local contexts.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Morgan Robertson
The course included weekly readings and short answer questions or write-ups for discussion. Exams were based on lectures, and students indicated that taking good notes and studying enough was necessary to succeed.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026An introduction to human geography exploring economic, political, social, cultural, and technological dynamics driving interrelationships and divisions in space.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Jenna Loyd
Quizzes included three-page essays, and students reported large assignments almost weekly, making studying for exams difficult.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026An introductory course on Geographic Information Systems covering automated procedures for storing, analyzing, and displaying spatial information, including databases, software systems, and case studies.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Axing Zhu
The course covered a large volume of material, making it challenging. Exams were described as tough and difficult, with some students noting that grading on them was harsh.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Introduction to how the Earth system works and what makes Earth livable; covers interactions among atmosphere, oceans, life, and Earth's surface shaping local, regional, and global landscapes.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Jack Williams
There are four non-cumulative exams, with no final exam during exam week. Exams are primarily based on lecture slides rather than the textbook, which the reviewer did not read.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Geographical study of conservation and climate change, analyzing physical/social dimensions, values, and institutions from local to international scales.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Lisa Naughton
The course included three exams, three papers, and weekly quizzes based on online readings and videos for each module.
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026Introduction to environmental remote sensing covering aerial photography, satellite imagery, electromagnetic radiation, data types, interpretation, analysis, mapping, and applications.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2023–Spring 2026A systems-based investigation of soil structure, biology, water, fertility, and taxonomy, including human impacts on the soil environment.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Nick Balster
Lectures required close attention, and complacent learners risked falling behind, though support was available.
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2023–Spring 2026