Current instructor

Alvin Thomas

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.00/5 from 5 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.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

HDFS516 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Is overtly qualified and does not come off holier than thou, but the class is hard. He is wonderful at lecturing and explaining and was a very fair grader. Rule above all: communication is key. Great, knowledgeable professor.
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HDFS516 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
This class could be interesting but Dr. Thomas changes his explanations of key terms when students ask clarifying questions in class. His rubrics are wordy and unclear. When I asked questions I did not get clear answers and then got points taken off on big projects. Dr. Thomas also thinks highly of himself and it is very clear in his lectures.
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HDFS516 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 4/5
Dr. Thomas was a good lecturer and I could tell he truly cares about his students. However, he is an extremely tough grader and most of your final grade in the class is dependent on 2 big projects. The grading criteria for these projects is not clear, leading to a lot of confusion about what Dr. Thomas' expectations were.
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HDFS516 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 5/5
Very well educated and passionate about what he teaches but very harsh grader and there is only a few assignments and 2 big projects instead of a final overall not an easy course despite description.
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HDFS516 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 5/5
He's clearly really knowledgeable about the topics he teaches about but oof, the assignments... the main thing I really disliked was the group presentations, which 1. took up about half of class time for people to present and 2. often ended up with one student doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Alvin Thomas

HDFS 592 provides research experience in Human Development and Family Studies under faculty supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

HDFS 699 is an independent study course allowing students to conduct directed projects arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

HDFS 999 is an independent study course allowing students to conduct directed projects arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026HDFS 592Research Experience in Human Development and Family Studies
Fall 2026HDFS 699Independent Study
Fall 2026HDFS 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2026HDFS 999Independent Study

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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