Current instructor

Bret Payseur

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

Raw average: 4.18/5 from 11 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

GEN467 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 2/5
He was a good lecturer, but not very interesting to me. Concepts weren't hard to understand but lectures were painfully slow that I was uninterested in the subjects. Talked about the history of genetics, which was nice.
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GENETICS 467
Quality 3/5Difficulty 2/5
I just did not enjoy Bret very much. I found him condescending and slightly rude when answering questions. His content was also just not engaging to me. He was just fine as a professor but his content and attitude was just not my favorite.
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GEN467 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Bret is an awesome professor! 100% recommend just chatting with him after class/at office hours, he's very helpful and fun and also just a great professor.
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GEN467 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Dr. payseur did a great job with the first half of Genetics467. He was clear about what you need to know and was very good at explaining concepts. He provided practice that helped to prepare for exams (that were on canvas, being able to take them anytime that day was very nice). If you take notes and do the practice problems you will do great!
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GENETICS 467
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor that understands how the whole field works and what actually matters. Acknowledges the history and makes the content interesting. Very approachable as well!
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GEN467 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
A solid lecturer! His exams were much simpler than those in the second half of the class, and he explains things clearly.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Bret Payseur

GENETICS 299 is an independent study course involving research work in Genetics under faculty guidance.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=1 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2024 · limited sample

General genetics covering eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems, transmission, mapping, molecular mechanisms, and engineering.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Bret Payseur is described as caring, approachable, and clear about expectations, with helpful homework and willingness to meet outside class. Reviewers also note his deep field knowledge and engaging presentation style.

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2025

GENETICS 699 is a special problems course allowing students to conduct individual advanced work in a specific area of Genetics under faculty guidance.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2017: 3.86 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=7 letter grades); Fall 2017: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=8 letter grades); Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=2 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026
GENETICS 990

Research

1–12 credits

GENETICS 990 is a research course where students conduct independent laboratory research under faculty supervision to prepare a graduate thesis.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

ZOOLOGY 990 is a graduate research course where students conduct advanced biological research under faculty mentorship to fulfill program requirements.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026GENETICS 299Independent Study
Fall 2026GENETICS 467General Genetics 1
Fall 2026GENETICS 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026GENETICS 699Special Problems
Fall 2026GENETICS 990Research
Fall 2026ZOOLOGY 990Research

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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