Historical instructor

DARRYL THELEN

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.11/5 from 9 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

ME 340
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Thelen is a real down to Earth guy that wants to see people succeed. Homework problems were typically straight forward and stemmed from examples done in lecture. Exams were fair (not easy but not overly difficult either). Overall, Prof. Thelen did a good job teaching ME 340 and made the subject interesting.
Rate My Professors ↗
ME 340
Quality 3/5Difficulty 4/5
This class was very hard. You need Math 320 for this. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. I made that mistake. A lot of work but some interesting stuff. From some this is easy and others it can be confusing.
Rate My Professors ↗
ME 340
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
His online lectures are super helpful. Pay attention to them especially for the multiple choice portion of exams, which tend to cover concepts he mentions in lectures you might forget if you didn't watch the video to review it. Do the work and understand the material and you should do well
Rate My Professors ↗
ME 340
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
The guy is clearly interested about the class subject, but didn't seem as interested in making sure people learned it. His In-class examples fly by pretty quick with little clarification, and he rarely made it through his full lecture plan for a day. The tests were fair in their content, but seemed binary in grading; don't plan on partial credit.
Rate My Professors ↗
ME 340
Quality 4/5Difficulty 1/5
I'm halfway through a semester of 340 with him now. The exams and quizzes so far haven't been tough at all, whoever said that must not have studied. Read the examples, review the moodle hws and you can't lose. Hw is easy, lectures are fun if not terribly enlightening. Labs are useless, but I think they're getting rid of them. V responsive to email
Rate My Professors ↗
ME 340
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Made dynamic systems interesting which isn't exactly easy. Probably the best professor I have had at UW. The course itself is difficult but his exams are fair (not easy but fair) and I learned a ton from the class.
Rate My Professors ↗

Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with DARRYL THELEN

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

View last recorded teaching term →

No courses match this selection. Try the full catalog or another term.

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026BME 799Advanced Independent Study
Spring 2026ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2025ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2025ME 489Honors in Research II
Spring 2025ME 491Mechanical Engineering Projects I
Fall 2024BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2024ME 489Honors in Research II
Fall 2024ME 491Mechanical Engineering Projects I
Spring 2024BME 399Independent Study
Spring 2024BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2023BME 399Independent Study
Fall 2023BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2023BME 799Advanced Independent Study
Fall 2023ME 491Mechanical Engineering Projects I
Spring 2023BME 799Advanced Independent Study
Spring 2023BME 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2023ME 489Honors in Research II
Spring 2023ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Fall 2022BME 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2022ME 489Honors in Research II
Fall 2022ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Spring 2022BME 399Independent Study
Spring 2022BME 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2022ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Spring 2022ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Fall 2021BME 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2021ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Fall 2021ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Fall 2020BME 399Independent Study
Fall 2020BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2020ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2020ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Spring 2020BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2020BME 799Advanced Independent Study
Spring 2020ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2020ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Fall 2019BME 399Independent Study
Fall 2019BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2019ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2019ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Spring 2019BME 399Independent Study
Spring 2019BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2019BME 799Advanced Independent Study
Spring 2019ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2019ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Fall 2018BME 399Independent Study
Fall 2018BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2018BME 799Advanced Independent Study
Fall 2018ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2018ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Spring 2018BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2018BME 890Pre-dissertation Research
Spring 2018ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2018ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Spring 2018ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Fall 2017ME 489Honors in Research II
Fall 2017ME 492Mechanical Engineering Projects II
Fall 2017ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2017ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Fall 2017ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Spring 2017BME 399Independent Study
Spring 2017ME 491Mechanical Engineering Projects I
Spring 2017ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2017ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Spring 2017ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Fall 2016BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2016ME 340Dynamic Systems
Fall 2016ME 489Honors in Research II
Fall 2016ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2016ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Spring 2016BME 399Independent Study
Spring 2016BME 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2016ME 340Dynamic Systems
Spring 2016ME 489Honors in Research II
Spring 2016ME 492Mechanical Engineering Projects II
Spring 2016ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Fall 2015BME 399Independent Study
Fall 2015BME 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2015ME 340Dynamic Systems
Fall 2015ME 491Mechanical Engineering Projects I
Fall 2015ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2015ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Fall 2015ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Spring 2015BME 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2015ME 489Honors in Research II
Spring 2015ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Spring 2015ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Spring 2015ME 990Dissertator Research and Thesis
Fall 2014BME 399Independent Study
Fall 2014BME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2014BME 890Pre-dissertation Research
Fall 2014BME 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2014ME 340Dynamic Systems
Fall 2014ME 489Honors in Research II
Fall 2014ME 491Mechanical Engineering Projects I
Fall 2014ME 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2014ME 890Phd Research and Thesis
Spring 2014BME 399Independent Study
Spring 2014BME 603Special Topics in Bioinstrumentation and Medical Devices
Spring 2014BME 790Master's Research and Thesis

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_1cbdcd8307fad7bf03c24ce2",
  "source": "madgrades",
  "source_instructor_id": "3568872",
  "identity_basis": "source_id",
  "identity_status": "source_identified",
  "name": "DARRYL THELEN",
  "email": null,
  "first_observed_at": "2026-09-06 23:14:58.172943+00:00",
  "last_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
  "ratings": {
    "review_count": 9,
    "quality": 4.11,
    "difficulty": 3.11,
    "quality_count": 9,
    "difficulty_count": 9,
    "profile_id": "rmp:1623831",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1623831",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:45:26.184328+00:00",
    "courses": {
      "course_30b7af243793fc0540887d4f": {
        "review_count": 8,
        "quality": 4.12,
        "difficulty": 3,
        "quality_count": 8,
        "difficulty_count": 8
      },
      "course_5f39a96edc9ca90d8f1ec190": {
        "review_count": 1,
        "quality": 4,
        "difficulty": 4,
        "quality_count": 1,
        "difficulty_count": 1
      }
    },
    "bayesian_quality": 3.7994384714114453,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "grade_statistics": {
    "gpa": 3.293,
    "graded": 1341,
    "counts": [
      429,
      372,
      285,
      139,
      90,
      15,
      11
    ],
    "sections": 196
  },
  "current": false,
  "courses": [],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/DARRYL_THELEN--instructor_1cbdcd8307fad7bf03c24ce2"
}