Current instructor

Evelyn Howell

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

Raw average: 2.77/5 from 43 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

BIOCORE 381
Quality 3/5Difficulty 2/5
Evelyn is fine, but boring. She reads slowly off the slides and that's about it. Makes it hard to focus in lecture so the textbook is a good supplement since most of the content is from there. Takes off random points on exams but overall the ecology exam of 381 was not hard.
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LA668 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Evelyn's lectures consisted of reading everything from the slides slowly, while providing minimal additional information. Her grading is absolutely random as she would take off fractions of points for no apparent reason, and give minimal justification. She allegedly had a rubric for assignments which seems to be imaginary. Bizarre professor. Avoid.
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BIOCORE 381
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Her slides are purposefully confusing just so people do not skip lectures. Her grading is based in nothing, written all in pencil and impossible to read, and you will lose 0.2 points because she feels like it. No study guides or practice exams. She is terrible with technology, boring in lectures, and overall not a good prof. I don't rec. Biocore.
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BIOCORE 381
Quality 3/5Difficulty 5/5
It is difficult to learn from her slides. They are often loaded with text and it becomes difficult to know what is actually expected from you on the exams. I still suggest taking 381, but it will be a lot of independent work. There are no practice exams available, no note cards, and she usually answers students questions with another question :/
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BIOCORE 381
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Prof Howell is such a frustrating teacher to learn under. Her grading criteria is stringent and not based in anything, just her objective opinion of the assignment. Her lectures are boring and are often screenshots of the textbook. She is difficult to access during her office hours and can be condescending to her students during office hours.
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BIOCORE 381
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Evelyn was an okay professor. She could definitely use some help with technology as she sometimes messed up her slides, but it didn't ruin lecture. Her lectures were sometimes boring, but the material wasn't too hard and you don't have to read the textbook.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Evelyn Howell

Covers basic principles of ecology, transmission and population genetics, and evolutionary mechanisms including the origin of life and species diversity.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Evelyn Howell provides detailed lecture notes that help with exams, though her lectures are frequently described as boring, disorganized, and too fast for note-taking. While she is generally accessible and willing to answer questions, some students find her grading criteria unclear or harsh, and her office hours can be frustrating. Technology issues and reliance on slides also create learning barriers for some.

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2025

Covers native plants as the basis for ecological landscape design in urban and rural settings.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.61 GPA, 81.8% A/AB (n=33 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.67 GPA, 75.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2023–Fall 2025 · limited sample

RESTORATION ECOLOGY covers the theory and practice of conserving native species and ecosystems through an interdisciplinary lens of ecology, sociology, and humanities.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.58 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=18 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.14 GPA, 44.4% A/AB (n=18 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.47 GPA, 72.2% A/AB (n=18 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2025 · limited sample

LANDARC 699 is an independent study course in landscape architecture arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample
LANDARC 990

Research

1–12 credits

LANDARC 990 is an individual mentored research and study course for completing theses, as arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

LANDARC 999 is an independent study course offering students the opportunity to explore concepts or issues of interest.

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 2026BIOCORE 381Evolution, Ecology, and Genetics
Fall 2026LANDARC 299Independent Studies
Fall 2026LANDARC 380Plants for Ecological Design I
Fall 2026LANDARC 668Restoration Ecology
Fall 2026LANDARC 699Special Problems-landscape Architecture
Fall 2026LANDARC 990Research
Fall 2026LANDARC 999Independent Studies
Fall 2026ZOOLOGY 698Directed Study

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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