Current instructor

Gustavo Parra-Montesinos

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

Raw average: 1.50/5 from 4 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

CEE440 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Prof Parra knows the topics but lacks in explaining on a more basic level. Lectures are just reading off sloppy pdfs and he expects you to do everything using his own specific methods. HW are very complicated compared to class examples (not to mention he barely covers mathcad which is expected to be used for some assignments).
Rate My Professors ↗
CEE649 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Parra is an extremely intelligent person and it comes off as a bit overwhelming at times. He does lecture a bit robotically while he teaches off of his pre-scanned pdf documents, but he does intermittently stop to ask if there are any questions, which is extremely important to take advantage of because he will stop to re-explain items.
Rate My Professors ↗
CEE649 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Prof. Parra is exceptionally knowledgeable in Structural Engineering. However, he has lost touch with what it is like to be a student. He lectures monotonously off of pre-written scanned PDFs that are impossible to keep pace with and relies heavily on the program MathCAD for homework which he never teaches students to use.
Rate My Professors ↗
CEE440 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Professor Parra is clearly very intelligent. However, he struggles with teaching. There were many topics that were not simplified to the student level whatsoever. His lectures are just him reading off a pdf with very complicated examples. Homework's are just a test of your Mathcad coding ability.
Rate My Professors ↗

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

Classes with Gustavo Parra-Montesinos

Structural Analysis II covers displacement methods, slope deflection, moment distribution, and stiffness matrix derivation for frames.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.60 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=5 letter grades); Fall 2022: 3.25 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.12 GPA, 37.5% A/AB (n=8 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2023 · limited sample

CIVENGR 699 is an independent study course conducted under faculty supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026 · limited sample
CIVENGR 990

Thesis

1–12 credits

CIVENGR 990 is a thesis course conducted under faculty supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

An advanced independent study course in civil engineering conducted under faculty supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2023 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026CIVENGR 440Structural Analysis II
Fall 2026CIVENGR 643Prestressed Concrete
Fall 2026CIVENGR 699Independent Study
Fall 2026CIVENGR 790Master's Research or Thesis
Fall 2026CIVENGR 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2026CIVENGR 990Thesis
Fall 2026CIVENGR 999Advanced Independent Study

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

Instructor identity & provenance
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_8bfb078b814e56a486662dc0",
  "source": "enrollment",
  "source_instructor_id": "parramontesi",
  "identity_basis": "netid",
  "identity_status": "source_identified",
  "name": "Gustavo Parra-Montesinos",
  "email": "GUSTAVO.PARRA@WISC.EDU",
  "first_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
  "last_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
  "ratings": {
    "review_count": 4,
    "quality": 1.5,
    "difficulty": 4.5,
    "quality_count": 4,
    "difficulty_count": 4,
    "profile_id": "rmp:2908973",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2908973",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:37:51.845138+00:00",
    "courses": {},
    "bayesian_quality": 3.2997381529554963,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": true,
  "courses": [
    {
      "course_uid": "course_00eb4426fb5a18f249af8070",
      "course_id": "CIVENGR 990",
      "title": "THESIS",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 12,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_36bf38065831da77b03c056c",
      "course_id": "CIVENGR 699",
      "title": "INDEPENDENT STUDY",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 9,
      "gpa": 3.996
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_52abc9d89726cb3e23769af9",
      "course_id": "CIVENGR 890",
      "title": "PRE-DISSERTATOR'S RESEARCH",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 9,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_7d76147487d0d7c4a93369c9",
      "course_id": "CIVENGR 790",
      "title": "MASTER'S RESEARCH OR THESIS",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 9,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_8b35662473150a4e6a08f4c9",
      "course_id": "CIVENGR 999",
      "title": "ADVANCED INDEPENDENT STUDY",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 9,
      "gpa": 3.921
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_c4b30cee9777b5117f2dfd50",
      "course_id": "CIVENGR 643",
      "title": "PRESTRESSED CONCRETE",
      "credits_min": 3,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_cb007efe9c3aa91fefcbb9c8",
      "course_id": "CIVENGR 440",
      "title": "STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS II",
      "credits_min": 3,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": 3.274
    }
  ],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/GUSTAVO_PARRA-MONTESINOS"
}