Current instructor

Hessam Bavafa

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

Raw average: 3.82/5 from 28 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

GB306 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Professor Bavafa really tries and that makes it fun. He would play a song at every class, and try to connect with us with examples and news. I found stats interesting with him, but the exam is definately harder. The other professor made a lot of videos for the exam though so it was ok. I liked lectures and would take this prof again for sure!
Rate My Professors ↗
GB306 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
Bavafa is extremely funny and a nice, knowledgeable guy. 306 as a class kind of sucks, but his lectures were actually really interesting - I learned a lot. His lectures, however, were not representative of the final exam and its content (the case studies were also very tedious and annoying). In all, Bavafa is a great person and a decent teacher.
Rate My Professors ↗
GB306 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
He was funny and made lectures entertaining, but I don't feel like I learned very much with him teaching.
Rate My Professors ↗
GB306 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 3/5
Lectures with this guy are such a waste of time. He spends so much time "digressing" and giving recaps of past lectures, you don't have enough time to learn the new material. I haven't learned anything since he started teaching the course halfway through the semester (bring back Richard Crabb).
Rate My Professors ↗
GB306 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
My absolute favorite professor so far here at UW-Madison. His lectures are so interactive and engaging. Genuinely knows how to captivate and engage the minds of his students.
Rate My Professors ↗
GB306 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
Had him for the second half of GB306. I thought he explained concepts better than Prof. Crabb. He made sure students understood the concepts before moving on, which I appreciated. He's overall a nice guy and knows his stuff. He likes to use AI to create badger images, which was always fun.
Rate My Professors ↗

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

Classes with Hessam Bavafa

Business Analytics I teaches quantitative intuition, database visualization, probability, hypothesis testing, regression, and simulation for business decision-making.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Hessam Bavafa is praised for making lectures interesting and funny, teaching the material well, though one reviewer emphasized that attending lectures is necessary due to sparse slides. Conversely, reviewers criticize his slow email response times and lack of care for student grades, though others find him caring. One advised avoidance due to poor explanations, while another noted that case reports require time.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

OTM 999 is an individual reading and research course for Ph.D. students in Operations and Information Management.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2024 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026GENBUS 306Business Analytics I
Fall 2026OTM 399Reading and Research-operations and Information Management
Fall 2026OTM 990Operations and Information Management-independent Research Ph.d. Thesis
Fall 2026OTM 999Reading and Research-operations and Information Management Phd

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

Instructor identity & provenance
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_2c6caf48eb75772abbb9c381",
  "source": "enrollment",
  "source_instructor_id": "bavafa",
  "identity_basis": "netid",
  "identity_status": "source_identified",
  "name": "Hessam Bavafa",
  "email": "HESSAM.BAVAFA@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": 28,
    "quality": 3.82,
    "difficulty": 3.11,
    "quality_count": 28,
    "difficulty_count": 28,
    "profile_id": "rmp:2098856",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2098856",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:36:42.021782+00:00",
    "courses": {
      "course_801a8dc807b21e1c6c93cc3f": {
        "review_count": 8,
        "quality": 3.25,
        "difficulty": 2.75,
        "quality_count": 8,
        "difficulty_count": 8
      }
    },
    "bayesian_quality": 3.753202409811081,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": true,
  "courses": [
    {
      "course_uid": "course_362daf0b1580016b049544ca",
      "course_id": "OTM 990",
      "title": "OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT-INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PH.D. THESIS",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 12,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_801a8dc807b21e1c6c93cc3f",
      "course_id": "GENBUS 306",
      "title": "BUSINESS ANALYTICS I",
      "credits_min": 3,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": 3.157
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_803bb290f432d8fbf9b2fade",
      "course_id": "OTM 399",
      "title": "READING AND RESEARCH-OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 6,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_bbfa5448deea7f277a5597fe",
      "course_id": "OTM 999",
      "title": "READING AND RESEARCH-OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PHD",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 6,
      "gpa": 4
    }
  ],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/HESSAM_BAVAFA"
}