Historical instructor

JAY SAMUEL

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.58/5 from 69 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 342
Quality 5/5Difficulty 1/5
Dr. Jay was a staple at UW Madison for 35 years who retired in Dec. 2015. Through 3 courses with him (MSE 350, ME 314, ME 342) you quickly realize he is here to teach, and probably teaches the most students per year than any other faculty member. He hand grades all the tests individually and really enjoys his students. Sad to see him go.
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ME306 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
This was a great class. Dr. Jay has been there a long time. I am glad I got to take a class with him and he helped me even though I didn't do to hot on an exam. Can be dry and boring discussion for some. I sit up front and nothing too bad.
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ME306 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Dr. Jay is a great professor who has been here a long time. He really knows his stuff. He was always willing to work with students and also has the longest office hours I have ever seen.
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ME306 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 2/5
Boring and useless. Such a cool course, such a shame that he's teaching it. Read the book, find people to study with, no need to go to lecture ever.
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EMA306 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
Love this guy. Horribly dry and boring lecture but he loves when you come to office hours and hang out with him. He is a little condescending if you ask questions in lectures. Knows his stuff though. One of my favorite professors at UW.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with JAY SAMUEL

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
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