Jeff is a nice guy. He's trying. He's just not a very good lecturer. His lectures are all over the place and impossible to follow. He posts somewhat helpful lecture notes after the fact but it's clear he comes into class not knowing what he's going to talk about. Easy exams though.Rate My Professors ↗
Current instructor
Jeffrey Schmidt
What students say
Original student reviews · all captured dates
Didnt really learn anything, exams were not related to lectures or homework he gives a practice exam and you have to copy all the formulas from the practice exam and use them on the actual exam to do well so you dont actually learn anything.Rate My Professors ↗
Schmidt is passionate professor, but for a tough E&M unit he teaches it poorly. His slides are super complex and he doesn't make it easy to follow since he just reads off the slides without engaging the class at all. The labs and homework for this class are time consuming so you will need to lock in a lot more than you think for this class.Rate My Professors ↗
Schmidt is one of the two professors for Phys 207, and is a caring person if you go to his office hours, but his lectures are impossible to follow and understand. He does not try to engage the class in any way and just reads off complex slides which are impossible to follow. The homework is time consuming but the labs are not as difficult.Rate My Professors ↗
Taking 208 with Jeff was an absolute nightmare. Class was super unorganized, didn't go over actual content in lectures, exams were super difficult, TA's were awful, they often ignored questions on piazza they didn't want to answer. This class honestly tested your ability to memorize questions/answers from course material rather than learning it.Rate My Professors ↗
Jeff is boring. Really boring. I'd rather have this class be taught by a potted plant. Getting up at 8 am every Monday and Wednesday was impossible. Jeff doesn't teach the material well, and seemed surprised when nobody knew the answers to his questions. If I had an hour to live, I'd spend it in this class, because it felt like an eternity.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
Classes with Jeffrey Schmidt
PHYSICS 711 covers advanced theoretical dynamics, including Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, chaos, and an introduction to general relativity.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2019: 3.40 GPA, 56.0% A/AB (n=25 letter grades); Fall 2020: 3.21 GPA, 33.3% A/AB (n=21 letter grades); Fall 2021: 3.12 GPA, 23.3% A/AB (n=30 letter grades).
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Fall 2025Independent Study
1–3 creditsPHYSICS 799 is a graduate-level independent study course focused on conducting mentored research projects in physics.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2026 · limited samplePHYSICS 801 covers selected topics in theoretical physics for graduate students.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2019: 3.79 GPA, 96.4% A/AB (n=28 letter grades); Fall 2020: 3.63 GPA, 71.8% A/AB (n=39 letter grades); Fall 2021: 3.98 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades).
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Fall 2024 · limited sampleResearch
1–12 creditsPHYSICS 990 is a research course where students conduct supervised research projects with individual faculty members.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
Recorded teaching history
Explore courses taught by this instructor →Browse recorded courses
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 | PHYSICS 711 | Theoretical Physics-dynamics |
| Fall 2026 | PHYSICS 799 | Independent Study |
| Fall 2026 | PHYSICS 801 | Special Topics in Theoretical Physics |
| Fall 2026 | PHYSICS 990 | Research |
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
Instructor identity & provenance
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