Historical instructor

John Kennan

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.12/5 from 8 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

ECON 750
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Prof Kennan is the GOAT. There hasn't been another with the clarity in thinking that I have seen in him. He will never spoon-feed you the answer, but he'll never leave you stranded either. Incredibly generous with time and very funny!
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ECON 711
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Absolutely brilliant. His lessons always have a grand narrative behind them, and he never gives away the story, always moving the student forward in suspense until the point is made. No handholding through the difficult prose either. A great experience for the serious learner.
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ECON 713
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
His lectures are thought-provoking. He's actually very nice, despite of what everybody says. Don't be deterred by his manners, he's very approachable and helpful, if you try.
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ECON 450
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
the most horrible prof. He is notorious for hating undergrads...Useless office hours...He doesn't understand why undergrads can't understand easy stuffs which in fact is hard for most of students, though. Besides, no curves with extremely difficult exam...averaged about 30 out of 100
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ECON 450
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
the most horrible prof. He is notorious for hating undergrads...Useless office hours...He doesn't understand why undergrads can't understand easy stuffs which in fact is hard for most of students, though.
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ECON 450
Quality 2/5Difficulty 5/5
Bad. Just Plain Bad. Smart, yeah, but acts as if you should know most of what he's teaching already and figure out without any difficulty what's pretty hard material. Grading is too strict. The text is easy to follow but does you no good because his exams and homeworks have questions that come from absolutely nowhere. Impossible to prepare.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with John Kennan

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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