Historical instructor

JOHN NILES

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.00/5 from 10 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

ENG360 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Niles is very knowledgeable about the material that he teaches. His exams are very straight-forward and fair, but he is a bit on the harsh side when it comes to grading papers.
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ENG215 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Great professor overall, very funny at times. His lectures are far more interesting than other English profs I have had.
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ENG518 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Niles likes his lectures (at least for smaller classes) to be discussion-based, and if a student brings up a topic of interest, he delves into great detail. I heard a few classmates complain that he wastes class time by rambling, … Read full reviewShow less
Professor Niles likes his lectures (at least for smaller classes) to be discussion-based, and if a student brings up a topic of interest, he delves into great detail. I heard a few classmates complain that he wastes class time by rambling, which made me smile because his "rambling" is highly intelligent analysis that makes essay-writing a breeze.
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ENG215 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 2/5
I still have bruises from pounding my head against a wall for 4 months. His lectures and rambling and pull in outside sources that do nothing to enrich our understanding of the books. Somehow he manages to make God the most important aspect of each book. He does nothing to show us why these books were significant or how they still resonate today.
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ENG215 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 2/5
I was not impressed. He rambles and gets caught up in explaining something for fifteen minutes that would have taken 1 sentence to explain. Too smart in my opinion, doesn't understand what we need to know since he knows it all. Needs to do more close reading.
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ENG215 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
A very nice and knowledgable professor. He does tend to let his lectures wander off topic, but he has a true passion for the material. His tests were very easy as long as you went to lecture, which was mandatory.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with JOHN NILES

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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