Current instructor

Jon Roll

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

Raw average: 3.29/5 from 34 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

MICRO527 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
People saying they don't like Dr. Roll don't belong in an advanced Micro lab. He is definitely disorganized, but insanely educated and helps students get to where they need to be. Treats students like real scientists, and actually prepares you for doing lab work. If you are a competent student that can problem solve, you will have no issues.
Rate My Professors ↗
MICRO527 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
Very nice person but an awful professor. Always joking around; caring for students but demanding in grading. Quiz is impossible to study as it's focused on minutiae. MAKE SURE you understand micromath at the start of the semester! Lab manual is super confusing, and some labs require out of class measurement. Btw he once forgot his own appointment.
Rate My Professors ↗
MICRO527 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
DO NOT take this awful professor, he never is prepared with his class, last minute finishes his planning. Grading is absolutely ridiculous, takes forever to grade. Doesn't seem to want you to do well in course, condescending and will make you want to give up the whole semester. Just actually worst professor in microbiology department.
Rate My Professors ↗
MICRO527 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Dr. Roll's assignments lack clear and comprehensive grading criteria, comments, and explanations, so it's easy to lose points in unexpected and incomprehensible ways, and difficult to modify. When you ask him questions, his answers are likely inconsistent, which is unprofessional. This will undoubtedly put a bad spin on your overall semester.
Rate My Professors ↗
MICRO527 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
There was no syllabus for the class. The feedback he gave was practically useless. Avoid this guy unless you hate yourself
Rate My Professors ↗
MICRO527 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
As a person, Jon is a funny and entertaining guy. As a professor, he's incredibly frustrating. His spur-of-the-moment teaching style makes for a disorganized classroom. Needless downtime was common. This bleeds into his grading, making it incredibly difficult to anticipate what he wants from you. The sparse feedback he gives is rarely helpful.
Rate My Professors ↗

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

Classes with Jon Roll

MICROBIO 299

Independent Study

1–3 credits

MICROBIO 299 is an independent study course allowing students to conduct research in microbiology under faculty guidance.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Michael ThomasDaniel Amador-Noguez+26 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Fall 2025 · limited sample
MICROBIO 699

Special Problems

1–4 credits

MICROBIO 699 is an independent study course allowing students to conduct advanced microbiology research under faculty guidance.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2008: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=7 letter grades); Fall 2017: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=6 letter grades).

Michael ThomasPaul Friesen+31 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026MICROBIO 299Independent Study
Fall 2026MICROBIO 699Special Problems

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_9af113078c141c04e7bee508",
  "source": "enrollment",
  "source_instructor_id": "jtroll",
  "identity_basis": "netid",
  "identity_status": "source_identified",
  "name": "Jon Roll",
  "email": "JTROLL@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": 34,
    "quality": 3.29,
    "difficulty": 3.18,
    "quality_count": 34,
    "difficulty_count": 34,
    "profile_id": "rmp:133421",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/133421",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:30:48.277587+00:00",
    "courses": {
      "course_52774b2740fd40fe6fedc78b": {
        "review_count": 1,
        "quality": 5,
        "difficulty": 2,
        "quality_count": 1,
        "difficulty_count": 1
      },
      "course_b38eddf04e5d9b58f70c1241": {
        "review_count": 1,
        "quality": 2,
        "difficulty": 4,
        "quality_count": 1,
        "difficulty_count": 1
      }
    },
    "bayesian_quality": 3.4269206605728133,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": true,
  "courses": [
    {
      "course_uid": "course_1897bd5f934367a1b50f1802",
      "course_id": "MICROBIO 299",
      "title": "INDEPENDENT STUDY",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": 3.905
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_c37522259f59b2a6bfa24d0f",
      "course_id": "MICROBIO 699",
      "title": "SPECIAL PROBLEMS",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 4,
      "gpa": 3.931
    }
  ],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/JON_ROLL"
}