Not interested in teaching. His time is more valuable than anyone else.Rate My Professors ↗
Historical instructor
JOSEPH TOWLES
What students say
Original student reviews · all captured dates
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Highly disorganized. Did not grade or give any feedback on labs until the week before finals & no response to repeated emails. Changed day and time of lab on 5 times with notice as short as 3 days, which created conflicts w/ other classes. Good lecturer but a gamble with grades and not learning from your mistakes b/c no feedback & lacks empathy.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
The lab Towles conducts is thought-provoking and provides valuable learning experiences, although they necessitate a considerable amount of independent work. This level of autonomy can be advantageous as it encourages self-reliance and problem-solving skills, yet it may also be challenging for some students who require more guidance and support.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Towles' was disorganized. The pacing was slow and then rushed right before finals. His lecture slides were uniformative. During class, he focused on specific examples and work with classmates instead of actually lecturing. Sometime he would simply give us his written derivations and tell us to read through them ourselves.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
Towels office hours were the most helpful resource in this class. He will readily explain/demo/draw to present the information in different ways until you understand the concept. He's willing to help guide your thought process on tricky homework problems or lab questions, as long as you're willing to put in the time and ask.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Towles is hands down my favorite professor. Not because of how I did in his class or because he makes the content tractable, but because he is simply a talented lecturer. He knows exactly how to structure such a wide range of knowledge into a digestable and interesting manner. He truly cares how well his students do, he's there to help you succeed.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
Classes with JOSEPH TOWLES
No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.
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Recorded teaching history
Explore courses taught by this instructor →Browse recorded courses
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
Instructor identity & provenance
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