Historical instructor

KEN FERRIER

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.48/5 from 23 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

Quality 3/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Ferrier was very passionate about the material, but lectures could be very boring some days. Weekly labs in discussion were easy, and TAs were helpful, but a poor grade on one lab could ruin an otherwise good grade. He was a joy to talk to outside of class, and clearly a very caring person.
Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor was passionate about topics discussed in class. Quizzes utilize textbook terms and vocabulary that was mentioned but not just the slides. TA's are great resources for labs, but only for that. Can be hard to balance for a new student.
Rate My Professors ↗
GEOSCI/GLE 350
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
Took this class as an engineering elective (cross-listed as GLE350). One homework assignment a week and one group project at the end of the year with plenty of time to work on it. The lectures can be a little heavy, but Ken occasionally integrates some fun experiments to make it more engaging. He is very nice and accessible outside of class.
Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Took this for my physical science credit. I liked Professor Ferrier a lot and really enjoyed his lecture, and my TA was amazing/gave helpful hints for lab. The quizzes are a sizable portion of your grade, though, and never seemed to be super related to what was emphasized in lecture/were very strangely worded. The video project was a blast, though!
Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Good lecturer and I personally really enjoyed lectures, but weekly quizzes seemed to be only tangentially related and unnecessarily complicated. However, weekly "labs" - discussion sections- were mostly decent. Content was extremely interesting and a good intro to geoscience, and despite the frustrating quizzes, it's not a hard course overall.
Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Good class to take to fulfill physical sci credit. Ken is super lovely and really cares about his work. Weekly quizzes are tough and don't always align with lecture material, labs aren't too bad and aren't graded super harshly. Optional exam at end of sem which is nice. Lectures can feel long but content is super interesting, his voice is golden.
Rate My Professors ↗

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

Classes with KEN FERRIER

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

No courses match this selection. Try the full catalog or another term.

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle

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

Instructor identity & provenance
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_ab71820b55caea02a940b98b",
  "source": "legacy",
  "source_instructor_id": null,
  "identity_basis": "name_only",
  "identity_status": "unresolved",
  "name": "KEN FERRIER",
  "email": null,
  "first_observed_at": "2025-12-14 04:50:04.653658+00:00",
  "last_observed_at": "2026-01-22 01:00:26.555427+00:00",
  "ratings": {
    "review_count": 23,
    "quality": 3.48,
    "difficulty": 2.7,
    "quality_count": 23,
    "difficulty_count": 23,
    "profile_id": "rmp:2560648",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2560648",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:26:20.335854+00:00",
    "courses": {
      "course_9583857ad55fe28b37a6eef1": {
        "review_count": 19,
        "quality": 3.68,
        "difficulty": 2.58,
        "quality_count": 19,
        "difficulty_count": 19
      },
      "course_4c0d6e24ae11e4c93afe04da": {
        "review_count": 1,
        "quality": 4,
        "difficulty": 2,
        "quality_count": 1,
        "difficulty_count": 1
      }
    },
    "bayesian_quality": 3.5635747830449285,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": false,
  "courses": [],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/KEN_FERRIER--instructor_ab71820b55caea02a940b98b"
}