Current instructor

Margaret Butler

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

Raw average: 2.00/5 from 14 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

MUSIC 297
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
DON'T TAKE THE CLASS Poorly organized, unnecessarily tough on grading, very vague with guidelines yet punishes you for not following them, has a hugely inflated sense of importance for a very basic class and overall just a very bad teacher and just seemed unpleasant to keep it civil. She will punish you for being sick. I could go on.
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MUSIC 419
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
To comprehensively list the issues with Doctor Butler as a professor would take well over the allowed characters. To be succinct, she would shuts down discussions and questions, her assignments have vague guidelines but harsh criteria, grading is sluggish, and her handling of certain topics like mental health is borderline offensive.
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MUS105 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Uninteresting, rude, unreasonable
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MUCIC105 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
Butler was a great professor but she thinks that everyone taking this class loves operas and musicals. I was not one of those people so I found it difficult to find it interesting and really even care. She takes music a little too seriously.
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MUS513 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Worst class I have ever taken. Butler did not teach at all. 100% partner discussion, group projects, and presentations. She assigned 2 papers a week and graded 12 wks of them in the latter half of finals week; we had no idea where we stood on grades. I got 20% taken off a paper for using the wrong type of accent. Very condescending and unhelpful.
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MUS414 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Professor Butler was very disrespectful towards students in a multitude of ways. Absolutely no guidance, held favorite students, lectures were disorganized/waste of time, not to mention her lack of grading policies. Was extremely rude throughout the entire semester and never gave constructive feedback, only would point out mistakes or errors.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Margaret Butler

Introduction to musical theater and opera in Europe and America, focusing on storytelling through music and drama.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Margaret Butler is described as knowledgeable, caring, and sweet, with relaxed discussions. This single review highlights her positive teaching style and approachability.

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2022 · limited sample

Survey of Opera covers the historical development of the genre and investigates the stylistic features of representative masterworks.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.86 GPA, 92.9% A/AB (n=14 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026ENGL 890Pre-dissertator Preliminary Exam Research
Fall 2026MUSIC 105Storytelling on Stage: Introduction to Musical Theater and Opera
Fall 2026MUSIC 513Survey of Opera
Fall 2026MUSIC 990Masters Thesis

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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