Current instructor

Michael Doescher

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

Raw average: 3.47/5 from 88 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

COMPSCI 220
Quality 5/5Difficulty 1/5
His overall does not reflect him well anymore. He used to be not a great professor but he had a heart attack and now he is super relaxed all the time. He gives out extensions super easily and he seems to really care about teaching. He is incredibly smart and knowledgeable.
Rate My Professors ↗
COMPSCI 220
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
He was great, played Fortnite lobby music to start class one day, and it was a great beginning.
Rate My Professors ↗
COMPSCI 220
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
His lectures are very helpful in understanding the niche code rules, and the only con really was that when he made a mistake, he would fix it and move on quickly. I did not have to do any extra reading/work outside the class besides the graded assignments. The class in general is very manageable, and I did not come in with code experience.
Rate My Professors ↗
COMPSCI 220
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
Mike is an amazing professor! I had never coded before taking CS220 but the content was easy to follow. Although attendance is not mandatory (notes are provided), I'd still recommend attending them since it was so much easier for me to understand. Projects take a lot of time but are still manageable. The exams are easy if you do the practice exams.
Rate My Professors ↗
COMPSCI 220
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Ignore the bad reviews they are mostly from a bad semester (not his fault). Lowkey hilarious teacher and explains the class clearly. Very accommodating to students and tries to make sure everyone has a fair chance
Rate My Professors ↗
COMPSCI 220
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Went into this class with no coding experience and found Mike to be an extremely engaging lecturer with his live coding. Projects were extremely time-consuming and often very repetitive, but I appreciated the grade being largely based on completion of those rather than just exams. Office hours are crucial to attend.
Rate My Professors ↗

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

Classes with Michael Doescher

COMPSCI 220 introduces data science programming with Python, focusing on analyzing real datasets and visual communication, with no prior experience required.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Michael Doescher is described as caring, knowledgeable, and accommodating, with clear lectures that help beginners understand material. Reviewers appreciate his transparency and desire for student success, noting that his teaching style supports those with little prior coding experience.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

COMPSCI 319 introduces data science programming in Python, covering basics, web scraping, databases, and visualization for research datasets.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.86 GPA, 96.6% A/AB (n=29 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.77 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=13 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.92 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=6 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026COMPSCI 220Data Science Programming I
Fall 2026COMPSCI 319Data Science Programming I for Research

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

Instructor identity & provenance
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_97805752d14314b7d669169c",
  "source": "enrollment",
  "source_instructor_id": "mdoescher",
  "identity_basis": "netid",
  "identity_status": "source_identified",
  "name": "Michael Doescher",
  "email": "MDOESCHER@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": 88,
    "quality": 3.47,
    "difficulty": 3.33,
    "quality_count": 88,
    "difficulty_count": 88,
    "profile_id": "rmp:2593156",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2593156",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:18:28.055099+00:00",
    "courses": {
      "course_834bc468ca49d8090d0f211f": {
        "review_count": 48,
        "quality": 4.17,
        "difficulty": 3.04,
        "quality_count": 48,
        "difficulty_count": 48
      },
      "course_6e524f2d6f14b4e14c7ac770": {
        "review_count": 39,
        "quality": 2.56,
        "difficulty": 3.72,
        "quality_count": 39,
        "difficulty_count": 39
      },
      "course_37a551eb9007bebe6a41c6b3": {
        "review_count": 1,
        "quality": 5,
        "difficulty": 2,
        "quality_count": 1,
        "difficulty_count": 1
      }
    },
    "bayesian_quality": 3.505126996953073,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": true,
  "courses": [
    {
      "course_uid": "course_834bc468ca49d8090d0f211f",
      "course_id": "COMPSCI 220",
      "title": "DATA SCIENCE PROGRAMMING I",
      "credits_min": 4,
      "credits_max": 4,
      "gpa": 3.424
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_933b36d4952c8b40f181b993",
      "course_id": "COMPSCI 319",
      "title": "DATA SCIENCE PROGRAMMING I FOR RESEARCH",
      "credits_min": 3,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": 3.832
    }
  ],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/MICHAEL_DOESCHER"
}