Current instructor

Michael Ferris

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

Raw average: 1.78/5 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

COMPSCI/ECE/ISYE 524
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
You really need to do well on the homework, since on the project he'll take off 30-40% just because he feels like it, even if you follow the directions carefully. A bunch of people were asking him to please give any amount of justification for the final project grades, and he tells us to ask him in office hours NEXT SEMESTER, what a joke.
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COMPSCI/ECE/ISYE 524
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Very bad academic experience in uw-madison. No clear rubric(almost 0) , harshly grading with very poor feedback. You don't even know if you have a final exam.
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COMPSCI/ECE/ISYE 524
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Incapable of giving proper instructions, rubrics, or fair grading. Many HW problems need to be clarified on Piazza. The project spec had a few vague bullet points, a few scribbled notes in the margins as "feedback", and yet he cut tons of points harshly. The full project reqs are also just some bullet points with no clear rubric. Abysmal professor.
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COMPSCI/ECE/ISYE 524
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
This guy's course policies are nonsense...automatic -8% on the project for working in pairs and the final exam gets held because he got mad at some people apparently copying homework code. Overall he is also bad at giving clear assignment directions.
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COMPSCI/ECE/ISYE 524
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
Prof. Ferris is such a great person and is beyond helpful during office hours. If you use his office hours, you will succeed in this class. It is a ton of work and the homeworks are super time-consuming, but they do force you to learn. We did not have a final this semester because he cancelled it when he didn't find anyone cheating.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Michael Ferris

COMPSCI 682

Senior Honors Thesis

3 credits

COMPSCI 682 is an individual study course for seniors completing honors theses in Computer Sciences, arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Shivaram VenkataramanFred Sala+19 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample
COMPSCI 699

Directed Study

1–6 credits

COMPSCI 699 offers directed study projects for junior and senior students arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2018: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=8 letter grades); Spring 2019: 3.89 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=2 letter grades).

Shivaram VenkataramanFred Sala+59 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026
ISYE 699

Advanced Independent Study

1–5 credits

ISYE 699 is an advanced independent study course conducted under faculty supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Hannah SilberTerry Mann+29 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026COMPSCI 682Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Fall 2026COMPSCI 790Master's Thesis
Fall 2026COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2026COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2026COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2026ISYE 699Advanced Independent Study
Fall 2026ISYE 790Master's Research and Thesis
Fall 2026ISYE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2026ISYE 990Research and Thesis

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
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