Historical instructor
Original student reviews · all captured dates
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.Rate My Professors ↗
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.Rate My Professors ↗
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.Rate My Professors ↗
Very bad course. Among the worst I have taken at UW-Madison. Course policies are absolute nonsense.Rate My Professors ↗
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.Rate My Professors ↗
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.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.
No courses match this selection. Try the full catalog or another term.
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
{
"instructor_uid": "instructor_5ba3eb8960e0cf5da6eb3c1c",
"source": "legacy",
"source_instructor_id": null,
"identity_basis": "name_only",
"identity_status": "unresolved",
"name": "Michael Ferris",
"email": "FERRIS@CS.WISC.EDU",
"first_observed_at": "2025-07-13 04:59:22.367394+00:00",
"last_observed_at": "2025-11-16 05:32:31.273726+00:00",
"ratings": {
"review_count": 23,
"quality": 1.78,
"difficulty": 4.39,
"quality_count": 23,
"difficulty_count": 23,
"profile_id": "rmp:926803",
"source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/926803",
"match_basis": "exact_name",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:18:22.090012+00:00",
"courses": {
"course_dd8d2094feb4657373e2e2f3": {
"review_count": 17,
"quality": 1.71,
"difficulty": 4.35,
"quality_count": 17,
"difficulty_count": 17
},
"course_639b02029dbf953b9704cd63": {
"review_count": 2,
"quality": 1.5,
"difficulty": 4,
"quality_count": 2,
"difficulty_count": 2
},
"course_a04e8d794b24e3b81b984774": {
"review_count": 4,
"quality": 2.25,
"difficulty": 4.75,
"quality_count": 4,
"difficulty_count": 4
}
},
"bayesian_quality": 2.6542724574635326,
"prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
"prior_weight": 20
},
"current": false,
"courses": [],
"revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"instructor_url": "/instructors/MICHAEL_FERRIS--instructor_5ba3eb8960e0cf5da6eb3c1c"
}