Current instructor

Simon Gilroy

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

Raw average: 4.60/5 from 127 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

BIO152 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Super nice but hard to follow. He goes off on tangents. Overall super nice guy just not the easiest to follow
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BIO152 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
you can tell he loves what he teaches. he makes his lectures pretty interesting for the most part, but sometimes it's hard to tell where he's going with some of his explanations.
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BIO152 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
He is enthusiastic about plant biology and clearly passionate about the subject. At times, lectures can go slightly off track, so it helps to stay focused on the key concepts he emphasizes. Prioritizing topics like codons is especially helpful for success in the Plant unit.
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BIOLOGY/BOTANY/ZOOLOGY 151
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Gilroy is easily the best professor out of all three for Bio 151. This course is moderately difficult and memorization heavy on exams, but Gilroy makes the content engaging and easy to learn through his cheerful attitude and smiles. The labs required some outside class hours but the TAs are also helpful to guide you through completing lab reports!
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BIO153 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
He's super passionate and easy to understand. Great guy. 153 is pretty much only graded on exams so make sure you do well
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Simon Gilroy

BOTANY 299

Directed Study in Botany

1–3 credits

BOTANY 299 is a directed study course that introduces students to research questions and provides mentorship in a botany research environment.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2020: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=6 letter grades).

Simon GilroyDavid Baum+13 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample
BOTANY 499

Intermediate Directed Research

1–3 credits

BOTANY 499 is an intermediate directed research course where students explore botany research questions under faculty mentorship.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=1 letter grades).

Simon GilroyDavid Baum+12 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample
BOTANY 681

Senior Honors Thesis

3 credits

BOTANY 681 is a senior honors thesis course involving individual research arranged with a faculty member for Botany majors.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Simon GilroyDavid Baum+15 more

No recorded grade history

BOTANY 682

Senior Honors Thesis

3 credits

BOTANY 682 is a senior honors thesis course involving individual research arranged with a faculty member for Botany majors.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Simon GilroyDavid Baum+14 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample
BOTANY 691

Senior Thesis

2–3 credits

BOTANY 691 is a senior thesis course focused on individual research conducted under faculty supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Simon GilroyDavid Baum+14 more

No recorded grade history

BOTANY 692

Senior Thesis

2–3 credits

BOTANY 692 is a senior thesis course involving individual research arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Simon GilroyDavid Baum+11 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample
BOTANY 699

Directed Study

1–4 credits

BOTANY 699 is a directed study course where students explore botany research questions under faculty mentorship.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2017: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=7 letter grades); Spring 2018: 3.90 GPA, 90.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=1 letter grades).

Simon GilroyDavid Baum+14 more

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026BOTANY 299Directed Study in Botany
Fall 2026BOTANY 499Intermediate Directed Research
Fall 2026BOTANY 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026BOTANY 682Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026BOTANY 691Senior Thesis
Fall 2026BOTANY 692Senior Thesis
Fall 2026BOTANY 699Directed Study
Fall 2026BOTANY 996Research-plant Physiology

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
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