Current instructor

Timothy Paustian

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

Raw average: 3.12/5 from 104 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

MICRO100 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Do not take. Take any other gen-ed. Way too hard for an easy credit.
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MICRO100 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
This is not a great gen-ed class, and i would NOT recommend it. Professor Paustian is extremely rude and dismissive in his replies. Quizzes were kinda difficult, and would include stuff outside of the assigned readings.
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MICROBIO 100
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Where do I even start. First, he requires you to buy his own self-published textbook which barely loads half the time. Questions in class are barely answered. The quizzes are a complete guessing game, the wording is deliberately vague. Very unforgiving. Get one thing wrong on his terms and you're penalized, full stop.
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MICROBIO 100
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
This course was nothing as expected. Much more difficult than an introductory course and many of my peers felt the same. He was not respectful or nice when questions were asked and you have to BUY his own textbook for the class. He is also not forgiving and is extremely strict. Would not recommend to take.
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MICRO100 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
It's a fairly easy class, tbh I didn't use the textbook all that much and still did fine. Each week is 1 or 2 assignments, usually one writing assignment or discussion post and one quiz. Quizzes are tricky at times so you have to read questions and answers carefully. Instructions on writing assignments can be confusing but rubrics have more info.
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MICRO100 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 4/5
The content of the class itself is very interesting and the professor seems nice enough. However, I agree with other comments that he can be insensitive/backhanded towards student questions and shows little flexibility unless it's an urgent emergency. Probably would not take again or recommend to other students unless absolutely necessary.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Timothy Paustian

MICROBIO 299 is an independent study course allowing students to conduct research in microbiology under faculty guidance.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Fall 2025 · limited sample

Advanced laboratory techniques in microbiology focusing on modern biomedical research methods.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2019: 3.65 GPA, 78.5% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Fall 2022: 3.18 GPA, 50.7% A/AB (n=71 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.54 GPA, 73.7% A/AB (n=57 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2025

MICROBIO 699 is an independent study course allowing students to conduct advanced microbiology research under faculty guidance.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2006: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=8 letter grades); Fall 2009: 3.92 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=6 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026MICROBIO 299Independent Study
Fall 2026MICROBIO 527Advanced Laboratory Techniques in Microbiology
Fall 2026MICROBIO 699Special Problems

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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