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Sangeetha Madhavan AASP398D Anonymous 04/16/2016	In my experience, Sangeetha Madhavan is the worst professor at UMD. I'm honestly surprised she's rated 2 stars on here, that's a little too high. I agree with the lower rated reviews here, she plays serious favorites and makes no apologies for it. She's extremely rude and disrespectful. In my 4 years here at Maryland, she was overwhelmingly the worst part about my time at this school. I had the displeasure of having her for 2 classes (forced to due to scheduling around my full time job) so I've seen the best and worst parts of her. Her goal isn't to make the material enjoyable to learn. It's more of a brute force, curt, and strict "teaching" style. She thinks that the only thing students have to worry about is her class so it's fair to expect all Ph.D. level students that learn everything on their own by reading 100s of long JSTOR research papers. If you don't agree with her, she will not be a nice person to you. She will call you out and embarrass you in class making things very awkward. She made my life in her class an absolute hell. She doesn't understand that people have different learning styles. Personally, I did not learn anything from her. Her rudeness along with her "teaching" style turned me completely off. She needs to realize that we are not one size fits all. You know how some professors just have "it" and they can make the driest subjects the most riveting and interesting? They treat you with respect and are actually fair in their grading. Well this is absolutely not Sangeetha Madhavan. She's the complete opposite of a good professor. Her militant views on treating students is very outdated. She needs to be flexible, we are not all trying to get a Ph.D. In fact, we are all humans that have other classes, other real life problems, jobs, and the world does not revolve around her pointless class. She needs to stop being an a-hole to students that are not her favorite. My advice if you have to have her like I did and can't avoid it: try to be one of her favorites. Kiss up, do whatever. But still do your best to avoid if you can. I don't know what it's like to be her favorite but I'll assume her treatment of you isn't any worse than if she hates you. On a lighter note: the rest of the African American studies department are awesome. Just really great group of professors and lecturers. Seriously everyone is amazing except for Sangeetha Madhavan, who is the worst. I wish she would leave the department and go to Rutgers.
Sangeetha Madhavan AASP398D Expecting an A Anonymous 08/08/2012	She's tough- like, look up the definition of a 'tough professor' in the dictionary, and you find a picture of Madhavan. However, she's not pointlessly mean, or unjustly difficult, and she doesn't assign a large workload (it's substantial) just to spite her students. She wants you to learn- that's the bottom line. In other classes, if you slack off/come to class late/ forget to hand things in on time, it's not a big deal. The thing with Madhavan is that, because she is so enthusiastic about these topics, if a student doesn't share her passion (and work to show it), she can come off a bit harsh. If you really want to learn about African Development, and are willing to put in the work, this is the prof for you. Lectures are great, guest speakers are great, structure of classes works really well.
Sangeetha Madhavan AASP398D Expecting a C Anonymous 04/28/2011	Sangeetha Madhaven is a rude person who likes to demean her students. She picks on people and definitely makes her opinion known. It's her way or the highway. She is terrible grader and is very unfair. She's inconsistent and is a 20 page research paper. Don't take this class as an elective or core...it's requires a lot of time (and weekly readings) and unnecessary stress Good luck!
Sangeetha Madhavan AASP398D Anonymous 04/06/2011	I am writing this before I even get my final grade because i don't want anyone to assume I am saying this because I am bitter. She is really rude. I was absent once and I sent my classmates and email to make sure there wasn't anything to turn in that following week. She sent me a nasty email that discouraged me from writing to my classmates again. Instead she wanted me to read the slides which never ever mentioned materials we needed to turn in. She bully's students into participating even when it is clear that they don't understand or haven't read the material. She does it with a smile. She is a very hard grader and shows a lot of favoritism. I understand that by writing this I am risking my grade because it is easy to to see who I am from this review but I honestly feel like she should learn to be nicer. Education is not a field you get in to make people feel like idiots.