ARCH200 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Michael Abrams ARCH200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2024	This professor does have favorites. He also promotes his textbook a lot which is way too expensive. With the textbook and other materials, he makes it out to be like they are crucial to the class but I ended up not using half the materials. Buy the materials as they come, not matter how much he makes it out like you need to buy them instantly. I'd say for the first day of class, just grab a sketchbook and some drawing pencils and that's it. Overall, not horrible, he just reads of the slides for the most part. Not very engaging, and unless you are a favorite, you won't really have many interactions with him.
Michael Abrams ARCH200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/29/2024	Arch200 with Abrams is a course you can't escape as a arch major. Be prepared for a lot of drawing. There are random drawing exercises in class, drawing homework, and and drawing for the assignments that are due. As for materials, you do not need to buy all of the materials that are on the list that totals almost $1000. Buy them as needed. Also there is no need to buy any of the textbooks. You can find an online version somewhere else. As for the rest of the class, its okay. He knows what he is talking about and is passionate, however, the class is LONG. I took the lab right after lecture and 8-12 every Wednesday was hard. After the lectures are over he often spends the rest of time discussing the assignment (can be anywhere from 10min to an hour depending on how much allotted time is left.) Your actual grade is in the hands of your TA. Everyone is assigned a TA who does all of the grading and they can be good or mid. Mine was great! You definitely have to work for the grade you want though. During labs if Abrams is present he can be a lor harsh during crits, so be prepared. Didn't really like the class, but I did like the work I produced. Goodluck.
Michael Abrams ARCH200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/06/2023	This class is a lot of work and a lot of money - don't buy everything off the materials list until he actually says you are going to NEED to use it. Though it wouldn't hurt to get most of the basic stuff eventally because you end up using half of it again in 300. Very knowledgable professor who knows what he's doing, and is VERY good at communicating what he's looking for - a little overly critical of students work sometimes though (if you just take it as suggestions it's really not so bad). Personally I enjoyed him as a professor even with all his criticalness - never felt like I didn't know what I was suppose to be doing.
Michael Abrams ARCH200 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/20/2022	I think Professor Abrams does genuinely care about his students and gives great feedback either by asking or during critique. He's also pretty nice and is fun to listen to at times. His lectures are simple and easy to follow along and though it was annoying to have to get the textbook he wrote (theres a free pdf online), it was pretty useful especially the tables telling you which lineweights to use per drawing type. I find myself using it time to time in other arch classes. Missing class is definitely a no no because it really sets you back. In terms of purely lectures and personality, great. But what sets this class back in rating is HOW UNORGANIZED IT IS!!! The pacing of the class is horrendous because its so slow in the beginning and so much time is spent on one of the projects so then theres no time left for the others and everything becomes rushed in the end. I really liked that he wrote out assignment briefs to let you know what is expected in each assignment, but there would be errors in it. Like telling you the wrong dimensions needed or what to scale to which just makes it more work for you to ask the TA and what they want. The communication between TA and the prof is absolutely zero (most arch classes anyways), so its all different and up to each individual TA on what they want the projects should have which sometimes went against what the prof wanted. And just a heads up, there's a TON of drawing to do. Drawing exercises, drawing warmups, drawing homework, drawing projects, drawing drawing drawing. Overall I think the information being taught and Professor Abrams has lovely intentions, but the details of the class needs to be smoothened out because the class was hectic week after week. Goodluck!!!!
Michael Abrams ARCH200 Expecting an A- aruff 05/26/2022	Makes you buy his textbook as required reading (find a free pdf because I hardly ever used it except for the drawing exercises in it that count towards a grade (which is how he guarantees you buy his textbook)), plays favorites with students and the art/projects they make+present. The TAs were previously his favorite students, also. Vague project instructions (with vague clarifications), with errors in them that TAs and the professor did not catch, despite him having taught at UMD since 2015, and having previously taught this class before. Big discrepancies between what he expected in projects vs what TAs expected/liked in projects. Obviously could only pander to him or the TA, not both. Very disorganized. Was 20 minutes late to class once, blamed traffic. Almost a 1k materials list, a lot of which we barely used. Made us buy 1/8" wooden dowels, didn't include a way of cutting them. Will do "warm up sketches" in class (ungraded) of ridiculous things, expects you to use a whole page on it, will grab your textbook, flip to a new page, and tell you to "draw big!" if he sees you drawing on a page with other sketches. The absolute worst class I have ever taken at UMD. Ridiculous that I paid money for this. I have taken community college classes set up better than this.
Matthew Geiss ARCH200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/04/2020	I really enjoyed this class overall! The projects were interesting and fun. The introduction to a lot of architectural techniques was helpful, as they went in depth and gave good information, and the projects then built on this information. The small sections were really helpful as well because you were able to get more individualized feedback. I would recommend signing up for the smaller section numbers (probably the higher section numbers) for this reason! Professor Geiss was helpful in crits, although you won't get feedback from him directly very often unless you go to him and ask (the TAs give you most of the feedback and do most of the grading). There were some communication issues between the professors and students at certain points, but all in all I personally had a good experience in this class and was able to learn a lot of information that will help me in the long run!

Michael Abrams
ARCH200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2024

This professor does have favorites. He also promotes his textbook a lot which is way too expensive. With the textbook and other materials, he makes it out to be like they are crucial to the class but I ended up not using half the materials. Buy the materials as they come, not matter how much he makes it out like you need to buy them instantly. I'd say for the first day of class, just grab a sketchbook and some drawing pencils and that's it. Overall, not horrible, he just reads of the slides for the most part. Not very engaging, and unless you are a favorite, you won't really have many interactions with him.

Michael Abrams
ARCH200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/29/2024

Arch200 with Abrams is a course you can't escape as a arch major. Be prepared for a lot of drawing. There are random drawing exercises in class, drawing homework, and and drawing for the assignments that are due. As for materials, you do not need to buy all of the materials that are on the list that totals almost $1000. Buy them as needed. Also there is no need to buy any of the textbooks. You can find an online version somewhere else. As for the rest of the class, its okay. He knows what he is talking about and is passionate, however, the class is LONG. I took the lab right after lecture and 8-12 every Wednesday was hard. After the lectures are over he often spends the rest of time discussing the assignment (can be anywhere from 10min to an hour depending on how much allotted time is left.) Your actual grade is in the hands of your TA. Everyone is assigned a TA who does all of the grading and they can be good or mid. Mine was great! You definitely have to work for the grade you want though. During labs if Abrams is present he can be a lor harsh during crits, so be prepared. Didn't really like the class, but I did like the work I produced. Goodluck.

Michael Abrams
ARCH200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/06/2023

This class is a lot of work and a lot of money - don't buy everything off the materials list until he actually says you are going to NEED to use it. Though it wouldn't hurt to get most of the basic stuff eventally because you end up using half of it again in 300. Very knowledgable professor who knows what he's doing, and is VERY good at communicating what he's looking for - a little overly critical of students work sometimes though (if you just take it as suggestions it's really not so bad). Personally I enjoyed him as a professor even with all his criticalness - never felt like I didn't know what I was suppose to be doing.

Michael Abrams
ARCH200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/20/2022

I think Professor Abrams does genuinely care about his students and gives great feedback either by asking or during critique. He's also pretty nice and is fun to listen to at times. His lectures are simple and easy to follow along and though it was annoying to have to get the textbook he wrote (theres a free pdf online), it was pretty useful especially the tables telling you which lineweights to use per drawing type. I find myself using it time to time in other arch classes. Missing class is definitely a no no because it really sets you back. In terms of purely lectures and personality, great. But what sets this class back in rating is HOW UNORGANIZED IT IS!!! The pacing of the class is horrendous because its so slow in the beginning and so much time is spent on one of the projects so then theres no time left for the others and everything becomes rushed in the end. I really liked that he wrote out assignment briefs to let you know what is expected in each assignment, but there would be errors in it. Like telling you the wrong dimensions needed or what to scale to which just makes it more work for you to ask the TA and what they want. The communication between TA and the prof is absolutely zero (most arch classes anyways), so its all different and up to each individual TA on what they want the projects should have which sometimes went against what the prof wanted. And just a heads up, there's a TON of drawing to do. Drawing exercises, drawing warmups, drawing homework, drawing projects, drawing drawing drawing. Overall I think the information being taught and Professor Abrams has lovely intentions, but the details of the class needs to be smoothened out because the class was hectic week after week. Goodluck!!!!

Michael Abrams
ARCH200

Expecting an A-
aruff
05/26/2022

Makes you buy his textbook as required reading (find a free pdf because I hardly ever used it except for the drawing exercises in it that count towards a grade (which is how he guarantees you buy his textbook)), plays favorites with students and the art/projects they make+present. The TAs were previously his favorite students, also. Vague project instructions (with vague clarifications), with errors in them that TAs and the professor did not catch, despite him having taught at UMD since 2015, and having previously taught this class before. Big discrepancies between what he expected in projects vs what TAs expected/liked in projects. Obviously could only pander to him or the TA, not both. Very disorganized. Was 20 minutes late to class once, blamed traffic. Almost a 1k materials list, a lot of which we barely used. Made us buy 1/8" wooden dowels, didn't include a way of cutting them. Will do "warm up sketches" in class (ungraded) of ridiculous things, expects you to use a whole page on it, will grab your textbook, flip to a new page, and tell you to "draw big!" if he sees you drawing on a page with other sketches. The absolute worst class I have ever taken at UMD. Ridiculous that I paid money for this. I have taken community college classes set up better than this.

Matthew Geiss
ARCH200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
08/04/2020

I really enjoyed this class overall! The projects were interesting and fun. The introduction to a lot of architectural techniques was helpful, as they went in depth and gave good information, and the projects then built on this information. The small sections were really helpful as well because you were able to get more individualized feedback. I would recommend signing up for the smaller section numbers (probably the higher section numbers) for this reason! Professor Geiss was helpful in crits, although you won't get feedback from him directly very often unless you go to him and ask (the TAs give you most of the feedback and do most of the grading). There were some communication issues between the professors and students at certain points, but all in all I personally had a good experience in this class and was able to learn a lot of information that will help me in the long run!

Reviews for ARCH200