FMSC487 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Anonymous 12/19/2024	tldr; unresponsive, unforgiving, messy, confusing, don't do it. Class was incredibly disorganized. I could tell from the class group chat I was not the only person consistently confused. You will never know what your grade really even is. Attendance is worth 50% of grade and she give any chance for excused absences. I missed a class for having a job interview and for being sick and probably lost a letter grade. If you have ANY errors in her grading, good luck. She either does not get back to email or takes forever and then responds with an unrelated response. If you ask for clarification she will respond with a condensing response. I was in the hospital and unable to show up to and she took 12 days and multiple emails to respond just to say she can't give me a chance to makeup the missed assignment even though I have paperwork saying I went to the hospital and need to stay home for 5 days. This was the absolute worst class I have ever taken in my entire life. I took this as an upper level concentration while taking 3 other 400 level CS classes and this was the one class that was extremely messy, unresponsive, and unforgiving.
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/27/2023	Professor Tripp is very educated on the topics she teaches and makes the class interesting. The only downside to taking the class with her is that her instructions for the assignments are so unorganized. The Canvas is also unorganized. She gave me a 28/47 on the quiz, and when I emailed her about it, she said she forgot the exam was out of 33 points. The assignments were interesting and easy, besides the tests. I followed the directions on every test, but somehow, I completed the questions "incorrectly." Overall I liked her and enjoyed the class, but her being unorganized was my biggest stressor for the class.
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/05/2022	I honestly really enjoyed this class!! I felt like I learned a ton, and all of the assignments were very interesting and manageable. I am honestly sad that this class is over. Dr. Tripp is really cool, but really disorganized. Luckily, if you email for clarification she's pretty responsive.
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/22/2015	I absolutely enjoyed taking this class with Dr. Tripp. Even though I took it over the summer, which is online and only 3 weeks, making it really intense, I really enjoyed it. All the work and grading is fair, and the topics covered are really interesting. She also never imposes her views on you. She wants to hear your opinion, but since this is a law class, you have to back it up with cases or principles. Overall, I feel this is not a difficult class, as long as you do all the work, including the readings, and take notes. If you are considering taking it, I highly suggest it!
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Expecting an A+ samhallen 05/20/2013	Dr. Tripp is the only one who teaches the course for the department (as of Spring 2013), so you won't really have a choice but to take it with her. But no worries! Yeah, it takes some time to get used to her teaching style and method of lecturing, but the information is interesting, the exams are fair, and the term paper is doable. Also, Dr. Tripp is funny/entertaining to say the least, not to mention intelligent and very respectable. I really like her.
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Expecting an A proudterp 03/25/2013	i am actually really surprised at the negative reviews for this professor. Tripp has her views but she would never impose them on anyone else and does not grade anything subjectively. This is a family law course and yes, she ask for your opinion. However, its a LAW course, meaning you need to back up your opinion with legal cases, or principles (she always shows two extreme cases on the same topic and explains why/how they came to opposite conclusions). When it comes to her syllabus, yea she may be off sometimes, but her GA revises the syallbus each semester. If there are any issues, she is willing to move exam dates, etc if it is beneficial for everyone. She was always very friendly with students and everyone I knew loved her course. One downfall: she tends to go through slides fairly quickly and doesn't post them online. But she tells you exactly what you need, so its not the biggest deal on earth unless you are the students that jots each pointless word/phrase down. I really appreciated her as a professor and has been my favorite in all my time here (i'm a senior). She is very open and honest and helps you in any way possible (if you ask).
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Expecting an A knico06 11/29/2012	I'm honestly surprised to see such horrible reviews on this professor. I am currently a senior at UMD and of my four years at this school believe that Dr. Tripp has been one of my favorite professors. She keeps the class extremely interesting, and allows for lots of discussion. She never imposes her own views when presenting the course material; instead she presents both sides of an argument and then lets the class discuss the topic. I really appreciate this because I feel like so many professors try to persuade students towards their own views/opinions. So if you are considering taking this class, I would highly recommend it. As long as you actually show up to class and take notes, it's a pretty easy course. Dr. Tripp tells you exactly which cases/information will be on the exams so you don't have to worry about memorizing tons of irrelevant material. Other than the tests there is one paper (about 5 pages) that is on a book.
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Tyllk 08/23/2012	She is rude, condescending and bigot. I dropped her class.
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 jtobar91 08/10/2012	She is rude and stuck up. Just like the previous post says, she claims to be open to opinions but she is in fact completely narrow minded and because of this comes off as being ignorant. She thinks her syllabus is like the constitution and has the answers to all the questions a student could ask- FALSE. I couldn't find a video posting and she rudely replied the answer was on the syllabus, which by the way it was not, and then had to end up emailing the entire class to let everyone know where they could find it. Although the cases and readings were extremely interesting, she sabotaged the class with her dictator like lecturing. She always asked for our opinion and then marked us wrong when the opinions did not match historically made decisions, aka her opinions. I remember when I asked her to reconsider my grade for a posting I believed to be extremely well and she replied that "in law classes, we are really looking for the law--that is the correct answer"...... Well that is fine but do not ask for my opinion and then tell me you were looking for a previously made decision. That day she also insulted some social science/ literature majors claiming that they probably are more tolerant of wrong opinions, but not her law class. (Even though she is teaching a FAMILY law class. The irony in her stuffyness) Dr. Tripp, and she made it clear from the beginning she was a "Dr", reminds me of a judge who would be inconsiderate of changing a bad law because it has always been tradition. Oh and she talks down to you as if you are not worthy of her time and will respond to emails in the poorest dictation to prove how much she doesn't care about your inquiry. Anyways, I think you have a good idea of what she is like now. She is extremely bigot and I dropped her class before she could ruin my gpa.
Kerry Tripp FMSC487 Anonymous 06/20/2012	The professor claims to be professional and open to various opinions, but she has tolerance for any opinion that's different than hers. After working really hard throughout the semester, she still refused to give me the grade I deserved because she didn't agree with my opinions. I had a 4.00 GPA, and now because of her all my efforts went down the drain :(

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Anonymous
12/19/2024

tldr; unresponsive, unforgiving, messy, confusing, don't do it. Class was incredibly disorganized. I could tell from the class group chat I was not the only person consistently confused. You will never know what your grade really even is. Attendance is worth 50% of grade and she give any chance for excused absences. I missed a class for having a job interview and for being sick and probably lost a letter grade. If you have ANY errors in her grading, good luck. She either does not get back to email or takes forever and then responds with an unrelated response. If you ask for clarification she will respond with a condensing response. I was in the hospital and unable to show up to and she took 12 days and multiple emails to respond just to say she can't give me a chance to makeup the missed assignment even though I have paperwork saying I went to the hospital and need to stay home for 5 days. This was the absolute worst class I have ever taken in my entire life. I took this as an upper level concentration while taking 3 other 400 level CS classes and this was the one class that was extremely messy, unresponsive, and unforgiving.

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/27/2023

Professor Tripp is very educated on the topics she teaches and makes the class interesting. The only downside to taking the class with her is that her instructions for the assignments are so unorganized. The Canvas is also unorganized. She gave me a 28/47 on the quiz, and when I emailed her about it, she said she forgot the exam was out of 33 points. The assignments were interesting and easy, besides the tests. I followed the directions on every test, but somehow, I completed the questions "incorrectly." Overall I liked her and enjoyed the class, but her being unorganized was my biggest stressor for the class.

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/05/2022

I honestly really enjoyed this class!! I felt like I learned a ton, and all of the assignments were very interesting and manageable. I am honestly sad that this class is over. Dr. Tripp is really cool, but really disorganized. Luckily, if you email for clarification she's pretty responsive.

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/22/2015

I absolutely enjoyed taking this class with Dr. Tripp. Even though I took it over the summer, which is online and only 3 weeks, making it really intense, I really enjoyed it. All the work and grading is fair, and the topics covered are really interesting. She also never imposes her views on you. She wants to hear your opinion, but since this is a law class, you have to back it up with cases or principles. Overall, I feel this is not a difficult class, as long as you do all the work, including the readings, and take notes. If you are considering taking it, I highly suggest it!

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Expecting an A+
samhallen
05/20/2013

Dr. Tripp is the only one who teaches the course for the department (as of Spring 2013), so you won't really have a choice but to take it with her. But no worries! Yeah, it takes some time to get used to her teaching style and method of lecturing, but the information is interesting, the exams are fair, and the term paper is doable. Also, Dr. Tripp is funny/entertaining to say the least, not to mention intelligent and very respectable. I really like her.

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Expecting an A
proudterp
03/25/2013

i am actually really surprised at the negative reviews for this professor. Tripp has her views but she would never impose them on anyone else and does not grade anything subjectively. This is a family law course and yes, she ask for your opinion. However, its a LAW course, meaning you need to back up your opinion with legal cases, or principles (she always shows two extreme cases on the same topic and explains why/how they came to opposite conclusions). When it comes to her syllabus, yea she may be off sometimes, but her GA revises the syallbus each semester. If there are any issues, she is willing to move exam dates, etc if it is beneficial for everyone. She was always very friendly with students and everyone I knew loved her course. One downfall: she tends to go through slides fairly quickly and doesn't post them online. But she tells you exactly what you need, so its not the biggest deal on earth unless you are the students that jots each pointless word/phrase down. I really appreciated her as a professor and has been my favorite in all my time here (i'm a senior). She is very open and honest and helps you in any way possible (if you ask).

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Expecting an A
knico06
11/29/2012

I'm honestly surprised to see such horrible reviews on this professor. I am currently a senior at UMD and of my four years at this school believe that Dr. Tripp has been one of my favorite professors. She keeps the class extremely interesting, and allows for lots of discussion. She never imposes her own views when presenting the course material; instead she presents both sides of an argument and then lets the class discuss the topic. I really appreciate this because I feel like so many professors try to persuade students towards their own views/opinions. So if you are considering taking this class, I would highly recommend it. As long as you actually show up to class and take notes, it's a pretty easy course. Dr. Tripp tells you exactly which cases/information will be on the exams so you don't have to worry about memorizing tons of irrelevant material. Other than the tests there is one paper (about 5 pages) that is on a book.

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Tyllk
08/23/2012

She is rude, condescending and bigot. I dropped her class.

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

jtobar91
08/10/2012

She is rude and stuck up. Just like the previous post says, she claims to be open to opinions but she is in fact completely narrow minded and because of this comes off as being ignorant. She thinks her syllabus is like the constitution and has the answers to all the questions a student could ask- FALSE. I couldn't find a video posting and she rudely replied the answer was on the syllabus, which by the way it was not, and then had to end up emailing the entire class to let everyone know where they could find it. Although the cases and readings were extremely interesting, she sabotaged the class with her dictator like lecturing. She always asked for our opinion and then marked us wrong when the opinions did not match historically made decisions, aka her opinions. I remember when I asked her to reconsider my grade for a posting I believed to be extremely well and she replied that "in law classes, we are really looking for the law--that is the correct answer"...... Well that is fine but do not ask for my opinion and then tell me you were looking for a previously made decision. That day she also insulted some social science/ literature majors claiming that they probably are more tolerant of wrong opinions, but not her law class. (Even though she is teaching a FAMILY law class. The irony in her stuffyness) Dr. Tripp, and she made it clear from the beginning she was a "Dr", reminds me of a judge who would be inconsiderate of changing a bad law because it has always been tradition. Oh and she talks down to you as if you are not worthy of her time and will respond to emails in the poorest dictation to prove how much she doesn't care about your inquiry. Anyways, I think you have a good idea of what she is like now. She is extremely bigot and I dropped her class before she could ruin my gpa.

Kerry Tripp
FMSC487

Anonymous
06/20/2012

The professor claims to be professional and open to various opinions, but she has tolerance for any opinion that's different than hers. After working really hard throughout the semester, she still refused to give me the grade I deserved because she didn't agree with my opinions. I had a 4.00 GPA, and now because of her all my efforts went down the drain :(

Reviews for FMSC487