Reviews for LARC160

Information Review
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/29/2025
This is probably one of the most stressful and irritating classes I have ever taken. Lot of the previous reviews talk about how passionate and nice Deni and the Tas are, which is mostly true, but doesn't encapsulate the full picture of the class. This class is majority an artistic class, and I felt like the grading of the projects mainly boiled down to your artistic abilities. But the biggest issue by far is the HORRENDOUS disorganization. Every single time there was a project, the project description, Deni, and the Tas would say a different thing, and it made figuring out what to actually do so incredibly difficult and irritating. Plus, for many of the assignments, you would need to travel to various locations (one of the projects was accessible through places on the metro, and another was focused around campus), which wasn't too bad but just added to the irritability of the class. Also, the grading was quite questionable too, I would never get proper rubric level points taken off - there was no feedback - and when I asked during discussion, I would get a vague response for why I got points off. Attendance was also mandatory, but I didn't find this much of an issue. I'm hoping they improve for the next semester, but overall the disorganization and weird grading requirements was super stressful and just not worth. Only reason why I didn't put my review as 1 star, is because it seems great for LARC majors who are great artists as well. Tl;DR: If you are looking for an easy gen ed, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS - it will be super stressful and ruin your semester.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/26/2025
The class itself can be time-consuming, but overall, the projects aren't hard as long as you put in some effort. Deni is one of the nicest people in the world and is very passionate, which I personally enjoy seeing from a teacher. The guest lectures were all interesting, with the only issue being slow grading, but TAs had more to do with that than Deni, which I will let slide a bit, considering TAs are students themselves working on their PhDs.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/25/2025
If you want an “easy” gen ed, don’t take this one. Unless you love art, this class isn’t really worth it. The TA’s are horrible. They are nice, sure, but try to email them you will NEVER get a response. Deni, the prof, is actually super nice and he answers emails! However, there is such a strange disconnect between the ta’s and the professor. IF and only IF you like art, this class is very easy. Chatgpt the reading reflections and do the work. attendance is “mandatory” but idk how it plays into the final grade. If you like art, take this and do your work it’s an easy A.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/23/2025
To get an A you need 95% and it didn’t even mention it on the syllabus. I emailed the TA early into the semester but he never answers his emails. I emailed Deni at the end of the semester and he answered me. I should have just asked him from the beginning.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Anonymous
05/16/2025
Deni and the TAs are nice. Assignments are fairly easy and do not take too long to do. There are some group projects, so just get a good group and you will be fine. Attendance is graded. Discussions are not that long, and they are helpful for upcoming assignments. My biggest complaint is grading. Right now is finals week, and out of the 45 assignments on ELMS, only 7 are graded. So far, I have 100% on all the assignments, so they really just grade on completion and how much effort you put in. This class should be an easy A, but because of the REALLY slow grading, it gets a 3-star review.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/13/2025
LARC160 is overall a pretty interesting class if you're interested in getting into lanscape architecture. I think it serves well as an introductory course - the guest lectures are really interesting and the projects aren't too bad. Theres 7 projects total, with 3 being group projects and no exams. As long as you put in the effort, it's an easy class and an interesting subject. the weekly readings are a bit long but you get the gist of it in the first few pages, making the reflections not too hard. A little time consuming, but worth it if it's something you're interested in.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
04/22/2025
This is the worst class I have taken at UMD. In multiple business classes and I have a better grade in all of them than this class. The grading is incredibly harsh and the assignments are all graded on how good of an architect you are and how artistic. Do not take unless you are a LARC major.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/22/2025
This course has been so fun!! The projects, while time consuming, were pretty interesting and relatively easy overall. The grading is really chill too, they mostly grade on effort. As long as you go to discussion and try, you'll get an A for sure. Deni is also just the nicest guy, which is an added bonus. The guest lectures are interesting as well.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an F
Anonymous
03/29/2025
This class is much harder than expected do not take if you are a STEM major
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Anonymous
03/24/2025
The class seems simple in its overview and reviews, but it is not. It is a ton of extra work than what needs to be for an introductory class. Deni is a great professor and a really nice guy, but the content of the assignments is just plain awful. If you show effort, you should get a good grade. That is unless your TA decides to grade on artistic ability instead of mine. It's really a gamble but if you like making things take it.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/09/2024
Deni is incredibly knowledgable and experienced in his field. The lectures are interesting and sometimes we do workshopping. The TAs are quick to respond to emails. Only 6 major projects for the semester and as long as you follow directions you'll get an A and weekly reading responses each week. If you are looking for an interesting gen ed and like design or art, take this class!
Colleen Vacelet
LARC160

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
07/08/2024
Good class. But sometimes hindered by Professor Vacelet's attitude. She was unprofessional a few times: in one instance, student asked a question about exam material and she paused the lecture for a good number of minutes to rant about how annoyed she was with the question. Remember sitting there awkwardly with the class the whole time instead of us just moving on and her teaching the material. Kinda ruined the vibe
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/07/2024
He is very passionate about this material! His lectures are very engaging, and he frequently has guest lectures that are very interesting. As it's only his second semester teaching this course, it has been a little bit rocky, however he and his TAs have made the assignments very approachable. He has very long readings, but honestly you don't have to read the entire things before you get the gist of the articles. As long as you put effort into the 6 assignments and show up to discussion, this class is an easy A!
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/07/2024
Very knowledgable and passionate about the course. He is revamping this course from previous semesters, where it was all just lectures and exams, and now it is all project-based (no exams). Some of the readings are ridiculously long for only a 1 point summary, but you can get most of the info from abstracts. There are a lot of guest lectures but they are actually all very interesting. Ruggeri is new to UMD and is kind of creating the course as he goes, so he is very open to feedback. Would recommend him, and LARC160 for a gen-ed.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/17/2024
Very knowledgeable in course material, although the assignments were somewhat unclear and disorganized. This course was new this semester so some changing due dates and unclear expectations were to be expected. Due to this, the course was relatively simple but served its purpose well. I expect this course will be more difficult the next time it is offered. Lectures were usually engaging when a guest was invited to speak, which happened about 5 or 6 times. Lectures are not mandatory, though discussions are. Grading appeared to be based on whether good effort was put into the assignments. Would recommend taking this professor in the future.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/14/2024
First time teaching this so class was disorganized. Deni genuinely cared about the material and class and was a great guy. Grading was lenient too.
Deni Ruggeri
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/13/2023
The course was pretty disorganized since this was his first year teaching it. Deadlines were constantly switching, assignment requirements would change, and even the TAs would give different due dates at times. I do think that it was mostly because it was his first time teaching it, and can't say if it will be the same next semester. However, grading was SO EASY. They just wanted to see if you even tried on the assignment. Deni is funny and nice and willing to help if you reach out to him. Overall easy A and would recommend for an easy GenEd. We were also told in the beginning of the semester that lectures were mandatory, but no one ever actually took attendance. Attendance at the discussion was required.
Jueminsi Wu
LARC160

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/07/2023
Nice enough of a professor, but her lectures are a little useless and boring since she reads off the slides. Clears her throat a lot if you have misophonia or are sensitive to noises like that. If you're looking for an easy A and aren't interested in the material, you could skip all the lectures like I did and get by. Nobody showed up by the middle of the semester lol. There are Quizlets with the exam review answers (the questions given in Canvas don't have answers) and if you study those and use common sense, you could get a good grade on the exams. Two exams, just the midterm and the final. Those are usually about 20 multiple choice questions and then 3 or so written explationation for concepts. My midterm was online but then some students complained about the technical difficulties so then the final was moved to in-person at 8am on the very last day of exams. Discussion required attendance and in my opinion was more interesting than the lectures. You'd draw site plans and learn about section cuts. There were a total of nine projects/assignments. Some were drawings, research on existing landscapes, plant species, etc. The last two were weighted more, and I got extra credit on the final project (bumping my grade up to over 100%). If you have the slightest interest in the environment/being creative and want something you can bs through, this is the class for you.
Jueminsi Wu
LARC160

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/07/2023
Nice enough of a professor, but her lectures are a little useless and boring since she reads off the slides. Clears her throat a lot if you have misophonia or are sensitive to noises like that. If you're looking for an easy A and aren't interested in the material, you could skip all the lectures like I did and get by. Nobody showed up by the middle of the semester lol. There are Quizlets with the exam review answers (the questions given in Canvas don't have answers) and if you study those and use common sense, you could get a good grade on the exams. Two exams, just the midterm and the final. Those are usually about 20 multiple choice questions and then 3 or so written explationation for concepts. My midterm was online but then some students complained about the technical difficulties so then the final was moved to in-person at 8am on the very last day of exams. Discussion required attendance and in my opinion was more interesting than the lectures. You'd draw site plans and learn about section cuts. There were a total of nine projects/assignments. Some were drawings, research on existing landscapes, plant species, etc. The last two were weighted more, and I got extra credit on the final project (bumping my grade up to over 100%). If you have the slightest interest in the environment/being creative and want something you can bs through, this is the class for you.
Jueminsi Wu
LARC160

Expecting an A
grizzlybean
05/04/2023
i believe she is slightly new to teaching. she really just reads of the slides, many of which are solely pictures so it is very difficult to take notes. that being said, the material in the class for me seemed fairly self explanatory and exams were not entirely difficult if you did the readings and reviewed, but the way they graded the short answer's were very specific. discussions were pretty engaging, we would walk to sites and draw different types of diagrams and the final project was proposing a site plan with a lot of diagrams, it just takes time. she posts study guides and its pretty vocab based but showing up to class at least for me was useless (attendance is taken though).
Dennis Nola
LARC160

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
07/15/2022
This guy assigned a million hard drawing projects... and a full final board presentation. I spent hours upon hours each week on the projects and got 100% on everything. His lectures were terrible. He didn't respond to anything until emailing at least three times. Final was awful. Do not recommend.
Dennis Nola
LARC160

Expecting a B
Anonymous
02/10/2021
I truly have no clue why he used to be rated so highly. I took his LARC160 in 2018 and every lecture was super boring since he just rambles on and on about stuff you barely understand or really care about. Discussion was useless too, just some boring random assignments. There was also a project where you had to draw an aerial view of parts of the campus, which for some reason he took off a bunch of points and never made his expectations clear. There were also exams involving essays, to this day I still don't know how or why he graded the way he did. If you think LARC160 is an easy class you are wrong, you'll actually have to spend a ton of time and research questions that don't really have an answer. If I could go back in time I would have chosen a different class. Nola is incredibly overrated and I totally regret taking this class with him.
Colleen Vacelet
LARC160

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/21/2021
Took it in 2020 with her. There were videos available to review as well as the PowerPoint she would use during the lecture so make use of every resource available. Exams were straightforward and easy to fail if you don't take notes during lectures and on the PowerPoint. There are readings, but whether or not you.
Colleen Vacelet
LARC160

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
06/21/2020
This class was easy enough, but Colleen was very rude and unhelpful over email (made worse by the fact that I took this as an online class). She said she would have office hours every day, but that ended after the first week, and the one time I scheduled to meet with her, she cancelled right before and then stopped responding to my emails. Fine class; not fine professor.
Colleen Vacelet
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/17/2019
Colleen was very professional and helpful throughout the course. There were daily assigned readings (some were up to ~80 pages), but don't let that scare you! The lecture slides summarize the readings to help with the midterm and final exam. Just be sure to take notes and pay attention to what is taught in class, because the material is really interesting and Colleen really makes the subject stick with you in the future with her multiple examples and campus tours.
Christopher Ellis
LARC160

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2016
Dr.Ellis is really nice. His lecture is very easy to understand, and he posted slides to elms, which helps the exams a lot. The key to ace? Never miss a discussion and you'll do great.