MIEH300 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Jennifer German MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/27/2026	TLDR: Don't underestimate this course, midterm and final can EASILY ruin your grade if you don't study/prepare at all. Lecture assignments and quizzes are fine, discussion/lab assignments are not too bad either so try to get high scores on those assignments to compensate for average exam performances. Try your best to go to class (9 am so it will be tough). Dr German can be very nice and cool but doesn't mess around when it comes to exams so be warned this might not be as easy of an A as most people may think. Just grind a little bit ahead of the exams and you can definitely get an A! I went into this class being told it was a "very easy" A, but that was not the case. Dr. German will push you to have a comprehensive understanding of all topics covered in MIEH300, so off the top I DON'T RECOMMEND underestimating this course just because it is a public health course. There are lecture assignments that are based off the lecture topic of the week which are not too bad to complete, just base your answers off what you learned in lecture. There are 5 question quizzes as well, and these can be a bit iffy since you only get one attempt to complete it with roughly one minute per question, so you do want to pay close attention. As for lecture assignments, there isn't anything too overbearing and shouldn't be too hard to get your grade up with them. The discussion section/lab was a bit more involved where there were separate units involving writing a paper that is broken down into separate assignments, a sort of debate where you discuss some environmental health issues, and a few weeks where you test some water quality. I'm going to be honest, out of all the public health courses I have taken so far this may have been my least favorite. It didn't help that my section was at 8 am, but also my group just was not great. They would always communicate at the last minute, do the bare minimum, and only start doing their part of the assignment at the VERY last minute. I did not have a great experience with them, but it wasn't anything that got in the way of doing well in the class (we never got a bad grade on assignments). My TA was also a bit harsh with their grading on the assignments too, but again nothing too bad. Most people will probably be fine in this lab/discussion section (especially if it isn't at 8 am). Now for exams there is a midterm and final exam. This is probably where people are going to disagree the most. First of all, no one showed up to class. This was a 9 am MW lecture, so that's probably why and I get it that is pretty early (my commute is about 45 minutes to an hour, so it was rough having to get up super early each morning). I do think that the reason why the average on the midterm was all over the place was because people thought it would be an easy "common sense" course that you didn't have to study for, so skipping their 9 am would be fine (I've got nothing against skipping, 9 am is really early). There is just so much material covered in this course that there is no way that it was going to be that easy. I kind of overprepared for the midterm just because a lot of my midterms that semester fell around the same two weeks, so I studied flashcards based off the lecture slides about 5-7 days in advance. I'm really glad I did because holy crap that midterm was kind of hard. The exam is done online during lecture using the lockdown browser. The multiple-choice questions are not too bad, but you really will want to know your stuff going into the exam. The open-ended questions are really what got me. There were about four of five questions you had the choice to answer, but they each had about 4-5 parts. They were pretty brutal because Dr. German has really high expectations for how much you can retain from each lecture. I did my best to give an answer to each question based off how much I remembered from studying, but they are no joke. I do think she gives credit as long as you are on the right track with the answer, so nothing exact but if you can stay on theme that probably helps. The final exam is formatted the exact same, just longer and you do have to answer ALL of the open-ended questions this time. The exams are also worth a large percentage of your final grade, so you are not comfortable with knowing that they won't be too easy and they may tank your grade if you do poorly, I wouldn't recommend this class if you are taking it alongside STEM courses (if you're pre-health). Dr. German also offered extra credit throughout the course, one day she decided to give everyone who attended class one point of extra credit on the midterm out of generosity, and then on the final there were some extra credit questions based off two guest lectures. Nothing that will massively change your grade, but better than nothing. I really want to emphasize those open-ended questions because they will be BRUTAL if you don't study or prepare at all, so be warned. As for Dr. German herself, I really liked her. She is passionate and very direct about what she wants us to learn. All the information you will need is on the slides and does emphasize and hint what will most likely appear as an open-ended question. I think it's nice that she always has a call to action at the end of each lecture, there is a reason why what she is telling you is important. You can always talk to her after class, and she is pretty flexible with her office hours if you reach out ahead of time and make an appointment. I think if I remember correctly, she has a background in biology/immunology which is why there is a little bit more science involved in this class, and it's pretty cool to see how some of the content applies to real life scenarios and you can tell that she is passionate about this stuff. She is very nice and pleasant once you get to know her and will crack a few jokes once you get to know her so don't hesitate to say hello. I had this one instance where I was taking the midterm with ADS, and I didn't realize until way too late that I had less time allotted for the exam than I was supposed to have. In her defense there were weird circumstances where my schedule required me to take the exam outside of the scheduled time just because my schedule was too crammed to give me enough time to hike up to the ADS testing location between classes, so I think that's where the mistake happened. The ADS proctor reached out, and Dr. German responded immediately, she told them that she can see which answers I finished and which questions I still had left (the open-ended questions of course). I was still kind of freaking out because none of my answers were saved when I reopened the quiz, but I still tried my best with what I had to work with. I reached out after the exam because I thought I failed that sh*t after that happened, but to my surprise Dr. German told me I still did really well and that she would be happy to meet with me in office hours to go over what happened. Meeting with her I felt reassured that everything was fine with my exam and she was really apologetic about what happened, which I appreciated. She even said that if I was to score poorly because of what happened that she would offer me to retake the exam if I wanted to. I would attend her office hours every now and then to go over material before the final because after how that midterm went, I definitely knew I had to really study for it. Final exam went great, I felt like I learned cool things, and Dr. German for me was a pleasant experience as a professor and person. I hope people who did take the time to read this and choose to go with her feel the same, and I think I'll be signing up for some other courses she teaches like PHSC420, MIEH325, and PHSC497. I appreciate her not trying to make things too easy and challenging us to apply what we learned.
Jennifer German MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/27/2026	TLDR: Don't underestimate this course, midterm and final can EASILY ruin your grade if you don't study/prepare at all. Lecture assignments and quizzes are fine, discussion/lab assignments are not too bad either so try to get high scores on those assignments to compensate for average exam performances. Try your best to go to class (9 am so it will be tough). Dr German can be very nice and cool but doesn't mess around when it comes to exams so be warned this might not be as easy of an A as most people may think. Just grind a little bit ahead of the exams and you can definitely get an A! I went into this class being told it was a "very easy" A, but that was not the case. Dr. German will push you to have a comprehensive understanding of all topics covered in MIEH300, so off the top I DON'T RECOMMEND underestimating this course just because it is a public health course. There are lecture assignments that are based off the lecture topic of the week which are not too bad to complete, just base your answers off what you learned in lecture. There are 5 question quizzes as well, and these can be a bit iffy since you only get one attempt to complete it with roughly one minute per question, so you do want to pay close attention. As for lecture assignments, there isn't anything too overbearing and shouldn't be too hard to get your grade up with them. The discussion section/lab was a bit more involved where there were separate units involving writing a paper that is broken down into separate assignments, a sort of debate where you discuss some environmental health issues, and a few weeks where you test some water quality. I'm going to be honest, out of all the public health courses I have taken so far this may have been my least favorite. It didn't help that my section was at 8 am, but also my group just was not great. They would always communicate at the last minute, do the bare minimum, and only start doing their part of the assignment at the VERY last minute. I did not have a great experience with them, but it wasn't anything that got in the way of doing well in the class (we never got a bad grade on assignments). My TA was also a bit harsh with their grading on the assignments too, but again nothing too bad. Most people will probably be fine in this lab/discussion section (especially if it isn't at 8 am). Now for exams there is a midterm and final exam. This is probably where people are going to disagree the most. First of all, no one showed up to class. This was a 9 am MW lecture, so that's probably why and I get it that is pretty early (my commute is about 45 minutes to an hour, so it was rough having to get up super early each morning). I do think that the reason why the average on the midterm was all over the place was because people thought it would be an easy "common sense" course that you didn't have to study for, so skipping their 9 am would be fine (I've got nothing against skipping, 9 am is really early). There is just so much material covered in this course that there is no way that it was going to be that easy. I kind of overprepared for the midterm just because a lot of my midterms that semester fell around the same two weeks, so I studied flashcards based off the lecture slides about 5-7 days in advance. I'm really glad I did because holy crap that midterm was kind of hard. The exam is done online during lecture using the lockdown browser. The multiple-choice questions are not too bad, but you really will want to know your stuff going into the exam. The open-ended questions are really what got me. There were about four of five questions you had the choice to answer, but they each had about 4-5 parts. They were pretty brutal because Dr. German has really high expectations for how much you can retain from each lecture. I did my best to give an answer to each question based off how much I remembered from studying, but they are no joke. I do think she gives credit as long as you are on the right track with the answer, so nothing exact but if you can stay on theme that probably helps. The final exam is formatted the exact same, just longer and you do have to answer ALL of the open-ended questions this time. The exams are also worth a large percentage of your final grade, so you are not comfortable with knowing that they won't be too easy and they may tank your grade if you do poorly, I wouldn't recommend this class if you are taking it alongside STEM courses (if you're pre-health). Dr. German also offered extra credit throughout the course, one day she decided to give everyone who attended class one point of extra credit on the midterm out of generosity, and then on the final there were some extra credit questions based off two guest lectures. Nothing that will massively change your grade, but better than nothing. I really want to emphasize those open-ended questions because they will be BRUTAL if you don't study or prepare at all, so be warned. As for Dr. German herself, I really liked her. She is passionate and very direct about what she wants us to learn. All the information you will need is on the slides and does emphasize and hint what will most likely appear as an open-ended question. I think it's nice that she always has a call to action at the end of each lecture, there is a reason why what she is telling you is important. You can always talk to her after class, and she is pretty flexible with her office hours if you reach out ahead of time and make an appointment. I think if I remember correctly, she has a background in biology/immunology which is why there is a little bit more science involved in this class, and it's pretty cool to see how some of the content applies to real life scenarios and you can tell that she is passionate about this stuff. She is very nice and pleasant once you get to know her and will crack a few jokes once you get to know her so don't hesitate to say hello. I had this one instance where I was taking the midterm with ADS, and I didn't realize until way too late that I had less time allotted for the exam than I was supposed to have. In her defense there were weird circumstances where my schedule required me to take the exam outside of the scheduled time just because my schedule was too crammed to give me enough time to hike up to the ADS testing location between classes, so I think that's where the mistake happened. The ADS proctor reached out, and Dr. German responded immediately, she told them that she can see which answers I finished and which questions I still had left (the open-ended questions of course). I was still kind of freaking out because none of my answers were saved when I reopened the quiz, but I still tried my best with what I had to work with. I reached out after the exam because I thought I failed that sh*t after that happened, but to my surprise Dr. German told me I still did really well and that she would be happy to meet with me in office hours to go over what happened. Meeting with her I felt reassured that everything was fine with my exam and she was really apologetic about what happened, which I appreciated. She even said that if I was to score poorly because of what happened that she would offer me to retake the exam if I wanted to. I would attend her office hours every now and then to go over material before the final because after how that midterm went, I definitely knew I had to really study for it. Final exam went great, I felt like I learned cool things, and Dr. German for me was a pleasant experience as a professor and person. I hope people who did take the time to read this and choose to go with her feel the same, and I think I'll be signing up for some other courses she teaches like PHSC420, MIEH325, and PHSC497. I appreciate her not trying to make things too easy and challenging us to apply what we learned.
Jennifer German MIEH300 Anonymous 01/20/2026	Everything is fine until the exam. I been to every lecture and I still did bad on the exam. She said we would be fine- What I don't understand is why can't the exam be multiple choice? The exam is so detail like I am being deadass and I have taken orgo 1 and 2 done all the pre heath pre req like genetics, biochemistry.
Jennifer German MIEH300 Anonymous 12/24/2025	Reads straight off her slideshows, not engaging at all. Exams are worth about 70% of the total grade so other assignments are almost meaningless. If you do poorly on the midterm, you have zero opportunity to get an A. Whole class performed poorly overall and there was no curve. Kind of sad.
Jennifer German MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2025	Class was easy, kinda. I never went to lecture because it was at 9 am, and she removed the pop quizzes for this semester. Assignments were easy and graded super leniently, my only issue is that you had to watch a documentary every like week and a half. There was a midterm and a final, the midterm was really easy, the final was kinda hard, so do prepare decently well for both, but just memorizing the slides should get you an A on both. Other than that, there is a lab section that can be annoying if your group sucks, but I didnt have that issue!
Meleah Boyle MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/25/2025	Took this class over the summer. It was a lot of reading and discussion posts, but honestly most of it was really interesting so it didn't feel too bad. The group project was a little awkward because it was all online, but it was doable. Her lectures were straight forward and concise and related directly to the questions on the quizzes.
Meleah Boyle MIEH300 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/09/2025	Dr. Boyle is incredibly understanding and such a great professor. I had her online over the summer and was very quick to communicate. Her lectures were really informative and useful for the quizzes, exams, and discussions. The quizzes have a strict time limit, which means you have to be well prepared for since there are some short answer questions. Overall, a really great class.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Anonymous 05/15/2025	TLDR; The class mainly consists of busy work that doesn't affect your grade too much. The lab grades, midterm, and final practically determine your grade, since getting full scores on the other assignments barely increases your grade. Attendance is necessary since there are 6 pop quizzes (1 dropped) throughout the semester. I would take this course over the summer or winter if you can. I'm not sure what my expected grade is due to the grade distribution. I am currently in the A to A- range, but the final could easily change that. I didn't interact with Dr. Murray beyond listening to her lectures, so I can't speak on her character. However, I didn't find her lectures interesting. Pros TAs do the majority of the grading, so they tend to be more lenient on the lab assignments and lecture assignments. My TA was super responsive. I can't speak on the other TAs. 3 big group assignments in a lab (could be a con) Guest lecturers are often interesting. I think we had 5 guest lectures. Lab assignments are easily completable in class. Air lab data collection days are a bunch of free time while you wait at your site for around an hour. Slides are neat. Assignments are graded within reasonable time periods. Cons Lack of study resources (there is one exam review before the midterm and final, but students aren't able to access the Kahoot afterwards). 6 pop quizzes with 1 dropped. Most of the time, the pop quizzes relate to the lecture pretty closely, but sometimes she'll throw in a question that you would've needed to read the chapter beforehand. Attendance is necessary due to pop quizzes. But, you could gamble your odds and skip a class since pop quizzes typically are every 2 or 3 lectures. I know someone who didn't attend 4 lectures and didn't miss any pop quizzes. Long weekly lecture assignments that relate to the topic don't reinforce the ideas. 1 to 2 hour-long documentaries (some without 2x or transcript) to answer a few questions. Midterm questions and grading are much harsher than any of the other assignments. Requires specific facts rather than general ideas. (Assuming the final will be similar) Midterm format consisted of 3 short answers and 20 MCQs. The short answer questions had 4-7 parts each and were worth 10 points per. (Assuming the final will be similar) Dr. Murray primarily reads off her slides.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/12/2025	This professor is literally the worst. She does not care about her students at all. She reads directly off of her slides at a mile a minute. She is an incredibly harsh grader and takes points off for the littlest things. There are 2 exams (midterm and final) and the open ended questions would be vague but she would take points off if you didn't list specific items that she was looking for. The pop quizzes were diabolical, even if you paid attention in class you would struggle to answer the questions.
Brienna Anderson MIEH300 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/23/2024	As you can see I got an A- in the class, could've done better if I had put in more effort, but to be fair I was juggling other courses that were taking up a lot of my time. With that being said, you will probably do better if the effort and consistency is there. I'll give you the main drawback right of the bat, although Anderson is very knowledgable, she reads off the slides so sitting there for an hour or so it was hard to stay focused. Here's the rest of the breakdown: Lecture - I don't believe the content of this class is hard or difficult to digest, of course it would be helpful if you've taken other bio/science courses prior to this since MIEH 300 relates to environmental issues, but not necessary because the lecture slides has all the information you need to study for lecture exams. So, as long as you're on top of the content you'll be ok, mainly all memorization - quizlet or something similar will be helpful. There are weekly homework assignments (this may change but most of the time it will be watching a video and answering questions pertaining to the content - some are longer than others so be prepared for that) and quizzes that are from the lecture slides, formatted to help you understand the basics of each lecture but not difficult to do. Pop quizzes were also given for lecture content - they're pop quizzes so the hatred for them and not knowing when they will be given is to be expected but definitely not something to pull your hair out about content wise. Lab - Now this is where I feel like most people struggled because Anderson is just starting with this course, so there was some hiccups in how things were organized between the Prof. and the TA's. Lab assignments were sometimes done individually or in groups and related to the content taught in lecture - but again, not hard to do or conceptually understand. I do hope for following semesters there is more structure to this part of the course. Overall, pretty mid.
Brienna Anderson MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2024	Okay, so i didnt know this class had a lab but class was much harder than it had to be. The prof is great but there is so much content to memorize for the exams. They were online on a lockdown browser in person but dang I feel I spent more time on this class than orgo ngl. It also depends on your TA as they grade everything. My TA was so strict so no reason. Like she took off 1 point on a assignment because I added a sentence that was five words long and wasn't relevant to my assignment. The labs were so annoying and they are group assignments.. You also had to come to class because she gives pop quizzes.. so I wasn't aware but at the end of the semester there is participation grade your TA gives so make sure e you participate somehow. Ya but dreaded this class and will never recommend taking it unless you in SPH. also the prof just read off the slides so it was even more boring. Exam are "easy" if you literally memorize everything on the slides tbh. Just do good on the midterm so you arent as stressed on the final.
Brienna Anderson MIEH300 Anonymous 12/18/2024	She's very knowledgeable in her field but it doesn't translate well during her lectures because she just reads off the slides and is very monotone so it's sometimes hard to give her my full attention. This class is mostly memorization and not applying concepts, so exams weren't thatt bad either. Work load was fine but somehow towards last midterms/finals season there was like 3 assignments every week, which I didn't appreciate.
Brienna Anderson MIEH300 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/18/2024	Dr. Anderson does seem very well educated on the topic of Environmental Health, however, she would read directly off the slides which would make it difficult to engage in lecture. This was frustrating because she would give out pop quizzes to ensure attendance (One is dropped) so make sure to come to class. The assignments for this class are a little on the heavier side but fairly easy to complete. First there are weekly quizzes that are 5 questions and would be timed for 5 minutes. Then there were weekly written assignments which sometimes require you to watch videos that are 45 minutes and up.There are discussion/lab assignments which weren’t too bad and can be completed during the 1 hr 50 minute timeframe. The course content truly isn’t difficult and her exams are very fair (2 midterms and a final). It is definitely easy to get an A in this class, just don’t pair it with more heavier STEM courses to save yourself the risk of getting a B. She also can come off slightly passive aggressive but she would answer questions during lecture and through email.
Brienna Anderson MIEH300 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/17/2024	The content covered in this course is very interesting and Dr. Anderson is definitely very knowledgeable about these topics, however, the lectures are so incredibly boring it makes it so difficult to get yourself to go. No enrichment is provided beyond what is written on the slides, which adds to the lack of motivation to attend. However, there are pop quizzes which are not difficult at all, but so painful to miss because they make up a pretty significant portion of your grade if you miss too many. A lot of memorization of the details pertaining to specific laws and policies was expected on exams, even when they were very briefly touched on in class, which was annoying, but the quizzes and exams were not difficult if you just memorize the material.
Brienna Anderson MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2024	I took MIEH300 with Professor Anderson. The lectures are extremely boring because she just reads off the slides which is really my only complaint. There are six pop quizzes in the class, so be prepared to come to class. The course load is not terrible, there are weekly 5 question quizzes and assignments that are pretty easy to complete. The discussion/lab is also not tedious and most of the times can be completed in class.
Brienna Anderson MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2024	The class has several drawbacks. The instructor conducts pop quizzes, necessitating attendance at all lectures. The lectures primarily consist of the instructor reading directly from the slides. It is relatively straightforward to achieve an A, as the material is not particularly challenging and the exams are fair. However, consistent attendance at early morning sessions is essential to succeed.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Anonymous 12/09/2024	Dr. Murray is clearly knowledgable about the content, and connects the content to her work in environmental health and water quality. She was happy to answer any questions I had, and the lectures & lecture slides were all detailed. I also like that she includes videos to review the content. All these other comments are just people not following assignment guidelines - which is a them problem. Do your work and this class is interesting, and reasonable.
Meleah Boyle MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/18/2024	I took this class over the summer and it was very manageable alongside full time work + other responsibilities. There were several discussion board assignments each week that built on the lecture material. You also have the opportunity to pick a topic of interest for a group project (which was honestly really weird navigating in a 100% asynchronous class). There were weekly tests based on the lecture content that were unnecessarily stressful in my opinion. They were made up of 10 questions, some of which required lengthy written responses, and had a 12 minute time limit (which she later extended to 18 minutes). Weekly written assignments made up the final paper (analysis) submitted at the end of the semester, however, many of the instructions were hidden in difficult-to-access parts of the rubric. While some things about the class were frustrating, she did give opportunities for freebie points and the class was fully asynchronous. I would recommend this class to anyone considering taking it over the summer, but make sure to be very thorough when looking through instructions if you don't want to lose points.
Meleah Boyle MIEH300 Anonymous 06/17/2024	New prof - I was nervous. So far I'm about halfway into her class and I can say that she's kind and reasonable professor that listens to our concerns when things get oddly difficult. Like for example, she gave us 12 minutes to do quizzes with like 15 questions and 3 of them were written - and most of us couldn't finish - but when we let her know she immediately changed that and everything is way more manageable now. She's very thorough and teaches us a lot too. Fair with grades. I hope she sticks with UMD for a long time
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/08/2024	Attendance is not required but necessary as she does random pop quizzes (total of 6, drops 1). Cannot get a friend to do it for you as she makes you do it on a sheet of paper and write your name to turn in. If you don't do any of the pop quizzes your overall grade is dropped by 5%. Midterm and final are fair, final is not cumulative and only involves what we learn in the second half of the semester. Slides are neat and organized and she does a review session before the midterm and final making studying easier.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/17/2024	would give 1 star if I could. horrible lecturer, reads directly off of her powerpoint slides (way too fast) and gives random pop quizzes to make sure kids come to class. Very specific grading and will take off petty points periodically. Should be an easy class but she makes it so much harder to score well for no reason.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023	Why does umd even hire rude and aggressive professors??? The person below me said they got inconsiderate because they had an excused absence and the same thing happened to me. Like girl I’m sick and I had a doctors note.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/28/2023	This professor is actually the worst. The class itself isn’t bad and is fairly easy but she is so rude and inconsiderate it’s insane. I had an excused absence for being sick and she said it was inconsiderate of me for missing class like what???
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Expecting an A- Anonymous 07/07/2023	(Took over the summer) the content of this course is interesting but unfortunately it is presented in a non-functional way. There are multiple semester-long group assignments and Professor Murray is not at all understanding of the difficulties that come with poor communication from peers. Group leaders are randomly assigned and must do significantly more work for the entire semester with no support for it. Open-ended assignments are very harshly graded and multiple answer questions are frustratingly worded. Murray is a good lecturer but her assignments and grading style make the class extremely frustrating.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/12/2023	I would give her a 0 if I could but sadly I can only give her a 1. She is one of the worst professors I’ve ever came in contact with. She is a petty graders and will nitpick anything to be able to take off points on assignments. (Including citation formatting) She must be aware that she is an extremely boring lecturer as she does pop quizzes with special access codes and a sign in sheet to force students to come to class. She is also very inconsiderate of students. I had to miss class for a surgery and she still gave me a 0 for missing a pop quiz. Her pop quizzes are also hyper specific. You can pay attention throughout the whole lecture, despite her literally just reading off the slides, and still get a 0 on the pop quiz. She also has online quizzes every week which give you barely enough time to even process the questions. She even has a quiz and assignment due after the last day of classes??? The course material is easy but you can definitely tell she is trying everything in her power to ensure students don’t get the easy A. This obsession to the overcomplicate a simple course makes her absolutely unbearable as a professor.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Anonymous 05/12/2023	Nice professor but honestly really strict about attendance. I have never seen a professor that cared about attendance so much to the point that they will do pop quizzes with random codes and mandatory paper signing at the end. She would drop 2 of them but when you are sick you would expect her to give you a make-up or at least show compassion as a human but she would instead just ignore your message which I find it very disturbing. Being a professor you should be able to respond to a student during a reasonable time period.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Anonymous 05/04/2023	I have never had a professor weirder than her. She forces you to go to class by randomly doing pop quizzes and has gotten stricter with each quiz. She threatened to report people for cheating if they didn't sign the sign-out sheet. Her quizzes ask about topics we have never discussed before and only reads off of her slides. She gave a student attitude when they asked if there was a pop quiz as well one day. She refused to let us see the correct answers from our quizzes as she was "afraid it would go onto Quizlet" as if she couldn't come up with other questions next semester. Overall, she's lazy and clearly has nothing else to do with her life.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Anonymous 05/01/2023	I have never seen a professor who cares so much about her students coming to class as she does. This semester she decided to do pop quizzes so your basically forced to come to class or else you receive a zero because she uses a special code AND makes u sign a paper saying you were there. I wouldn't mind this if she actually added anything to the material but she literally just reads off the slides the entire time and adds nothing substantial to the content. I would probably learn better just looking over the slides myself. The class itself is not hard she's just annoying about attendance when most professors don't normally care.
Rianna Murray MIEH300 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2023	Nice professor, interesting content, great at explaining class concepts clearly and connecting to real world events. Great prof, would recommend!
Kendall Bustad MIEH300 Anonymous 08/30/2022	Enrolled in her course during the pandemic when classes were entirely virtual. The online lectures were highly unengaging, monotonous, and not well executed. This made it difficult to follow.
Kendall Bustad MIEH300 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/29/2022	I really enjoy Dr. Bustad's class. The lectures are easy to follow along and encourages questions during class! Weekly quizzes and exams are pretty easy as long as you review the lecture slides! Lab is pretty simple and you will get them done in under an hour!
Kendall Bustad MIEH300 Anonymous 02/01/2021	Dr. Bustad is approachable and laid back. She HAS to teach MIEH300 but also teaches a nutrition course and a public health in the city course.
Sacoby Wilson MIEH300 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/20/2017	He flies though all topics except environmental justice/ environmental racism. Has a lot of guest lectures because he can’t adequately teach the material. Tons of busy work, homework, weekly journal entries from Toms River, reads directly from slide, has word minimums on every assignment. Final exam and final paper that is 5-8 pages.

Jennifer German
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/27/2026

TLDR: Don't underestimate this course, midterm and final can EASILY ruin your grade if you don't study/prepare at all. Lecture assignments and quizzes are fine, discussion/lab assignments are not too bad either so try to get high scores on those assignments to compensate for average exam performances. Try your best to go to class (9 am so it will be tough). Dr German can be very nice and cool but doesn't mess around when it comes to exams so be warned this might not be as easy of an A as most people may think. Just grind a little bit ahead of the exams and you can definitely get an A! I went into this class being told it was a "very easy" A, but that was not the case. Dr. German will push you to have a comprehensive understanding of all topics covered in MIEH300, so off the top I DON'T RECOMMEND underestimating this course just because it is a public health course. There are lecture assignments that are based off the lecture topic of the week which are not too bad to complete, just base your answers off what you learned in lecture. There are 5 question quizzes as well, and these can be a bit iffy since you only get one attempt to complete it with roughly one minute per question, so you do want to pay close attention. As for lecture assignments, there isn't anything too overbearing and shouldn't be too hard to get your grade up with them. The discussion section/lab was a bit more involved where there were separate units involving writing a paper that is broken down into separate assignments, a sort of debate where you discuss some environmental health issues, and a few weeks where you test some water quality. I'm going to be honest, out of all the public health courses I have taken so far this may have been my least favorite. It didn't help that my section was at 8 am, but also my group just was not great. They would always communicate at the last minute, do the bare minimum, and only start doing their part of the assignment at the VERY last minute. I did not have a great experience with them, but it wasn't anything that got in the way of doing well in the class (we never got a bad grade on assignments). My TA was also a bit harsh with their grading on the assignments too, but again nothing too bad. Most people will probably be fine in this lab/discussion section (especially if it isn't at 8 am). Now for exams there is a midterm and final exam. This is probably where people are going to disagree the most. First of all, no one showed up to class. This was a 9 am MW lecture, so that's probably why and I get it that is pretty early (my commute is about 45 minutes to an hour, so it was rough having to get up super early each morning). I do think that the reason why the average on the midterm was all over the place was because people thought it would be an easy "common sense" course that you didn't have to study for, so skipping their 9 am would be fine (I've got nothing against skipping, 9 am is really early). There is just so much material covered in this course that there is no way that it was going to be that easy. I kind of overprepared for the midterm just because a lot of my midterms that semester fell around the same two weeks, so I studied flashcards based off the lecture slides about 5-7 days in advance. I'm really glad I did because holy crap that midterm was kind of hard. The exam is done online during lecture using the lockdown browser. The multiple-choice questions are not too bad, but you really will want to know your stuff going into the exam. The open-ended questions are really what got me. There were about four of five questions you had the choice to answer, but they each had about 4-5 parts. They were pretty brutal because Dr. German has really high expectations for how much you can retain from each lecture. I did my best to give an answer to each question based off how much I remembered from studying, but they are no joke. I do think she gives credit as long as you are on the right track with the answer, so nothing exact but if you can stay on theme that probably helps. The final exam is formatted the exact same, just longer and you do have to answer ALL of the open-ended questions this time. The exams are also worth a large percentage of your final grade, so you are not comfortable with knowing that they won't be too easy and they may tank your grade if you do poorly, I wouldn't recommend this class if you are taking it alongside STEM courses (if you're pre-health). Dr. German also offered extra credit throughout the course, one day she decided to give everyone who attended class one point of extra credit on the midterm out of generosity, and then on the final there were some extra credit questions based off two guest lectures. Nothing that will massively change your grade, but better than nothing. I really want to emphasize those open-ended questions because they will be BRUTAL if you don't study or prepare at all, so be warned. As for Dr. German herself, I really liked her. She is passionate and very direct about what she wants us to learn. All the information you will need is on the slides and does emphasize and hint what will most likely appear as an open-ended question. I think it's nice that she always has a call to action at the end of each lecture, there is a reason why what she is telling you is important. You can always talk to her after class, and she is pretty flexible with her office hours if you reach out ahead of time and make an appointment. I think if I remember correctly, she has a background in biology/immunology which is why there is a little bit more science involved in this class, and it's pretty cool to see how some of the content applies to real life scenarios and you can tell that she is passionate about this stuff. She is very nice and pleasant once you get to know her and will crack a few jokes once you get to know her so don't hesitate to say hello. I had this one instance where I was taking the midterm with ADS, and I didn't realize until way too late that I had less time allotted for the exam than I was supposed to have. In her defense there were weird circumstances where my schedule required me to take the exam outside of the scheduled time just because my schedule was too crammed to give me enough time to hike up to the ADS testing location between classes, so I think that's where the mistake happened. The ADS proctor reached out, and Dr. German responded immediately, she told them that she can see which answers I finished and which questions I still had left (the open-ended questions of course). I was still kind of freaking out because none of my answers were saved when I reopened the quiz, but I still tried my best with what I had to work with. I reached out after the exam because I thought I failed that sh*t after that happened, but to my surprise Dr. German told me I still did really well and that she would be happy to meet with me in office hours to go over what happened. Meeting with her I felt reassured that everything was fine with my exam and she was really apologetic about what happened, which I appreciated. She even said that if I was to score poorly because of what happened that she would offer me to retake the exam if I wanted to. I would attend her office hours every now and then to go over material before the final because after how that midterm went, I definitely knew I had to really study for it. Final exam went great, I felt like I learned cool things, and Dr. German for me was a pleasant experience as a professor and person. I hope people who did take the time to read this and choose to go with her feel the same, and I think I'll be signing up for some other courses she teaches like PHSC420, MIEH325, and PHSC497. I appreciate her not trying to make things too easy and challenging us to apply what we learned.

Jennifer German
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/27/2026

TLDR: Don't underestimate this course, midterm and final can EASILY ruin your grade if you don't study/prepare at all. Lecture assignments and quizzes are fine, discussion/lab assignments are not too bad either so try to get high scores on those assignments to compensate for average exam performances. Try your best to go to class (9 am so it will be tough). Dr German can be very nice and cool but doesn't mess around when it comes to exams so be warned this might not be as easy of an A as most people may think. Just grind a little bit ahead of the exams and you can definitely get an A! I went into this class being told it was a "very easy" A, but that was not the case. Dr. German will push you to have a comprehensive understanding of all topics covered in MIEH300, so off the top I DON'T RECOMMEND underestimating this course just because it is a public health course. There are lecture assignments that are based off the lecture topic of the week which are not too bad to complete, just base your answers off what you learned in lecture. There are 5 question quizzes as well, and these can be a bit iffy since you only get one attempt to complete it with roughly one minute per question, so you do want to pay close attention. As for lecture assignments, there isn't anything too overbearing and shouldn't be too hard to get your grade up with them. The discussion section/lab was a bit more involved where there were separate units involving writing a paper that is broken down into separate assignments, a sort of debate where you discuss some environmental health issues, and a few weeks where you test some water quality. I'm going to be honest, out of all the public health courses I have taken so far this may have been my least favorite. It didn't help that my section was at 8 am, but also my group just was not great. They would always communicate at the last minute, do the bare minimum, and only start doing their part of the assignment at the VERY last minute. I did not have a great experience with them, but it wasn't anything that got in the way of doing well in the class (we never got a bad grade on assignments). My TA was also a bit harsh with their grading on the assignments too, but again nothing too bad. Most people will probably be fine in this lab/discussion section (especially if it isn't at 8 am). Now for exams there is a midterm and final exam. This is probably where people are going to disagree the most. First of all, no one showed up to class. This was a 9 am MW lecture, so that's probably why and I get it that is pretty early (my commute is about 45 minutes to an hour, so it was rough having to get up super early each morning). I do think that the reason why the average on the midterm was all over the place was because people thought it would be an easy "common sense" course that you didn't have to study for, so skipping their 9 am would be fine (I've got nothing against skipping, 9 am is really early). There is just so much material covered in this course that there is no way that it was going to be that easy. I kind of overprepared for the midterm just because a lot of my midterms that semester fell around the same two weeks, so I studied flashcards based off the lecture slides about 5-7 days in advance. I'm really glad I did because holy crap that midterm was kind of hard. The exam is done online during lecture using the lockdown browser. The multiple-choice questions are not too bad, but you really will want to know your stuff going into the exam. The open-ended questions are really what got me. There were about four of five questions you had the choice to answer, but they each had about 4-5 parts. They were pretty brutal because Dr. German has really high expectations for how much you can retain from each lecture. I did my best to give an answer to each question based off how much I remembered from studying, but they are no joke. I do think she gives credit as long as you are on the right track with the answer, so nothing exact but if you can stay on theme that probably helps. The final exam is formatted the exact same, just longer and you do have to answer ALL of the open-ended questions this time. The exams are also worth a large percentage of your final grade, so you are not comfortable with knowing that they won't be too easy and they may tank your grade if you do poorly, I wouldn't recommend this class if you are taking it alongside STEM courses (if you're pre-health). Dr. German also offered extra credit throughout the course, one day she decided to give everyone who attended class one point of extra credit on the midterm out of generosity, and then on the final there were some extra credit questions based off two guest lectures. Nothing that will massively change your grade, but better than nothing. I really want to emphasize those open-ended questions because they will be BRUTAL if you don't study or prepare at all, so be warned. As for Dr. German herself, I really liked her. She is passionate and very direct about what she wants us to learn. All the information you will need is on the slides and does emphasize and hint what will most likely appear as an open-ended question. I think it's nice that she always has a call to action at the end of each lecture, there is a reason why what she is telling you is important. You can always talk to her after class, and she is pretty flexible with her office hours if you reach out ahead of time and make an appointment. I think if I remember correctly, she has a background in biology/immunology which is why there is a little bit more science involved in this class, and it's pretty cool to see how some of the content applies to real life scenarios and you can tell that she is passionate about this stuff. She is very nice and pleasant once you get to know her and will crack a few jokes once you get to know her so don't hesitate to say hello. I had this one instance where I was taking the midterm with ADS, and I didn't realize until way too late that I had less time allotted for the exam than I was supposed to have. In her defense there were weird circumstances where my schedule required me to take the exam outside of the scheduled time just because my schedule was too crammed to give me enough time to hike up to the ADS testing location between classes, so I think that's where the mistake happened. The ADS proctor reached out, and Dr. German responded immediately, she told them that she can see which answers I finished and which questions I still had left (the open-ended questions of course). I was still kind of freaking out because none of my answers were saved when I reopened the quiz, but I still tried my best with what I had to work with. I reached out after the exam because I thought I failed that sh*t after that happened, but to my surprise Dr. German told me I still did really well and that she would be happy to meet with me in office hours to go over what happened. Meeting with her I felt reassured that everything was fine with my exam and she was really apologetic about what happened, which I appreciated. She even said that if I was to score poorly because of what happened that she would offer me to retake the exam if I wanted to. I would attend her office hours every now and then to go over material before the final because after how that midterm went, I definitely knew I had to really study for it. Final exam went great, I felt like I learned cool things, and Dr. German for me was a pleasant experience as a professor and person. I hope people who did take the time to read this and choose to go with her feel the same, and I think I'll be signing up for some other courses she teaches like PHSC420, MIEH325, and PHSC497. I appreciate her not trying to make things too easy and challenging us to apply what we learned.

Jennifer German
MIEH300

Anonymous
01/20/2026

Everything is fine until the exam. I been to every lecture and I still did bad on the exam. She said we would be fine- What I don't understand is why can't the exam be multiple choice? The exam is so detail like I am being deadass and I have taken orgo 1 and 2 done all the pre heath pre req like genetics, biochemistry.

Jennifer German
MIEH300

Anonymous
12/24/2025

Reads straight off her slideshows, not engaging at all. Exams are worth about 70% of the total grade so other assignments are almost meaningless. If you do poorly on the midterm, you have zero opportunity to get an A. Whole class performed poorly overall and there was no curve. Kind of sad.

Jennifer German
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2025

Class was easy, kinda. I never went to lecture because it was at 9 am, and she removed the pop quizzes for this semester. Assignments were easy and graded super leniently, my only issue is that you had to watch a documentary every like week and a half. There was a midterm and a final, the midterm was really easy, the final was kinda hard, so do prepare decently well for both, but just memorizing the slides should get you an A on both. Other than that, there is a lab section that can be annoying if your group sucks, but I didnt have that issue!

Meleah Boyle
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/25/2025

Took this class over the summer. It was a lot of reading and discussion posts, but honestly most of it was really interesting so it didn't feel too bad. The group project was a little awkward because it was all online, but it was doable. Her lectures were straight forward and concise and related directly to the questions on the quizzes.

Meleah Boyle
MIEH300

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
08/09/2025

Dr. Boyle is incredibly understanding and such a great professor. I had her online over the summer and was very quick to communicate. Her lectures were really informative and useful for the quizzes, exams, and discussions. The quizzes have a strict time limit, which means you have to be well prepared for since there are some short answer questions. Overall, a really great class.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Anonymous
05/15/2025

TLDR; The class mainly consists of busy work that doesn't affect your grade too much. The lab grades, midterm, and final practically determine your grade, since getting full scores on the other assignments barely increases your grade. Attendance is necessary since there are 6 pop quizzes (1 dropped) throughout the semester. I would take this course over the summer or winter if you can. I'm not sure what my expected grade is due to the grade distribution. I am currently in the A to A- range, but the final could easily change that. I didn't interact with Dr. Murray beyond listening to her lectures, so I can't speak on her character. However, I didn't find her lectures interesting. Pros TAs do the majority of the grading, so they tend to be more lenient on the lab assignments and lecture assignments. My TA was super responsive. I can't speak on the other TAs. 3 big group assignments in a lab (could be a con) Guest lecturers are often interesting. I think we had 5 guest lectures. Lab assignments are easily completable in class. Air lab data collection days are a bunch of free time while you wait at your site for around an hour. Slides are neat. Assignments are graded within reasonable time periods. Cons Lack of study resources (there is one exam review before the midterm and final, but students aren't able to access the Kahoot afterwards). 6 pop quizzes with 1 dropped. Most of the time, the pop quizzes relate to the lecture pretty closely, but sometimes she'll throw in a question that you would've needed to read the chapter beforehand. Attendance is necessary due to pop quizzes. But, you could gamble your odds and skip a class since pop quizzes typically are every 2 or 3 lectures. I know someone who didn't attend 4 lectures and didn't miss any pop quizzes. Long weekly lecture assignments that relate to the topic don't reinforce the ideas. 1 to 2 hour-long documentaries (some without 2x or transcript) to answer a few questions. Midterm questions and grading are much harsher than any of the other assignments. Requires specific facts rather than general ideas. (Assuming the final will be similar) Midterm format consisted of 3 short answers and 20 MCQs. The short answer questions had 4-7 parts each and were worth 10 points per. (Assuming the final will be similar) Dr. Murray primarily reads off her slides.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/12/2025

This professor is literally the worst. She does not care about her students at all. She reads directly off of her slides at a mile a minute. She is an incredibly harsh grader and takes points off for the littlest things. There are 2 exams (midterm and final) and the open ended questions would be vague but she would take points off if you didn't list specific items that she was looking for. The pop quizzes were diabolical, even if you paid attention in class you would struggle to answer the questions.

Brienna Anderson
MIEH300

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/23/2024

As you can see I got an A- in the class, could've done better if I had put in more effort, but to be fair I was juggling other courses that were taking up a lot of my time. With that being said, you will probably do better if the effort and consistency is there. I'll give you the main drawback right of the bat, although Anderson is very knowledgable, she reads off the slides so sitting there for an hour or so it was hard to stay focused. Here's the rest of the breakdown: Lecture - I don't believe the content of this class is hard or difficult to digest, of course it would be helpful if you've taken other bio/science courses prior to this since MIEH 300 relates to environmental issues, but not necessary because the lecture slides has all the information you need to study for lecture exams. So, as long as you're on top of the content you'll be ok, mainly all memorization - quizlet or something similar will be helpful. There are weekly homework assignments (this may change but most of the time it will be watching a video and answering questions pertaining to the content - some are longer than others so be prepared for that) and quizzes that are from the lecture slides, formatted to help you understand the basics of each lecture but not difficult to do. Pop quizzes were also given for lecture content - they're pop quizzes so the hatred for them and not knowing when they will be given is to be expected but definitely not something to pull your hair out about content wise. Lab - Now this is where I feel like most people struggled because Anderson is just starting with this course, so there was some hiccups in how things were organized between the Prof. and the TA's. Lab assignments were sometimes done individually or in groups and related to the content taught in lecture - but again, not hard to do or conceptually understand. I do hope for following semesters there is more structure to this part of the course. Overall, pretty mid.

Brienna Anderson
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2024

Okay, so i didnt know this class had a lab but class was much harder than it had to be. The prof is great but there is so much content to memorize for the exams. They were online on a lockdown browser in person but dang I feel I spent more time on this class than orgo ngl. It also depends on your TA as they grade everything. My TA was so strict so no reason. Like she took off 1 point on a assignment because I added a sentence that was five words long and wasn't relevant to my assignment. The labs were so annoying and they are group assignments.. You also had to come to class because she gives pop quizzes.. so I wasn't aware but at the end of the semester there is participation grade your TA gives so make sure e you participate somehow. Ya but dreaded this class and will never recommend taking it unless you in SPH. also the prof just read off the slides so it was even more boring. Exam are "easy" if you literally memorize everything on the slides tbh. Just do good on the midterm so you arent as stressed on the final.

Brienna Anderson
MIEH300

Anonymous
12/18/2024

She's very knowledgeable in her field but it doesn't translate well during her lectures because she just reads off the slides and is very monotone so it's sometimes hard to give her my full attention. This class is mostly memorization and not applying concepts, so exams weren't thatt bad either. Work load was fine but somehow towards last midterms/finals season there was like 3 assignments every week, which I didn't appreciate.

Brienna Anderson
MIEH300

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/18/2024

Dr. Anderson does seem very well educated on the topic of Environmental Health, however, she would read directly off the slides which would make it difficult to engage in lecture. This was frustrating because she would give out pop quizzes to ensure attendance (One is dropped) so make sure to come to class. The assignments for this class are a little on the heavier side but fairly easy to complete. First there are weekly quizzes that are 5 questions and would be timed for 5 minutes. Then there were weekly written assignments which sometimes require you to watch videos that are 45 minutes and up.There are discussion/lab assignments which weren’t too bad and can be completed during the 1 hr 50 minute timeframe. The course content truly isn’t difficult and her exams are very fair (2 midterms and a final). It is definitely easy to get an A in this class, just don’t pair it with more heavier STEM courses to save yourself the risk of getting a B. She also can come off slightly passive aggressive but she would answer questions during lecture and through email.

Brienna Anderson
MIEH300

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/17/2024

The content covered in this course is very interesting and Dr. Anderson is definitely very knowledgeable about these topics, however, the lectures are so incredibly boring it makes it so difficult to get yourself to go. No enrichment is provided beyond what is written on the slides, which adds to the lack of motivation to attend. However, there are pop quizzes which are not difficult at all, but so painful to miss because they make up a pretty significant portion of your grade if you miss too many. A lot of memorization of the details pertaining to specific laws and policies was expected on exams, even when they were very briefly touched on in class, which was annoying, but the quizzes and exams were not difficult if you just memorize the material.

Brienna Anderson
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2024

I took MIEH300 with Professor Anderson. The lectures are extremely boring because she just reads off the slides which is really my only complaint. There are six pop quizzes in the class, so be prepared to come to class. The course load is not terrible, there are weekly 5 question quizzes and assignments that are pretty easy to complete. The discussion/lab is also not tedious and most of the times can be completed in class.

Brienna Anderson
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/11/2024

The class has several drawbacks. The instructor conducts pop quizzes, necessitating attendance at all lectures. The lectures primarily consist of the instructor reading directly from the slides. It is relatively straightforward to achieve an A, as the material is not particularly challenging and the exams are fair. However, consistent attendance at early morning sessions is essential to succeed.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Anonymous
12/09/2024

Dr. Murray is clearly knowledgable about the content, and connects the content to her work in environmental health and water quality. She was happy to answer any questions I had, and the lectures & lecture slides were all detailed. I also like that she includes videos to review the content. All these other comments are just people not following assignment guidelines - which is a them problem. Do your work and this class is interesting, and reasonable.

Meleah Boyle
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/18/2024

I took this class over the summer and it was very manageable alongside full time work + other responsibilities. There were several discussion board assignments each week that built on the lecture material. You also have the opportunity to pick a topic of interest for a group project (which was honestly really weird navigating in a 100% asynchronous class). There were weekly tests based on the lecture content that were unnecessarily stressful in my opinion. They were made up of 10 questions, some of which required lengthy written responses, and had a 12 minute time limit (which she later extended to 18 minutes). Weekly written assignments made up the final paper (analysis) submitted at the end of the semester, however, many of the instructions were hidden in difficult-to-access parts of the rubric. While some things about the class were frustrating, she did give opportunities for freebie points and the class was fully asynchronous. I would recommend this class to anyone considering taking it over the summer, but make sure to be very thorough when looking through instructions if you don't want to lose points.

Meleah Boyle
MIEH300

Anonymous
06/17/2024

New prof - I was nervous. So far I'm about halfway into her class and I can say that she's kind and reasonable professor that listens to our concerns when things get oddly difficult. Like for example, she gave us 12 minutes to do quizzes with like 15 questions and 3 of them were written - and most of us couldn't finish - but when we let her know she immediately changed that and everything is way more manageable now. She's very thorough and teaches us a lot too. Fair with grades. I hope she sticks with UMD for a long time

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/08/2024

Attendance is not required but necessary as she does random pop quizzes (total of 6, drops 1). Cannot get a friend to do it for you as she makes you do it on a sheet of paper and write your name to turn in. If you don't do any of the pop quizzes your overall grade is dropped by 5%. Midterm and final are fair, final is not cumulative and only involves what we learn in the second half of the semester. Slides are neat and organized and she does a review session before the midterm and final making studying easier.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/17/2024

would give 1 star if I could. horrible lecturer, reads directly off of her powerpoint slides (way too fast) and gives random pop quizzes to make sure kids come to class. Very specific grading and will take off petty points periodically. Should be an easy class but she makes it so much harder to score well for no reason.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2023

Why does umd even hire rude and aggressive professors??? The person below me said they got inconsiderate because they had an excused absence and the same thing happened to me. Like girl I’m sick and I had a doctors note.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/28/2023

This professor is actually the worst. The class itself isn’t bad and is fairly easy but she is so rude and inconsiderate it’s insane. I had an excused absence for being sick and she said it was inconsiderate of me for missing class like what???

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
07/07/2023

(Took over the summer) the content of this course is interesting but unfortunately it is presented in a non-functional way. There are multiple semester-long group assignments and Professor Murray is not at all understanding of the difficulties that come with poor communication from peers. Group leaders are randomly assigned and must do significantly more work for the entire semester with no support for it. Open-ended assignments are very harshly graded and multiple answer questions are frustratingly worded. Murray is a good lecturer but her assignments and grading style make the class extremely frustrating.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/12/2023

I would give her a 0 if I could but sadly I can only give her a 1. She is one of the worst professors I’ve ever came in contact with. She is a petty graders and will nitpick anything to be able to take off points on assignments. (Including citation formatting) She must be aware that she is an extremely boring lecturer as she does pop quizzes with special access codes and a sign in sheet to force students to come to class. She is also very inconsiderate of students. I had to miss class for a surgery and she still gave me a 0 for missing a pop quiz. Her pop quizzes are also hyper specific. You can pay attention throughout the whole lecture, despite her literally just reading off the slides, and still get a 0 on the pop quiz. She also has online quizzes every week which give you barely enough time to even process the questions. She even has a quiz and assignment due after the last day of classes??? The course material is easy but you can definitely tell she is trying everything in her power to ensure students don’t get the easy A. This obsession to the overcomplicate a simple course makes her absolutely unbearable as a professor.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Anonymous
05/12/2023

Nice professor but honestly really strict about attendance. I have never seen a professor that cared about attendance so much to the point that they will do pop quizzes with random codes and mandatory paper signing at the end. She would drop 2 of them but when you are sick you would expect her to give you a make-up or at least show compassion as a human but she would instead just ignore your message which I find it very disturbing. Being a professor you should be able to respond to a student during a reasonable time period.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Anonymous
05/04/2023

I have never had a professor weirder than her. She forces you to go to class by randomly doing pop quizzes and has gotten stricter with each quiz. She threatened to report people for cheating if they didn't sign the sign-out sheet. Her quizzes ask about topics we have never discussed before and only reads off of her slides. She gave a student attitude when they asked if there was a pop quiz as well one day. She refused to let us see the correct answers from our quizzes as she was "afraid it would go onto Quizlet" as if she couldn't come up with other questions next semester. Overall, she's lazy and clearly has nothing else to do with her life.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Anonymous
05/01/2023

I have never seen a professor who cares so much about her students coming to class as she does. This semester she decided to do pop quizzes so your basically forced to come to class or else you receive a zero because she uses a special code AND makes u sign a paper saying you were there. I wouldn't mind this if she actually added anything to the material but she literally just reads off the slides the entire time and adds nothing substantial to the content. I would probably learn better just looking over the slides myself. The class itself is not hard she's just annoying about attendance when most professors don't normally care.

Rianna Murray
MIEH300

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/25/2023

Nice professor, interesting content, great at explaining class concepts clearly and connecting to real world events. Great prof, would recommend!

Kendall Bustad
MIEH300

Anonymous
08/30/2022

Enrolled in her course during the pandemic when classes were entirely virtual. The online lectures were highly unengaging, monotonous, and not well executed. This made it difficult to follow.

Kendall Bustad
MIEH300

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
08/29/2022

I really enjoy Dr. Bustad's class. The lectures are easy to follow along and encourages questions during class! Weekly quizzes and exams are pretty easy as long as you review the lecture slides! Lab is pretty simple and you will get them done in under an hour!

Kendall Bustad
MIEH300

Anonymous
02/01/2021

Dr. Bustad is approachable and laid back. She HAS to teach MIEH300 but also teaches a nutrition course and a public health in the city course.

Sacoby Wilson
MIEH300

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/20/2017

He flies though all topics except environmental justice/ environmental racism. Has a lot of guest lectures because he can’t adequately teach the material. Tons of busy work, homework, weekly journal entries from Toms River, reads directly from slide, has word minimums on every assignment. Final exam and final paper that is 5-8 pages.

Reviews for MIEH300