Emily Dobson

This professor has taught: PLCY303

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Emily Dobson Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/03/2026	While I hated taking Econ, I loved this professor and class! Professor Dobson is really friendly and helpful whenever you need clarification or help on anything. The workload was also very reasonable—it wasn't too much to where I got overwhelmed, but it was enough for me to actually learn from it. The exams were open-note (as long as they were handwritten, so def write your notes by hand!) and open-book, which made exam season a lot more tolerable than usual. Additionally, it's pretty easy to catch up on work if you have to miss class. Overall, I'd highly recommend taking this course with this professor! :)
Emily Dobson PLCY303 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/21/2025	Very easy class, but somewhat informative. Par for the policy course (pun intended). Professor Dobson is very kind and will attempt to explain concepts ad nauseum until the confused student either understands or is so shamed by their lack of understanding despite multiple helpful explanations that they pretend they get it. One midterm and one final on paper, they were open note but your notes had to be handwritten. She's fine with technology in class, but for this reason I would recommend just taking all your notes on paper anyways. She has an interesting policy that every week, there's an assignment due that is usually an exercise we did in pair work during class time. If you weren't there, you can complete the assignment and get full points. If you were there, you can usually get off with doing less work, because sometimes we don't get to the exercise and she just tells us to put "I was in class" in the text box. However, if you went to class and forgot to do the assignment, but she remembers that you were there, you can get half points for it. If you weren't there and didn't do it, no points, no exceptions for lateness. I found this a little strange because I feel like it encourages not coming to class, but whatever. It wasn't worth a lot of points. Some experience with Excel would be helpful going into this class, or willingness to learn it.
Emily Dobson PLCY303 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/01/2025	Probably the best professor I've had in my 4 years of college. She's incredibly intelligent, compassionate, engaging, and genuinely cares about input she receives from students and actively works to incorporate that input into her teaching. It's rare you meet a person that is so smart and yet so patient/accommodating when explaining ideas that are simple to her. Also she's cool, funny, and overall just a badass. Show up, learn how to actually do your taxes, and absorb practical information from the absolute legend that is Emily Dobson.
Emily Dobson PLCY303 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/05/2024	Made a strong effort to ensure that her students always knew the class material. New to UMD but very knowledgeable and a very great teacher. Her assignments were informative and helped me understand the material well. Would highly recommend!
Emily Dobson PLCY303 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/04/2024	The best professor I've had in my college career. She is so so sweet and inclusive. The classroom environment is so positive and she takes her time explaining concepts to us even when she has to repeat it multiple times. She's always happy to help clear any confusion. She's also very understanding about our personal obligations and doesn't punish us for it. Her assignments are actually enjoyable which is crazy for me to say because I hated ECON. She's very very knowledgable in the course. She has a lot of experiences. She truly appreciates feedbacks and makes the effort to adjust to those feedbacks. She makes a 9am class a good start of the day. Strongly reccomend!
Emily Dobson PLCY303 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/15/2024	Very knowledgable and welcoming professor, always is receptive to student feedback and makes sure that everybody understands class material. Made an otherwise mundane required class pretty interesting.