Eric Haag

This professor has taught: BEES608A, BIOL615, BISI678D, BISI899, BSCI170, BSCI207, BSCI339A, BSCI339E, BSCI430, HONR248G

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Eric Haag Expecting a C+ Anonymous 10/08/2024	I had Dr. Haag last semester, and his pacing was too fast. There were 50-80 slides each lecture that he would fly through. I had taken AP Bio in highschool before, so the content was easier to pick up for me, however many people I know struggled with his teaching style. In terms of exams, they were also hard, and not weighted fairly. Despite feeling like I am firm on bio concepts, I ended with a C+, because I also do not believe there was a curve on the final exam when there probably should have been.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a D+ Anonymous 05/21/2024	DO NOT TAKE 170 WITH THIS PROFESSOR!!!!! Yes, Dr. Haag is very nice; you can tell he loves bio. But his exams make no sense whatsoever. You can study all of the slides, just for him to throw a curveball on the exam. His average exam scores are between 50-69%. You can't retake the exams. Rather, he has you write a written explanation for the questions you got wrong and explain why you deserve more points. It doesn't boost your grade either. His only advice for failing exams is "study harder". Expect to study for 2 hours + each night just to try to get at least a 70 on one of the exams. Each unit has 4-6 chapters in it, and you have to memorize 50-60+ slides for each chapter. He doesn't curve exams. The TAs even stated that his tests were too challenging for a 170 class. I sent out an email stating that our final exam grades were 6% worse than the scores from his 170 sessions the previous semester. Then, at the end of the email, he said that those who got less than a C just "didn't understand the material". This class ruined my GPA, please don't take this professor.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/17/2024	I want to start off with I do not recommend this professor. The work he provides is concept checks after each lecture, which are relatively easy points. Then pre-quiz GAE which is also easy. Lastly, the worksheet GAEs are mainly based on participation. When it comes to him reviewing the lectures in class he reads off the slides and does not explain it well. He has made it clear that the class average for midterms and the final were extremely low. Compared to the students in Keller, where they are actually being taught in each lecture and have a higher grade average. The attendence for lectures is not mandatory, but the GAE sessions are. He is a nice person, but not a good professor if you are trying to learn and pass. I recommend you to take keller if you want to pass and learn better.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/14/2024	Professor Haag. Where to start? Tbh, I absolutely do not understand any of the hate he gets. The lectures are pretty much as straightforward as they can be for cell bio, he has an engaging way of speaking and seems interested in teaching the class, so it's not horrifically boring. I admit to loving bio, but going to his lectures was usually the highlight of the days on which I had five lectures in a row. Anyways, he offers an insane amount of free points which are pretty much all completion, yes some of them require actually going to lecture but whatever. Most lectures you could get away with not going to/paying attention, especially because he always posted the full lecture notes before class, so you could just use those. Also super helpful and kind when you reach out to him, he's willing to spend time with you to explain concepts. Exams were mad easy, I never got less than 90%, many multiple choice questions would have up to 2 bogus answer options ("what kind of bond holds DNA base pairs together?" "james bonds" etc.) which would make things easier, often the answer to one question was in the question of another, and then bonus questions that were unmissable (2pts for "which umd basketball team made it to tournament this year again?" "the women's" "not the men's"). Yes, there's no curve. You really, really shouldn't need one if you can handle a tiny bit of memorization and can understand some systems, maybe a little understanding of greek roots would be helpful too, but flashcards would do instead also. Dr. Haag is just so earnest and friendly, would definitely recommend.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/14/2024	DO NOT TAKE HIM FOR BSCI170. Teaches like an upper level bio class, gives no exam help, and does not curve even though the averages for all 3 exams were under a 70%.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/10/2024	DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. The exams do not match the content mentioned in exam reviews and the class is incredibly harder than any other bsci170 course that other professors teach. He expects us to know everything and treats us as if we are upper biology students. He does not listen to students when we share our need pass this INTRO level course. He drops the lowest exam grade but with our exam averages being no more than a 70% IT DOES NOTHING. More than half the class is struggling with this course. Most sitting at 70% or lower. I would never recommend another student to take this professor. The amount of stress this class has caused me is unreal. Studying hours and hours just to bomb exams is highly disappointing. My current grade DOES NOT reflect the amount of effort, time, energy, etc that I have put into this class. Please take another professor and take these reviews seriously.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/01/2024	In this 100-level class, the professor seems to expect a level of understanding beyond what's typical for an entry-level course. I initially felt confident about taking the class despite my limited biology background, but that confidence quickly fell after the first exam. The professor's lecture slides are overwhelming, with over 50 slides per session, and there's no assistance provided in terms of study guides. While the group study sessions (GSS) are available, they aren't much help because the professor doesn't provide previous exams to the leaders, leaving them to guess at what might be covered. The exams themselves delve far too deeply into the material, assuming a level of prior knowledge in biology and chemistry that many students, including myself, don't possess. Despite a significant portion of the class struggling and the average grade dropping, the professor used a student who scored exceptionally well as evidence that everyone should be able to succeed. However, it's unrealistic to use the success of a few students to dismiss the challenges faced by the majority. Additionally, the professor offers a slight reprieve by dropping one out of the three exams, while this is very helpful it's evident that this gesture falls short of addressing the fundamental issue. Even with this help, the lack of extra credit or a curve, as stated clearly in the syllabus, exacerbates the situation. I have talked with a few classmates and they feel the same. Overall he teaches the class way too hard for an intro-level class. AVOID AT ALL COST!!!!!!!!!!
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/24/2023	Really nice guy, but very evident that it was his first time teaching the course. He dropped the lowest exam grade, but the averages on all of the exams were lower than all of the other classes. His lectures weren't excellent, and you could tell that he didn't know the content well or maybe he knew it too well and was unable to explain it. He would keep repeating that it should be review, but if it was I wouldn't be in the class. Also, I technically should have gotten a B+ because of his rounding policy, but he gave me a B and has not responded to my emails (I emailed him three days ago and followed up this morning since grades are due today and he has not responded which means that I will likely end with a B :( ). He kept saying that he does not give freebies and that studying harder will help, but he never taught anything well enough to study from. He lectures really fast and I ended up having to relearn the material from Fletcher's prerecorded lectures. He also smashed lectures into one day to add more content and then once off-handily said we needed to know all 20 amino acids like structure for the test and about 20 points/100 on the test ended up being about having them memorized some way or another. All of his lectures were confusing and he would go on side rants about his research, and then had to rush through the slides. I didn't want to give him one star because he seems like a nice guy, but I would not recommend him.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/13/2023	This professor is very knowledgeable in the subject he is teaching. He conveys the material in a way understandable to students. He has long slides but as long as you get though them you should be okay. grading scale is reasonable and the lowest exam gets dropped. Take dr. Haag for 170!
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/12/2023	Really nice guy, super enthusiastic, but his lectures were not for me. He talked really fast and did not explain concepts in a way that worked for me. He would try to give real-life examples, but he had not explained the concept enough for the example to make sense. Moreover, he always had like 60 slides and would cover the first 30 at a really fast pace, but because he would ramble, he had to cover the last half of the slides in the last 15 minutes. I will say that his lecturing improved throughout the semester. 3 midterms (only 2 count) each worth 100pts, a final worth 150, and 110 points of mini quizzes and participation. He was nice, and if you are super passionate about bio then he might be for you.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/12/2023	I would give zero stars if possible. avoid at all costs. why? ill get straight to the point. 50+ slides, exam averages lower than organic chemistry averages (how is that possible?? bc of his exams) his exams are NOTHING like the slides. the slides say (x,y,z) the exam says (z-x+y). Basically, it's complicated for no reason. I asked him how to study better, he said read the slides. thanks! helped a lot. The biology department needs to seriously evaluate this. incredibly disappointed about how this class was taught. I was expecting this to be one of my favorite classes, as I love bio- and suddenly I hate it.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2023	Dr.Haag is one of the nicest professors I have met at UMD. He is extremely passionate about his job and truly shows an interest in the topics he teaches. While he is a quirky guy, he tries his best to make his long lectures somewhat interesting. His class is certainly not for everybody and your grade is solely dependent on your midterms, but if you put in the work you will be rewarded. Additionally, he is great at actually responding to feed back from his students, and his course has gotten progressively better as the semester has gone on (this was his first semester teaching 170). This class will definitely challenge you, but there is not reason why you should be afraid of taking Dr.Haag.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/11/2023	Do NOT take bsci170 with this professor, unless you care about c elegans and want to fail your tests while your friends with Keller are actually learning things. He overly complicates everything and tries to fly through 50 slide lectures while talking at you. He also seems like a nice guy but doesn't actually wants what's best for us as students. By the end of the semester, he told us to stop asking for "freebies" and start learning the material as it is "our job"... as if his job this whole semester wasn't to teach us. GSS is helpful but not enough to pull you out of the rut many students will end up in. These exams are so irrelevant to class and you will fail them (which he thinks is fine) unless you spend every waking hour watching videos on the topics.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/11/2023	I wanted to give zero stars. This class is very difficult and he says "I'm sure this is a review" at the beginning of every class even tho this is an intro level bio class. He usually teaches upper level bio courses, and I honestly don't think he knows how to teach an intro level course. If you say you are struggling, he will say to study more. And don't ask for extra credit! He will say you are begging and you should just focus on what you bombed on the previous tests to study for the final. Just save yourself and take this class with Keller. He does not curve and thinks a 60 average on tests is fine. He always says bare with me but then does not accommodate when the student is having trouble. SAVE URSELF!!
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/11/2023	Honestly, he was nice but made the class very challenging for no reason. For the unit on proteins, we were expected to know every single structure of all 20 amino acids. Compared to the other BSCI170 classes our exams were always more challenging and we were expected to know more material than the other classes. Honestly, this class feels like an upper-level bio class.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/02/2023	Dr. Haag is a very passionate professor who tries his best to make sure you understand the material taught and tries to make the class enjoyable and fun. Now this was his first semester teaching BSCI 170 so there were some bumps in the road throughout since he was getting accustomed to teaching 170. As there were no practice exams, as the TA's had to get examples from Dr. Fletcher's practice exams and used those during GSS sessions. Throughout the course, Dr. Haag improved and adjusted to help his students succeed after the very poor average on the first exam. Dr. Haag does not give any extra credit, and the course is primarily based on 3 exams (lowest gets dropped) and a final. There are concept checks following each lecture that you have 3 attempts on, and GAE sections that are participation points, and at the end of the semester, those will eventually have the same point value as a midterm. The material covered throughout 170 is very similar to what one would've learned in AP Biology, but you just go a bit more in-depth with the material covered. I have enjoyed BSCI 170 and I can say that as long as you put the effort, you can easily pass this class. But in order to pass, you need to know more than just the memorization aspect of the material covered but also how to apply the concept taught. I will say that going to office hours and GSS sessions are VERY important to go to because the TA's help you understand the material in a way that an undergraduate student would understand. Dr. Haags office hours are great to go to as well but he sometimes tends to ramble on the material you had questions on but this further shows how much Dr. Haag knows about the concept and his passion to help you understand what you're learning instead of just memorizing the material. The bulk of the material that I understood came from the TA office hours and GSS sessions so DON'T SKIP THEM. This class is very interesting if you take the time to learn the material and ask questions when you have them. I would 100% recommend Dr. Haag as since this was his first semester teaching BSCI 170 it will be smoother when he teaches this course again.
Eric Haag BSCI170 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/01/2023	Dr. Haag is a passionate professor who gives interesting lectures and genuinely seems to enjoy teaching. Unfortunately, this was his first semester teaching BSCI170 and it shows. Exam averages were significantly lower in Haag's class and test material required much more in-depth studying than the general conceptual understanding covered in other professors' exams. Over time I believe Haag has realized this and made adjustments to help students succeed, but they have been minor and the majority of his help is just reminding students of how to study properly. I have enjoyed BSCI170 and can say it is 100% possible to succeed in this class, but you will have to put in much more work to get the same grades as people with other professors. I do think this was a test-run semester for Dr.Haag and things will be smoother if he teaches this course again.
Eric Haag BSCI207 Expecting a B- Anonymous 01/10/2022	Dr.Haag is a super nice guy. He is very understanding and tries to make things as interesting as possible. However, the class SUCKS. BSCI207 is one of the worst classes I've ever taken and I would avoid it at all costs unless you need it for a prerequisite (like I did). The material is super boring, doesn't connect from one lecture to another, and is a jumble of things you will learn in other bio, physics, chem, and plant science classes. Dr.Haag's exams are hard to understand and are always looking for more than just memorization. Because of the type of material, it's super difficult to know what they're looking for. The TAs also aren't much help so you're kind of screwed. ALSO : 4 MIDTERMS AND A FINAL, MIDTERM 4 WAS ON THE MONDAY OF EXAM WEEK AND THE FINAL WAS ON THAT SATURDAY. Avoid at all costs!!!
Eric Haag BSCI207 Anonymous 12/17/2021	I feel that he is a nice guy, but is awful at lecturing. He always plans to get through a 30-40 ppt slide in 50 mins when we only end up actually getting through about 15 of the slides (then he expects us to just know the rest for the test). Sometimes he will see that we have 5 minutes left in class and 20 more slides to get through, so he'll quickly flip through the last slides. Not only that but he is just all over the place, the slides most times are disorganized and he will talk about the least important thing for 10 minutes. His exams are so hard and he purposely tries to make the questions difficult. The averages were 50-60 range constantly, even when he let us use an 8x11 page front and back for the test. Also we had exam 4, 5 days before the final.... Would NOTTTTTT recommend him to anyone
Eric Haag BSCI207 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/16/2021	He is a really nice guy, but this course is not it. The material literally does not correlate with anything. One lecture we are talking about the kidney and the next class we are talking about evolutionary trends of bacteria. It made studying really hard because we had to remember every single detail. His tests are also really hard as well - but you eventually become better at taking them. Also, I don't think he curves, so there is that. Also, Dr.Haag is very enthusiastic about his work and all that he goes on tangents that make no sense and it's hard to tell what his tangent is and what the material is. Another thing that annoyed me so much is that the lecture slides for one lecture are about 50 slides. He takes 40 minutes going through 10-15 slides and then rushes the last 35-40 slides. It was really frustrating since we were still held accountable to know all of the material that he just rushed through. Overall, nice guy but terrible course - avoid at all costs.
Eric Haag BSCI207 Anonymous 11/24/2021	Dr Haag does the best he can with this terrible course. I would like to give him a poor review, but truly I think the course is the problem and not the professor. I received over a 96% average in both 161 and 171, and I am currently hoping to end with a B- in this class (207). The material covered is literally all over the place, one days information usually has nothing to do with the next. This makes it hard to retain small details and study because the topics contained on one single test can be so vastly different from each other (hard to study fungi and kidneys at the same time..). Personally, I recommend just staying away from this course. It's way too much random information and minuscule details thrown into one course. That being said, If you do need to take it for a major requirement, Haag is not a bad choice. He truly wants his students to do well and he adjusts each exam according to performance on the last exam. The averages of our exams have all been around C-, increasing with each exam. He also recently adjusted the exams so that a "cheat sheet" can be used, which is very considerate of him but it only boosted the average exam grade about 5 percent because again, the material is just so all over the place. Just be prepared to have an overwhelming amount of material covered, regardless of the professor. Take advantage of how helpful and caring Dr Haag is by asking questions and asking for help, there's also GSS sessions that are very helpful.
Eric Haag BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/29/2021	Dr. Haag is a very nice guy, and does his best to be engaging and interesting with material that is not necessarily that cool. Personally, I don't see the value in this class especially since a lot of it is just detailed AP Biology and concepts that most people should already be familiar with, just in a really detailed format. If you want this class as transfer credit, it counts as general bio 2 in most other universities, which emphasizes what I said before. Whenever Dr. Haag does what he calls "tours of organisms" the class gets confusing since we don't know what we're supposed to be taking notes on and what we actually have to know, since he just seems to be presenting basically fun facts of each organism. For these tours, I would recommend that you take notes on the key concepts that make them different from other organisms instead of memorizing every single feature of each organism, since test questions won't ask you about random specific information, rather they will ask you about how it is relevant and why it matters. All that being said, however, the class itself is not difficult provided you are willing to put in more than the bare minimum amount of effort to get by, which can be said for all biology classes at any university. The class is intuition-based provided you have memorized the key concepts needed to be able to use intuition. As a study technique, I HIGHLY recommend reviewing for exams through the GSS sessions and going through every lecture and making sure you can understand each slide and put it in your own words. There are no past exams, at least not for our semester, so the GSS leader makes practice exam questions and summarizes each of the lectures, so definitely go to those. He allows you to drop a test at the end of the semester (even though I probably won't need to) which can be hugely impactful for people that failed the first test and needed to get the hang of things and the way the class is taught. There are 4 units and 1 exam per unit, the exams are fair in length and difficulty. He even adjusts the length and difficulty of exams based on performance of his students on previous exams. Personally, I think Dr. Haag is doing a good job at teaching all this material in a way that keeps us interested and engaged. Whenever he geeks out over concepts, it makes the class a lot more interesting and even though we don't always get through the material in lecture, part of the responsibility of reviewing lecture notes afterwards lays on us students. But, I will say that having a class longer than 50 minutes would probably be better so that we can actually fully get through the material and not have to rush through parts of the lecture just to finish on time. Dr. Haag is very responsive to emails and is very helpful as long as you are willing to take initiative and reach out to him. Overall, pretty good class as long as you put in the effort, good professor, and great person.
Eric Haag BSCI207 Anonymous 10/20/2021	I am currently taking this course with Dr. Haag, and it sucks. He talks really fast and doesn't know how to answer a question in less than 3 sentences, overcomplicating absolutely everything. Classes are 50 minutes and he expects us to go through a 40 slide powerpoint, which we of course never do because he talks so much, so he just speeds up and skips things that turn out to be important. He gives absolutely no feedback on what stuff is going to be on the exam, which makes studying nearly impossible because he gives so much information. Also - if he says 'this is not AP Bio, you're not supposed to memorize information by understand greater concepts' don't listen. He has said that twice now and both times he asks extremely (unnecessary) specific questions that there is literally no greater purpose to memorizing. Half the time, he would tell is that he doesn't know the information because it wasn't his specialty, which 1) is extremely annoying because why should I have to know it but not you, and 2) makes it extremely clear to me this is too much information for 1 class. In the past I have loved my BSCI classes, but this class makes me want to cry and fall asleep at the same time, every single time.
Eric Haag BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/19/2016	I am taking this class right now and I love it. There is a lot of material covered, but the exams are very fair. You can drop one exam, but I honestly don't even think I need to. He is a very nice teacher and is very helpful during office hours.
Eric Haag BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/02/2016	I feel sort of bad giving Dr. Eric a bad review because he's genuinely a very nice person but just... this class was hell. It was horrible. It was disorganized and totally incomprehensible. The sheer quantity of material that gets covered is insane. I want to be mad at the professors for it but I don't think it's entirely their fault I think it's just a bad course. This information shouldn't be taught all in one class. You learn nothing because you can't organize it, and studying sucks and is inefficient. Two professor's teach this class because they can't get one person who knows everything that's covered. You can ask a question about some of the material to one professor and they won't know the answer because it's the other professor's specialization. Can I give UMD a bad review for making this a class?? I love biology. It's been my favorite since I was 3 years old and I'm 100% solid in my major choice but this class made me hate it for the first time ever. I dreaded learning bio and studying bio. Poor Dr. Eric, guy probably did the best he could with the shit material. That being said, we did group projects which I hardly found helpful beyond finding people to complain about the class with. I feel like they just need work, they were (like most of the class) badly organized and confusing and the point behind them was never clear until you re-read them 3 times alone while studying.
Eric Haag BSCI207 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/01/2014	Nice guy, bad teacher. He wasn't even familiar with half of the information he was teaching us and admitted it to the class during lectures. He's very nice with a great personality but I question why he's teaching a class if he doesn't know the material....
Eric Haag BSCI207 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/17/2012	I was taught by Dr. Haag in BSCI207. It was his first semester teaching this course and he was as clueless as can be. He was not very familiar with the course material (even admits he teaches himself the material the night before a lecture). He is a very nice guy but not very knowledgeable. But I can't bash him for that because he probably didn't want to teach this awful course. Haag is a developmental biologist who teaches upper level bsci classes. Haag could be funny sometimes and he is a nice guy. I am sure he is a much better professor when teaching an area of his expertise as opposed to bsci207 which he has never taught before. However, if you are debating which bsci207 to take, you won't be stuck with just Haag, the class is usually taught by 2 or 3 professors which could get annoying. Enjoy...
Eric Haag BSCI430 Expecting a C terpbaby09 02/02/2009	this class was not up to par with some other science classes. Dr Haag was dry although he was really in to the material. His exams were more analytical then concept based. He didn't go by the book. You had to learn how to take his exam not only the material. Its a good class to take if you want to be seriously challenged. I think his exams were not fair although the average on the exams went up each exam because people were getting used to him rather then understanding more. I dont recommend him.