| Information | Review |
|---|---|
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/19/2025 |
I quite enjoyed the content and found it to be engaging. I thought she did a fair job of making the content interesting and is clearly incredibly knowledgeable. I also thought the extra credit opportunities fascinating, and really like the idea of engaging with Asian-American events outside of class as a way to gain credit. I found the essays to be difficult but graded better than I thought they'd be, and the midterm and final are both large vocabulary tests. There is a giant amount of vocabulary for this class, so I highly recommend just sitting down one day before the midterm+final and making a large quizlet for yourself. I do agree that she says Um and Uh a lot, and that she could come off as dismissive of students, but I think she's more awkward than ill-intentioned. I also didn't like how difficult it was to find past lectures, and that they were usually rushed towards the end, but I think that's because there were 3-4 students in my class that just wouldn't stop asking know-it-all questions and she didn't manage that. I took this last year, but saw that the latest review on PlanetTerp of her was scathing, and just felt the need to share my experience. If you want an interesting gen-ed and are comfortable participating in class, I think AAST201 is a perfectly fair experience. |
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/17/2025 |
bro, don’t take her, everything you heard of her is true, she is so rude and honestly way too disorganized for a college class. |
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Madeline Hsu
IMMR200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/07/2025 |
omfg do not take this class. i took this because immigration studies sounded interesting and i needed a gen-ed. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER. professor hsu seems nice and does genuinely love history but this course is so disorganized. her powerpoints are 60-70+ slides long and consist of images/graphs with no context or just dense paragraphs of information. they aren't helpful at all if you miss a class, but honestly even if you do come to every class, it's difficult to get a comprehensive grasp of the information because she jumps around topics and timelines of immigration which makes it hard to follow along. i find myself not learning anything or just relearning the same concepts over and over. she is also very strict about attendance, participation, and no devices. the only graded assignments are research projects, midterm, and the final, so if you don't do well on those, it is difficult to bring your grade up. her exams are also essays with prompts and she grades everything very harshly. |
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Madeline Hsu
IMMR200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 10/17/2025 |
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Says "uh" and "um" a lot that makes the class feel very long. Lectures are all over the place with material, constantly jumping back and forth between eras of immigration making it very hard to keep organised notes. Will skip over important information. Often feels like she doesn't know what she's going to lecture about for the day. |
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Madeline Hsu
AMST328T Expecting an A Anonymous 09/12/2025 |
Just kind of an asshole. Would shoot down students who tried to participate in the class discussions. |
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2024 |
This teacher is the worst teacher I have ever encountered, blatantly rude all the time. |
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2024 |
Very bad lecturer, very unaccommodating. Don’t take her |
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/21/2024 |
Poor lecturing style. Second the review where she says "um" and "uh" a lot. There's few assignments and they are all graded harshly meaning that no lighter work assignments can bring it up. Ends up not finishing the lecture content and has to speed at the last 10 minutes. The class is honestly a pain, DO NOT TAKE if you want an easy gen ed. Do not take this unless you are passionate about history and basically want to be a suck up to her. |
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 10/29/2024 |
Too hard for a gen ed!! This professor doesn't teach well and is very disorganized. She doesn't post lecture slides on elms and takes attendance so you have to go to lectures. She doesn't even let you use your computer to take notes during class! She is also a very harsh grader (no one gets 100%) and there are very few assignments to help your grade go back up. To get extra credit, you have you attend different events (sometimes in DC) and write up a 2 page reflection on it. Also, exams are writing prompts instead of multiple choice. Just don't take this class ESPECIALLY if you aren't interested in history. I made the mistake of not dropping this class when I had the chance in the beginning of the semester and I regret it every day. |
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Anonymous 05/17/2024 |
Highly knowledgeable professor, clearly demonstrates she is extremely familiar with what she teaches and does her best to answer any questions you might have. At first I thought her lecturing style was a bit dry, but as the semester went on, I actually grew to like it a lot! Attendance and participation are graded; I participated only a couple times throughout the semester and got a much higher score than I expected, so don't worry too much about it if speaking up is something you dislike doing. She provides extra credit opportunities through attending Asian American-related events, which I thought was a very interesting and engaging way of encouraging students to learn outside of the classroom. There were very few things to be graded on, though--besides the participation grade, there were only two essays and a midterm + final. That means that there's not much to do throughout the semester besides attending class and learning, but your grade heavily depends on a very small amount of things. The weirdest thing about the class was that she would remove her powerpoint slides from elms after a week or two, not sure why she did that. This was her first semester teaching at UMD so I expect things to improve in future semesters! TLDR: a highly knowledgeable professor, extra credit opportunities, few assignments |
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2024 |
CANNOT stress how easy this class is. If you love history, this class is an easy lock for you. If you don't like history and still want an easy gen-ed, I'll still make my case. Professor Hsu is clearly knowledgeable about what she teaches and goes over every topic in enough depth and context from slides she makes herself. Although lectures can sometimes be a drag in the morning, all you need to do is pay attention and you're guaranteed an A. She's also very considerate to needs and will even take time out of lecture to go over things like proper citations and paper writing. There are only five oppurtunities for grades (attendance/participation, short narrative, final paper, midterm and final) but as long as you go to class and turn in the assignments you'll be just fine. Most of the class is common sense anyways. It's helpful to take notes to help you understand the topics a bit more, but as long as you rememeber the main events and a few concepts the essay exams are straightforward. Go to the review session the class before and you'll be set. Bottom line: just go to class and put in the work and you'll do fine. |
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Madeline Hsu
AAST201 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/06/2024 |
Attendance and participation are graded. Very few opportunities for points. Say's "um" and "uh" very often during lectures. Stingy with lecture notes/materials. STAY AWAY |