Michael Kleiss

This professor has taught: ARCH418I, ARCH462, ARCH464, ARCH465, ARCH618I

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Michael Kleiss ARCH465 Anonymous 05/02/2026	Completely agree with everyone else's reviews. The class itself isn't bad, you can understand the material, it's just the way he teaches that messes things up. One would think after teaching here for a few years he would get a hang of things but every year is the same problem and there's never been any sort of improvement that actually benefited the class. First of all: He's barely involved in the class. The man shows up and gives a lecture or a assigns projects and his job is done. He basically drops all the work on his TA's. And when you have a concern, he's like "Email your TA and they will talk to me" Like BRO! You'r literally right here!!! Second: His grading methods suck. For example, with the class quizzes. He'll have a physical version and an online version that you must complete both within NOT even the whole class period. It's like double the work with less time. Only to tell you later that only the paper version will be taken into account for grading. Then why the HECK did we even do the digital version then? And then you get all those participation points and assignments and other random things, but even if you get full points on all of these consecutively, the minute you get one bad grade for one quiz, suddenly your grade drops by a whole letter! HOW??!! Third: Terrible communication. This one is actually kind of funny. The man will communicate exactly what he doesn't want you to do with precision and even examples, all without EVER actually telling you what it is you should do because according to him, that's preventing you from learning because it's like giving you the answer. How am I supposed to know what to do then?! He'll be like, "Here's what I don't want you to do" and when you ask "okay then what should I do instead?" he'll give you the most ambiguous answer/non-answer ever and proceed to ask "does that make sense? Like NOOOO! You didn't answer the question!!! Honestly, this class has by far been the worst class I've ever taken at UMD. And I've taken his classes before. I mean, the man has always been bad but he's never been THIS bad. If you're an architecture major taking this class....well, it will make you question whether you're in the right major. It really doesn't help either that he's the only professor teaching this course. UMD needs to do better and fix this because it's pretty much a consensus at this point that structures with Professor Kleiss is like being thrown in a maze by yourself and told to figure your own way out because he sure as heck ain't helping.
Michael Kleiss ARCH465 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/29/2026	terrible class. very unorganized canvas, unserious professor. I only gave one star because I had no choice.
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/20/2026	Super unorganized, exams were some ts, projects were an absurd amount of work, lectures not helpful, only reason I did well is because I’m pretty sure the TAs grading our assignments were more checked out than we were. I brought the wrong kind of brick to class and I felt like a fool. 0/10
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/14/2025	Where do I even start. Content and first project began fine, then the first two exams were unrelated and unfair. Halfway through, we stopped getting real lectures and instead had a guest lecturer every week while getting assigned two projects at the same time. Meanwhile, the course calendar was never updated and assignments were not getting graded on time. Course literally almost over and we just got another project. Not gonna lie, the only thing I remember at this point is pre-cast concrete because we stopped learning real content. The only good thing about this class would be the projects if they were planned better. Booo tomato tomato.
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/13/2025	He is a very kind guy so I sympathize with the that, but the points that everybody else has made here are valid. He doesn’t not have much of a structure, and he could be more clear with instructions, expectations, etc. The tests left me depressed though, as I felt I knew the information well but the answer options would be like “a and b, just a, just b, neither, c, c and d, a,b,c, etc. As well, test questions were not clear a lot of the time, leading many to overthink the “deeper meaning” because some questions were meant to trick you. Overall, it is a class. Lmao
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Anonymous 12/11/2025	Kleiss is easily the worst professor I have had the displeasure of having in the school of ARCH. His attendance policy violates university policy, he doesn't follow a course calendar, and he will often change project timelines, dates, and requirements seemingly at a whim. Kleiss does not communicate with students or TAs, he had even assigned a design competition project, that opened in July, less than three weeks before the deadline. Exams are vague and arbitrary; good luck studying. From other students, I've gathered that the exams used to be open note, but now he's a weird stickler for lockdown browser. Expect "open note" type questions on the exams, more 'fun facts' rather than the main lecture content... As much as I would like to add an expected grade, there have been NO grades posted until the second-to-last week of class and there is still more that has yet to be graded. If you're on this page looking at reviews, I pity you.
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Anonymous 12/05/2025	If I could give Kleiss a 0 star rating I would. He is easily the worst professor I've ever had during my time at UMD. He has an absurd attendance policy going against multiple university policies. And changes assignments whenever he feels like it. We were given a course calendar at the beginning of the semester, which he doesn't follow and he constantly changes due dates. He assigned everyone the PCI project.. when it was optional to students in the past, for this course. Kleiss wastes class time on random guest lecturers, and we learn nothing valuable. Every lecture he gives, you better take good notes and not ever lose focus because his slides on canvas have strictly photos and maybe 5 words. It is a shame that many students like myself pay so much money for a required course only to receive poor quality education at an institution with good reputation. If the university wishes to keep its prestige I'd suggest they get rid of him. Oh and he won't post grades all semester long, and if you ask your assigned TA apparently they cant give you more than one grade ... how is one supposed to plan and know their standing? Lastly, as I wrap up my semster he is introducing a NEW PROJECT next week... and JUST posted a few grades from early in the semester (September). UMD DO BETTER.
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Anonymous 12/03/2025	Just a God awful class. The class is completely disorganized and at times, difficult to follow. Lecture slides consist of bullet points and images, so be ready to write down everything that comes out of his mouth. Those slides will serve you absolutely no good when it comes time to take the vague exams they assign. They also do not grade anything. We were assigned three assignments consisting of a Brick Scavenger Hunt, Truchet Patterns, a Precast Concrete Design Competition, and a third project that he has yet to assign us yet. All of this has yet to be graded by a single TA. Also, regarding the design competition hosted by the Precast Concrete Institute, it was launched all the way back on June 7th, yet he decided to assign it to us on October 31st, less than a week before applications closed. Absolutely absurd. It left us with less than three weeks to complete two whole boards for a theoretical student-living hub. We had also spent less than 2 classes ACTUALLY learning about precast concrete, then he’ll bring in guests who lecture us as if we’re proficient in this kind of stuff. He’ll also mention projects in the beginning of the semester and wait until there’s less than 5 weeks remaining to actually assign them. TLDR; Kleiss is a fraud
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Anonymous 12/01/2025	The worst class in the entire world. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable for ARCH students. Kleiss is so unorganized and practically makes things up as he goes. There is no course syllabus assigned on the first day of class, and that's when I knew this was going to be rough. He assigned one halfway through the semester, and it wasn't even accurate. He assigned the only three projects of the entire course during the last month of the semester and practically made them all due at the same exact time. Exams are practically gibberish. You will do badly no matter how much you study; I learned that the hard way. Just focus on your other classes at this point because this one is a lost cause. I didn't know what grade to expect going into it, and I surely don't know what the outcome is going to be. If he makes the precast competition mandatory again next year, good luck.
Michael Kleiss ARCH464 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/20/2025	I didn’t mind Professor Kleiss when I had him for 462. His teaching style was extremely unorganized, and he was absent for much of the semester, but at that time my workload was lighter and I could manage despite the lack of instruction. Now that I have him again for 464, I have to agree he has gotten worse, which makes it frustrating to navigate another unstructured course and pointless projects alongside my studio work. He rarely gives us enough time or notice for gathering materials or preparing for exams. There is no calendar posted for when exams will occur, and project deadlines shift constantly, making it difficult to organize my other coursework around his. I’m writing out of frustration because we have an exam tomorrow morning, scheduled one day before our studio mid review, and it covers the hardest topics we’ve studied all semester with the most components to memorize. Now get this, he only mentioned the exam briefly at the end of class last week, after most students had already left, and then waited until yesterday to have a TA send a reminder about the exam with topics to study. THE EXAM IS TOMORROW. He is the worst professor I’ve ever had at UMD.
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/29/2025	This man is the worst professor I've had at umd. He doesn't communicate with his TA's, let alone his students. He doesn't listen to his students and frequently changes the instructions of the exams or the projects without any heads up. His projects are beyond ridiculous (aka making us bring a brick to class) and then ended the semester by making us model a frame for a precedent. However, he told groups all different directions, his TA's did not help whatsoever, and forced us to bring the very large model to class, not acknowledge it, then force us to bring the model to the next class again. He is the most unorganized professor I've ever had. Now I have him for ARCH464 and he is back and worse than ever. His absence policy is straight bs and goes against multiple university policies. His lectures are the EXACT same as they were in 462 and is testing us on the content again. I understand a review of the past material to refresh but not teaching us anything new and just testing us on 462 content is just ridiculous. Overall, avoid this man like the plague, he is not worth the semester long frustration.
Michael Kleiss ARCH462 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/28/2024	I had a pretty good experience with Dr. Kleiss. His lectures are somewhat boring and are in bullet point format or pictures. Make sure to take notes more on what he’s saying instead of doing the bare minimum of bullet points. The exam were somewhat easy, the first exam had extra credit but the other 2 didn’t. Each question was always worth 5 pts so one question wrong brought your grade down significantly. But of all 3 exams I got a 90, 85, 85 so it wasn’t too too bad. The one thing I will say I didn’t like was that at the beginning of the year syllabus he said that all the exams would be open note, open google, etc. but 2 days before our first exam he changed that. Also he never had a material list in the syllabus. So for example on Tuesday he would tell us to bring in materials for class on Thursday. I was able to get them but for those less fortunate who maybe don’t have access to a store near them or mom that could bring them just keep this in mind. Thankfully I also had some of me leftover materials from arch 200 which we used for the finals project. Overall good experience and would take this class again.