| Information | Review |
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David Mussington
PLCY401 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/14/2025 |
I am curious to read the other reviews being for PLCY201, as they seem like the same thing that is occurring in my PLCY401 class. I put a B+ for what I am expecting but truthfully, I have no clue what to expect. 35% of the grade weighting is "individual reading assignments." These are the only positive of the course for me as I thought they reinforced learning, but also they were all graded subjectively, had no rubrics for them, and no true deadlines ever given for when to submit them. There is an 8-10 page midterm paper and a group presentation that combined are worth 45% of your grade. There was no rubric given for either of these besides that for the 8-10 page paper, he wanted us to not cite with APA or MLA, but "Endnotes." He did not provide any examples. After my group had already presented, he mentioned that we were meant to submit individual notes. These were never mentioned, but he told us not to worry because he was going to return grades within the next week and we could resubmit based on feedback. It has been 2 weeks since and grades have not been returned. 20% of the grade is "class participation" but there is rarely ever time to participate, nor is there any specification telling us what this means. All of the grading feels like "vibes". None of it feels objective in any way. If you have a different opinion on a subject than the professor, it feels like he lowers your grade. He also refuses to use Canvas for grades and you only get your grades back/can submit assignments by emailing the professor. This has resulted in assignments I have submitted getting lost in the shuffle and still having not been graded. The worst professor I have had at UMD, take someone else if possible. |
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David Mussington
PLCY401 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2025 |
Professor Mussington is awful. Do not take a class with him if you can avoid it. The readings are the only thing that helped me understand cybersecurity because he mumbles and gets repetitive when he teaches in class and goes on tangents beyond the class (he loves his grad class for sure). This course was supposed to be about cybersecurity policy and I do not feel I learned about the policy side of things it was just a course on cybersecurity broadly. He only provides rubrics for assignments after your class asks several times and they are incredibly vague, week excuses for rubrics. This makes it very challenging to predict what grade you'll receive. He also enjoys adding pretty important requirements last minute or even after something is due. After a group presentation, he requested that we have more words on the slide (which is just not how you give a presentation that is engaging but he would not know about that) or that we give our speaker notes which not all of us used. He is disorganized and insists that you contact him via elms but will email you suddenly on a chain unrelated to the topic he's emailing about. He is also quite frankly rude and every time I wished him a nice day or said thank you he just stared at me. You will regret taking his courses. |
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David Mussington
PLCY201 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/09/2025 |
Very unorganized course, as there is no clear objective of the class. While there are no tests/quizzes, there are weekly 2-page summaries due on rly long readings (near impossible to get 10/10 on it). Plus, there is a 10-page paper with no rubrics attached, which is 35% of the grade. The class is strictly lectures, which are mind-bogglingly boring as he is incredibly monotone with his words. Seems like an interesting class, but was not at all with this professor. The TA and the professor are nice people, but very boring and unorganized with the class and I would not recommend. Not very hard tho just make sure to do the summaries |
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David Mussington
PLCY201 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/01/2025 |
this course is the messiest course ive ever taken. for the first couple weeks we had to submit essays through email bc the prof didnt know how to use canvas... the TA is a crazy harsh grader, and there is no structure to anything, oh and also we had a 10-page paper worth 20% of our grade and he did not give us a rubric. dr mussington never gives us rubrics for anything and is unnecessarily harsh in grading. DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE W THIS PROF!!! we have a weekly summary 2 page paper due every week. |
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David Mussington
PLCY201 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/17/2025 |
Very poor. Never grades work. Terrible at instruction and repetitive content. Stay away if you want to actually learn something. |