Dennis Nola

This professor has taught: HONR338A, HONR338B, HONR348N, LARC140, LARC151, LARC160, LARC265, LARC321, LARC340, LARC389, LARC420, LARC489A, LARC489N, LARC641, LARC721
Information Review
Dennis Nola
LARC151

Expecting an A+
Naruto
11/28/2022
I didn't learn crap but the class was easy. Had 7 different graded assignments besides the the weekly discussions we had to do. It is mainly group work, no exams. Easy A
Dennis Nola
LARC160

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
07/15/2022
This guy assigned a million hard drawing projects... and a full final board presentation. I spent hours upon hours each week on the projects and got 100% on everything. His lectures were terrible. He didn't respond to anything until emailing at least three times. Final was awful. Do not recommend.
Dennis Nola
LARC151

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2022
Class is easy, and I didn't have to attend lecture
Dennis Nola
LARC151

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/28/2021
Nice guy who really knows landscape architecture. Most of the lectures are him telling the class about different design projects he's done. You just have to take notes on his achievements because those topics will show up on the exam. Pros: All questions on the exam are given beforehand on the study guides he provides. Kind and passionate about his work. Cons: Hard to reach (never answered my emails). Does not allow phones or laptops in class and stops the class to lecture about it if he sees one. The semester-long design project isn't too bad and spaced out enough to not be a hassle. Fun and easy class if you enjoy sustainability and design.
Dennis Nola
LARC151

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/09/2021
Great guy. Really passionate and understanding about things. Really easy going especially when our classes were online due to COVID.
Dennis Nola
LARC160

Expecting a B
Anonymous
02/10/2021
I truly have no clue why he used to be rated so highly. I took his LARC160 in 2018 and every lecture was super boring since he just rambles on and on about stuff you barely understand or really care about. Discussion was useless too, just some boring random assignments. There was also a project where you had to draw an aerial view of parts of the campus, which for some reason he took off a bunch of points and never made his expectations clear. There were also exams involving essays, to this day I still don't know how or why he graded the way he did. If you think LARC160 is an easy class you are wrong, you'll actually have to spend a ton of time and research questions that don't really have an answer. If I could go back in time I would have chosen a different class. Nola is incredibly overrated and I totally regret taking this class with him.
Dennis Nola
LARC151

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2019
Nola is a really nice person and the class is easy, as long as you attend discussions and submit notes on the readings, which are a huge portion of the grade. However, despite Nola being a good lecturer, the material is dry, the syllabus had no clear grading policy (a clear violation of UMD policy), and grading attendance is heavily discouraged by UMD policy. It's an easy A if you attend discussion but you have to be willing to put up with these annoyances.
Dennis Nola
LARC151

Anonymous
11/29/2019
Cool class, learned a decent bit. The first exam was too hard and asked some overly specific questions but I think he was aware of that once he saw the exam scores. I liked the group project and liked the idea of getting teammates based on skill sets (good at art, good at organization, etc.). Unfortunately that did not happen but I think that was more on the TA. Lecture is skippable if you need to but try not to miss too much because he says "Hmm, this looks like an EXAM QUESTION" a lot, which is obviously useful. He was nice about helping assignments get graded when the TA was not on top of it. Very friendly and nice.
Dennis Nola
LARC151

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2018
This guy is the best professor ever. If you need to take some gen eds, do it with this guy and you will have a great time.