Professor

Mary Samuelson

AD
3.8
Overall Ratings
Based on 36 Users
Easiness 3.6 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 3.0 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 4.1 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 4.2 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (36)

1 of 3
1 of 3
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Dec. 5, 2019
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: N/A

The required readings were very engaging and interesting. Participation matters in this class so be sure to do the readings and be aware of all information.
She is a tough grader. Simple reading responses (mainly essays on your opinion) she grades for content. Also, for her essays she grades VERY hard. The class average for our first essay was a "C" and she was proud of that. Personally, I have very high standards so I was a bit upset when she stated that. To do well on essays, I highly recommend to get additional support. Go to the Undergraduate Writing Center or Writing Success Program, book an appointment and be sure to carefully edit your essay before you turn it in. She is very picky about formatting, grammar and just everything. In the beginning of the quarter, she did signs of favoritism which made me feel uncomfortable however as the quarter was ending, I just got over it. Also, she doesn't really respond to emails BUT
She is a good professor and passionate because she supports you by having workshops (grammar, MLA format, word choice, passive voice) and mandatory office hours.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 29, 2020
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: A

Man, I loved this class so much. The start of the course was very intimidating because I felt like an airhead compared to all the scholars in the class. It is super intimate and generally chill though, and I found everyone to be very sweet in the class. We honestly just had open discussions on most days about UCLA and our goals. So wholesome!
The readings aren't entirely necessary to do, I would just call them supplementary. The workload was definitely the most for me, but it was all self reflective and creative stuff. It was very manageable.
Professor Samuelson is the nicest woman ever! She is a genius and very understanding. She deserves it all!
I would 100/10 recommend this class!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
HNRS 50
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 29, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A

You honestly get what you put into this class. Really enjoyed the introspection and chatting with her but if you aren't into it it can get quite boring sometimes. Would recommend taking it later if you can so you can work on your resume with her!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
HNRS 50
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 29, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A

Overall, I found this class to be boring but it was really easy. Professor S is super nice and really aims to connects with students. Discussions were very interesting every class period and involved a lot of personal reflection. Workload was decent and graded super easily; basically if you do it, you'll get 100. You create 2 blogs, 1 personal, 1 group, a few written responses, 1 project and final is an e-portfolio. Professor S was great but this class was boring. Easy A though and you meet some really great people.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 14, 2024
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A-

Professor Samuelson was a great professor and truly cared about the improvement of students writing. I was nervous at first to take the course because at first, I did not feel confident in my writing. As I end the course, I feel more confident in my writing and I have learned many helpful writing tips. The course was challenging, but I feel that I improved so much as a writer. Professor Samuelson mentioned in the beginning of the course, that if we put in the work and time on our essays we would do great in the class and I agree. I was once a person who said "This is my first draft and final draft," but now I go through the process of writing a bad first draft and revising it. I enjoyed the assigned readings because they were relevant to today's world and I was actually interested and engaged when reading them. The reading responses, I felt were tedious, but they were very helpful when it came to starting my rough drafts. Professor Samuelson always encouraged students to attend office hours, and I did, which I felt was very helpful. I highly recommend Professor Samuelson because she was encouraging and helped me to become more confident in college writing. I now implement the writing skills I learned in the class to other classes where I need to write.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
June 8, 2022
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: A+

This class was very project-heavy. It's not really like a class class with material, we mostly just talked about our career aspirations. It was helpful because one of the assignments was creating a resume which we got feedback on. There were just so many projects though. It was like project after project. It got pretty hard to manage tbh. We worked on a blog throughout the quarter that we would write posts for intermittently. There were also Written Response assignments mostly about the Roadmap book. Lots of readings, some long. Everyone has to lead discussion one time and for that you have to read the reading in depth and make a presentation on it (slideshow as well as around 10 minute presentation, but some people's were 20-30 minutes). Next we had a Group Website Project which was kind of exhausting. None of these projects are hard, they're just very time-consuming. It is difficult to make pretty websites. So hard in that way. Then right after that group project we had to write another blog post about Cultivating Happiness (see it's not hard stuff, it just takes up a lot of time). And then we wrote our resumes. And then we had a third Blog Post about Goal-Setting, and then a "Remix Project" right after that (another project! They kind of never ended), and then for the Honors Collegium I had to make a TikTok about my freshman year, which I guess wasn't really for this class but for the honors program, and then our LAST project was making an "E-Portfolio" where you essentially turn your resume into (ANOTHER) website. You're lucky if you have experience making website when you go into this class.
Update I'm a junior now and I turned the website I made for this class into a sustainability-promoting site that I'm sending on job apps. So if you can def make your website something you will use.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 9, 2016
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: B

three long papers...
discussion comments 5/quarter.
the professor got sick or whatever so i did not get 2 of my papers. so i did not know what improvements i needed.
shes nice.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 10, 2016
Quarter: Winter 2016
Grade: N/A

She isn't even nice. Worst professor I had so far and will ever have at UCLA. I worked extremely hard on the essays and talked with her several times via appointments but she'd never give me anything in the A range. She is an unreasonably harsh grader (the average grade of her classes is C+ or something), there are a lot of workload that is very time-consuming, and her feedbacks on the essays don't help at all because she just writes a bunch of "awkward"s on top of sentences and don't give any specific advice. Her lectures focus too much on the topic (media and consuming in US) rather than on how to write well. She was either late or did not come to one-on-one office hour appointments and did not even apologize. Fucking hated her. Avoid her if you can.

Helpful?

0 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 29, 2016
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: B

worst professor ever. she is not a great professor. she has favorites, which you will notice after a week. i went to her office hours, and she was not even present. when i did go, she was on her phone most of the time, which was extremely rude..this happened the 2 or 3 times i went. oh, and i tried to make an appointment with her, and she never replied to the email. she was terrible, stay away. dont enroll in her class

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 31, 2016
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: A-

She picked really relevant topics to write about throughout the course which I think was better than what I heard from other ENGCOMP 3 classes. She is really interested in film, so I found the topics she chose really interesting. Easy to approach and took the time to read all of my rough drafts but is a harsh grader in the end and I rewrote most of my papers. Prompts were open-ended which I found difficult personally.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
ENGCOMP 2
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: N/A
Dec. 5, 2019

The required readings were very engaging and interesting. Participation matters in this class so be sure to do the readings and be aware of all information.
She is a tough grader. Simple reading responses (mainly essays on your opinion) she grades for content. Also, for her essays she grades VERY hard. The class average for our first essay was a "C" and she was proud of that. Personally, I have very high standards so I was a bit upset when she stated that. To do well on essays, I highly recommend to get additional support. Go to the Undergraduate Writing Center or Writing Success Program, book an appointment and be sure to carefully edit your essay before you turn it in. She is very picky about formatting, grammar and just everything. In the beginning of the quarter, she did signs of favoritism which made me feel uncomfortable however as the quarter was ending, I just got over it. Also, she doesn't really respond to emails BUT
She is a good professor and passionate because she supports you by having workshops (grammar, MLA format, word choice, passive voice) and mandatory office hours.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
HNRS 50
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: A
March 29, 2020

Man, I loved this class so much. The start of the course was very intimidating because I felt like an airhead compared to all the scholars in the class. It is super intimate and generally chill though, and I found everyone to be very sweet in the class. We honestly just had open discussions on most days about UCLA and our goals. So wholesome!
The readings aren't entirely necessary to do, I would just call them supplementary. The workload was definitely the most for me, but it was all self reflective and creative stuff. It was very manageable.
Professor Samuelson is the nicest woman ever! She is a genius and very understanding. She deserves it all!
I would 100/10 recommend this class!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
HNRS 50
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 29, 2020

You honestly get what you put into this class. Really enjoyed the introspection and chatting with her but if you aren't into it it can get quite boring sometimes. Would recommend taking it later if you can so you can work on your resume with her!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
HNRS 50
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
March 29, 2021

Overall, I found this class to be boring but it was really easy. Professor S is super nice and really aims to connects with students. Discussions were very interesting every class period and involved a lot of personal reflection. Workload was decent and graded super easily; basically if you do it, you'll get 100. You create 2 blogs, 1 personal, 1 group, a few written responses, 1 project and final is an e-portfolio. Professor S was great but this class was boring. Easy A though and you meet some really great people.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
ENGCOMP 3
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A-
March 14, 2024

Professor Samuelson was a great professor and truly cared about the improvement of students writing. I was nervous at first to take the course because at first, I did not feel confident in my writing. As I end the course, I feel more confident in my writing and I have learned many helpful writing tips. The course was challenging, but I feel that I improved so much as a writer. Professor Samuelson mentioned in the beginning of the course, that if we put in the work and time on our essays we would do great in the class and I agree. I was once a person who said "This is my first draft and final draft," but now I go through the process of writing a bad first draft and revising it. I enjoyed the assigned readings because they were relevant to today's world and I was actually interested and engaged when reading them. The reading responses, I felt were tedious, but they were very helpful when it came to starting my rough drafts. Professor Samuelson always encouraged students to attend office hours, and I did, which I felt was very helpful. I highly recommend Professor Samuelson because she was encouraging and helped me to become more confident in college writing. I now implement the writing skills I learned in the class to other classes where I need to write.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
HNRS 50
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: A+
June 8, 2022

This class was very project-heavy. It's not really like a class class with material, we mostly just talked about our career aspirations. It was helpful because one of the assignments was creating a resume which we got feedback on. There were just so many projects though. It was like project after project. It got pretty hard to manage tbh. We worked on a blog throughout the quarter that we would write posts for intermittently. There were also Written Response assignments mostly about the Roadmap book. Lots of readings, some long. Everyone has to lead discussion one time and for that you have to read the reading in depth and make a presentation on it (slideshow as well as around 10 minute presentation, but some people's were 20-30 minutes). Next we had a Group Website Project which was kind of exhausting. None of these projects are hard, they're just very time-consuming. It is difficult to make pretty websites. So hard in that way. Then right after that group project we had to write another blog post about Cultivating Happiness (see it's not hard stuff, it just takes up a lot of time). And then we wrote our resumes. And then we had a third Blog Post about Goal-Setting, and then a "Remix Project" right after that (another project! They kind of never ended), and then for the Honors Collegium I had to make a TikTok about my freshman year, which I guess wasn't really for this class but for the honors program, and then our LAST project was making an "E-Portfolio" where you essentially turn your resume into (ANOTHER) website. You're lucky if you have experience making website when you go into this class.
Update I'm a junior now and I turned the website I made for this class into a sustainability-promoting site that I'm sending on job apps. So if you can def make your website something you will use.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
ENGCOMP 3
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: B
March 9, 2016

three long papers...
discussion comments 5/quarter.
the professor got sick or whatever so i did not get 2 of my papers. so i did not know what improvements i needed.
shes nice.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
ENGCOMP 3
Quarter: Winter 2016
Grade: N/A
March 10, 2016

She isn't even nice. Worst professor I had so far and will ever have at UCLA. I worked extremely hard on the essays and talked with her several times via appointments but she'd never give me anything in the A range. She is an unreasonably harsh grader (the average grade of her classes is C+ or something), there are a lot of workload that is very time-consuming, and her feedbacks on the essays don't help at all because she just writes a bunch of "awkward"s on top of sentences and don't give any specific advice. Her lectures focus too much on the topic (media and consuming in US) rather than on how to write well. She was either late or did not come to one-on-one office hour appointments and did not even apologize. Fucking hated her. Avoid her if you can.

Helpful?

0 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
ENGCOMP 3
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: B
March 29, 2016

worst professor ever. she is not a great professor. she has favorites, which you will notice after a week. i went to her office hours, and she was not even present. when i did go, she was on her phone most of the time, which was extremely rude..this happened the 2 or 3 times i went. oh, and i tried to make an appointment with her, and she never replied to the email. she was terrible, stay away. dont enroll in her class

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
ENGCOMP 3
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: A-
March 31, 2016

She picked really relevant topics to write about throughout the course which I think was better than what I heard from other ENGCOMP 3 classes. She is really interested in film, so I found the topics she chose really interesting. Easy to approach and took the time to read all of my rough drafts but is a harsh grader in the end and I rewrote most of my papers. Prompts were open-ended which I found difficult personally.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
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