2.9
Quality3.6
Difficulty14%
Would Retake90
Reviews14%
Would Retake
90
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
28
4
8
3
15
2
20
1
19
What Students Say
“A class with Watry consists of very little actual learning”
PS319 - 2.0 rating“Literally one of the worst classes I have ever taken”
PS319 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
83%
Textbook Required
33%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.84 avg changeRatings by Course
PSANYTHING
5.0
(2)PS
5.0
(2)MANY
5.0
(1)PS201
5.0
(1)CONLAW
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PS332
5.0
JUDICIALP
5.0
PS331207
5.0
PS430
4.5
PS207
4.2
Reviews (90)
Ok, kind of weird and still learning
terrible teacher, objectives unclear, has trouble communicating
only 4 grades in the whole class...and the papers will KILL you!
No Comments
No Comments
She's helpful. The class isn't super easy, but very doable. The papers are NOT hard. 5 pages...big deal..
Dr. Watry is great. She is extremely organized - gives you complete notes and spells out exactly what she wants on papers and tests. You should attend class to do well. She will help any student outside of class - all you have to do is ask her!
Very Helpful...she knows what the hell she's talking about!!!!!!!!!!
She makes hasty assumptions and does not treat her students fairly. I would think that at her age she would be mature, but I felt that the way in which she deals with me is the mentality of a highschool student!
Grades unfairly and doesn't try to hide it. Good class if you are female. Don't even think about it otherwise.
Many feel like Professor Watry is a man hater, I'm a male but I didn't feel that way. I do agree that she is not a very good professor though. Her lecture is pretty close to useless and her experiences don't seem to tie well to material.
She is very intelligent and knows what she is talking about, but she expects a lot of work! The tests are difficult and the lectures are very long!
She's great! Lots of enthusiasm. Clear expectations. Lectures are interesting, personal anecdotes add not detract. A dynamo. Great class. I actually learned something.
The worst professor I have run across at Northern. Come to think of it, the worst teach/professor I've EVER had. If you value your GPA, don't waste your time.
Have had her 3 times. I'm a conservative, white male. So I pretty much had no chance right? Wrong. I worked my a** off, wrote good papers, and studied for about 3 days before each class. Earned (key word with her) 2 B's and a B+. Not great, but not ba
Watry is a horrible teacher. It takes her weeks to grade papers and she show favoritism in her grading. She is a die hard femminist which means males have to kiss ass to get a good grade
Watry is crude and rude. She swears quite a bit. Most of her material was difficult although she knows a lot.
You rock!!
EXTREMELY liberal biased teacher. doesnt matter if shes liberal or not but if youre conservative then she is gonna ice you. not only that, bias from the professor is very unprofessional. she cancels class a lot and is overall very unprofessional
Extremely liberal, and ****. Very one sided arguements. Read the book and take notes in class and you will do fine. Don't slack off.
Hey, the truth is, Liberals are smarter. Maybe you should Learn.
shes smart, her lectures are good BUT she puts way too much of her own views in the class. shes also really cranky and plays the favorites game. her new york times project is a waste of time.
She is a WONDERFUL teacher. She is very fair and her teaching in very easy to understand if you pay attention. She is by far one of my favorite teachers.
I think Watry is a very good teacher. She certainly knows her stuff. Her tests aren't bad as long as you listen in class, take notes, and look over the material before the exam. As for the comment about liberals being smarter, that is a joke. Keep your OPINIONS to YOURSELF.
I found her test to be extremly hard. However her lectures are interesting. I find her teaching methods to be up to date. If you study extremly hard for the tests then you'll do ok. overall shes an ok teacher
Very knowledgeable woman. Does not present the material in an interesting fashion. Alot of dry reading. Refuses to help students that are non political science majors. Outside of class preperation is extremely time consuming & tests are essay format.
Watch out for this one! She's not the best prof to get. You are better off never crossing her path. He class is hard, even if you do study, she doesn't use study guides at all, so studying it hard. Nothing is presented in an interesting manner, falling asleep in her class is a daily occurance.
Really great professor. She's incredibly knowledgeable about eveything she lectures on, and very helpful both in and out of class. Also, she's an awesome mock trial coach.
Liberal but fair and smart which is rare. Tests were easy. If you show up to class and take notes its a breeze. If your talking about the judicial branch and have conservative view points dont speak up unless you can back your views pretty well
Amazingly smart teacher! She knows so much about a lot of things - shes a great teacher. Classes are hard but worth it in the long run cuz you learn SO much!
She is extremely smart, knows her subject. Better not to speak up cuz she'll argue the opposite point. In her classes you will learn alot. It is hard to listen to her talk about how sick she is, the girl has every ailment known to man.
Took her a lot. Smart woman. If u show up and pay attention you'll do well and learn a lot at the same time. She's always hurt or sick though which is kinda funny. poor lady.
Very hard Prof but amazing advisor. Expects a lot out of you but is willing to help. Would recommend if you want to learn but not for a breeze through class
Hard classes, but you'll learn. Good prep for grad/law school. If you just need some credits, take someone else.
Easily one of the best proffs for the social sciences at nmu. The class will kick your ass but its worth it
Like any lecture, it is dull at times (sometimes downright boring), but she personalizes her explanations and makes the material accessible to students. She's very accident-prone. Overall, I'd say the class is worth taking.
No Comments
Excellent teacher. She brings great "real life" examples into her lectures to relate what she's teaching to the world today. She get sick or hurt and misses class a lot, but she explains material clearly, and seems to truly care about her students. She KNOWS her material and is very passionate about what she does. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED
great teacher
shes dumb, ignorant, and takes way to long to return papers. cancels class way too much
She is an amazing teacher...and yes...you can tell that she is liberal, but she does a great job at keeping her political views out of her lectures and being nonpartisan.
HARD professor. it takes her forever to get papers graded and she likes to tag on extra info to tests right around finals time. avoid her classes, they're not worth all the work.
Awful. Despite repeated claims to the contrary it couldn't be more clear that she hates men. She gave out a study guide, here it is: For the exam have everything you've been assigned to read or that we've discussed memorized. I should have paid attention to a former student of hers (female) beforehand when she said "Avoid Watry Like the Plague".
She's a good teacher, but she does take a long time to grade papers and tests. She does make note taking pretty easy by sending out lecture notes before class time.
If you're a piece of trash trying to surf through college by doing the bare minimum then YES.... Dr. Watry is the DEVIL!!! But if you're on a quest for knowledge and want to test yourself then take her classes. I don't care what anyone says, Watry is not bad at all. Neither is Cantrill from the CAPS department. Get over it people.
Hard Tests, lots of outside studying.
Very rude, no sense of humor. Gave me good feedback on papers I wrote and then gave me a B- for the class. Emailed her over a week ago asking why I got the grade and still haven't gotten a response.
Dr. Watry has received a bum rap in my opinion. While she and I are not in the same zip code ideologically, I have NO evidence to support the notion that she grades unfairly. Fact is, she come to class enthusiastic, engages the class in her lectures, expects participation, and.. guess what?? YOU LEARN! If you seek more than a degree.. take her.
Dr. Watry is a good professor. She is passionate about what she teaches, which sometimes made her appear too serious. The fact that Dr. Nelson has a 4.4 on this website and Dr. Watry has a 3.4 if a reflection of the low caliber of student found at NMU. Watry makes you learn while Nelson makes you laugh.
Hard and easy at the same time, those textbook sites she uses are the most helpful of anything, look at the tutorial quizes and look up terms then its easy...hard to memorize and its a lot of crap. I say find someone else because she's not helpful and takes NO excuses if you missed any homework.
She does't respond to emails of questions or concerns, being an online class you think she would. She also takes a very long time to grade, but don't worry she always has great excuses why. Even though this is only the 4 week of class Im going to say avoid this teacher. Some of the assignments aren't clear, and don't expect any help through email.
The fact that some of these posters on here claim that Dr. Watry doesn't have a sense of humor is beyond me. She was always approachable and had an excellent sense of humor when I was taking her courses. I had her for 3 or 4 courses and specifically chose her due to her personality and knowledge. I am even a conservative and we got along great.
Had her for several classes; quality prof; helps prepare you for law school. If you're looking to take a regular easy NMU class then avoid.
Super unimpressed. I'm sure if you declare poli-sci as your major Professor Watry might be amazing, but as a 100 level professor, she could have cared less. 5 week grading time for all exams/assignments, no responses from emails, class time consisted of arguing with another classmate. Class canceled 10 times without notification. Ick.
The tests were ridiculous. There would be questions on there that I swear I had never seen anywhere before. Not to mention the way she worded them made them hard to understand. I went to lecture every day, read the book, and studied the power point but I still had a hard time. I would not recommend if you value your GPA
I took this class expecting it to be interesting and overall helpful. Complete opposite, the class is super boring, shes a lousy teacher, and her tests are ridiculously hard. I don't recommend this to anyone unless you want a challenge.
HUGE disappointment. She doesn't answer emails and is not helpful. Her tests are ridiculously hard and the classes are beyond boring. She randomly cancels classes (majority of the time without warning) and she's unreliable. My GPA took a hit from this class so I'd recommend someone else.
I had almost a 4.0 before taking this class. Her tests are ridiculous and not my GPA is going to tak a hit. She uses lingo in the tests that I do not understand. Avoid her if you are looking at keeping your GPA up. And her homework is ANNOYING! Ugh. I can't wait for this class to end
She knows her stuff, but can get a bit hard on the tests. A lot of her questions on the test are pulled right from the book. She uses current new stories for examples of what she's talking about and it helps you understand the subjects at hand. Lectures can drag on, but what lecture about poly sci isn't?
Terrible teacher, knows her subject but does not care less about teaching. Hasn't grading a single assignment from the entire semester. Watched four movies this semester, that's bad because this is college and the movies were historically inaccurate and irrelevant. Doesn't teach at all from the book even though there is required weekly reading
Dr. Watry is a really good professor, but wouldn't recommend taking it if you have other hard courses to take on top of it. The class is pretty interesting and can make it a lot of fun but wouldn't take it with any other hard classes.
Dr. Watry was a great professor. People who don't follow or aren't interested in politics seemed to have struggled. It's kind of embarrassing though considering the majority of stuff she taught us in class is high school level stuff. Her lectures in class were always interesting and it's obvious shes passionate about what she teaches.
She expects her student to do their work. She is trying to prepare students for law school which is a 100% more difficult than your undergrad! So don't take her class unless you are willing to work hard, go to her office hours, and read your textbook. She is willing to help you succeed but she is not going to chase after you, you must seek her out!
Not an easy A. That being said Watry is the bomb. She's funny and very helpful. Cares about her students. If you put forth the effort you will be fine.
A class with Watry consists of very little actual learning. She mostly just prattles of anecdotes about her youth-- the same stories each time. I was very interested in the course topic, but that's not nearly enough to redeem unorganized lectures. She does not come to class prepared and wastes so much time as a result.
Test banks are provided for each quiz and exam, so you know exactly what to expect. Lecture can get boring fast. Never emails back and cancels class randomly. She was an alright professor, easy A if you put in the time and effort with studying the resources she gives you. Very liberal ideology and makes it known
Literally one of the worst classes I have ever taken. I all around enjoy her as a person, but s a teacher she was a wreck. she gave super long assignments with little to no feedback that she usually didn't grade and ended up just giving effort points for. She missed a ton of class with barely any warning. And it really didn't seem like she cared
Horrible and completely unprepared teacher. She assigned group work for more than half the classes which no one ever did. Her lectures are just rambling and struggling to get her laptop to work. Just show up every day and spend class time outlining the chapters and memorizing briefs. Easy A. A Valium prescription might also help you get through it.
She would never offer feedback about assignments, and would just keep adding to the pile of ungraded work. She tried to relate everything back to personal experience. Testbanks were offered and were required to be able to pass the class
Took her class due to interest in law career. Seemed to be fine but started not grading papers and tests, assigns more homework than she grades, rambles on about material not related to class, expects students to know everything. Used the book amd studied and did everything possible and still felt like a failure. Hard to contact and understand
Started out ok but it broke down after spring break. Did not grade things, canceled class alot including on test days. If you can stay away.
I had Ruth for PS101 once a week for a 3.5 hour class. She lectured the whole time, but was knowledgeable and shared personal stories which I appreciated. The test questions were the same as the practice quiz questions, so if you kept track of those answers, the tests were so easy. For PS101, I think Ruth is a good professor.
She is a mess. An upper level judicial process class with her was a joke. She didn't reply to emails, didn't give any instruction on assignments, gave no feedback on over 20 assignments (all of them), took over a month to grade exams, doesn't grade crucial things until the last minute. Too many issues to mention here, just don't take her class.
Quite possibly one of the most unorganized classes that I have ever taken. She assigned two final projects with 4 weeks left in class. She didn't explain them and instead said to "google them". Of 22 assignments submitted, only 5 were graded by the last day of class. She is highly educated in the subject, just unorganized. Proceed with caution.
I am not even at this university anymore and I still think about this professor simply because her American government class is the only C that sits on my transcript. This class was horribly unorganized. I did several assignments that were never even graded. I spent hours outside of class studying for her exams, without prevail. Stay away.
I was shocked by this class. It kind of felt like a joke. She constantly talks about her Doctorate. Constantly off topic, talked about dog breeding and random inappropriate topics. Today is the day grades are due and she has not put in half the grades. Easy A if you're looking for blow off liberal fillers. THE TEST ANSWERS ARE ON QUIZLET! ALL 800
Never grades anything. Horrible communication.
Dr. Watry is a funny woman with a great personality. As a professor, she was very frustrating. Did not show up to office hours, took semester to grade, did not respond to emails. In class counterproductive. AWOL during pandemic-online shift. You will have to teach yourself. I feel like I did 99% this class without her. 13/10 would not recommend!
She treated this intro class as if it was a higher level and gave us incredibly hard and frustrating tasks. Her exams did not test us on what we were learning. she' very vague and would change her mind on the dot. It is also very clear that she believed that everyone taking the intro class wanted to be a lawyer or paralegal (I am not one of those).
If you are ready to teach yourself and have no guidelines for what you need to do this class is great for you. The only reason I would take another one of her classes is if she is the only one teaching it. She puts grades in educat wrong and you will not know your grade or have any idea how you stand in this class until the end of the semester.
Doesn't assign a lot of homework, but definitely want to focus on the textbook. Her lectures can be confusing because she backtracks a LOT. Having friends in the class is helpful because they can explain things better. And the projects are either straightforward or so confusing that you have to google almost everything.
She is a mess. She is so unhelpful, unorganized, and hard to get a hold of. Her "lectures" seem more like her personal ranting time. I wish she showed her class as much dedication and devotion in the way she shows her large Sprite from McDonalds, which she brought to class every single day. A lot of her work is on quizlet and that is what helped me
Dr. Watry seems like a nice woman with interesting personal experiences, and seems to know her material. She also is a painful teacher to have, for my class she has completely relied on online assignment I had to pay extra for to even access (mindtap). I have felt zero engagement in her class, this 100 has been more frustrating than some 300s
Do not need to show up to pass. Just read the textbook and study the testbank she provides. You won't gain anything from her lectures except for way too much personal information. If I didn't have to take her classes for my major, I wouldn't.
It is the 5th week of college and Professor Watry hasn't been in class yet. She originally took off 3 weeks and the day she was supposed to return she took 3 more weeks off. Our first Exam is in a week and we legit haven't learned anything. She is horrible at answering emails. She also doesn't take questions and concern about homework due kindly.
Professor watry gives out assignments and doesn't say anything about them then gets upset about the fact that no one does the homework. She knows what she is talking about and is passionate in her lectures but the homework is very frustrating because she doesn't ever mention it just expects it to be done
All of the homework was online and due weekly. Very manageable homework that takes maybe 30 minutes to complete. The exams can be done at home. She takes attendance for class but it isn't for a grade. She definitely knows what she is talking about and is passionate about it. Very caring and understanding. Homework is worth 40% and exams are 20%.
This is essentially a self-taught online class. Dr.Watry relates some textbook concepts to current events, but they aren't anything you need to remember for the class. When she does go over the lecture slides, it is only for a fraction of the class period and she briefly mentions concepts that are actually needed for exams.
This class was basically a recap of the already super expensive online textbook that was required for this course. Try to find cheaper options if possible. Ruth isn't the type of person that should really teach a political science class, opting to rant more than teach. If you value your time and money, avoid Ruth at all costs.
Dr. Watry was incredibly supportive and easily accessible outside of class. If you need professional or academic advice, she offers great advice for anyone seeking support for law school or graduate school. In addition, Dr. Watry knows what she is talking about!
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
83%
Textbook Required
33%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.84 avg changeRatings by Course
PSANYTHING
5.0
(2)PS
5.0
(2)MANY
5.0
(1)PS201
5.0
(1)CONLAW
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PS332
5.0
JUDICIALP
5.0
PS331207
5.0
PS430
4.5
PS207
4.2