3.0
Quality3.5
Difficulty48%
Would Retake85
Reviews48%
Would Retake
85
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
26
4
14
3
6
2
15
1
24
What Students Say
“His strong Liberal bias was tough to deal with”
SOC2266 - 3.0 rating“Sean monopolizes the information needed to succeed on exams by exclusively covering concepts verbally (lots of the exam content is not covered in the textbook or slides)”
1025A - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
54%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.79 avg changeRatings by Course
4422
5.0
(1)SOC1025
5.0
(1)2266ACRIM
4.5
(2)SOCIO1025A
4.5
(2)SOC2266
4.3
(7)Difficulty by Course
2257B
3.8
2257a
3.8
2266A
3.5
1025A
3.5
SOC2266
3.4
Reviews (85)
His lecture are interesting and he is very passionate about the material. Easy to stay focused for 3 hour lecture.
Interesting lectures (as much as the content allows), he's really funny and makes a 3 hour lecture pretty enjoyable!
He is honestly one of the most engaging professors I have ever had at western university! Gives lots of examples to support the theories that we go over in class. He makes three hour lectures go by in what feels like an hour. So grateful to have had him teach this intro class!
Make sure to go to lecture! Awesome guy, so passionate about his work I would 100% recommend taking one of his classes
Lectures are mandatory to do well. The paper was really annoying, because we could do it on whatever we wanted (I'd rather not have a choice). Lectures are interesting, he's funny BUT can make you feel dumb when you ask a question. He also doesn't reply to emails (if he mentioned it in class) even if you need clarification. 80+ is doable.
I thought Waite was very enthusiastic, however I found some of the material to be dry. The exams were too detail oriented and he also did not complete the lectures most classes. Additionally, neither Waite or the TA would look over small sections of your paper before submission - how are we supposed to learn how to improve our writing?
Professor Waite was mostly engaging and made a three-hour, Monday morning lecture OK; he's pretty funny but was rather dry when teaching theories. His lectures were unorganized and resulted in being behind in course material. His strong Liberal bias was tough to deal with. Buying textbooks was a waste as he basically only tested lecture material
amazing prof, really made lectures entertaining and exciting. I would highly recommend, definitely my favorite professor this semester
Super charismatic young prof who doesn't make it too hard on the students. Welcomes conversation in lecture but does force it. Looking forward to taking his Intro to Criminology class.
He's a good lecturer but honestly his heavy bias is sometimes hard to overlook--while I find myself often agreeing with him, I know that there are many perspectives he overlooks in order to project his own personal perspective agenda. I enjoy his class although I don't find it particularly challenging, that may or may not be a good thing.
Awesome prof. I took his class in first and second year and loved it. He is very passionate and uses interesting examples. I never miss a class!
THE BEST PROF AT WESTERN hands down. He is so nice and comes to class dressed up every week. He is the cutest and 100% take his intro to crim
Super funny. Super enthusiastic. You can really tell that he loves and is passionate about what he teaches. Will definitely try to get into as many of his classes as I can. Super solid prof.
Took Prof. Waite's class knowing nothing about sociology and came out with a new perspective on the world. He's young so he gets your jokes, boujee and he knows it, and he is by far my favourite prof so far.
He is a good prof, so far one of the best ones in sociology department. The materials can be a little dry but he always tries to make things easier and interesting. Highly recommend.
my favourite prof at western 100%. took his soc class in 1st year and just finished his second year intro to crim class (which i literally only took so i could have him as a prof again). he is so sweet and fun, one of the few classes i get excited to go to. never missed a lecture. theres a fair amount of reading but its fine just take his class pls
I'm currentLy enrolled in Prof Waite's sociology and you class and I honesty look forward to his video lectures. he always makes me laugh at least once a week. he is clear, and concise, and although he talks fast, if you listen to his videos in 1.5 speed you're golden. you also don't need to read a ton of the textbook, he explains key concepts well
This prof is so sweet and is clearly passionate about sociology. The TA's are somewhat hard markers; I finished all my courses above 90 but I could not get above 75 in this class, yet it was my easiest course. (content wise)
Loved his lectures videos but he did repeat himself a lot. Having the textbook helped but everything could have been easily googled. Make sure to read the readings for the quizzes too.
I took it as an elective and loved it. It was online so lectures were posted as short 5 to 15 minute youtube videos and quizzes were easy to get a full mark with the book. We only had 4 assignments and a final with a week to do each so it was a chill course. Definitely take it as an elective because you can get a 75 at least doing the bare minimum
Fun prof who loves what he's teaching, Lectures were posted as multiple short youtube videos which were easy to get through especially in 1.5x speed. Quizzes were super easy because all the answers were in the book and we had a week to do each of the 4 assignments. Easy course to get a 75 at least but TA's can be a bit harsh which sucks.
Probably one of my favourite professors I have ever had since being at Western. You can tell he is really passionate about sociology and takes a lot of time to get to know his students, by sharing personal stories and creating a space to share ours. Professor Waite is incredibly intelligent & it reflects in his lectures and the way he presents them
Professor Waite is nice don't get me wrong, but I found it hard to do well in his class. His lectures tend to be very long and I found it hard to pay attention for 3 hours straight. His exams for this class very extremely difficult and we had to do a huge paper even though it is not an essay course. Lots of work overall.
Prof Waite was an awesome Professor! He had a positive attitude and gave good lectures. He is not very responsive or nice over email but in person who is super sweet. He will remember your name if you participate in class!
Was an entertaining professor that made a 3-hour lecture at 9:30 am somewhat enjoyable. The only cons are that he speaks very fast so since the course is so lecture-heavy, it is difficult to get down everything he is saying. Another is that he shows a lot of stats in the course so the content gets a bit bland sometimes. Overall good prof though.
Sean monopolizes the information needed to succeed on exams by exclusively covering concepts verbally (lots of the exam content is not covered in the textbook or slides). Watching everyone have to brainlessly copy his liberal doctrines on their laptops at 9:30 am to pass the course has to be one of the most depressing things I've ever seen.
As long as you attend each lecture, you will do fine in the course. Parts of the midterm were a bit unfair, asking very specific questions that don't seem significant in the larger picture (i.e. facts about specific sociologists). However, I really enjoyed Professor Waite's enthusiasm -- you can tell he loves what he teaches which was inspiring.
You would think this could be a bird course but it ended up being the class i had to put the most work in. He talks so fast that it's so hard to write everything. The midterm questions were unfair asking us about specific questions about sociologist which was never discussed. You will need to read the entire tb in order to do well in the exams
Talks too fast, marking doesn't make sense
never pick this prof
Insanely hard course. Don't take it if you don't have to.
Professor Waite is an amazing human. He genuinely cares about teaching and makes it enjoyable. This midterm examination was unfair and overtly difficult for an introductory course but, he makes amends to help those in need. Majority of the questions come from the lecture, so it is important you attend and write down quite a bit of notes.
I do not recommend taking this course unless the other two sociology classes are full. Sitting through 3 hours of lecture every week was pointless considering majority of the exam was on the material that was never covered in class. Expect to see random textbook material you would never think is relevant to the content that is being taught in class
read the textbook and show up to lectures (very important as you will be tested on specific things) and an A is very doable, the course requires a decent amount of memorization (like many other social science courses) lectures are interesting at times but he does tend to go on tangents (makes the class drag on) final exam was mostly common sense
Prof Waite's crime and society class was soooo interesting! For a 3 hour lecture he made time fly by with his engaging content and sarcastic sense of humour. Although his courses are weighted heavy when it comes to final exams, all you have to do is show up to class and he'll give you all the tips and tricks you need!!
Dr. Sean Waite is an awesome professor. He does unfortunately talk fast, but this is university, so you need to be ready for that and occasionally he gets on a tangent. I went to the majority of the lectures and read about half the textbook, and I ended up with a 91 in the class. If you study, you'll be fine. People just like to complain.
Makes the lectures enjoyable and easy to understand. Lectures are a must for this course! Great professor
I loved this professor very much. He was clear, and you could tell that he was extremely knowledgable and passionate about sociology. He tells you that you must read the textbook to do well, with that being said I did decent without really reading it at all. Definitely go to all of the lectures, be engaged and pay attention.
He was very clear about what was expected and how to exceed. Reading are important but he includes unique material in lectures that is not in the text so both are important. Slides are pre simple so a bit hard to follow along imo. Class didn't do great on the midterm but he was fair and gave us extra points on the final to boost our grade :)
Perhaps, one of the worst professors at UWO. This professor is not open to discussion and feels that certain words you use are not nice
Took his class for the entire year, Monday morning 9:30-12:30 and did not regret it. Content was interesting and Waite is enthusiastic and keeps you engaged. Takes a lot of exam content from textbook, but the questions are fairly straightforward. Also big on theories/theorists. If you want to take a soc course, would recommend taking one of his.
Initially was a fast speaker in his lectures, but he made class interesting and made an emphasis to answer any student's questions. Attendance isn't mandatory but he values it and often asked exam questions about in class material (or gave hints to exam Qs). Exams are simpler if you go to class & textbook reading not rly needed if you're in class
9:30am three hour lectures are almost impossible to get to every week unless you're an avid morning person and Sean hated when people left during lectures so either go and stay the full time or don't go at all. He also talks really fast (he will repeat himself sometimes but not always).
This prof as a person is very kind and interesting to learn from. However, the course weight was definitely not for me. 85% of the grade was exam based and the other 15% was one assignment. I do not do well on exams so this was really really bad for me. The prof is great but his choice in how to weight your grade makes it hard to pass his class.
He talks so much and so fast I literally can't keep up bruh.
He's honestly rude. The tests are also difficult. The average for the midterm was somewhere in the 60s or low 70s .. for a 2nd year class thats very low. He does have a passion for sociology which you can tell in his lectures.. that being said he teaches alot of information and its hard to keep up. Overall, doesn't really care about the students
the guys passionate, but he reads too fast and pulls random stuff not from notes/reading on the midterm. wouldn't say rude, he was a nice guy, but overall was tough, didn't really like the in-person assignment as there wasn't much we could do to prep. hoping the final is easier, gonna make a new post when the final is complete.
Class is hard to do well in (depending how you define well.) Similar to other reviews.. if youve ever had to talk to him privately. he isn't the easist to talk to.. he is kind of rude. Not very understanding at all..
Tough grader and weights almost everything on exams
Exams consist of a mix of insanely easy/common sense Q's with others that ask extremely specific and unimportant details. If u are a crim/soc major, I recommend u find a diff course, if ur thinking of taking this as an elective, don't. Boring material and hard to succeed when teacher pulls random bs that is irrelevant to course content and learning
He's rude and pulls random material to test on, then blames students attendance for the exams poor mark. He also doesn't allow you to ask questions during exams. Overall, you'll get a good mark if you study random facts but I don't recommend his classes.
Definitely did not enjoy his class. He talks way too fast and no one can ever keep up. His exams are super tough and generally have a lower average than other classes i've taken. He's also weirdly passive - aggressive, do not recommend.
Hard to succeed in the class. Class average is low because his tests are unfair. he makes the multiple choice more difficult then it has to be. also would not post some slideshows shown in lecture on owl. overall doesn't seem like he wants his students to succeed.
Waite is a great person but not a great professor. He said his using of in-class essay is for reduce the use of AI. But since he post the topic weeks before the date of essay, it does nothing but increase stress among students whose first language is not English. The note taking in lecture is heavy AF, test is hard, try your best to avoid his class
My average was around the mid 80s, he talks really fast my advice would be to record the lectures on voice memos and go back and listen to it. It is time consuming but it does pay off, it is very lecture heavy you cant skip the class or you'll be lost. He tends to ramble a lot but listen to them and take notes because he puts them on the exam.
He's a great prof and is really passionate about the material. If you show interest in what he's teaching then he appreciates that is happy to help out whenever. He says that attendance isn't mandatory but GO TO CLASS otherwise you'll fail the course. Final was 50%, midterm 30% and in-class assignment 20%. Overall, great experience.
Does not want students to do well. Won't post content or lectures (even with accomodation requests which he denied.. not sure how a professor can deny an accomodation??). If you can avoid taking a class with him.. do that.
I wouldn't recommend this class, even if it was offered for free. Shares unrelated personal stories, making lectures long and dull. He's unapproachable, lacks empathy, and doesn't tolerate mistakes except his own. Makes questionable comments and seems closed off to other perspectives. Constant derogatory remarks against every and any minority.
Tends to tag a lot of basic things as “woke” even though they aren't?. Very dismissive over email and not enough feedback on the work you do. Dismissed the concept of intersectionality as a whole and tagged its relation to feminism as “total bs” so i feel like that says a lot about his ideals (especially for someone that claims to be a professor…)
Almost every single class was 90% him going on a rant influenced by his far right political ideology (antivax, transphobia, anti-woke etc). If you're in any way liberal his class was painful to sit through. I heavily warn LGBT students.
Get ready for all of the work you do for this class to be all for naught if you need any sort of accommodations
I can't comprehend why you would want to be a prof when you don't care for helping your students succeed. So rude in feedback and emails if he even answers with little to no helpful discussion at all. beware
Openly hateful and disrespectful to other professors. He is not respected in his field as a professor, or a member of the LGBTQ2+ community (which he studies). He lets his own personal bias heavily affect his opinions on subjects while criticizing other academics for doing the same. Does not give good feedback, just tells you to try harder.
Professor was extremely disrespectful to me. doesn't respond to emails either
He is the toughest grader I had in first year because if you don't subscribe to his politics, then good luck trying to get a good grade. Honestly disappointing. Many in the class felt the same way. We fact-checked him during lecture more than once, and it was clear that he was over exaggerating numbers to fit his politics
To quote the parents group “He grades like he is an Austrian fella who got rejected from art school.” I didn't find him personally offensive as others lol but he didn't always seem knowledgeable and was ineffective as an intro prof. There should be higher standards as this is the first exposure for students and he should know the information well
I took 1025B and the prof is super great. the evaluations consisted of 15% weekly quizzes and 2 group assignments as the midterm and final (40% and 45%). It's not a very time-consuming course and the content was super interesting. It was a much better course than 1027 with Nonomura
It's a shame professor Waite is no longer teaching the class on lgbtq populations as a professor with lived experience and research expertise in the area he would be much better than the current prof (nonomura) who lacks both and makes the course feel like a hate crime against lgbtq students
I took a course with Sean a few years back and it wasn't that bad. Surprised by some of the reviews hope he's not attempting a Jordan Peterson grift
I don't remember the course number but he was a good teacher and was one of the few criminology courses that was actually cool and not too feminist
A rare prof who is not indoctrinated by one way of thinking. He is a free thinker and challenges students to have independent ideas. Made sociology interesting.
My eldest daughter took two classes with Dr. Waite and he was a new prof that was well liked by all of the students at that time. Now that my youngest is at Western it seems something has changed in his character. He brought politics into the classroom and he may be lashing out on students due to issues in his personal life
Professor Waite was not helpful at all. He rarely ever answered emails, and when he did he had a rude attitude and did not care about the students' needs or questions. He was also extremely biased and rude about certain topics and students with disabilities. He asked us about uncomfortable information and pressured us to answer
He makes sure you feel mentally challenged
grading is impossible for no reason, like he's trying to make it harder than it needs to be. it's like he thinks we're here for his opinions instead of actually learning. don't even get me started on how he treats people dude is rude and dismissive if you don't fit into his little box.
Genuinely what is his issue. Your parents could perish in a car accident and he would say not my problem.
Lol l'd rather eat a boxful of nails then take any course with this sorry excuse of an instructor ever again. run for your LIFE
Loves to preach about “critical thinking” and “open debate,” yet the second you actually challenge him, he shuts it down with yelling and fear mongering. political bias is dripping off every lecture so much for neutrality in sociology. he blames ai for everything, forcing us into rushed in‑person essay exams like that somehow “saves academia.”
Throughout his lec, I would intentionally jay walk across the road connecting the parking lot, hoping to get hit by a car. He is seriously the rudest professors ever, he belittles students who ask questions for clarification. He should seriously change career paths.
Young and genuinely kind professor who cares about his students and wants to see them succeed. His class has been my favourite so far and he provides so much feedback
Dr. Waite is the most intelligent professor I have met on this campus. He makes classes engaging and enjoyable. He's very open-minded about his student's opinions as well. I wish he taught more courses
a human melatonin supplement
Why is Temu trump in charge of my sociological education? Make it make sense
dude was a professional victim
no more molecules in the follicles
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
54%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.79 avg changeRatings by Course
4422
5.0
(1)SOC1025
5.0
(1)2266ACRIM
4.5
(2)SOCIO1025A
4.5
(2)SOC2266
4.3
(7)Difficulty by Course
2257B
3.8
2257a
3.8
2266A
3.5
1025A
3.5
SOC2266
3.4