3.4
Quality3.2
Difficulty25%
Would Retake90
Reviews25%
Would Retake
90
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
37
4
14
3
15
2
9
1
15
What Students Say
“He is the most passionate professor I've ever had”
GPHIL101 - 4.0 rating“Easily one of the best people I've ever met”
PHIL344 - 5.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
83%
Textbook Required
17%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.07 avg changeRatings by Course
HON300N
5.0
(1)PHIL340
5.0
(2)PHIL370
5.0
(2)PHIL335
5.0
(1)PHIL
5.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
MANY
5.0
GREL101ONLINE
5.0
PHIL101H
4.5
250
4.0
PHIL370
4.0
Reviews (90)
very cool, passionate about what he teaches, interesting lectures, COOL HAIR
he is awesome, passionate, inspirational and so sweet
What a sweet man, really wants students to grow, happy if they're learning.
Looks like Prof. from Back to the Future
I've never loved a man like I've loved William O'Meara...
The man cares more about his students than about grades. Plus, he is damn sexy.
BEST teacher! inspiring, eccentric,if he like you, you're set
Dr. O'Meara is a saint!
No Comments
fantastic professor, really cares about the students learning more than grades
No Comments
No Comments
BEST PROF EVER!!
Took many philosophy courses from O'Meara in 1986-1990. Great classes all of them. And, ohL that wild white hair.
Good teacher, entire class is graded on a curve
great teacher. whole class is curved after fairly challenging tests. cares more about what you think and learn than grades.
Tests are almost impossible, make sure you do the papers and see him on office hours. The actual classwork isn't difficult, its just the material...he's a sweet man though and very nice.
Employs a very unscholarly lecturing approach, yet expects students to essentially memorize text for impossible exams. I wanted to die.
Confusing lectures and not the most interesting, but most of the class is talking with your friends. It's tough, but he's cool as ****.
Entertaining lectures but the tests are very hard. Lots of reading, all which you need to know. Classes consist mostly of talking about what you wrote in response to something else. Sorta fun the first few times. Grades on a rather generous curve though.
Dr. O'Meara was the second best teacher I had at JMU. He's a teacher that does not force boring lectures or rote memorization. Get out what you put in; you will hate it if you do little, love it if you do a lot. Tests are very, very hard. Do readings.
Great guy, reminds me of Emmitt Brown from back to the future. Funny and loves the conversations in class. Lets you go off and talk about life and everything else. Writing every class pretty much but as long as you write something, you get credit.
This class is very challenging. O'meara is a good teacher though and very passionate about the class. He gives plenty opportunity to do well and is very encouraging. I definetely enjoy this class! :)
Definately see the back to the future resemblence, but he is one of the most passionate and fun-loving professors! I went to office hours and nailed the test...really wants his students to do well and think about life.
brilliant, but clearly a space cadet
He is really cool and really knows what he's doing. He is funny and class is interesting, although tests can be a killer. Have to do the reading, but he really encourages class to think about concepts and apply class to personal life
Hands down the very best professor I have ever had (and I now have 3 graduate degrees). A wonderful and inspirational man who loves what he teaches. A poet and intellectual role model.
I really did enjoy this class, however Professor O'Meara is very unclear. He definitely wrote some sentences without verbs in them. Nearly everything is misspelled or grammatically incorrect. The tests are impossible, but he does curve.
class is somewhat difficult, but this is the greatest guy I've ever met. Very knowledgable, helpful, passionate, and sincere. I highly reccommend. I'll def. take him again. Tests are hard though. I guess it's tough love.
if your catholic, and you take this class, he will infuriate you with what he claims catholicism is (Jesus apaprently didnt die for our sins, their is no orignal sin, and well you can throw out most of the bible)
Dr O'meara inspired me to change the way I look at my life. His class was very challenging but take it for the experience not the grade. He changed my life.
quite simply this is a faculty member that is obsolete and needs to be fired. here are numbers: final exam is worth 50% of total grade; class average 56.19!!!! do not bother. very very nice man who couldnt communicate his way out of a paper bag.
He's very passionate and intensely likeable as a professor, but don't expect to learn anything from his rambling lectures. Tests are impossible.
It hurts me that anyone could say such insensitive comments about this man. Any major in phil. will benefit greatly from 344, you learn a lot more than just existentialism. O`Meara is a sweet, passonate man who should be anyones intellectual roll model.
quite simply "the best". while he's super easy on gened kids..his upr-lvls WILL challenge. not only a great prf, but a great man. very easy to approach..difficult to "understand". i gained a great deal from his class, but slackers will
Dr. O'Meara is one of the BEST Philosophy teachers!!!!! VERY fair, and genuinely cares about his students
Great guy! Really interesting class, holds great discussions. He's very understanding and helpful. Tests are really difficult, but the in-class writings are very easy. He has us do "group discussions" everyday, makes things interesting and breaks away from the norm.
crazy guy. he is funny. lectures are way out there. dont really have to go to class. there is participatory writing everyday tho. tests = hard. he curves them, so you can miss 20 of 50. pretty much he gives everyone a C+ at mid-semester. interesting material covered. recommend.
excellent professor. loose approach with very creative lectures. He is a poet and a truly a man who gets with life is all about. O`Meara is definetly the only professor I would learn Marx from.
Dr. O'meara is an amazing man, and is always willing to go above and beyond to help any of his students. The tests are rough but his lectures are fun and well formulated. I highly reccommend him!!!
he is such a crazy professor, but he will keep your attention at 8am. his exams are out of this world, but he curves about 20%!!! great and funny guy and all i can say to sum him up is "dreamcicles."
Not an easy class but O'Meara makes it interesting. The exams are killer but he does curve and there are enough in-class assignments to balance it out. Definitely take him.
the class involves sitting at a computer and doing problems. no attendance. class can be pretty hard if you are adept at logic.
O`Meara is my favorite professor ever and is a real credit to the phil. department. I have taken three classes from him and have charished every well seasoned lecture I have been blessed enough to hear. He can make you laugh till it hurts or poignantly poke at your heart with his prose.
bad teacher who disrespects my beliefs
i thought online classes were supposed to be cake but although he was pretty helpful the class was reiculously hard
He is the best teacher I have ever had. His passion for the subject convinced me to change my major.
This is an amazing man. His lectures are brilliant and his style is engaging. I can't wait to take more of his classes. He is so passionate that he has been on the brink of tears on many occasions.
This guy is the man! I don't usually agree with a single thing he says, but wow is he good. If you're taking him to learn more about Catholicism, then you are in for a surprise. This is basically a class on humanism - he just uses liberal Catholic theologians to back up his points. Either way, this class is a lot of fun!
Very eccentric, loves Sesame Street. He's a good teacher on the whole. Papers are easy, but tests are nearly impossible, especially if you don't do the readings. Discussions are great, he really gets you thinking. I agreed with very little in the class but that just made it more interesting. Overall a great class to take.
AMAZING! He is by far the best professor I have ever had. He gets very passionate about his lectures and is very knowledgeable. I really liked the way the class was structured because you really get out of it what you put into it. Tests were nearly impossible, but curved very generously.
By far, one of my favorite teachers at JMU. I love this man, and he truly loves what he is teaching. His tests are hard, but do the reading. He's great!
He is the only teacher i have met at JMU who is so passionate about the subject he is teaching. You don't really learn about Catholicism but more about being a human being. Take this class for the experience. You won't regret it. O'Meara is the man
Very spirited lectures. You can tell that he loves what he does. Sometimes a bit whimsical and unclear, but what he lacks in clarity he makes up for in vibrance.
This professor was very good. The subject of philosophy was difficult, but O'Meara did a great job relating that to every day life. This class was online over the summer but O'Meara was very available and more than willing to help. I would definitely recommend taking this course.
Dr. O'Meara changed my life. After an intro class with him, I ended up taking about ten philosophy classes--even though I was a math major. He introduced me to one of the fundamental principles of my life; the unexamined life is not worth living. I highly recommend him as a teacher.
Best lectures I've ever heard. He is a truly captivating speaker, which is helpful because his lectures are what really help you pass the class. If you don't show up for a few classes, you would most likely fail. One of my personal favorites.
He is the most passionate professor I've ever had. After taking GPHIL with him I signed up for existentialism with him as the professor. He gets off track in lectures, but that's what makes the class more interesting. It can be confusing at times, so go to his office hours and he will explain it all. He is an understanding and accommodating guy.
Easily one of the best people I've ever met. Extremely passionate and energetic. most importantly he actually cares what students have to say and responds in a very thoughtful manner. To this day the best teacher I've ever had. FYI I'm a philosophy major
I took an intro class with him, and decided to become a philosophy major because of him. Now, 25 years later, I still remember, and am influenced by his lectures on Kierkegaard. Wonderful man.
Good teacher. I love philosophy but only earned a B. You can easily get a decent grade but not a good one. Class guarantees C, tests for above. They are all true or false and very hard even if you have read the material. He doesn't understand online courses (cheat/easier) so curve can be dumb, meaning highest test in class is often still C+ or B
Awful class. Lectures make NO sense, and neither do readings. Dr. O'Meara is definitely passionate, but also extremely close minded. If you don't agree with him, he tells you that you're wrong. Tried asking for help and he was extremely vague and unhelpful. Very frustrating. Tests are ridiculously difficult, no clear way to prepare. DO NOT TAKE
He is a great person; funny, kind, open minded, but don't take his class. It's impossible to get an A or B on his tests, even as a student who has a 4.0, this class will ruin that. You're guaranteed a C in the class if you show up to every class which is great because nobody would pass the class without that.
O'Meara's a good dude, but the class is impossible, especially for a gen ed. His tests are insanely hard (highest score was a 76 on the first), and he just rambles a lot of the time. His lectures can be unclear, and his lack of grammar usage makes some of the textbook look like another language. Overall, I would not take him again.
I can see how some would not perceive O'Maera as a first choice, his lectures can be slightly scattered and he has a soft tone, but he is still a fine choice as a professor. Do all the short (and easy) writing assignments and you are guaranteed to pass, as tests can only pull your grade up. He is very responsive to emails and students needs.
He grades on a 7 point scale, meaning below an 85 is a C, which tanked my GPA despite getting a B on a conventional grading scale. O'Meara is a nice guy that obviously cares but often goes on tangents and doesn't finish lectures. The final is cumulative and comprises of about 400 pages of reading that you'll have to read all of during finals week.
O'Meara is a sweet guy, but he isn't the best professor. He has an awkward grading system that isn't at all laid out beforehand (you're basically graded subjectively at the end of the semester). He's also very dogmatic in his views. Rather than presenting the material neutrally as a professor should, he ridicules dissenters including colleagues.
Dr. O'Meara is a very knowledgeable professor who has clearly been teaching for a long time, however his teaching style seems very old-fashioned and doesn't quite work in 2019. He assigns readings that don't line up with the tests and the tests are incredibly hard. The worst part is that every class is just completely irrelevant discussion
Dr. O'Meara is a nice man and caring individual, but not the greatest professor. His lectures are very confusing and he makes us write every class, which makes the class very subjective. His exams, though, are very objective and much of the content on them he didn't teach us at all. I would not take his class, but would like to be his friend.
Dr. O'Meara's Philsophy of Religion class was a real gem, and I really wish it didn't have to be online due to COVID. Nonetheless, it was. The class material was almost always intriguing/thought-provoking. The grade is based half on discussion posts and half on your exams. The class was fairly laid back, but the exam questions were rather specific.
He's nice, but the grade is 80% tests. Class lectures are him reading off a word doc that he hands us. Pop quizzes every Thursday are easy if you pay attention, but they don't alter your grade. There are 3 tests for the semester and they are IMPOSSIBLE. 100% on every quiz and still failed. He gets RELIGIOUS!!! (Jesus talk) Find a better professor.
I am so done with this intro to philosophy course being religious. I did not grow up Christian and O'Meara assumes that you love Jesus and know everything about Christianity. BRO THIS IS A GEN ED. He teaches PHIL of religion so he assumes we care. Other Phil101 courses sound so much better. He talks about what he wants instead of what is important.
I think at heart he might be good but his time teaching should be done. His lectures are confusing and make no sense. His "notes" are not helpful and he just reads from them instead of having a different lecture or presentation. He also has a pop quiz almost every class and you do a discussion post on paper in class (with very little feedback).
Maybe he'd be better in a smaller class setting, but I honestly hate this course with every fiber of my being. He gives out quizzes every-other course day - but he'll crank them up to everyday towards the end of the semester. The way he words the material is so difficult - so if you're not a PHIL major, just avoid this professor at all costs.
O'Meara just reads from his lecture notes that already don't make much sense and doesn't explain anything in a way that the class can understand. The tests are also extremely difficult and most people don't get a good grade on them. You're lucky if you get a C.
He's really old, but really kind. I don't understand philosophy at all but i did well because he curves the tests (which are so hard) and grades based off weekly quizzes and daily discussions. You will do well if you go, even if you don't know whats going on. If you take his class do me a favor and help him out with papers and stuff- he needs it.
While O'Meara is very kind, and a gentle old guy, AVOID his courses. Class is comprised of him repeating a word document word for word. then breaking while students reply via the discussion board. Professor brags in class about how difficult his exams are, which is doubly hard when the lectures tend to be extremely vague.
DO NOT TAKE HIM. Take anyone else, his class is 3 tests that are extremely difficult. I had to fight tooth and nail to get a B.
I loved Dr. O'Meara.... nearly converted me to a philosophy major. I stuck with Physics. I took 2 honors courses with Dr. O way back in 1987-88 when JMU was still considered a relatively small university. Dr. O'Meara's intro philosophy course was awesome and really made me "think about thinking" and I then followed him to an existentialism class.
I really like Dr. O'Meara, it's obvious he cares a lot about philosophy. He isn't afraid to share his opinions but he also welcomes discussion and disagreement. There's a good bit of in-class participation but virtually no work outside of class, just show up ready to write for group discussions. His tests are unusually hard but he curves up a lot.
His class is 80% tests and 20% discussion and quizzes. Attendance is mandatory and the assignments you do in class literally do nothing to benefit your grade. His tests are also true and false, which in theory sounds like it would make them easier, but it doesn't at all. He's also always pushing his religion on other people. Old fart should retire
Absolutely terrible he has made it so an A in his class is a 97-100 and a B starts at a 92. Horrible and awful with no consideration or care for the students who are taking his class. He does not care about learning or having you learn whatsoever does not answer questions well in class and is generally rude.
Professor Omeara is such a sweet guy, however the material and his lecture style do not make sense. He mostly talks at you and goes off for a while. your grades are split evenly between discussion boards with an avg of 100-103% and tests that avg 45-60%. exams are extremely difficult. very hard class for a GEN ED. Sweetest guy tho
If I could rate this professor and class a 0 I would. It was difficult, he did not teach what was required of us, and none of the material was taught clearly.
He is a very sweet old man but is a terrible professor. His exams make no sense and his lectures have essentially nothing to do with the exams. You have graded writing every single class but he is a very easy grader on those. You have 4 exams and hella writing discussions.
Professor O Meara is a nice professor long lectures you can sometimes get lost and lose track of info needed for the tests. His test are very hard even with studying they are still difficult and require lots of studying. A lot the material is boring also so there's if you take him in Phil 101 talk to him and you will be ok
Tests were crazy hard for no reason but he did a massive curve at the end of the semester. Honestly a really sweet guy and a very lenient grader, but he doesn't make expectations clear for exams which can totally tank your grade.
This dude is so passionate about his field but man the lectures were dry. His exams were also unnecessarily difficult to the point where he had to put a huge curve on all of them. If he had a younger graduate assistant that could maybe help him out with modernizing his tests then the class would be perfect.
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AN EASY GEN ED!!! The in-class discussions are easy 100s but they are your only grade outside of tests. The tests are just a guessing game, no matter how much you study. He only curved 1 one of the 4 tests and most of the questions are on people or topics we never covered. Very frustrating class.
Dr Omeara is by far my favorite professor i have ever had. He cares so much for his students and if you are interested in Philosophy his classes are so engaging and interesting. I will say, if you have little interest in philosophy and are only taking it as a gened, it is a harder class as you wont be interested in the discussions.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
83%
Textbook Required
17%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.07 avg changeRatings by Course
HON300N
5.0
(1)PHIL340
5.0
(2)PHIL370
5.0
(2)PHIL335
5.0
(1)PHIL
5.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
MANY
5.0
GREL101ONLINE
5.0
PHIL101H
4.5
250
4.0
PHIL370
4.0