professor
JJ Miranda

JJ is probably the most chaotic good professor I have ever had the pleasure of taking a class with. I don't agree with his previous reviews. I didn't find him narcissistic or over confident at all. Quite the contrary, he seemed very down to earth and easy to talk to. His light hearted sense of humor and easy going nature make it easy to have interesting class discussions, particularly about current events. Took his class during the COVID pandemic, and he was very understanding with giving extensions to people who needed them. He was definitely one of the few professors who seemed to understand the chaos of being a student in a pandemic-riddled world. There were no exams this semester, so I cannot comment on their difficulty, but I can say that his lectures were engaging and interesting. I liked that he encouraged students to ask questions and comment during class. You can tell that he genuinely enjoys interacting with his students, which is also great. Taking micro this semester made me wish that we had more biology lectures that had greater discussion/Q&A components. I definitely learned more this semester, having discussed and asked questions about topics, than I would have during the typical semester, when the educational scheme is take notes, cram, memorize, brain dump on the exam, forget everything the next day, and repeat. In conclusion, I would 10/10 take another class with Prof. Miranda over any other professor if I got the chance to.

JJ has little respect for other professors in the department or the time of his students. His manner in class is arrogant and unprofessional, wasting time on jokes/comments/stories he wants you to laugh at (they're not funny). Perhaps this would be fine if he had a good sense of the material he's teaching, but this is not the case. He would read from the slides and rarely was able to answer questions in class. There was no way to boost a grade in the class outside of exams, which were multiple choice.