Allan Larson
5 courses · 32 reviews
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Probably one of the worst professors I have taken. Grades extremely biased and contradictory. Lectures are extremely boring as he goes on tangents and confuses himself. Seems like a smart man, but cannot articulate what he is trying to say. I would not take this course again, and I do not recommend.
12/16/2025
Very sweet and knowledgable. Unfortunately, not a great professor. Lectures are monotonous and as I am writing this (over 3 months into the semester), a single grade has been put in the grade book.
12/7/2025
Success is dependent entirely on understanding of readings, but the professor clearly has a good heart
5/8/2025
2 or less hrs/week
I liked larson a lot, but he's a pretty dry lecturer and I wouldn't take this class if you don't have a pretty thorough background in evolution already. grade is entirely 3 take home essay tests, but requires you to wade through a lot of really complex readings.
4/22/2025
I understand why people *don't* like Dr. Larson but he is very insightful. The feedback he gives on essays is more comprehensive than many of my writing professors. He also allows revisions, which leaves room for improvement. My main critiques would be that his grading turnaround time is long and the syllabus is a bit confusing.
4/4/2025
Didn't get a single grade back until the end of the semester. Received final grades WEEKS into the NEXT semester. Extremely unfair and biased grading. Lectures consisted of him going on random tangents. The readings were barely explained. Absolutely NEVER take a class with him. It felt like a complete waste of time and I Iearned basically nothing.
3/28/2023
Took in Spring 2022. Cares a lot about the topics but at times is tangential in lecture and the content can be very repetitive in general. Grades not returned until end of semester with no specific feedback offered. Really nice tho!
1/19/2023
It is the second day of Molecular Evolution. I fell asleep in class today. My man speaks at like 10 words a minute. Will update later this sem if this changes.
1/28/2021
Larson can be a bit dry at first, but if you're really willing to engage with him on the theory you'll find that he's really a sweet, kind man who is really interested in what he teaches. You really have to make the effort! His tests aren't hard; he gives you all the materials you need to do well both on the test and in lecture--but they ARE long.
2/28/2020
I had him for molecular evolution. The concepts were poorly taught and Dr. Larson seems to have a tough time articulating what he means. The importance of concepts compared to one another was completely unclear. The course was only made more confusing when he told us to disregard parts of our reading in exchange for his contrary ideas.
5/9/2017
His lectures are incredibly boring and he repeats the same thing over and over with different words. He often starts sentences and doesn't finish them. I stopped going to class because I couldn't pay attention during his lectures. He's the easier professor, but I enjoyed Duncan's section more because it was interesting.
12/25/2015
Larson's part of 2970 is the reason I got an A, just memorize how to answer his questions and you'll be fine. Stats should really be a prereq for this class, I had no idea what poisson distributions or statistical parameters were when I was in the class and it made the content very difficult to understand, I was just going through the motions.
7/7/2015
Larson is an extremely slow lecturer but cares about his class. 100000x better than Duncan, which isn't saying much.
1/12/2015
Larson is a pretty boring lecturer, not going to lie. However, he definitely has good intentions; he patiently answers questions in lecture. The material for this second half of the course was a lot of calculation and understanding parameters, which I thought was confusing and not clarified in lectures a lot of the time.
7/8/2014
It seems like he's trying to teach well, but the class is extremely boring and usually poorly motivated. I came out understanding very little of why we were doing the calculations we were doing.
4/24/2014
Professor Larson is a nice guy but his lectures are very boring and drawn out since he speaks very slowly. Just watch the videos online at 2x speed. Pretty easy exams compared to Duncan's half but averages are way higher so you have to do even better to beat the mean.
12/9/2013
Overall a good teacher who is very knowledgeable in evolutionary biology. The material definitely gets a little dry, but it's not too bad. His material is also way easier than Duncan's, so it's a nice change of pace when he starts teaching. Do the problem sets, old exams, and memorize terms and you'll do fine.
11/8/2012
Textbook use was low, but overall as long as you do the practice problems and practice exams, you should be able to do well on the tests.
1/17/2012
Cares about his students. (He sent the whole class an email because some girl left behind a hairbrush--haha.) But his lectures are VERY boring. He tends to be slow and wordy. It is amusing when he gets so excited about biology. Learn the definitions and do the old exams. 3rd exam mean is high, which makes it hard to do well (z-score wise).
12/15/2011
The material is not the most interesting (sometimes boring), but Larson really cares about the class/subject and is a really nice guy! His exams are very easy, and I definitely learned a lot in this class.
12/14/2011
His lectures notes were a bit disorganized as one has to jump from notes on the board to notes on the powerpoint to notes that he states but that are not written down anywhere. If you pay close attention during lecture, however, you can grasp the concepts. The exams are extremely easy and he reuses questions.
1/8/2011
Great Professor. Very reasonable teacher. Tests come straight from the notes. Great class.
12/30/2009
Although he has a monotone, he is one hundred times than whoever teaches the first part of the course. He is very clear about what he is saying and tries to incorporate philosophy, geology and history into biology, which is very educational.
10/31/2008
He taught the second part of the course, which is significantly easier than the first part. Not the most interesting material in the world, but he tries. He's also pretty boring, but he does have his moments. He cares about the subject and his students.
3/5/2008
Nice guy, but a medicore teacher. While sometimes interesting, his lectures often suffered from a monotone delivery and abstruse terminology and definitions. His exam questions were much easier than those of Duncan.
12/27/2005
Not a good teacher. Class is extremely boring with powerpoint slides.
11/30/2005
disorganized, boring, dull, math all over the place, no social content which you'd think he'd have since he's atlking about darwinism and we all know what consequences that had (i.e. social darwinism). Extremely unhelpful in office hours, detached, uninterested and seems like teaching is a nuisance
12/25/2004
One of the most godawful profs at WU. If you can avoid, him do so! Boring in class, tough grader, doesn't relate to students; he belongs to that class of scientists who think of teaching as a nuisance and hence treat you like $*it when you talk to them. Hard to take notes in his class, no org.
12/21/2004