MESA 2700

Worst class I've taken at UVA. Professor has much room for improvement. I've never met anyone more disorganized in my life. When we spent 2 weeks on Iran bc he is OBSESSED with Iran, all I learned about was the pizza shops he would like to go to in Iran. Never received any grades the entire semester. He forced me to come to his office hours and wouldnt let me leave for 2 hours. He is absurd and heinous. We spent the first 3 weeks on the syllabus. He would always show up late with some existential crisis excuse. If you are in this class, RUN FOR THE HILLS!

This class is incredibly unorganized. The syllabus is inaccurate and the lectures are a boring mess since the professor continuously jumps from tangent to tangent. He definitely knows a lot about the Middle East and tries to work with students' different experiences and perspectives, but never makes a clear point. Deadlines are generally flexible, especially if you show that you have interest in the topic and talk/email him outside of class. It's a fairly easy A (midterm and final are take-home, and a couple other 1 page response papers) if you already know a lot about the Arab Spring and have your own ideas, but otherwise the class is a waste of time.

Harrop is a very nice, enthusiastic man that seems very knowledgable on the subject matter. However, he is incredibly unorganized. Classes are very confusing and very hard to follow, as he goes on a lot of tangents and never has an actual plan for the day that he sticks to. He is frequently late and provides a lot of strange/often funny excuses for his tardiness. We had very few assignments to contribute to our grade and we did not get our midterm grades back until after we took the final. I hate to give a harsh review because he is so sweet but I cannot say I learned very much during this course. Oh, he is also very approachable and eager to discuss information or just chat about life in general.

DO. NOT. TAKE. THIS. CLASS. To all who are enrolled in Spring 2017, I'M BEGGING YOU TO DROP THE COURSE. Professor Harrop is THE worst professor/teacher I have ever had in my life (yes, including kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school teachers). I learned nothing in the course, professor gave our class back only one grade before the final exam, he showed up late every single class, and my final grade was NOT an A--I could go on and on. Please, just don't take the course unless you are looking to have a semester full of confusion and frustration. I promise I am not being dramatic by any means, just don't take it.