Abhi Shelat is a Cybersecurity professor at Northeastern University rated 2.57/5 by 254 students, with 4.49/5 difficulty and 14.0% who would take them again (TRACE + RateMyProfessors + Reddit, updated July 2026).
Abhi Shelat professor reviews and ratings: 2.57/5 from 254 student reviews at Northeastern (14.0% would take again). TRACE + RateMyProfessor + Reddit.
This guy is a genius. I think what happened is that he was forced by the department to teach an into class, but he treats it like his PHD students. Really wish people like this would stay away from teaching. There is absolutely zero room in such a great CS school like northeastern for professors who need to feel above everyone else in the room.CY2550 2025-01-15 07:09:17 +0000 UTC
Took CY2550 with him, abhi is indeed a very smart person, and very passionate about the topic too. But it seems he has forgotten that this is only an intro class. All Homework assignments are hard asf. Even though the TAs really try to solve the problems but also seem lost due to his lack of instructions.CS5800 2024-12-05 00:57:36 +0000 UTC
I took CY2550 with him, worst class I have taken so far in my academic career. The projects take an incredible amount of time considering it's an elective course. Lecture slides aren't helpful at all if you miss class, and your grade relies on projects and pop quizzes. Not beginner friendly.CS5800 2024-12-04 06:28:46 +0000 UTC
Took CY2500, do not recommend it at all. Abhi seems to forget he is teaching a simple intro class. Lectures were confusing, there was no textbook that could guide us through, slides had little to no actual phrases written on them. Homework was extremely hard. TAs were even more lost than we were. No exams and grade depended on HWS and pop quizzes.CS5800 2024-11-15 19:56:44 +0000 UTC
You can't expect a graduate level course to be easy. The course is challenging but very useful. Assignments are graded strictly, however this in fact depends to some extent on the TAs. If you disagree with the rating you can argue for it.CS5800 2022-11-05 15:07:54 +0000 UTC
(Spring 2022) Weekly HW doesn't give enough time to understand concepts & discuss them with TAs. HW answer expectations weren't provided by the professor & students didn't get enough points. The professor was enthusiastic, & made an effort to address difficulties of the students (But the main difficulty, homework, was not changed significantly)CS5800 2022-08-26 19:44:38 +0000 UTC
Avoid taking this class with him AT ALL COSTS. Extremely narrow grading criteria where small errors, different approaches, or anything that doesn't match the solution set exactly is considered completely wrong. Professor ignores pleas of students that the course is too difficult and fast-paced. Unenjoyable experience.CS5800 2022-05-25 16:57:09 +0000 UTC
There is a lack of preparedness on part of the professor. The grading criteria is very narrow. If your solution matches the sample solution you get the points or else you get zero. TAs also do not make the effort to understand students solution. Professor clearly is not very good at judging difficult of assignment and has very high expectationsCS5800 2022-05-08 17:49:51 +0000 UTC
The course is to be blamed rather than the professor. Algorithms at any university is hard, that too at the graduate level. Abhi is a great guy, he is not rude. Although, I would say that he can be more prepared before lectures, and gauge the difficulty of the material a little better.CS5800 2022-04-29 03:41:54 +0000 UTC
Super unclear grading criteria. Has no grasp on gauging difficulty. Furthermore, he is extremely condescending, bad at lecturing, and seems to pit TAs against students by making TAs police stupid things in the HW that aren't relevant to the actual material and learning. I'm probably going to get an A in this class and I still hated every minute.CS5800 2022-04-27 20:34:37 +0000 UTC
Very difficult homework assignments. Tough exams. Grading is tough. I could not focus on the other course properly. Forget about managing internship search along with this course. If you have a great intuition in algorithms, this is for you, else just skip this. Course focuses more on testing intuition, which is hard to develop in a semester.CS5800 2022-04-21 17:42:00 +0000 UTC
The worst class I've ever taken as a student by far. Both he and the TAs were entirely incompetent at giving back feedback for HW and during OH, the midterm grades weren't released until a month after we took it, and they take tons of points off every assignment no matter how small the mistake. Lectures are also very fast-paced and unclear.CS5800 2022-04-14 23:50:57 +0000 UTC
DONT, JUST DONT.CS5800 2022-04-09 03:59:33 +0000 UTC
Not Recommended.CS5800 2022-03-30 23:17:54 +0000 UTC
Abhi Shelat has an average rating of 2.57/5 from 254 student reviews. 14.0% of students said they would take them again.
Abhi Shelat's classes have a difficulty rating of 4.49/5 based on student reviews.
Abhi Shelat has taught CY2550, CS5800, HONR1310, CS4800 at Northeastern.
Data updated July 2026.