Alden Jackson is a Computer Science professor at Northeastern University rated 3.9/5 by 531 students, with 3.46/5 difficulty and 80.0% who would take them again (TRACE + RateMyProfessors + Reddit, updated July 2026).
Alden Jackson professor reviews and ratings: 3.9/5 from 531 student reviews at Northeastern (80.0% would take again). TRACE + RateMyProfessor + Reddit.
Jackson clearly really likes teaching and does a good job with lecturing, but the overall structure of the course makes it difficult to follow. The homeworks are graded quite harshly and take a while to complete, but make up a very small portion of our grade, meanwhile the projects are often only vaguely related to what's covered in class.CS4700 2025-12-10 05:38:18 +0000 UTC
Kind and helpful professor, but lectures were dull. Not his fault, but it's hard to make the content he teaches interesting. Always available on Piazza for help, and responds fast. Not required to attend class, but there are weekly quizzes.CS3700 2025-11-20 22:08:07 +0000 UTC
Jackson does a great job at making a pretty difficult course accessible. He clearly likes what he teaches a lot. While there was quite a bit of homework, I always found that it was pretty engaging and I felt prepared to tackle it.CS3650 2024-12-04 21:34:26 +0000 UTC
Pros: very passionate, lot of diverse experience from industry and government, will reconsider grades if you make a good argument and have been participating in class. HW and projects are straight forward and clear Cons : takes forever to release and grade assignments, doesn't monitor his TAs well, very forgetful and needs reminders to do things.CS5700 2022-01-20 14:48:21 +0000 UTC
Professor Jackson is one of the best professors I have had throughout my time at Northeastern. He is very passionate and knowledgable about what he teaches. He was always available for questions on homework and was very understanding when the class needed more time on a project. If you can take one of Prof. Jackson's classes, you definitely should!CS3700 2024-04-26 21:38:06 +0000 UTC
One of the best professors I've had. Loves his subject, loves teaching his subject. Very understanding of issues and extremely helpful if you have issues. Made a course that could easily be one of the hardest at Northeastern a very enjoyable experience.CS3650 2024-10-28 19:18:51 +0000 UTC
Professor Jackson is super knowledgeable and clearly enjoys teaching. The class has 5 projects, of which 4 are partner projects. Expect to teach yourself how to complete the projects as no coding is actually taught in lecture. Additionally, there are 2 paper readings each week. Only downside is how long it takes to get any grades back...CS5700 2021-11-17 22:09:06 +0000 UTC
Was blown away by Prof Jackson because he managed to make class engaging and interesting even though they were online lectures, and I really enjoy his friendly and lighthearted vibes. He is very understanding and the grading is extremely reasonable!! Would 110% recommend taking CS3700 with him :) Favorite class of the semester by a landslide.CS3700 2021-04-13 17:40:42 +0000 UTC
I had an issue with my computer in week 3 where I was completely unable to run software necessary to complete the upcoming homework assignments. Prof Jackson could not figure out the issue I was having and instead of assisting further with an alternative solution, I was left with no option to progress forward other than drop. "Tough luck" he said.CS3650 2022-11-01 03:28:49 +0000 UTC
Prof Jackson is a really great professor for Networks if you're interested in the course and want to learn a lot of material. He has a ton of experience in the industry and you'll definitely come away with a lot of knowledge and an in depth understanding of networks after taking his class. The only problem is he is SO SLOW at grading.CS3700 2020-04-08 01:36:52 +0000 UTC
Alden Jackson has an average rating of 3.9/5 from 531 student reviews. 80.0% of students said they would take them again.
Alden Jackson's classes have a difficulty rating of 3.46/5 based on student reviews.
Alden Jackson has taught CS4700, CS4730, CS5700, CS3650, CS3700, CS1802 at Northeastern.
Data updated July 2026.