Javier Apfeld is a Biology professor at Northeastern University rated 3.66/5 by 317 students, with 3.3/5 difficulty and 58.0% who would take them again (TRACE + RateMyProfessors + Reddit, updated July 2026).
Javier Apfeld professor reviews and ratings: 3.66/5 from 317 student reviews at Northeastern (58.0% would take again). TRACE + RateMyProfessor + Reddit.
He is the nicest professor ever and extremely leniant with late assignments and absences. He really cares about the subject and preparing his students for the real world. I would definitely reccomend taking him if you want to learn useful skills in a low stakes environment.BIOL5593 2025-04-15 17:29:39 +0000 UTC
Dr.Apfeld isn't the best lecturer, but it's easy to succeed if you review lectures, teach yourself, and complete all homework and review materials. Tests are online, open book, and not hard with a good understanding of the material. He drops the lowest of 3 exams (each 25%) and the final is cumulative (35%). He's kind and wants students to succeed.2BIOL301 2024-12-15 04:03:25 +0000 UTC
He is not so great at lecture/oral presentation skill, but he is a GREAT teacher, he cares about you and gives you good grade and a lots of extra credits, he is always there if u want to reach out outside of class. I had to admit that he so far the only prof who actually cared about their student and their grades after high school.BIOL2301 2024-12-11 15:54:07 +0000 UTC
good!BIO2302 2018-08-18 07:40:30 +0000 UTC
Javier was a wonderful professor and truly passionate about his students learning in class & out (service learning). Classes are small group discussions based on a variety of aging papers. There are no exams and he is flexible with assignment deadlines. I would definitely recommend taking this course!BIOL5593 2025-04-15 15:20:29 +0000 UTC
Just a ppt reader, boring.2BIOL301 2020-04-16 00:55:57 +0000 UTC
For starters, he is an amazing guy who is very caring. I had a lot of family stuff going on during the semester and he was supportive and would excuse me when I missed class. That being said, his lectures are hard to follow and it was easy to get lost. I did not learn much. Class is graded through in-class question, open note quizzes & testsBIOL2301 2024-12-09 17:33:53 +0000 UTC
Dr. Apfeld is an extremely caring and kind professor, and is very understanding about personal issues and willing to be flexible with deadlines. The class itself is a lot of reading, but very discussion based and helpful in learning how to approach reading research papers. He is very passionate about this topic and cares about his students.BIOL5593 2025-04-15 15:18:06 +0000 UTC
Apfeld was a good guy, however, I never understood his lectures because he would mumble. His exams were hard, but open note. And he would always give pop quizzes and questions throughout class, which you had to be there for to receive credit. He was a caring guy, but I never got much out of his class and therefore wouldn't take him again.BIOL2301 2024-12-09 00:58:37 +0000 UTC
Dr. Apfeld is so kind, flexible, and passionate about the content.BIOL5593 2025-04-15 15:10:33 +0000 UTC
Such a sweet guy but unfortunately a bad lecturer. I tried to follow his train of thoughts until I realized he gets lost in his own logic, and I stopped paying attention. Uses Tophat for in-class questions, quizzes, and exams. Not hard to get an A, but you won't learn anything unless you study all the materials yourself.BIOL2301 2024-12-04 17:52:14 +0000 UTC
Professor Apfeld is very kind and actually quite funny at times. His fatal flaw is that he tends to mumble his way through lectures and it is quite impossible to stay engaged in class. With that said, all of the tests are online and open note so it is easy to get a good grade.BIOL2301 2023-04-06 00:19:30 +0000 UTC
Good guy, and not the hardest class, but a few things: do the hw at the end of lectures and be prepared to pull out ones from past lectures for his quizzes, lecturing skills are mid so printing out the slides and jotting ideas down for review afterward might help more than full blown notes, and tests do have problems that require a lotta practice.BIOL2301 2022-01-19 02:02:00 +0000 UTC
There's tophat questions every class. You can look at the lectures ahead of time on canvas and find the answers on quizlet. None of the tophat questions are on the exams. Exam 1 and 3 are easy, 2 and the final were not as easy. The tophat questions are required. He just reads off slides and can't answer questions.BIOL2301 2021-12-23 08:40:11 +0000 UTC
I love Professor Apfeld so much!! He really cares about his students and takes your feedback on the class into serious consideration. He always emphasizes going to office hours and he really tries hard to make sure students are doing well. He makes the classroom a safe and inclusive place--overall a very kind man and great professorBIOL2301 2021-05-15 19:35:02 +0000 UTC
Javier Apfeld has an average rating of 3.66/5 from 317 student reviews. 58.0% of students said they would take them again.
Javier Apfeld's classes have a difficulty rating of 3.3/5 based on student reviews.
Javier Apfeld has taught BIOL5593, BIOL2301, BIOL3409 at Northeastern.
Data updated July 2026.