Ronald Willey is a Chemical Engineering professor at Northeastern University rated 2.94/5 by 116 students, with 3.27/5 difficulty and 40.0% who would take them again (TRACE + RateMyProfessors + Reddit, updated July 2026).
Ronald Willey professor reviews and ratings: 2.94/5 from 116 student reviews at Northeastern (40.0% would take again). TRACE + RateMyProfessor + Reddit.
I personally really liked taking Professor Willey. He is very smart and has so much experience in the chemical engineering fields. He also is very understanding with grading and always answers questions thoroughly.CHME2310 2022-11-16 21:33:38 +0000 UTC
Willey is a nice guy and clearly knows a lot about chemistry, but is not a good teacher. Lectures were jumbled and tests were not like material done in class. Homework is hard with only 2 tries per question so they are basically quizzes daily. If you go to office hours, he helps with homework and will even give you answers. .CHME2308 2022-07-21 23:09:43 +0000 UTC
A nice person. Entertaining and great to have a conversation with. In terms of teaching, not good at all. Makes mistakes to the power infinity when working through examples which makes a subject like kinetics much more difficult than it already is. Lecture notes are disorganized and incredibly difficult to follow.CHME4510 2019-07-24 22:45:34 +0000 UTC
An excellent professor with a hands on approach to teaching process safety and enthusiasm for the subject. Many good stories and demonstrations that make the experience worthwhile and very memorable. Would recommend Prof. Willey to any student!CHME4624 2018-07-30 23:25:44 +0000 UTC
Personally, probably a great guy. Teaching quality was the worst I've had at Northeastern, hands down. Chemical Engineering is a difficult subject and if anything this professor decreased my proficiency in it. Overall, I'm disappointed in Northeastern for keeping this professor for so long (20 years or so?)CHMESEPARATIONS 2014-04-29 21:22:09 +0000 UTC
Definitely wants the class to do well, and will help at any cost. Tests we pretty easyTHERMO1 2005-09-21 17:45:01 +0000 UTC
Thermo, unorganized but good at going over examples. Excellent response to feedback. Fixes his mistakes.CHEU320 2005-08-14 17:50:06 +0000 UTC
He is nice and gives lots of real world examples but is far too disorganized to teach well. He consistently makes mistakes on important theorems and formulas. Most of my learning came from the book and other online sources because when i trusted my notes I did poorly. I will avoid him at all costs in the future.CHME2310 2021-11-17 22:00:23 +0000 UTC
He's a really nice guy, very smart and talented, but not a good teacher at all. Lectures disorganized, overcomplicates all topics, spends way too much time focusing on seating for tests/quizzes. Very little correlation between material taught in class and problems on the tests. Doesn't make sure students understand material except in office hrs.CHME2308 2016-04-15 08:05:42 +0000 UTC
He's the assistant department head and has tenure so he couldn't care less about anything. I actually had all As for every single class besides this one and struggled for a B+. He is never prepared for lecture by any means, especially at 8 am. Exams are brutal and have nothing to do with what was supposed to be covered although are open resource.CHME2310 2016-05-08 23:52:41 +0000 UTC
Prof. Willey is a great teacher. Unlike many teachers in academia, you learn a lot from his personal experiences. Many people say he doesn't teach, but these are the kids that spend the entire class on their phone. Write down notes for what he says. He gives knowledge outside of the textbook which is amazing to talk about when interviewing.CHME2310 2016-04-11 17:28:31 +0000 UTC
He's a nice guy, but his lectures follow no logic and he tries to involve the class in a way that makes the examples pointless. He takes the quizzes himself and gets the wrong answers, and he doesn't teach us the material needed for quizzes/exams. If he does teach us an equation, there's a 50% chance that the constants or variables are wrong.CHME2310 2016-04-11 15:16:05 +0000 UTC
Hilarious guy. Willing to help if you need it. All exams/quizzes are open-note and he allows test corrections that give you half the points back which is invaluable since a lot of the material was barely covered. Doesn't prepare his lectures or, if he does, it is more of just a stream of consciousness instead of an actual lesson.CHME2310 2015-11-18 13:32:50 +0000 UTC
Awful professor. Probably a nice guy, but his specialty is process safety, not transport or teaching in general. Spends the first 30 minutes trying to set up his Microsoft Surface and loses himself in equations very quickly. Was unable to even explain the right hand rule.CHME2310 2015-03-03 12:31:37 +0000 UTC
Ronald Willey has an average rating of 2.94/5 from 116 student reviews. 40.0% of students said they would take them again.
Ronald Willey's classes have a difficulty rating of 3.27/5 based on student reviews.
Ronald Willey has taught CHME5520, CHME2310, CHME2308, CHME3315, CHME5510, CHME4510, CHME4701, CHME2322, CHME4625, CHME2320, CHME7262, CHME3313, CHME6610 at Northeastern.
Data updated July 2026.