Vance Ricks is a Philosophy professor at Northeastern University rated 2.86/5 by 239 students, with 3.45/5 difficulty and 27.0% who would take them again (TRACE + RateMyProfessors + Reddit, updated July 2026).
Vance Ricks professor reviews and ratings: 2.86/5 from 239 student reviews at Northeastern (27.0% would take again). TRACE + RateMyProfessor + Reddit.
Hopefully this is informational. Personally, the class is great with respect to learning philosophical values and understanding how to ask deeper questions. Having said that, the overall design of the course needs Massive reworking, I'm sorry but 55+ graded assignments and not passing ONE socratic memo gives you a A-... lol make it make sense?PHIL1145 2025-12-22 03:43:45 +0000 UTC
Professor Ricks cultivated an excellent learning environment. Fostering engaged class discussion while maintaining a relaxed & open classroom is an impressive feat, and Vance did this excellently. There's a lot of reading, but few assignments which are kindly graded. Overall, if you like philosophy & don't mind reading, Vance is a wonderful prof.PHIL3435 2023-11-29 17:01:08 +0000 UTC
Ricks is very well-spoken and gave very thought-provoking lectures. While you do have to read a lot and pay attention to the due dates of every assignment, getting an A in this class is very achievable, as he allows rewrites for many assignments.PHIL1145 2025-12-14 12:30:06 +0000 UTC
Ricks was the best professor I ever had and was an inspiration for my academic career and life. I imagine the negative reviews on here are due to the well-known fact that professors with high expectations and rigorous courses struggle to be uniformly popular "crowd-pleasers". But if your goal is to learn and grow, Ricks is your man.PHIL1145 2025-12-04 13:12:30 +0000 UTC
You can complete every assignment and still fail this course. One mistake causes the assignment to be marked as incomplete. You have limited opportunities to re submit assignments. Attend every class and be VERY careful with deadlines. Missing one assignment can block you from ever getting an A in the course. And, you will have to read a lot.PHIL1145 2025-12-01 20:26:19 +0000 UTC
Vance, you make me so sad I do believe this class is bad His grading rubric fills me with woe No matter how hard you try it will not show Pass or fail causes me to ail Unless you love philosophy, stick to biologyPHIL1145 2025-12-01 20:26:00 +0000 UTC
Vance is a tough grader who interprets things very critically and literally. Some might take this negatively, but his feedback is very useful, and an A is very achievable. He allows students to redo some assignments and is easily approachable. The class discussions and the course readings are very interesting and engaging.PHIL1145 2025-04-29 00:06:29 +0000 UTC
Odd grader. He gives a lot of leniency to extensions and redos on assignments, and the lectures are sometimes interesting. But his grading system leaves more to be desired.PHIL1145 2025-04-28 23:25:49 +0000 UTC
Let me preface: if you are looking for an easy A, do NOT take this class. If you are looking to think critically, challenge your ideas, and actually learn something, DO take this class. Vance is amazing, but you need to put the work in and be a person who enjoys philosophy to succeed. My only con is that grading system is very flawed.PHIL1145 2025-03-20 22:24:09 +0000 UTC
ive had professor ricks for a few classes and the negative reviews are exaggerating. he really cares about his students and tries his best to make the class engaging. there's a lot of assignments but if you read the rubric it's pretty easy to pass them all and he's pretty flexible about extensions.PHIL1145 2025-01-10 06:38:04 +0000 UTC
Tbh he was not THAT bad, just a ton of readings and writing. His grading system is really bad, based on random pass/fails. You forget one guideline in an assignment, you fail and could possibly get a significantly lower grade. However you do get some redo opportunities. Busy busy work. He is a good guy, interesting, but avoid if possible.PHIL1145 2025-01-10 00:43:17 +0000 UTC
Strange grading system; if you fail or get an incomplete on one assignment (despite attempting it), your grade will drop 1 or 2 letter grades. He offers pretty good feedback and you can easily get extensions for most assignments.PHIL1145 2024-12-09 05:43:08 +0000 UTC
the worst grading system i've ever encountered. everything is pass/fail, including the concluding assignment, and you will fail if you forget to include just one guideline. he gets 2 stars out of pity.PHIL1145 2024-12-09 05:42:25 +0000 UTC
Avoid if possible. Cold calls on students asking question after question. Every class you must get with group of students and do an assignment based on lecture. These assignments matter and will hurt you if you skip a class or two. Impossible final paper, almost no one passed. At least 3 readings need to be read and annotated before each class.PHIL1145 2024-11-18 22:13:46 +0000 UTC
Lectures are long and monotonous. His grading system is horrendous. Assignments are a held to a high standard pass/fail, and then made into your grade with a strange chart. You must strictly follow instructions, and even though its a philosophy class there is not much room for expression of your own ideas, especially if they clash with his.PHIL1145 2024-11-04 03:49:49 +0000 UTC
Vance Ricks has an average rating of 2.86/5 from 239 student reviews. 27.0% of students said they would take them again.
Vance Ricks's classes have a difficulty rating of 3.45/5 based on student reviews.
Vance Ricks has taught PHIL5110, PHIL1145, PHIL1112, PHIL3435 at Northeastern.
Data updated July 2026.