<p>Hey guys I was admitted for Fall of 2011 and am planning on becoming a Poli Sci Major (interested in law). Are there any courses and/or professors that you guys suggest for a kid aiming in this area? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I suggest you talk to the advisers. They will both give it to you straight and will give you pretty big hints as to which teachers are duds.</p>
<p>They could probably give you more guidance as they have the collective opinion of students in the major over the years.</p>
<p>I’m kinda over the consensus thing. i seem to differ with my classmates in what makes a “good” teacher. One professor who I will not name that everyone seems to love I saw as shallow and pandering to the egos of his/her students (telling us what we wanted to hear)</p>
<p>I would definitely suggest taking Pol Sci 5 in the fall because I hear that Professor Gurowitz and the course material is absolutely great(have not taken it yet, but I plan to take it this fall, and I regret not taking it this past fall). Apparently there’s a lot of reading for PS5, but that’s standard for any Poli Sci class. You should also take it because it’s fall semester only and would have to wait another year before you would have the option of choosing the class again. I think the advisors would tell you the same.</p>
<p>However, if you’re not so interested in International Relations, you might want to consider Poli Sci 1 (American Politics). I took PS1 spring semester with Professor Pierson (who I believe is also teaching the course this fall) and it was pretty good, covered in-depth a breadth of topics relevant to American Politics, though maybe a little boring at times. You might already know a lot of the material in the course from American Gov in high school, but the readings aren’t too hard or lengthy–definitely doable compared to other PoliSci courses, from what I hear. As for the professor: he does seem to like the sound of his own voice and skips over lecture slides. However, despite those cons, he seems to care about his students, is willing to take questions and help out when he can, and is vastly improving his ability to lecture.</p>
<p>Also, since you’re considering the PoliSci major, be sure to plan very carefully for what courses you’ll take and when. The department is making most of its lower division courses (of which you need to take two–besides Poli Sci 3–before you declare the major) either fall or spring semester only. For example, Poli Sci 5 (International Relations) is only offered fall semester, PS4 (Political Theory) spring semester only, and I’m pretty sure they’re making PS2 (Comparative Politics) and PS3 one-semester-only as well. I think PS1 will be offered both semesters, though I’m not sure. Definitely take one lower division course each semester so you cand declare at the end of freshman year, which I regret not doing. Declaring the major gives you access to those sometimes-hard-to-get-into upper division courses in Phase I of course enrollment on Telebears (as opposed to Phase II for undeclared students), so declaring as early as possible is key in the major.</p>
<p>dont take poli sci 2 with janos. im not a poli sci major, but i think any majors that have taken it with him previously would agree.</p>
<p>take ps2 with fish instead. he is absolutely amazing. decently easy too, given that he gives you the questions that’ll be on the midterm and finals as study packets.</p>
<p>^I think Fish is actually teaching PS2 for Fall '11. I took his class last Spring, and it was pretty good. Not the best professor I’ve ever had, and he tends to repeat himself, but he’s moderately entertaining and the information covered is interesting.</p>
<p>PS1 when I took it with Van Houweling was a minimum-effort class. He was pretty boring but the class was so easy that you didn’t even need to touch the readings. I’ve heard other professors, like Pierson, emphasize the readings more and even include them on the exams, but with VH, you just needed to know two of the Federalist Papers and you were all set.</p>
<p>^Agreed, Van Houweling was really relaxed. I took PS 5 with Gurowitz and she was good, but it was pretty intense semester with the readings and her fast talking.</p>
<p>Take PS 3 as soon as possible, haha.</p>