help please- course choice conflict

<p>Hey there, I'll be attending Cornell in the fall! I was so excited that I started planning out my schedule for the fall semester and I ran into a conflict over two courses that I would love to take, but are at the same time! I would appreciate if any current or former Cornellians would lend me some insight over whether I should enroll in American Political Thought from Madison to Malcolm X with Professor Ian Kramnick (which is only available every other fall) or Intro to International Relations with Professor Peter Katzenstein (which is available every fall). Also, for any ILR students, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on taking a course like Intro to US Labor History during a different semester than that which is laid out by the school online (which is otherwise what I imagine most current students follow). Thanks so much! :)</p>

<p>I’d make your selection based on your college/major requirements and personal interests. From what I can tell, ILR’s curriculum is quite a bit more stratified than those of some other colleges. AP credits, if you have any, will probably give you some more leeway than other folks.</p>

<p>thanks for responding! The problem is that I have a vested interest in both of those fields, maybe more so in international relations but I feel like the fact that the political thought class is only available every other year counters that difference. AP credits do help me in opting out of the economics classes except the US labor history and normal US history don’t equate in terms of AP credit, so I have to take the course. I’m still wondering though if any people who have taken one or both of these courses can tell me something more personal about them beyond their course descriptions…</p>

<p>P.S. You have professor Kramnick’s first name wrong. Look up the professors’ CVs and see whose interests match yours. Select by teacher, not syllabus.</p>

<p>Tough choice indeed. I’ve taken 2 classes with Kramnick (including American Political Thought) and 1 with Katzenstein. Both are incredible, accomplished professors who are excellent lecturers. I would say Kramnick is the best speaker/lecturer I had at Cornell, who really makes political philosophy make sense. There also is a chance Katzenstein won’t teach Intro IR next year since I think he generally teaches every other year. I had Kirshner for my Intro IR class and he was also an amazing professor, so I would suggest doing what I did and take Kramnick, Kirshner for IR, and take an upper level class with Katzenstein. </p>

<p>Kramnick also should be teaching Intro to Political Philosophy (1610) which is virtually the same course, except obviously covers philosophers that weren’t American, although you will walk away with roughly the same experience from both classes.</p>

<p>where are you finding courses? is it from an online list or did you get something in the mail?</p>

<p>Cornell courses of study</p>

<p>Schedulizer</p>

<p>You can search courses on the Student Center. There also may be a page that lists all courses somewhere on the Cornell website.</p>

<p>Katzenstein vs. Kramnick is easily one of the hardest choices for a Government student to make, but I’d say go for Katzenstein. The next time Intro to IR will be taught is in your sophomore year and because Kirshner and Katzenstein tend to share the responsibility of teaching it, the next time you may be able to take it with Katzenstein will be in your junior year (esp. since he’s already taught it in Fall '10 making Fall '11 his second consecutive year), at which point you probably want to be taking courses other than introductory government classes. Intro IR with Katzenstein is an excellent experience for a freshman - because he tries to impart a way of thinking in addition to a body of knowledge - and if you’d like me to forward you a long email I sent on this subject to a friend, PM me. Also, you can always take Kramnick’s (excellent) survey class on political philosophy in the spring.</p>

<p>thank you so much mikeyc765 and srrinath! your feedback is really helpful :D</p>

<p>Definitely don’t discount Kirsher for Intro to IR. He might not have the reputation of Katzenstein or Kramnick (but really few professors at any university does), but he’s incredible. I’ve never gone through a class with the lecturer used so few “academic terms” and still learned so much. His frequent Seinfeld/cultural references are a plus.</p>