<p>I'm interested in the Political Science/ International Development major..which is more lucrative by the way?</p>
<p>I'm worried about the class sizes and grade deflation at McGill and at UofT. I hear the IR program at UofT is comparitively better(correct me if I'm wrong please) but when I visited McGill I personally liked the environment way better! I thrive in class discussion and happen to have learnt a lot from my teachers in high school! And I'm afraid if I don't even get to know my prof..what is your opinion on it?</p>
<p>Apart from that, is it easier to get involved than in high school or harder? </p>
<p>Well, I can answer the question you put on the boards, regarding class size. I’ll be a poli sci major this fall in my first year and the classes I’m in are between 300 and 600 people. I know it seems HUGE. But that’s just what you get in intro classes, you’re at a big university. The smallest poli sci intro classes might’ve been about 100. The thing is, at McGill, you kind of have to work for that personal need - Ex: go to office hours, show up to your conferences (a lot of classes have these w/ about 20 people in each). And in later years your classes will wind down to around 30 people.</p>
<p>Sauer’s pretty on the mark regarding class sizes. Poli sci is the biggest department in the Arts faculty, which in turn is the largest faculty at McGill. </p>
<p>My first year courses had the following number of students:</p>
<p>650
650
200</p>
<p>My intermediate and advanced courses had the following number of students:</p>
<p>40
65
180</p>
<p>Although acknowledging the fact that I myself am at McGill, I have to say that neither McGill nor UoT is “better” than the other in terms of undergraduate political science. UoT usually appears higher in rankings, but there are a variety of factors that lead to such results, factors that are of complete irrelevance for you. If you’re uncertain, I would recommend looking at the faculty profiles at each school, and seeing which department has more professors working in areas that are of particular interest to you; chances are, they’ll be teaching courses that are of similar focus. </p>
<p>Lastly, the answer to what is more lucrative between political science and ID is: “neither.” Money is an extremely poor reason to enter either of these fields.</p>
<p>I’d like to add: no one who enters university is used to such large class sizes. They appear scary at first but most get quickly used to it. Unless you’re the type who really needs personal attention, you’ll be fine. And as sauer1212 puts it, you can get some personal attention by going to office hours and talking to your profs/TAs outside of class. You have to be independent and proactive on that front, the prof has hundreds of students, s/he can’t go and try to find the students who need/want help and attention, s/he knows those who are really interested and dedicated will come seeking help or further discussion.</p>
<p>And class size grows down quickly after the first year, especially if you pick the more challenging courses.</p>
<p>Thanks sauer1212 and Blobof! My mother said the same thing that one gets used to it very quickly! May I ask how one is marked in the first year? Is it essays and exams or a combination of both? Is is the prof marking or the TAs? Would you happen to know how the grade deflation or (bell curve?) works? Thanks so much, have a great day! (:</p>
<p>HieronymusBosch, there are two majors at McGill that are similar I believe? Political Science and International Development, I am frankly interested in both! I’ve seen the courses, just their course names sound so interesting! Seems like there involves a lot of writing, reading and discussion; exactly what I happen to enjoy! I was merely wondering which offered best jobs(I understand that heavily relies on the individual) to help me decide one! There’s also so many interesting minor options. Thanks for your input!</p>
<p>Evaluation is entirely class dependent. There’s no “grade deflation” (whatever that means), and while raw scores may be adjusted depending on some formulae there’s no official method of doing so. And by this I mean don’t ever take a class and just work to “ride the curve” (i.e. do better than most of your classmates). It’s not how one should approach any class, and it’s not how you learn something. University is not like high school, you have to absorb the material on your own and they give you much more material than in high school. Those 15 hours of classes per week (assuming 5 courses per semester, not counting labs/tutorials) may seem small, but they are packed. It’s not a leisurely pace. If you were used to 90%+ in high school, you may find that you have to work hard to get 70% at McGill. It’s not grade deflation, there’s just more material you’re expected to understand at a deeper level in a semester.</p>
<p>Grading depends on the evaluation and the class size. If you have multiple-choice exams on scantron, that’s computer graded. Assignments are likely to be graded by a marker or TA, final exams require a prof’s involvement but, again, may be graded by TAs (that is the case for calculus exams, you can’t expect a couple of profs to grade 700 exams made of 14 or so long answer questions). Different department may have different policies in terms of how many students per class necessitate a grader or not. Small classes are handled by the professor alone.</p>