<p>Since there's no major called "Political Science" at UCSC, what's the next closest thing? Just politics? All the other schools I got into had Poli. Sci., which I applied with, but UCSC doesn't. I wasn't really considering UCSC when I applied, but now....I'm really considering it out of my choices.</p>
<p>I know you don't need to have Political Science to get into law school, but still lol.
Help please?</p>
<p>It is Political Science… It’s just a little more diverse.</p>
<p>So it’s basically like the same thing?</p>
<p>Diverse as in…?</p>
<p>When I took a tour, I learned about it… It is Poli-Sci. There’s just more of a look into the societal and culture aspects.</p>
<p>Alright! Awesome. That’s really encouraging. Thanks a bunch!</p>
<p>No problem at all!</p>
<p>I’m currently a politics/philosophy double-major, about to begin my second quarter. Have any questions?</p>
<p>A senior from Merced called me about questions in general and I found out that she was a political science major like I’ll be, and I heard good things about their professors for that major. </p>
<p>I don’t know if you have friends who do that major at Merced, but how would you say they compare in terms of courses and professors? Is it really interactive, have a lot of outside of class opportunities, and…super super hard? lol.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t really know anything about poli sci at UCM, but I can at least try and answer your questions as they apply to UCSC. I’ve taken two politics courses so far at SC, one lower-division and one upper-division core. Both professors were great, and very knowledgeable in their respective areas of expertise. Here are some things that stood out to me. </p>
<p>In the lower division, we learned about the fall of the USSR, and our professor was actually in Moscow at the time, so we basically had an eyewitness account, it was pretty great. </p>
<p>Sometimes it can be kind of difficult to decipher exactly what it is your professor wants from you academically, but I’ve found that once this is successfully determined, you’ll know what to focus on, and you can do really well. Sometimes this can be the toughest part (at least it was in my first quarter).</p>
<p>Courses can be fairly interactive. In the courses I’ve taken so far people have been allowed to make comments in lecture or ask questions. The discussion sections (which meet once a week for 70 minutes with less students than lecture) can be pretty helpful too.</p>
<p>What kind of outside of class opportunities are you looking for?</p>
<p>My upper division course was more in-depth, and required a lot of reading. 2 papers (one 5 pgs, the other 7-8), one midterm. This was probably the most interesting course I’ve ever taken anywhere (it was on the development and evolution of the political institutions of the US), and I had pretty high expectations for it (in that I was really interested in the topic).</p>
<p>So far, I’m really happy with my academic experience at UCSC, and I think it’s a top-notch school regardless of the mostly unfair stereotypes/generalizations that are out there about UCSC students. If you have any more questions for me, feel free to post them. I’m feeling generous today, haha. :)</p>
<p>Opportunities, like… Internships? Trips to local law places?</p>
<p>Haha, thanks for the generosity. I consider myself kind of smart, but not too smart, lol, I can keep up with the workload for the most part but sometimes in class I’m like …zzzz… or just writing down notes without really getting it. But then when I read, I Guess that’s the reinforcement to learn the information.</p>
<p>Haha.
I’m glad to hear about the teachers’ awesomeness.
Thanks.</p>