<p>Can someone give me more information about the political science dept at WashU? I have heard it is supposed to have good rankings, but I think it is at the GRADUATE level, not undergrad. It's the undergrad experience, I'm interested in.</p>
<p>For example, how large are the lower division classes? Are there large lectures, or are there opportunities for discussion in class? How does it differ as you get to the upper division courses?</p>
<p>Does the department have interactions with govt. agencies for internships? Are there political science professors that an interested student can do research with as an undergrad?</p>
<p>Are there any clubs What about mock trial, Model UN, debate, rhetoric, or things like that?</p>
<p>Any information you could provide would be helpful! Thanks.</p>
<p>Not a political science student but you can go to
courses.wustl.edu to see all past courses and the number of people that enrolled in them. Obviously look for something this semester or earlier, and not the summer or next semester.</p>
<p>In case it’s not clear, click “Listing” > Pick a semester (SP2012, FL2011, etc.) > Arts and Sciences > Political Science.</p>
<p>As someone who has taken a lot of courses in Poli Sci, I have nothing but positive things to say about the department. There are nearly 100 courses offered in the dept on a yearly basis, and 5 subfields/concentrations within the major. The few intro level courses (Am Politics, Intl Politics, Compar Politics) have large enrollments, but the high quality of the professors I had in my intro courses made up for the large lecture environment. Definitely peruse the links provided above and you’ll notice how specialized and even quirky some of the classes are. As a side note, the intro level courses are really only required if you want to major in Poli Sci (which, I assume you do); if you only wanted to take a couple courses here and there and were majoring in Bio (for example), you don’t need to take American Politics in order to take something like Presidents, Legislators, and Economic Policy in Latin America. </p>
<p>Most Poli Sci majors I know have had at least one work experience with a Congressman - either in DC or at the Congressman’s home office. Beyond that, others spend another summer working for an NGO or governmental agency. Wash U has surprisingly good networks in DC. I highly recommend you check out the Semester in DC program, where you take classes for a semester and intern for an agency or organization. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about the Mock Trial or Model UN teams, but they each have websites, and after briefly perusing them it seems that the Mock Trial team regularly wins midwest regionals and went to nationals two years ago and Model UN travels to a lot of conferences and hosts a symposium here.</p>