<p>I am a past Politics & Values student, and can certainly answer any questions any of you have. The course is undoubtedly worth it for any Political Science or International Affairs major, and being an International Affairs major with a concentration in International Politics it was definitely an asset for me. </p>
<p>The invitation would have been sent to a student’s GW email address if he or she is a potential Political Science major or seems to have interests in that area.</p>
<p>In terms of living together, we all were housed on the 9th floor of Thurston, but that’s essentially the extent of the LLC. I’m not sure if P&V will be housed in the same location next year, but just knowing 30 other students on your floor who are all reading the same books and writing the same papers is definitely helpful as a freshman.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the course and program in general!</p>
<p>writing is D’s strength, which is why i’m thinking P&V would be good for her - building those skills freshman year would certainly be an asset throughout the rest of school years… particularly in smpa… i would think?</p>
<p>tested v. high on writing SAT, but perhaps composit was not enough to merit invitation to apply. or perhaps it’s becuase she’s not a polysci or IR major? i dunno. will be doing political communications so there’s a fair amount of overlap. </p>
<p>Juliana - will sugest to D that she get in touch, if that’s OK.
the descriptions of the classes sound right up her alley… her ideal of what classes should be like… but her one concern is the work load. she’ll be in smpa and will have many hours of committment to theatre to honor her arts scholarship. do you happen to know of any students doing both smpa and pres. scholars in the arts who are also in P&V? (i hope that doesn’t sound like she doesn’t want to work hard - far from it - only that she doesn’t want to overextend herself and do many things badly instead of fewer things well, ya know?)</p>
<p>1sttimemom: I don’t know what the class requirements are for smpa, but keep in mind that P&V is a 6 credit class in both the fall & spring semesters, so it does limit how many other classes a student can take. </p>
<p>I don’t think invitation to apply had anything to do with SAT scores, but more to do with students who showed interest in poli sci & IR. When S applied, Kelts wanted to see the HS transcript & a sample of writing having to do with poli sci.</p>
<p>1sttimemom: I don’t know what the class requirements are for smpa, but keep in mind that P&V is a 6 credit class in both the fall & spring semesters, so it does limit how many other classes a student can take. </p>
<p>I don’t think invitation to apply had anything to do with SAT scores, but more to do with students who showed interest in poli sci & IR. When S applied, Kelts wanted to see the HS transcript & a sample of writing having to do with poli sci.</p>
<p>i’m not in the program, but i know many people who were invited to apply. it’s not just polisci/IR majors who are invited, i know someone in the business school who was invited, for example, as well as a few other majors. so i’m not really sure how they select who to invite…</p>
<p>CJ Madison- The number of applicants differ year to year, but last year there were over one hundred applicants and 32 were admitted. I’m not sure of the actual numbers, but it is quite competitive. Professor Kelts personally selects the people accepted into the program.</p>
<p>1sttimemom- The invitation is definitely directed more towards IR/ Polisci majors who would be more likely to benefit from the program, although there are SMPA people in the program as well. As for time management, I am a double major and a theatre minor, and while P&V is intense and a time commitment, it is manageable. It is 6 credits each semester, so the amount of work is essentially the amount one would have if taking two political science courses at once. If writing is your daughter’s strength, the program will definitely strengthen her writing and analytical thinking abilities. I am more than happy to talk to your daughter about the program, although I’d advise getting in touch with Professor Kelts before to make sure she can apply for the program without having received an invitation.</p>
<p>S is majoring in poli sci with a public policy focus (there is not public policy major at GW) & he took P&V. It takes the place of 4 courses you’d have to take as a poli sci major anyway & is probably alot more interesting taking them with Kelts than in the large lectures you’d be stuck in otherwise.</p>
<p>OscarWang- The course is hugely focused on political theory, from Aristotle to John Rawls to Samuel Huntington. You will read a variety of past and current theorists, and any actual events or current policies are incorporated into the class as a way of explaining theories or used in papers to demonstrate conception of a theory. As Shellfell said, it does cover your PSC1-3 classes you would have to take anyways, and it is a really interesting class that I would definitely recommend, but if you would rather get through these requirements with a textbook rather than studying theories and writing papers this class may not be for you.</p>
<p>ok - serious question.
i’m doing research on it elsewhere too - but i wanted to see what ya’ll’s thoughts are, since you’re in-the-know!</p>
<p>D was invited and did apply to P&V.</p>
<p>I’m trying to help her figure out what her course registration/choices might be like for Freshman year.</p>
<p>She’s required to take a theatre course every semester - as part of her scholarship.</p>
<p>If she gets into P&V…</p>
<p>… her FIRST SEMESTER courses would need to be:
PS01
PS02
UW20*<br>
theatre course
am I understanding correctly that UW20 needs to be taken 1st semester in order for IR course to count as her second UW course, is that correct?</p>
<p>… her SECOND SEMESTER courses would need to be:
PS03
IR (not sure if i’m calling that the right name)
theatre course
other - core course and/or prereq for something for sophomore year</p>
<p>P&V has its own course numbers…PSC011 for fall (6 credits) & PSC012 for spring (6 credits). You can only register for them if you’ve been accepted into P&V; in fact, Kelts takes care of your registration for them. I’m not sure what some of the courses you listed are. If she has to take a theater course each semester, than she’d only have the ability to take 2 other courses each semester. If she takes UW20 in the fall, then she’d only have room in her schedule for one additional course that semester. </p>
<p>The rules regarding WID courses is that you have to complete UW20 before you take any other WID course & that you can’t take both a WID & UW20 in the same semester; if that’s still the case then she’d have to complete UW20 first.</p>
<p>Agree with shellfell - if you are accepted into P&V - absolutely take UW20 Fall Freshman year, otherwise PSC012 (WID) in the spring won’t count as a WID course as said above.</p>
<p>shell - just wanting to make sure i’m understanding this correctly… when you said “If she has to take a theater course each semester, than she’d only have the ability to take 2 other courses each semester. If she takes UW20 in the fall, then she’d only have room in her schedule for one additional course that semester.” </p>
<p>As I’m looking at it, the P&V course + UW20 + theatre is a full load and there wouldn’t be room for an additional class there?</p>
<p>semester 2:
PSC0112 - 6 credits
Theatre Production - 3 credits
Mathematics and Politics - 3 credits</p>
<p>Is there a GenEd worksheet online anywhere?
Just curious… </p>
<p>Really appreciate all the advice avaiable here! Might have missed the importance of taking UW20 1st semester were it not for your advice shellfell! :)</p>
<p>1sttimemom: Your D could take 15-16 credits each semester, so there would be room in her schedule for an additional class. They need 120 credits to graduate, which works out to 15 credits per semester, unless the student does summer school.</p>
<p>When S took P&V in the fall, he also took Econ, a Dean’s Seminar, and UW20. In the spring, he took P&V, Econ, a science class, and history.</p>
<p>There should be info on the website about the CCAS GCR requirements. I suggest your D print it out so she can refer to it as she puts her schedule together.</p>
<p>Just want to add that deciding how many classes to take is also something to talk to an academic advisor about. Your D should be meeting hers at CI & should be contacted by email by him/her before then (if things are still like they were 2 years ago). S was able to handle that schedule without any difficulty, but I don’t want to make presumptions about other people’s children. Hope I haven’t totally confused you.</p>