PPOL 3230

I would recommend this class for sure because it gives students a different perspective on policy and the processes that shape policy. There is a lot of readings, but you can get away with skimming the textbook and just reading the CQ chapters (those are very interesting). The professor is interesting and has lots of experience, but I definitely connected more with my TA. Overall a worthwhile course, not too difficult.

I really enjoyed Professor Warburg's class! He invited a variety of speakers to come and help breakdown a wide range of topics, doing a great job representing all viewpoints. The readings were also interesting, and not overwhelming. It was easy to see the purpose of each assignment given, and each allowed different types of students to do well in the class.

Professor Warburg's class is such a great introduction to the subject of public policy and to the issues that policymakers are facing right now. He brings in guest lecturers who are very knowledgable about a certain subject and asks them to speak about how policymakers are addressing that issue (ex: climate change, public education, health care, etc.). So the class really hits on everyone's interests, and you will leave the class much more informed than when you walked in. This is also a good course to take if you are thinking about applying to Batten. You get to write two policy memos and create a presentation with your section recommending ways to address a certain issue through policy change. Warburg also gets really awesome TAs, so you will likely have someone who is very personable and accomplished leading your discussion. Warburg is so nice and has such an accomplished background in public policy. He also goes out of his way to get to know his students. Make sure to go to his office hours! Overall, I would definitely recommend this class to anyone interested in public policy or who just wants to know what's going on in our country and the world right now!

This class was incredibly frustrating for me. I was really excited to learn about so many different topics over the semester but looking back I don't feel like I learned anything at all. Warburg's lectures were so disjointed. I was really hoping for in-depth analysis and discussion of the issues at hand, but instead I got random, irrelevant personal anecdotes. There was one day where I learned more about Malcolm Brogdon's term paper than US-China relations. In general, just don't waste your time with this class.

This class was great if you want a broad overview of various public policy issues, but does not go into great depth. Also, it's very pre-professional with the writing being two memos and a research paper in the style of a policy briefing. That being said, the instruction on how to write these kinds of papers was not great and challenging at first if you have not taken a batten class before. Warburg himself is not the greatest lecturer but brings in some great guest lecturers.

Warburg is pretty full of himself and likes to talk about himself a lot. That being said, he's pretty good at making lecture interesting and engaging, and he uses his connections to bring in a lot of cool guest speakers that are both Democrat and Republican. There are two memos, a longer paper, a midterm, a group project and a final in this class. There are also clicker questions for attendance. They grade pretty harshly on the memos, but everyone seems to end up doing fine at the end of the semester. The TA's are usually pretty good because they are in the Batten MPP program. The only issue is that because it is a survey course, you do not learn a ton of specifics on ho to potentially solve the issues that you're learning about.