PLAP 4500

This course was entitled Polarization in American Politics, and it certainly gave a great overview of Polarization. Class was structured around 2 research papers (usually about 20 pages each) and each paper was led by a Student, which was 20% of your final grade. Course sessions usually went quickly as there is only so much you can discuss with two papers, but it was nice to have a relatively light reading load for each meeting. The majority of your grade was a group project where you were to propose a research question and design a study to test your hypothesis. Groups were self-chosen. This project was fine, and we received a lot of time to work on it throughout the semester as he had you turn in parts of the assignment at a time so he could give you feedback. My main critique was that I didn't receive a grade until after we had submitted the final exam, which left me anxious about where I was in the class.

If you need a 4000 level course to complete the politics major, this is an okay choice. If you put in the effort, you will probably do well. However, this was his first time teaching the course, so it is likely to change in future semesters.