SOC 1010

Ian Mullins is an amazing professor. This class is very enjoyable and the topics of discussion are relevant to real life. By the end of this class you will be a much more knowledgeable person about the way people think and operate around you. If you pay attention in class, attend lecture, and take some basic notes you will be golden. I was not great at doing the readings and was just fine. The exams are online and open note. In discussion you and your group are required to facilitate the discussion twice a semester which is pretty easy and a great exercise to make sure you and your classmates understand the material. TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!

I absolutely loved this class. It was my first sociology course at UVA and I am so glad I got to take it with Ian Mullins. He uses specifications grading so there is a bundle you have to complete for each letter grade. Throughout the class, you need to facilitate two discussion sections which include completing the readings for that week, preparing some sort of interactive slides or questions for the class, and facilitating the discussion. After the facilitation you would also have to write a reflection answering specific questions that are laid out on Canvas. In addition you had take two exams that were open note, but timed. The exams were mostly reading based with some questions from lecture as well. If you did not pass the exam, you could use one token to revise three questions, and you had two tokens for the whole semester. For an A or B, you needed to pass two exams. Other than that, he also counted attendance for both sections and lecture. #tCFS24

The course is really interesting and easy to get a good grade in. Ian is really kind and you can really tell that he cares about his students and the subject he teaches. He grades in things called bundles where you have to meet a specific requirement to get a grade. For an A, you need to pass both exams, present two times in discussion, attend 9 out of 11 discussions, and complete the course reflection. We used to have to attend lectures to get an A but he threw out that rule mid-way through the semester. Knowing all of this, there is not a lot to do to get an A.

I will say there is a lot of reading that you must do for each lecture. Sometimes, you have more than 50 pages of reading and it can pile up if you don't read. You can pass not reading for the lectures but the readings will show up on exams in rather specific questions. His lecture was my least favorite part of the course. While there are interesting topics that he discusses, his lectures are almost in the format of a TED Talk. You get used to it though. #tCFS24

This course is an easy A. I would highly recommend that you take this course. The exams are open book, open lecture, and open readings. He lets the exams be taken with a group of your choosing as well. This makes it virtually impossible to get less than an A if you simply put time into the exam and take notes when reading. There are a good bit of readings, but its really not that bad if you stay on top of it. He also usually explains the big ideas during lecture. The short answers on the exam usually come from lecture questions, so you can ask him about them beforehand or wing it.
As a professor, Mullins is great. He is an amazing lecturer. It really does feel like a Ted Talk everyday. He also changes the content of the course to be relevant, so it's genuinely interesting. He knows it's an introductory course, so he makes it easy. He is also very kind and willing to meet with anyone who wants. This is a great first semester course to take at UVA.

Excellent intro course to take during your first semester. Professor Mullins made this class very, very easy. This class takes a little bit of effort, but if you do the readings and pay attention in lecture, it is an easy A. His exams were online, open-note, and he made sure the class had almost a whole week to take them. There is no attendance policy for lecture and he always recorded lecture so really you can watch whenever. Section was mandatory at the beginning of the semester, but due to some issues with the TAs, that changed so it was no longer mandatory. Section is also graded which I didn't love. Go to section even if it's not required because it will help on exams. His lectures were better at the beginning and got more dull over the course of the semester. The readings are generally well-chosen and decently interesting. #tCFfall2021

Professor Mullins probably could not make this class any easier. The tests were open-note, online, and you had multiple days to take them. You always had access to the slides, which were pretty good, and every lecture was recorded. There is a fair amount of reading that he bases lecture content on, but some of them are kinda interesting. You do have to be very open-minded in regard to some of the content covered. Also, sometimes it was hard to grasp what the takeaway should have been, but it didn't really matter when it came to the tests. The discussion session is kinda helpful for understanding content, although it would devolve into a Socratic seminar where you had to participate for credit points, which I didn't like. Overall, this class might challenge your views, you'll learn a lot, and is not difficult. #tCFfall2021

I wasn't really sure how this class would go since it's such a large subject to try and give a complete overview of, but Prof. Mullins does a really great job. We learned about different sociological concepts such as institutions, democracy, etc. There are 3 exams including the final, which is basically just a normal exam (not cumulative), 2 participation grades from discussion, and 2 super small assignments from the first week. Exams are all open-anything: readings, notes, peers, lecture recordings, anything. They'd be crazy hard if you took them normally, because they ask about very specific things that you have to really go back and look for. But with these accommodations, it's easy to get an A. No attendance policy for lecture; he posts the recordings online. There was a special circumstance with a TA being out my semester so he gave everyone full participation for second quarter, but I doubt that'll happen again. Piper Thomson is a great TA and leads discussion well. All the ways Prof. Mullins made the class easy made it so I didn't really study or try to absorb the material, which I kind of wish I had because it's all interesting. But you'll still learn a lot and would recommend this class.

Pretty good class! As a psych major, it was really interesting to be introduced to how sociologists see the world compared to psychologists. I thought it was a well-rounded intro class that Prof. Mullins did a fantastic job of designing. The class was based on two lectures recorded synchronous lectures as well as a "section discussion" composed of the TAs of the class. There were a couple short readings in the beginning but otherwise the class was majorly based on three (really good) books. The topics he chose to discuss to demonstrate sociological topics were really interesting and relevant to current issues. Grading was based on participation, assignments, a midterm, and a final. There were only a certain number of lectures you're allowed to miss before getting a letter dropped or failing the class. As for assignments, we had small groups to do assignments (some assignments were done independently) but they were very straightforward assignments, nothing to lose any sleep over. The midterm and final are definitely daunting considering all the material and information covered in the class, but this class (and Prof. Mullins will emphasize this) is about learning concepts and just making sure you know how to make connections between them. The midterm and final were open note/lecture/reading and Prof. Mullins gave way more time than anyone could ever need. In complete honesty, I did not do 80% of the reading and put in less than 100% effort in assignments, but managed an A- in the class.

I thought this was an interesting class even though humanities in general aren't my cup of tea. The "big picture" of the class was well put together and brought up a ton of interesting conversations. However, sometimes, the ideas were a bit too vague and it was hard to really get what he was trying to get us to take away from each slide. Best way to do well in this class is to both watch the lectures and do the readings because he doesn't really talk about the books directly much in lecture but they will show up on tests. Overall, I'm pretty lukewarm on the class - its not awful but its also not amazing, its somewhat interesting and decently challenging

Every lecture with Mullins felt like he was giving a ted talk/giving a speech. There were no slides. Hard to grasp the main stuff he wanted to you to take away and it was so broad and just not interesting. I'm glad I took other sociology classes before this one because just taking this class would have given me a bad sense of the sociology department. It was his first time teaching this class at uva so maybe he'll change the format and it can be better