SOC 2052

As someone who is currently taking this class and has a more recent review than the past ones I have read, I would highly suggest against this class. As a woman, it is very frustrating to be sitting in this class. Wilcox is openly conservative, which I respect, but the approach he takes when discussing men vs. women is extremely outdated and somewhat offensive. For example, he spoke about how having more sexual partners only negatively impacts women and didn't even mention its impact on men. Specifically, my TA put a "fact" on the board during discussion that said that the more sexual partners a woman has before marriage, the less happy she is in her marriage. I was shocked when I read it. He also spoke about social media's impact on relationships only regarding women, meanwhile it affects everyone. He spoke about how hookup culture only impacts women in a negative way because women lose respect right after. Also the way in which he asks his polls is clearly yearning for a certain response and doesn't even offer all of the possible answers, or an "other" category. It just felt a lot like he cared more about influencing women to be virgins and get married rather than to objectively be teaching a class on marriage. Obviously that is a leap but like... not a big one.

Wilcox is an interesting professor, you don't necessarily need to come to class, but you learn a lot. He reads off of the powerpoint, but overall you can definitely get away with not going to class or doing the readings. The exams are easy, but they are essays which make it easier if you have a basic idea of the lectures. You have to go to discussion which is fine. Overall, the class is very interesting and eye opening. If you need an easy class to take, I recommend this one.

Really easy class, honestly. He puts stars in his lecture slides next to things you need to know for MC on exams. Your grade is one two pop quizzes, a midterm, debate (in discussion), an 8-page paper, and a final (plus participation grade), so a lot of areas to do well. The material is honestly interesting too. As long as you take some notes on the readings (enough to be able to site in the essay sections of the exams) and learn the stars in his lecture you're set. A lot of it is kind of common sense too, so its not hard to grasp the concepts.

Generally an OK course. Prof. Wilcox is a conservative guy on marriage and any stuff related to love and sex, so you may find some of the topics and ideas in the class to be quite unacceptable, but he is a really good lecturer, and the some of the materials like the effects of cohabitation are very interesting. The only bad thing about this class is I have to get up early to take it, which is really a pain. I usually just spent about 4 hours a week on the readings. Not a very difficult course for a non-sociology major.
Talking about grades, I got an A for this course. The following are my tips on how to ace this class:
1. How are the grades composed:
Discussion participation: 20%
Debate: 10%
Mid-term: 20%
Eight page paper: 25%
2 Pop Quizzes 5%
Final exam: 20%

2. For discussion participation, just participate by asking and answering some questions the TA raised.

3. For Debate, very easy, do some research and get some numbers and arguments so you and your teammate can talk about 10 minutes before class.

4. For the mid-term, there are 10 multiple-choice questions, and 3 short-essay questions and you need to answer 2 of them, and one long-essay question. Timed under 50 minutes in class. Most people finished between 35-45 minutes, so it is completely doable. I will elaborate more on how to prepare at tip 8.

5. For the eight-page paper, start early and show your draft to your TA as it is the TA who will grade it.

6. For the 2 pop quizzes, they were asked about things very dull in this class like "what kind of job did the guest speaker who came last week have". I think the pop quizzes are just designed to help him see whether you came to the lectures or not.

7. For the final exam, 30 MCs, 3 out of 5 short-essay questions, and 1 long-essay question. It is pretty much the same thing as the mid-term. Timed under 3 hours. Most people finished between 1 and 2 hours.

8. Talking about preparing for the exams, you need to do at least one reading for each topic discussed in class and take notes on numbers and arguments of the readings, so you have things to cite for the free-response questions in the exams. For the multiple-choice questions, they are tested on the statistical number in his lecture slides, so after each class, write down the numbers he showed in slides and memorize them. If you have some quotes in mind and know all of the statistical numbers he showed in the slides, you will probably get a 94-100 for the exams.

Oh boy. This class. While I don't agree with some of the posts calling Wilcox "racist" or "homophobic" I would say that he does just simply disregard the existence of gay people. We have one class on African American home life and it is entirely about how they are poor, less hard-working, and overall worse and less beneficial to the society than the white picket fence family. Wilcox literally beats information into your head such as "don't marry your soulmate" and "Don't cohabit before marriage or you will divorce." Wilcox also puts forth a trigger warning at the beginning of the semester but really does go too far.
*Trigger Warning*
He compares marrying your soulmate to Aly and Jackson's relationship in a Star is Born, and if you don't know how that ends go take two hours to watch that film. He also talked about a wife's essential roles in a marriage and stated that women need to be "open to physical intimacy" with their husbands. He also said a mother's main role is breastfeeding. Cringing. The worst part of his class is that the data he uses is VERY biased. It is all from 1999-to 2010 and is done by institutions such as BYU. I did manage to get an A in this class, despite not believing 90%of his arguments. If you do brave this class, please do not take this man seriously. Moving backward in society will only hurt minorities and those with non-hetero relationships.

You learn so much from this class. It was fun actually having it in person. Brad Wilcox is a big name in the sociology world, especially one researching family values. I see many reviews call him biased and "traditionalist". He does start the class saying his class promotes marriage and more classic family values, but a lot of the stuff he covers combines elements of different views of the family. Plus, he welcomes viewpoints different to his – he explicitly states this.
The work devoted to it was a little overwhelming. There is quite a bit of reading for each class, something like 2-3 chapters per class. There's often a lot of data and information points mentioned. You need to know the general points. And although you don't need to read for lecture, you need to for your discussion section. I would suggest taking some quick notes for each reading. It'll help so much for the exams. There is a midterm and a final. We had to cite from readings and lecture so those notes will be crucial in saving you time! There's a debate you need to do in discussion. It wasn't graded harshly. The prep (research and practice) was stressful and time consuming. You need to look at a lot of research and text. The final paper was worse: 8 pages double-spaced using readings from classes and outside. Try to start that early.
I would recommend this class if you're interested in learning about marriage, divorce, cohabitation, hooking up, having kids, and the work-life balance. You learn what the data determines as the paths of happiness in each of these areas. This class is one of the more fascinating at UVA.
#tCFspring2021

Ok here's the deal, readings = super interesting, lectures = not so much. Grades consist of 1 debate (easy), midterm, final, and one 8 page paper. The paper can be on anything so start it early there is no need to wait until he mentions it. I thought the material was pretty interesting, wilcox is a little dry but so it goes. But yea, go into this class knowing you DO need to do the reading.

This class was AMAZING! Brad (Professor Wilcox), provided a wonderful overview of the many concepts surrounding the idea of family. This included courtship, marriage, adoption, etc, and provided a very thorough approach to this broad topic. Discussions were well structured and interesting, and his tests were fair. The paper can sound daunting, but if you start it well enough in advance, you can easily find all the resources you need to formulate a good argument. Overall, I would definitely suggest taking this class!

This was a very easy and interesting class. About two to three readings are assigned per class, but they all include really straightforward information (as long as you have even the slightest understanding of different viewpoints on sociology topics), so they shouldn't take up too much of your time. The discussions, debates, and final paper are graded very easily and the midterm and final exams were relatively easy as well. One thing, though, is that I took the class during COVID times, so the midterm and final exams were open notes, which definitely made them much easier than they may have been otherwise.

This class is not super hard, and it's very cool to get exposure to a conservative academic like Prof. Wilcox who in no way forces his opinions down and actually tries to represent multiple perspectives with some cool guest lectures. None of the class material and statistics on marriage/single parents/etc is super mind-blowing if you have common sense, but you have to memorize some statistics from lecture for the tests. I took it during COVID so we had open note exams, but I believe they are usually closed notes. The readings are really long but he does test you on some material from them. The key to the exams is the short answer section-- those questions draw from overall course themes so it's important to do the readings. Overall, not the most fascinating or engrossing course in the world, but one that's not too hard and exposes you to a really brilliant mind from the right side of the political aisle. Great for people really interested in overlap of politics/policy and culture.
#tCF2020

Very enjoyable and interesting class. You'll learn a lot about family from a viewpoint we seldom see today. Wilcox is an amazing person. The exams are really straightforward and easy and the other assignments are also pretty simple.
#tCF2020

This course is so interesting and relevant! I now find myself applying the things I learned to my own life and relationships. Wilcox assigns a lot of readings and uses them on the exams (only two total). However, as long as you have a general idea of the week's readings, your TA will go over the important aspects in discussion! There aren't a lot of assignments, which is nice (only a eight page final research paper that's graded easily and a partner debate project). Lecture can get a little boring but if you have to miss a class, most of the info can be found in the power points (he posts them on Collab). Overall I highly recommend this class!

Wilcox's course is a little bland but the topic is super interesting. Definitely an easy course to fill an elective slot. The exams are easy and the papers won't be graded hard either. It's also interesting because Wilcox is a conservative sociologist, which is a very rare thing, so you get to hear a unique perspective in this class.

I'd call this a deceptively easy class; for that reason, I expended minimal effort and generally relied on my own personal social/political knowledge to skate by most of the time. If you follow current events at all, it's really not that hard to guess what Wilcox wants to hear: the nuclear family as the quintessence of American family life, the ills of single motherhood, the dangers of cohabitation before marriage, and so on. Basically, when in doubt, revert to institutions -- whether that be the family or the church -- because Wilcox hammers them. On that point, I definitely appreciate his conservatism; it's a refreshing change of pace from the usual doctrinaire liberalism we're accustomed to in the classroom. And he doesn't foist it on the class either, instead making sure to acknowledge (even if dismissively) the other side. What's more, the guy is pretty funny, even if only in the most awkward way (I loved his outdated pop-culture references and '90s clip-art stock photos on the PowerPoints). Even if you aren't particularly interested in family issues, take the class if for no other reason than to broaden your horizons and experience academic conservatism in the age of Trump. As for the work, the grading on the first exam was admittedly harsher and far more punctilious than I expected. But after correcting for that, participating in class, writing a cogent term paper, and developing a rapport with Wilcox (and the TA) I came out with an A and felt fully satisfied with the class.

Very cool class on a topic that you just wouldn't expect. Grading is pretty easy as long as readings are cited. I would recommend for those looking for a final class to complete a schedule.

So Prof. Wilcox is definitely conservative, but he presents the opposing arguments and the class is really useful for life and just interesting altogether. He is willing to help you with your debate/paper if you go to him personally and he is just a great person to talk to if you want to know more about sociology. As a pre-med engineer, I think this was a great way to satisfy the MCAT requirement and I learned a ton. You have to go to class because he does clicker questions, but lecture is very interesting. There's also an 8-page paper but you get to choose your own topic. There's a midterm and a final.

Not a huge fan of this class because Professor Wilcox is very conservative and it's pretty obvious. He is a nice guy and tries to show both sides but it doesn't always work. This is more a class on how to have a good marriage. Not too hard of a class, there's one 8 page paper and one debate along with the midterm and final.

My best class this semester by far. I was a bit hesitant to take it after reading some of the reviews that painted Wilcox as a conservative who shoves his opinion down your throat. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Yes, he is a conservative (he actually admits to it on day 1) but he does show both sides of the argument and the reading does a good job of doing this. This class is extremely interesting and useful for relationships and family life. The reading can be a lot at times but for the most part it's really interesting. There's a debate you do in your discussion section, a midterm, 8-page research paper, and final.
Not that hard of a class and totally worth it in my mind.

Do not take Elissa Zeno as your TA! this class itself is easy but she will ruin your grade ! She makes it an easy B not an easy A ! don't get me wrong she is super sweet! but she grades pretty harshly and unfairly too If I must say!

Loved this class! One 8 page paper, a midterm, a final, a debate, 2 pop quizzes and discussion participation make up the grade. Don't think he counts clicker questions. Good easy class. Pedraza is a good TA!

If you value the basic right of women to not have to be a slave to household chores, I wouldn't recommend this class. Wilcox voices his opinions in all of his lectures, and most of the time the class lacks an actually scientific perspective on the issues of family life. He is awful. I would have dropped this class immediately had I known how sexist he is. It's not worth the GPA booster to sit and listen to him bolster his beliefs on traditional family models and gender norms of women in the home.

Lectures are interesting, and you don't really have to read if you pay attention. The essay is very important for your grade.

Professor Wilcox is a very well established, and I recommend you take the class if you are Conservative. Depending on the TA, the class is easy. There is a lot of reading, up to you whether or not you want to read it. Great class, but very one-sided.

This is far and away the easiest class I've ever taken at UVA. One midterm, one 8-page paper, a debate, and a final exam. There is weekly reading, but as long as you get the gist of the book as a whole you really don't need to do it. That said, this class is taught from one angle: extremely, cringingly conservative. Prof. Wilcox makes it very clear where he stands on issues such as women's roles in a family, gay marriage, divorce, cohabitation, etc. His lectures are also excruciatingly boring (think PowerPoints of endless statistics that are 20+ years old). However, try to get Andrew Lynn as your TA--he fell more on the moderate side of most issues, and made discussion much less aggravating than lecture. Overall, if you can handle being preached at for a semester, you will likely be rewarded with an A for minimal effort. It's your call on whether or not that's worth it to you.

I took this class because the grade distribution was sweet and the comments all say its an easy A, but it wasn't for me. I generally get very good grades, but this class takes some effort. You don't really have to do the readings, but he/the TAs have very specific grading rubrics and if you don't have certain statistics and points written out on your exams, you won't get an A.

Thought I killed the midterm because it was SOO common sense, and got all the multiple choice right but APPARENTLY left out very specific statistics (the ones I gave weren't good enough I guess) so got a B. Clicker is part of your grade so you do have to go to class (I didn't lol).

Otherwise it is worthwhile in making you think about your own relationships and despite people saying its all conservative jibberish, Wilcox is extremely educated on the subject and brings up some fair points on marriage. Fun, but not as much of a guaranteed high A as I was expecting.

Wilcox is the man, funniest/awkwardest guy but really nice and down to earth. The books are really interesting reads and I recommend keeping up, although you can get an A without doing them. For a politically charged class, he bucks the classic professorial trend and makes sure all viewpoints are presented. The libs complaining about him are just mad that he actually presents both sides of every issue. Furthermore, he billed the class as both a sociological review of the family and practical life/marriage advice (which is useful) at the beginning, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that he taught the class as he said he would.

If you take this class with this professor, be prepared to be taught from a conservative and marriage-centered viewpoint. While he does present the class from different perspectives, the emphasis is very much on a conservative level and based on his own research. He is obviously a well-known and credited sociologist, but it was surprising to me that he taught the class almost more like a marriage preparation seminar than a study of sociology. I was conflicted about the class all semester, and I am still not entirely sure how I feel about it, but it was not hard at all.

Very easy class...but Wilcox's preaching gets old fast. He mentions other viewpoints to counter his conservative views but basically discredits them immediately. This class is more like a counseling session than a college lecture. You don't have to do the readings really and there's iClicker questions for attendance.

Everyone should take this class at some point in their life! It is a practical class that exposes the reality and psychology of marriage, which almost all of us will confront someday. It gives practical knowledge about marriage, divorce, and life. The readings are super interesting and not burdensome at all (pstt: you may/may not read it). Do attend the lectures. They have iClicker questions but overall, it is a common sense class yet providing a very interesting aspect of Sociology! Take it.

Pretty easy and really interesting class. You have to go to class for clicker questions but all the information is on the powerpoints he posts on-line so you don't really have to pay attention. The paper is long but it's not very hard and you can pick an interesting topic. You also essentially have the whole semester to write it. ASsignments are midterm and final (MC and short-answer), one 8 page paper, and one debate in discussion.

Class entailed a 10 page paper on topic of your choice, but was still very easy material. TA was amazing, very nice and understanding. Not all reading necessary, kind of common sense. go to lecture take good notes and A+ in the class. Professor used slide shows so easy to take notes during lecture

Really interesting class. Definitely comes from a conservative viewpoint though. Readings were interesting, except Wilcox's book. One paper and a group project (debate) that weren't too hard.

Totally worthwhile...truthfully Wilson's class should be called Sociology of the Conservative family...or at least a Conservative viewpoint on Family. Regardless i learned a lot, which was probably due to my TA (Matthew B) who used discussion to discuss both sides (Conservative and Liberal) perspective of the material covered in lecture. I think the best part about the class was that it provided a chance for people to look at both sides of some very important issues that effect everyone at one point or another in their lives.

Really easy common sense class. Go to lecture and study the slides and do the reading and it's a piece of cake. The class really makes you think about your relationships.

Very easy class, just review lectures. Attending lectures is optional, but helps. A few essays, but the TA's aren't harsh with grading. Easy to do well on debates and exams as long as you know the lecture slides.

SOC2052 is a great course. If you go to lecture (which you can miss maybe 1-2 of before it counts off) you should be fine, since Wilcox covers much of the readings. Exams are straight-forward and Wilcox tells you specific numbers/data you need to know for the multiple choice. Great class.

This is an easy class and definitely a GPA booster. You don't even have to do the readings to do well in this class. Wilcox basically makes the class easier than it has to be; he puts all of his lectures on Collab and stars important facts for the exams. There is a debate for discussion sections, but it's not that big of a deal. Do not take discussion with Kara Dewhurst, she is very condescending and flip-flops with information.

BEST TA! So much fun, not too difficult, always made discussion fun and lively, which is so much better than having a boring TA, very helpful, Mili is the best!

Anne was the best! So helpful!

I really enjoyed this class even though Professor Wilcox could be somewhat monotonous in his lectures. Overall, though this class was one of the more easier classes that i have taken at UVA as there's a midterm, final, and one 8- page paper. You also have to do a debate in discussion, but even though i HATE public speaking it was not too bad. Great class!

A fairly interesting class, the only real problem with the class is that Professor Wilcox is EXTREMELY conservative. It's very frustrating for someone who is liberal on most issues revolving around the family. If you take this class, get Michele as a TA. She is very energetic person and also is more open minded to the liberal perspective.There is a midterm, final, 8-page paper and a debate. I highly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in Sociology or to someone who is interested in family trends in today's society.

Excellent class to take.

easy.

The class was very interesting and offered a perspective on marriage, courtship, and the family that you won't encounter often at a university. Wilcox was a little skewed towards conservative views, but his lecture material was engaging and thought-provoking. I definitely recommend to take it with Wilcox if you're in a serious dating relationship or if you're considering marriage any time soon.

This class was so boring. Professor Wilcox was very monotone in his lectures. It was very easy though. I have heard the other professors make this class very interesting. Grade based on midterm, final, paper, discussion, and debate in discussion.