SOC 3310

Professor Polillo is such a tiny little eccentric man, and really likes to engage with his students and hear their perspective on the subject he's teaching - and he's pretty good at connecting the topics in class to real-life situations to make it easier to understand. You should pay attention to these parts in lectures particularly, because if you try to learn just off the readings alone, you'll be totally lost (although I did take this as a non-sociology major). He gives you exam/essay questions at least a week ahead of time, and if you just kind of repeat what he teaches you in your own words and connect it to a real-life example that you think of, you'll get an A in this class, relatively straightforward and stress-free. The weekly self-talks are an easy way to boost your grade if you need it and most of the material is really interesting. Good class!

I have to disagree with the other reviews on this website. Professor Polillo made what should have been an interesting topic very dry and boring. The grading on papers seemed more based on whether or not he agreed with your ideas rather than the overall quality of your argument. Class was originally centered around the professor attempting to engage in conversation with students, but quickly evolved into Polillo talking about his own ideas and seemed like an hour and fifteen minutes of egotism. He seemed nice during office hours, but was often very short and occasionally rude in his email messages. Overall, the class was a very boring yet attainable B/B+, but there are so many better sociology courses you can take at UVA. I wouldn't recommend this course.

Really cool class! Polillo is a great teacher and is so passionate about sociology. The class was pretty interesting and made me think about things in a new light. The readings were pretty interesting and the class wasn't too difficult itself. You have to keep a weekly self-talk journal which is a huge chunk of your grade that is super easy to get! Class discussions were sometimes awkward and silent but other times really enlightening! Loved it- good for anyone, no prior background in sociology needed!

This class was definitely interesting and worth taking, but it is not what I initially expected. Simone is a great professor - very engaging and is very adept at leading group discussion. A lot of the class is discussion based off of the readings. Some of the readings were dull but they got more interesting as the semester went on. I would recommend this course to people interested in sociology or for someone interested in the conception of self. A lot of times this class felt like a psychology class (theory and structure based); there's lots of similar elements. But the professor is great and a fair grader, as well as a super interesting person.