American Political Parties · Political Science
10% participation, 30% midterm, 30% final, 30% individual research paper (8-10 pages). midterm and final are pretty straight forward.
10/10 professor, tries to make things very interesting, and class is small enough to ask questions throughout the lecture. only downside: TA grades everything and is a harsh grader.
Class participation 10% Midterm 30% Research presentation 25% (very chill, I think we were the only group to take it seriously; some of the presentations revealed to me the abysmal level of students in polisci and pushed me to switch majors) Final exam 35% Both exams were very fair imo; she made us define words and criticize ChatGPT essays (was skeptical at first, but it was actually more interesting than writing a standard essay) A decent amount of readings that I recommend doing
Thought it was a great class overall! You cover some interesting concepts and theories (I really liked learning about the difference between partisan sorting and polarization) and the professor is really nice. I do think the level of the other students wasn't great, which was a shame since there was a decent amount of discussion. Also thought some of the activities we did were a bit infantilizing (two poster competitions).
Prior to taking this course I had read the reviews for Professor Krimmel. They made me extremely nervous and scared. The apprehension disappeared quickly after the first class. I took this course during the Fall 2020 semester as an intensive Fall A course. Professor Krimmel is extremely kind and knowledgeable and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of her class. I wish I could take more courses with her. The theories mentioned in the previous comments can be confusing, but she does her best to explain them and provides plenty of supplementary reading material that clarifies them even further. Since we were online, we didn't have a traditional type of midterm or final. We also had a small class of 15 people which made it very much more of a seminar than it might have been in the past. We frequently discussed the material in breakout rooms which enriched my understanding of topics. In this format of the class, we didn't have a long research paper. Instead, everyone prepared a 10-15 minute oral presentation on a topic of our choosing in relation to responsible party governance. She provides us with the data needed to do the project, so there wasn't a lot of heavy research. I found that in giving an oral presentation to the class I was really able to thoroughly understand the theory and its relation to modern politics and trends throughout the 20th century. I'm not a poli sci major,…
The only "assignment" besides the meticulously graded final and midterm is an inane paper. You are given little prompting and told to use computer programs to analyze legislative data. It is unnecessarily difficult and complicated and again, gives a student little insight about the topic of the course. The only upside is that she gives you months to complete it.
This prof made me change my major from polisci. The entire class is based on memorizing the theories of obscure political scientists. The midterm and final are graded harshly based on how many details you can remember about each scholar's argument- knowing the general arguments is not enough. I learned nothing about how the government works in this class, only different scholar's perspectives on the purpose of political parties. It is all theoretical and impractical. Her Powerpoints are the most vague and unhelpful thing ever, they just consist of one word bulletpoints for her to talk off of. She posts them online but since they provide no content or information doing so isn't helpful. Do NOT take this class if you don't want to despise political science as a whole.
A final, a midterm and a 10 page research paper (she gives you the tools with which to do the paper)
Professor Krimmel assigns a lot of reading (most people in the class do not do most of it) many of which are expensive books you have to purchase yourself. Her lectures are dry and I zone out quite quickly. And the midterm and final are extensive, difficult and you get points taken off for minor mistakes. The research paper attempts to let Barnard students finish a foundations requirement but it is tedious and unstimulating.