Voting and American Politics · Political Science
Midterm, Final, Research Paper. 80-100 is considered an A. Possible to get an A but depends on your luck and which TA grades your paper and midterm. A lot of material to study for the midterm and final and yet I still feel like I learned nothing from the class. I did not read the textbook, so I only went to classes and did not put a lot of time in until I had to lock in for the midterm and final.
I thought this class was going to be an easy A because I heard from many other students and read reviews that reaffirmed that. However, this class is not an easy A. The grading scale is 80-100 is considered an A. However, after getting a 77 on the midterm I realized there was a reason for the scale. Going to class is pointless because Erikson is so old he cannot even speak coherently. He struggles to get through students and has his "staff" walk around the room with a microphone if a student has a question. You also have to listen to what he says during lecture because sometimes he just makes up stories and if you are not paying attention you'll take notes on something that never happened. I also expected this class to be interesting, given that it is an election year, however the class focused on historical examples, mostly from the early 1900s when Erikson was in his prime.
Didn't go to class and didn't find it necessary to read the textbook. If you are going to read the books, dont buy them. Find them on CLIO or online. The research paper is a huge amount of work (I think I wrote 18 pages?). The midterm and final exams weren't bad but the grading by the TA's was insanely strict. Despite that, the curve was ENORMOUS. An A was like an 80-100. I got B's on the exams (even though I felt I deserved As) which meant I got between like a 60-80.
Take literally any other American politics class. This one isnt worth it. SO boring. I would fall asleep during class and at one point I just stopped going. Most of the content is pretty general common sense. You just learn absolutely nothing and the content is so boring. Erikson really need to retire. At one point in the semester, he got Covid and we all thought he was going to die. But he is resilient. He is a very bad lecturer. I struggled to understand what he was saying. He often went on HUGE tangents that everyone stressed would be on the exam. TA's weren't too helpful (except Patrick, love you Patrick). Waste of time. Take any other class.
1 midterm in person (35%), 1 big research paper which is 10-23 pages depending on if you work in a group or not (25%), and an in person final (40%). very doable and the grading is fair.
Sweetest professor ever, but it was hard to hear him and a lot of the lectures were too old for a class that works best with current events. TAs didn't really know what was going on, but they were really helpful with students. Went to all the classes, did not do any of the readings because they say exactly what the professor says in class.
2 exams (midterm and final) in person bluebook. 1 final paper which is about 20-30 pages depending on how many people you write it with. This paper was easy. Readings from textbook. You never have to even do them.
DO NOT TAKE avoid at all costs. Professor Erikson is so boring. You cant understand a single thing he says in class and if you ever raise your hand, even after repeating it 10 times, he wont understand what you are saying. He is very old. He is an extremely hard grader. He gave the concepts for the exam and I studied them, I felt like I did great when I handed in my exam, I am an A student and I got a C in my exam .... I still dont understand why he grades so low. You will learn absolutely nothing from this class.
Consistent readings, 12-15 page paper, midterm and final exams.
Absolutely terrible. Erikson might have been a good professor a few decades ago, but not anymore. His lectures are mind-numbing, just hours of him showing different graphs, misinterpreting them, and going on anecdotal tangents. He poses a question, shows a bunch of graphs, and then does not answer the question. He can't hear any student unless they speak into a mic, and has to have his TAs (who he calls his "staff") run all of his technology. He's clearly super knowledgable, but does not effectively pass that on to students at all. If there is a takeaway from his lessons, it's better explained in 5 minutes than in his lecture. About 3 weeks of lectures reached the conclusion: "Democrats are more liberal and Republicans are more conservative". Definitely do NOT recommend this course.