Philip Oldenburg

I am writing this review to provide an updated perspective so you don't have to rely on 5 year old reviews Take this class. It has simply the BEST selection of readings I have ever come across at Columbia. Oldenburg KNOWS his stuff. He has lived in south asia for years upon years and his depth of knowledge is insane. Is this class hard? Yes Are the readings sometimes a lot to do? Sure Is lecture often boring? Yep Is it worth it? Undoubtedly You will never learn more about one of the most important geopolitical regions in the world and be able to actually understand how these countries have developed politically in the last few decades. A lot of the class is on India (understandably) and the kind of conversations to be had are spectacular. You might not get an A grade or even a high B grade but please tell me you went to Columbia for more than flexing your gpa. Take it.

I had read reviews that one could get by just by doing the readings. This is entirely true. Oldenburg's lectures, while interesting, have little to do with the readings, on which both the midterm and the final are based upon. Half of the lecture is a discussion about international news, which sometimes was somewhat interesting, but definately not a time spent working towards something useful for what you would be graded on. Surprisingly, I did very well, even without any previous knowledge about Politics, since most of the readings are dense and require time to read. You could wait to do the readings until before the exam, but I don't recommend it.

I hated going to class and ended up skipping as much as I thought I could get away with (turns out I could have skipped most). While I see below that his grading is easy, I'm going to have to disagree. It's more luck of the draw; he has no clear rubric, and he makes up his grading scheme as he goes along which makes the process incredibly subjective. If you happen to get an A, then good for you. If not, tough, because without a clear set of directions there is no way to even talk to him about it. When I tried to, he got so defensive that I just dropped it. He wouldn't even make eye contact with me, I just had to walk away from the guy. That one example of his social skills might give you a clue as to why his lectures are empty. Best value for me was knocking out the cultural diversity with a poli sci class since it's my major. And I agree with others that the readings were good. But, one can find cultural diversity requirements with other poli sci classes, and similarly his syllabus can be obtained without taking his class. So I would say this is not worth anyone's time.

Yes, it's true that Oldenburg could use some work on his lecturing style. Some organization, coherence, and flow would be nice during the lectures. However, the syllabus that Oldenburg selected was absolutely superb. If I were to take the class all over again, I would have gone to class only on the first day, the day of the midterm, the day of the final, and to hand in my country study, and would make friends with someone who goes habitually. But I would make a point to DO ALL THE READING or at least as much as I could, because, in hindsight, as a political science major, the readings give an absolutely phenomenal foundation in comparative politics, and they're quite good. I still refer to some of the articles that Oldenburg selected for the syllabus. Take this class not for the lectures--skip 'em--but for the reading. It's about 100 pages a week and well worth it. Instead of assigning a textbook, Oldenburg selects some of the best and most important journal articles and book chapters in comparative politics, and organizes them so that you really get to see the debate among political scientists, which is rare in an intro course. While I took the course with him, I agreed with most other students in the class that it was malorganized and incoherent. But I was thinking only about the lectures and recitations, but as soon as the class ended, I realized how much I actually learned…

Euphemistically speaking, seriously one of the least impressive classes I've taken at Columbia. The subject matter is fascinating, as is the reading; this much I can attest to, since I'm a MEALAC major. The articles, when I ended up reading them for the midterm/final, were really interesting. His reading list is one of the most well though-out and researched I have seen in a while. Unfortunately, his obvious knowledge of the topic is not reason enough to take the class. His delivery creates an atmosphere of general disinterest and apathy amongst the class, save the token few overly eager students. I think the problem stems from the structure of the class, which is technically a lecture (of maybe 10 students any given day, maybe up to 15-20 were actually in the class), which meant Oldenburg just spoke at us for an hour or so in his monotone voice (after going through current events in South Asia for far too long every class, though I appreciate his attempts at trying to keep his teachings relevant and topical, a necessity as the political state of South Asia is unstable at best). When he did encourage class participation, it was the same few people. We weren't encouraged to talk, since class participation was not part of the grade, and so most people stayed quiet...or just slept in.

Let's rewind the tape completely. Go to any other poly sci dep't prof and ask them about comparative politics. They will shrug and nod their heads. This is a bullshit course in general. If you're subfield is not comp. pol. then you have no business taking this course. It's a knot of cables that you can't undo. And this peacefully obscure unintellectual professor only makes things worse. I think Linda Beck teaches it as well - take her if you have to take this course. Oldenberg was probably pulled in because no one wanted to ruin their reputation by teaching this course. And the TA can destroy you as well. Piero Stanig, who somehow got rave reviews, was at least entertaining when he outright contradicted Oldenberg in class. Now there's a 120k Ivy League education for ya. Why don't we just have ego mud wrestling? I couldn't stand reading half of the readings. You've never seen so many terms in your life, and they can't decide on any of them. But if you're a robot, and have somehow disconnected yourself from mainstream consciousness, you should be cheerful about this prof and class. There was usually 20% class attendance - what does that tell you? Without the right prof., comp pol. is a spider's web.

One midterm (he literally gives you the entire list of things that will be on it and if you cover that list throughly you are guaranteed an 80+ and if you are really good at it then a 90+) 6 weekly assignments (literally a page each) One final

Whoever wrote that review claiming that Oldenburg was better than Jervis has some serious problems and should stop studying political science immediately- you clearly have NO idea what poli sci is about or what you are supposed to get our of these classes. I went to all of Oldenburg's lectures the first half of the semester and I was APPALED at what an awful teacher he was. I would start taking notes and look at them at the end of the class and be like "What the HELL is this guy talking about?". Not one of his lectures were planned, and he failed to convey and idea whatsoever all semester- let alone giving us a sense of what comp politics is about. Like another reviewer said: avoid this guy like the plague. Unless you are one of those girls who doesn't mind what the prof is talking about and insist "But he's cuuuuttte".

Plenty of reading, but only 1 midterm and 1 final. Good luck with the grading.

Ok, everyone, listen up. I've got some startling news for you: You've all been duped into thinking that this was actually a legitimate class—it wasn’t! It was really just the filming of a reality T.V. show called "Jackass Teacher!” The T.V. audience, of course, knows the secret from the beginning and hysterically observes the chaos and comedy that ensues in the class! Philip Oldenburg performed brilliantly in his role as the professor. I think he may have even fooled some students. He never fooled me though.