Political science students, have you thought it was worth it?
One of the courses I might take is a political science one, but I need to narrow down my list and I know very little about the reviews for this type of course.
Political science students, have you thought doing this course was worth it? Has the knowledge you have acquired been worth it?
Do you think it should be with anything else? (e.g. a language)
etc. (I don't really know how to ask it :-P)
Political science students, have you thought doing this course was worth it? Has the knowledge you have acquired been worth it?
Do you think it should be with anything else? (e.g. a language)
etc. (I don't really know how to ask it :-P)
(edited 9 years ago)
I'm nearing the end of my first year of politics, and I hold no compunction in recommending it to all who are interested. The course content has been mostly fascinating; contained within have been tasters of both International Relations and more philosophical politics.
The lecturers, on the most part, have been wonderfully whimsical and motivational. Assignments have been broad and easily explored.
The best part? I know that at the end of my three years I'll be leaving my course with the same prospects - average wage-speaking - as those haggardly, mostly-miserable Law students.
The lecturers, on the most part, have been wonderfully whimsical and motivational. Assignments have been broad and easily explored.
The best part? I know that at the end of my three years I'll be leaving my course with the same prospects - average wage-speaking - as those haggardly, mostly-miserable Law students.
Original post by Sir Candour
The best part? I know that at the end of my three years I'll be leaving my course with the same prospects - average wage-speaking - as those haggardly, mostly-miserable Law students.
The best part? I know that at the end of my three years I'll be leaving my course with the same prospects - average wage-speaking - as those haggardly, mostly-miserable Law students.
Lol. You the about the ****ty wage but seems like u were rejected from law school
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Original post by XcitingStuart
One of the courses I might take is a political science one, but I need to narrow down my list and I know very little about the reviews for this type of course.
Political science students, have you thought doing this course was worth it? Has the knowledge you have acquired been worth it?
Do you think it should be with anything else? (e.g. a language)
etc. (I don't really know how to ask it :-P)
Political science students, have you thought doing this course was worth it? Has the knowledge you have acquired been worth it?
Do you think it should be with anything else? (e.g. a language)
etc. (I don't really know how to ask it :-P)
It's a really good course to do. You get to study a lot of different types of module.
So I did politics, geography and RE A levels, and economics AS level. Now at university of birmingham, got in with an ABB offer, but i got AAB.
Similar to the other pol. science commenter, you get to do a variety of different types of politics.
So for example I do 6 modules, which means 6, 50 minute lectures, and 6 50 minute seminars (like a classroom with a teacher setup) a week. No homework ever, apart from coursework.
Pol. science is great, it's like a mix between politics, history, philosophy, economics (no hard maths at all), sociology, human geography etc.
So one lecture you'll be studying political philosophy and concepts of democracy, totalitarianism and justice from Plato of ancient times etc (to be honest thats my least favourite module).
Another lecture you'll be studying the EU and international relations, criticising bureaucracy, studying modern political instututions such as NATO etc.
Another lecture maybe you'll do something more like sociology, studying how society works, how power is distributed, studying "underclases", the welfare state, power in language, other things.
And other one you'll study political theory, liberalism, conservatism, extremism, feminisms, environmentalism etc.
So there's a really wide range of different types of approaches, which keeps it interesting. And then once you learn which type of politics you prefer (it being more social sciencey or philosophical/artsy, then you can specialise in second and third year.
So one student might end up doing a dissertation which is basically philosophy, and another might be studying a really technical thing with statistics etc. like some sort of UN report.
Go for it
Original post by AsandaLFC
Lol. You the about the ****ty wage but seems like u were rejected from law school
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Never applied for Law, politics all the way! Mind you, I'll admit that the conception of 'good' and 'bad' subjects does annoy me, especially when its own criteria (economic value) isn't even adhered to. It stinks of snobbery, and I'll endeavour to change peoples' minds about it whenever I can. Law is the easiest target to reveal the hypocrisy.
The average wage of law students at most universities do match the average wages of most politics students (refer to unistats). I don't know whether you find a starting salary of £20k, and £27 - £30k after three years to be high or derisory, but to me (working-class background) that seems to be more than enough!
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Har88
It's a really good course to do. You get to study a lot of different types of module.
So I did politics, geography and RE A levels, and economics AS level. Now at university of birmingham, got in with an ABB offer, but i got AAB.
Similar to the other pol. science commenter, you get to do a variety of different types of politics.
So for example I do 6 modules, which means 6, 50 minute lectures, and 6 50 minute seminars (like a classroom with a teacher setup) a week. No homework ever, apart from coursework.
Pol. science is great, it's like a mix between politics, history, philosophy, economics (no hard maths at all), sociology, human geography etc.
So one lecture you'll be studying political philosophy and concepts of democracy, totalitarianism and justice from Plato of ancient times etc (to be honest thats my least favourite module).
Another lecture you'll be studying the EU and international relations, criticising bureaucracy, studying modern political instututions such as NATO etc.
Another lecture maybe you'll do something more like sociology, studying how society works, how power is distributed, studying "underclases", the welfare state, power in language, other things.
And other one you'll study political theory, liberalism, conservatism, extremism, feminisms, environmentalism etc.
So there's a really wide range of different types of approaches, which keeps it interesting. And then once you learn which type of politics you prefer (it being more social sciencey or philosophical/artsy, then you can specialise in second and third year.
So one student might end up doing a dissertation which is basically philosophy, and another might be studying a really technical thing with statistics etc. like some sort of UN report.
Go for it
So I did politics, geography and RE A levels, and economics AS level. Now at university of birmingham, got in with an ABB offer, but i got AAB.
Similar to the other pol. science commenter, you get to do a variety of different types of politics.
So for example I do 6 modules, which means 6, 50 minute lectures, and 6 50 minute seminars (like a classroom with a teacher setup) a week. No homework ever, apart from coursework.
Pol. science is great, it's like a mix between politics, history, philosophy, economics (no hard maths at all), sociology, human geography etc.
So one lecture you'll be studying political philosophy and concepts of democracy, totalitarianism and justice from Plato of ancient times etc (to be honest thats my least favourite module).
Another lecture you'll be studying the EU and international relations, criticising bureaucracy, studying modern political instututions such as NATO etc.
Another lecture maybe you'll do something more like sociology, studying how society works, how power is distributed, studying "underclases", the welfare state, power in language, other things.
And other one you'll study political theory, liberalism, conservatism, extremism, feminisms, environmentalism etc.
So there's a really wide range of different types of approaches, which keeps it interesting. And then once you learn which type of politics you prefer (it being more social sciencey or philosophical/artsy, then you can specialise in second and third year.
So one student might end up doing a dissertation which is basically philosophy, and another might be studying a really technical thing with statistics etc. like some sort of UN report.
Go for it
Thanks a lot, really insightful.
Does it still go enough in depth in each subtopic?
What's the workload like? Heavy? Do you think a major/minor with another course would be too much?
I know it depends on course/individual etc. but do you think it could be possible & still quite easily manageable?
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Original post by Sir Candour
I'm nearing the end of my first year of politics, and I hold no compunction in recommending it to all who are interested. The course content has been mostly fascinating; contained within have been tasters of both International Relations and more philosophical politics.
The lecturers, on the most part, have been wonderfully whimsical and motivational. Assignments have been broad and easily explored.
The best part? I know that at the end of my three years I'll be leaving my course with the same prospects - average wage-speaking - as those haggardly, mostly-miserable Law students.
The lecturers, on the most part, have been wonderfully whimsical and motivational. Assignments have been broad and easily explored.
The best part? I know that at the end of my three years I'll be leaving my course with the same prospects - average wage-speaking - as those haggardly, mostly-miserable Law students.
Thanks for post.
Does it still go enough in depth in topics?
I don't know what to take from that last part. :-P
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Original post by XcitingStuart
Thanks a lot, really insightful.
Does it still go enough in depth in each subtopic?
What's the workload like? Heavy? Do you think a major/minor with another course would be too much?
I know it depends on course/individual etc. but do you think it could be possible & still quite easily manageable?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Does it still go enough in depth in each subtopic?
What's the workload like? Heavy? Do you think a major/minor with another course would be too much?
I know it depends on course/individual etc. but do you think it could be possible & still quite easily manageable?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Yeah it does go into enough depth. But that's a weird question to answer because uni is different from school.
Like you can go into as much depth as you want. Your not in a classroom being taught to a certain depth, and having to keep up. You go to the lectures, get all the basic information down, and then when it comes to coursework, you have to do all the reading around your chosen topic to answer an essay question (you have set reading e.g. different book chapters for each topic), and will use that info from the reading to answer the coursework questions.
Then for the exams, which i'm revising for now, it is a hard thing to know whether your revising in depth enough or not, and hopefully I am... but i'll find out after haha. But yeah it is in depth enough.
For example getting a 1st (70%+) is rare in coursework essays, like a high A at school, i have got 1 first though. It is almost unheard of (i literally know nobody) with 90%+ in a coursework essay. To give perspective... the marking criteria for one of my modules for a high first (90%+) was "creating new knowledge, written well enough to be published in research journals of professional academic standard". I doubt anyone on the course got that, maybe if they did... they'd have a meeting and start writing some journal articles or a book or something. My point is... depth isn't an issue, you work as hard as you can, and maybe you'll be that genius to write a book in first year, but maybe like everyone else you'll have partied a lot and just want to pass 40%+... because first year doesn't count to your final degree grade, you just need to pass to reach second year.
The workload? Not very heavy. It's less work than school. Like I said, I do 12 hours a week. Standard day is 2 hours (2 separate things) and 3 on some days max. I have 1 9am start, the rest of the days start at 10,11 or 12 morning/afternoon. My latest finish is 4, on a day i have a lecture at 3. All other days i normally finish at between 1 and 3.
You have no homework. I only got 1 homework this year, and it was do a 1-2 sentence introduction to for an incoming coursework essay.
If you work hard (a lot of people don't, and get away with it) then you have 3 sources of actual work.
1. Weekly reading (6 seminars a week, your expected to do "essential reading" normally a section from a book 10-30 ish pages. So takes like 10-40 minutes depending if its hard, or if you take notes).
2. Coursework (3 terms, first 2 terms you have seminars and lectures, third term is exams, 0 lectures/seminars. First term I had 2 2000word essays due at end of term. 2nd term I had 4 due, 2 due mid term, 2 due end of term. So workload doubled, but I left myself average a week for each essay (did a few essays in 2 days before deadline, ultimate cramming) and I did fine, average high 2.1.
3. Exam revision (what i'm doing now. only applies for third term, you know what it's like with a-levels, but it is different in content/style/approach).
So for workload overall... not very much. A lot of people get away with never doing the seminar reading, so basically all you have is 12 hours a week (not everyone had great attendance, freshers year, going out etc.)... so once again it's kind of what you make it. You could slave for hours and work hard, or like most people, work averagely hard, do most of the reading ish, and then have to catch up before coursework and exams.
This is compared to sciences and other subjects who sometimes do ACTUALLY HAVE to work a seriously large amount. So yeh we have it pretty good in Pol. Science.
For majoring/minoring with other course...
Here's the thing... I wish people had told me this before.
As far as i know (i don't dual honor, but i know loads of people who do more than 1 subject, dual honors or multiple), doing more subjects than 1 doesn't mean a higher workload (at least in first year, this is my only experience).
Practically it goes like this. As i've said i do 6 lectures, 6 seminars a week. This means i do 6 pol. science modules, each one was a weekly lecture and seminar to go through the lecture info.
IF you do dual honors [for example political science & sociology] (2 degree subjects rather than one), your weekly timetable will be something like 3 pol science topics, + 3 sociology topics. So you'll STILL HAVE 12 HOURS, just half your content will be politics, half will be sociology. You just won't do some of the modules on each one. And this doesn't seem like your missing out on anything, because modules are so different.
This may not always be the case. For example if you do economics and politics. Economics alone may have 18 hours a week, politics has 12. So at a 50/50 ratio, half of economics is more hours than half of politics, so youll do more hours than if you just did politics, but less hours than if you just did economics. Generally arts subjects have very similar hours though, friends who do philosophy, english, politics, international relations, history etc all have around 12 hours +/- 1 hour.
Summary::::
Do what you want to do and think will enjoy the most. If all your choices are arts/social sciences, the hours will be similar.
If your deciding between a science subject, more technical social science (like economics, geography) compared to lighter social sciences and arts (sociology, politics, international relations, history, philosophy, english etc) then you will definatley have a lot more work and hours doing a sciencey subject.
If you want to do dual honors, then do it, only if it interests you though. It isn't harder, just different content; but maybe one of the subjects will be more work than the other.
If you enjoy politics, political science is a good one to do. I was considering between humanities and i'm so glad i chose pol. science... because a lot of lectures relate to whats going on in the world, and if your already intersted in politics, your hearing from professionals in the field every day in issues your mates will talk about and have no idea really.
I'm doing economics and politics at uni so hopefully it's good
Original post by Har88
Summary::::
Do what you want to do and think will enjoy the most. If all your choices are arts/social sciences, the hours will be similar.
If your deciding between a science subject, more technical social science (like economics, geography) compared to lighter social sciences and arts (sociology, politics, international relations, history, philosophy, english etc) then you will definatley have a lot more work and hours doing a sciencey subject.
If you want to do dual honors, then do it, only if it interests you though. It isn't harder, just different content; but maybe one of the subjects will be more work than the other.
If you enjoy politics, political science is a good one to do. I was considering between humanities and i'm so glad i chose pol. science... because a lot of lectures relate to whats going on in the world, and if your already intersted in politics, your hearing from professionals in the field every day in issues your mates will talk about and have no idea really.
Do what you want to do and think will enjoy the most. If all your choices are arts/social sciences, the hours will be similar.
If your deciding between a science subject, more technical social science (like economics, geography) compared to lighter social sciences and arts (sociology, politics, international relations, history, philosophy, english etc) then you will definatley have a lot more work and hours doing a sciencey subject.
If you want to do dual honors, then do it, only if it interests you though. It isn't harder, just different content; but maybe one of the subjects will be more work than the other.
If you enjoy politics, political science is a good one to do. I was considering between humanities and i'm so glad i chose pol. science... because a lot of lectures relate to whats going on in the world, and if your already intersted in politics, your hearing from professionals in the field every day in issues your mates will talk about and have no idea really.
Do you think students who are doing single political science subject like IR (only) will be missing out? Because they are not studying politics in depth?
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(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by ErinBliss
Do you think students who are doing single political science subject like IR (only) will be missing out? Because they are not studying politics in depth?
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No you won't be missing out, it isn't less in depth, it's just different module content. It's just as hard, but you'll have a few differences in what you study.
Also a lot of universities have "schools" of similar subjects... school of environmental sciences, school of arts, etc. etc.
So at university of birmingham they have the "school of government and society" (or called something similar) which inclues pol science, IR (international relations), sociology etc.
So actually course content wise for the first year, political science and international relations are very similar. If you check out the UoB IR and Pol. science module pages, you'll see they have 2 of the same compulsory modules, and I think 3 or 4 of the same optional choice modules.
So a lot of lectures aren't just pol science or IR, you'll share the same modules/lectures/seminar classrooms with students on a variety of different courses, IR, Pol. Science, sociology, eastern european studies etc.
So you could have 4 of your 6 modules identical to pol science, or very different depending on what you choose.
Same with Pol.sci. I didn't choose it but i could have done some EU modules etc.
Original post by Har88
No you won't be missing out, it isn't less in depth, it's just different module content. It's just as hard, but you'll have a few differences in what you study.
Also a lot of universities have "schools" of similar subjects... school of environmental sciences, school of arts, etc. etc.
So at university of birmingham they have the "school of government and society" (or called something similar) which inclues pol science, IR (international relations), sociology etc.
So actually course content wise for the first year, political science and international relations are very similar. If you check out the UoB IR and Pol. science module pages, you'll see they have 2 of the same compulsory modules, and I think 3 or 4 of the same optional choice modules.
So a lot of lectures aren't just pol science or IR, you'll share the same modules/lectures/seminar classrooms with students on a variety of different courses, IR, Pol. Science, sociology, eastern european studies etc.
So you could have 4 of your 6 modules identical to pol science, or very different depending on what you choose.
Same with Pol.sci. I didn't choose it but i could have done some EU modules etc.
Also a lot of universities have "schools" of similar subjects... school of environmental sciences, school of arts, etc. etc.
So at university of birmingham they have the "school of government and society" (or called something similar) which inclues pol science, IR (international relations), sociology etc.
So actually course content wise for the first year, political science and international relations are very similar. If you check out the UoB IR and Pol. science module pages, you'll see they have 2 of the same compulsory modules, and I think 3 or 4 of the same optional choice modules.
So a lot of lectures aren't just pol science or IR, you'll share the same modules/lectures/seminar classrooms with students on a variety of different courses, IR, Pol. Science, sociology, eastern european studies etc.
So you could have 4 of your 6 modules identical to pol science, or very different depending on what you choose.
Same with Pol.sci. I didn't choose it but i could have done some EU modules etc.
My only fear as a to- be IR student is that I will not be able to garner true knowledge of politics bcos of the nature of my degree. Compared to those who study dual honours of Pol + IR (good balance of both subject), I'm afraid that I'd be missing out
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(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by XcitingStuart
Thanks a lot, really insightful.
Does it still go enough in depth in each subtopic?
What's the workload like? Heavy? Do you think a major/minor with another course would be too much?
I know it depends on course/individual etc. but do you think it could be possible & still quite easily manageable?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Does it still go enough in depth in each subtopic?
What's the workload like? Heavy? Do you think a major/minor with another course would be too much?
I know it depends on course/individual etc. but do you think it could be possible & still quite easily manageable?
Posted from TSR Mobile
I must stress the workload differs between unis. In my first year doing IR I had 5 essays in first semester plus another coursework (an essay plan) and 3 in second semester plus 2 presentations and a critical analysis.
(edited 9 years ago)
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