Professor
Cynthia Lebow
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Most Helpful Review
Definitely one of the toughest classes I have taken in my entire life. We had two giant readers for the quarter; by the end we have had read at least 900 pages. As said below, this is not a Poli Sci class, everything discussed in class is law and court case- related. Not very impressed by Professor Lebow, although she does know a lot regarding each case. If you are planning to attend law school, and you like challenges, the take her. Otherwise, I would not recommend taking a class with her. The class consists of one in- class midterm, and a take-home essay.
Definitely one of the toughest classes I have taken in my entire life. We had two giant readers for the quarter; by the end we have had read at least 900 pages. As said below, this is not a Poli Sci class, everything discussed in class is law and court case- related. Not very impressed by Professor Lebow, although she does know a lot regarding each case. If you are planning to attend law school, and you like challenges, the take her. Otherwise, I would not recommend taking a class with her. The class consists of one in- class midterm, and a take-home essay.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - If you are anything other than a very liberal person, taking a class with this professor will be extremely tough. She is very biased and makes it very clear that opinions other than hers are not acceptable. The class is very interesting but has a hard workload. I’ve learned more about why she doesn’t like republicans than I did about the class during lectures. Thankfully, the readings are thorough.
Fall 2019 - If you are anything other than a very liberal person, taking a class with this professor will be extremely tough. She is very biased and makes it very clear that opinions other than hers are not acceptable. The class is very interesting but has a hard workload. I’ve learned more about why she doesn’t like republicans than I did about the class during lectures. Thankfully, the readings are thorough.
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Most Helpful Review
Prof Lebow is very impressive: became a lawyer when women weren't regarded highly in the field, worked for VP Biden, Janet Reno, worked the RANT Corporation and did public and private law. All her classes are intense. She expects you do not only memorize a bunch of cases which will probably be your first time being exposed to law at UCLA but to know the ins and outs, the implications, and connect them to other law cases. She is helpful and welcomes office hours if you go. While she doesn't pick "favorites" she does have a core group of students that tend to participate and go to her office hours and they seem to be doing well but the majority of students seem lost. This class is intense workload and hard grading. She expects you to be super serious. This class is barely political science and mostly law. If you want to get a feel for law I encourage you to take any of her classes in a low work-load quarter and with some friends. I did not get good grades in her class (lowest ever grades at UCLA) but I am not upset with her, mostly just aware that I had way too much going on to fully commit myself hours a week to this class. Her classes are usually 2 hours, no breaks and cover a HUGE range of material. Take it and learn something but remember 1)This is nothing like a Political Science class 2) She grades hard. 3) You NEED friends in the class 4) Be okay with getting a lower grade for putting the same effort in another class 5) Go to her office hours 6)Sit in the front, she has a soft voice 7)Be prepared to really be challenged
Prof Lebow is very impressive: became a lawyer when women weren't regarded highly in the field, worked for VP Biden, Janet Reno, worked the RANT Corporation and did public and private law. All her classes are intense. She expects you do not only memorize a bunch of cases which will probably be your first time being exposed to law at UCLA but to know the ins and outs, the implications, and connect them to other law cases. She is helpful and welcomes office hours if you go. While she doesn't pick "favorites" she does have a core group of students that tend to participate and go to her office hours and they seem to be doing well but the majority of students seem lost. This class is intense workload and hard grading. She expects you to be super serious. This class is barely political science and mostly law. If you want to get a feel for law I encourage you to take any of her classes in a low work-load quarter and with some friends. I did not get good grades in her class (lowest ever grades at UCLA) but I am not upset with her, mostly just aware that I had way too much going on to fully commit myself hours a week to this class. Her classes are usually 2 hours, no breaks and cover a HUGE range of material. Take it and learn something but remember 1)This is nothing like a Political Science class 2) She grades hard. 3) You NEED friends in the class 4) Be okay with getting a lower grade for putting the same effort in another class 5) Go to her office hours 6)Sit in the front, she has a soft voice 7)Be prepared to really be challenged
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - I rarely write Bruinwalk reviews, but I feel compelled to advise potential students on 145B. Professor Lebow is one of the best professors I've had for political science. She's witty, organized, at times funny, very accessible, and best of all, has an in-depth knowledge of ConLaw and is great at explaining concepts. I was really impressed with her willingness to meet with students outside of class; she set up a couple "ConLaw in the Park" sessions in which she invited students to discuss various ConLaw issues they were curious or excited about in the Sculpture Garden (cheetos encouraged!). With this class, however, comes an overwhelming amount of reading. Two large books, a course reader and a textbook, along with two other small books, are all required reading. Your grade in this class is EARNED. Some of the readings are easier, like small speeches or interesting chapters from Justice Breyer's book, but most are dense and difficult to get through. If you don't stay on top of readings, be prepared to fall behind quickly. Overall, I would cautiously recommend this class to any polisci major. It's not easy, but it's thought-provoking, and one of the few classes I've taken thus far at UCLA in which I felt like I was taking in knowledge I'll retain for a long while. If you're Pre-Law, I cannot recommend this class highly enough-- skip it and risk missing out on one of the most valuable classes of your college career.
Fall 2017 - I rarely write Bruinwalk reviews, but I feel compelled to advise potential students on 145B. Professor Lebow is one of the best professors I've had for political science. She's witty, organized, at times funny, very accessible, and best of all, has an in-depth knowledge of ConLaw and is great at explaining concepts. I was really impressed with her willingness to meet with students outside of class; she set up a couple "ConLaw in the Park" sessions in which she invited students to discuss various ConLaw issues they were curious or excited about in the Sculpture Garden (cheetos encouraged!). With this class, however, comes an overwhelming amount of reading. Two large books, a course reader and a textbook, along with two other small books, are all required reading. Your grade in this class is EARNED. Some of the readings are easier, like small speeches or interesting chapters from Justice Breyer's book, but most are dense and difficult to get through. If you don't stay on top of readings, be prepared to fall behind quickly. Overall, I would cautiously recommend this class to any polisci major. It's not easy, but it's thought-provoking, and one of the few classes I've taken thus far at UCLA in which I felt like I was taking in knowledge I'll retain for a long while. If you're Pre-Law, I cannot recommend this class highly enough-- skip it and risk missing out on one of the most valuable classes of your college career.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Professor Lebow is by far the worst professor at UCLA. Not only is she INCREDIBLY racist she is also rude, unhelpful, and condescending. She does not at all respect her students or their time. It is unfortunate that such a terrible professor is teaching such an important class, but if there is a piece of advice I can give you it is to avoid this class at all costs and any class with Lebow. She will not respond to your emails, she will not offer you any guidance, and given that she is teaching a class on civil rights and civil liberties, her moral standing is incredibly disappointing. I don't understand how she is still teaching at UCLA. When she accidentally posted our Midterm the night before the test, dozens of students emailed her to let her know and to ask if this was an error. She responded that we were "barraging" her with emails (how rude of us to let her know she made a mistake right?) and said that the Midterm has been deleted but that the test was still on. That meant half the class that had realized her mistake prior had access to the test before the midterm and could spend over 24 hours figuring out the answers. The other half did not, and correspondingly did terribly on the Midterm. Pretty sure if this had been reported to UCLA department, she would have gotten in a lot of trouble for the complete unfairness of the test. In summary, she is the worst professor I've ever had. Do not take her.
Spring 2020 - Professor Lebow is by far the worst professor at UCLA. Not only is she INCREDIBLY racist she is also rude, unhelpful, and condescending. She does not at all respect her students or their time. It is unfortunate that such a terrible professor is teaching such an important class, but if there is a piece of advice I can give you it is to avoid this class at all costs and any class with Lebow. She will not respond to your emails, she will not offer you any guidance, and given that she is teaching a class on civil rights and civil liberties, her moral standing is incredibly disappointing. I don't understand how she is still teaching at UCLA. When she accidentally posted our Midterm the night before the test, dozens of students emailed her to let her know and to ask if this was an error. She responded that we were "barraging" her with emails (how rude of us to let her know she made a mistake right?) and said that the Midterm has been deleted but that the test was still on. That meant half the class that had realized her mistake prior had access to the test before the midterm and could spend over 24 hours figuring out the answers. The other half did not, and correspondingly did terribly on the Midterm. Pretty sure if this had been reported to UCLA department, she would have gotten in a lot of trouble for the complete unfairness of the test. In summary, she is the worst professor I've ever had. Do not take her.
Most Helpful Review
Hands down the best PS professor I've had at UCLA. If you want to actually learn and stay engaged in the material take Prof. Lebow. She is truly just a really cool lady who has a great deal of knowledge and cares about her students learning. Her classes are not the kind that are easy As and require no work, which are the types of classes we all love, but instead challenge you to think about the material and offer your own opinion. I have a great deal of respect for Prof. Lebow and I think she is easily the most fair professor/TA/administrator I've come across in my three years at UCLA.
Hands down the best PS professor I've had at UCLA. If you want to actually learn and stay engaged in the material take Prof. Lebow. She is truly just a really cool lady who has a great deal of knowledge and cares about her students learning. Her classes are not the kind that are easy As and require no work, which are the types of classes we all love, but instead challenge you to think about the material and offer your own opinion. I have a great deal of respect for Prof. Lebow and I think she is easily the most fair professor/TA/administrator I've come across in my three years at UCLA.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - This class is incredibly different from her Political Science courses. Her PoliSci courses involve an exam and two-part final paper, meanwhile this class is based off of one group presentation and one final paper. The topics covered in class are very interesting and her lectures are very informative. Unfortunately, much of the class is devoted to said group presentations. Groups of 3-5 students give their presentations for nearly the entire two hour session, one group presenting each session. Usually there would have been a few more days devoted to her lecturing, but she was sick and had scheduled absences so the majority of class was student-led. These presentations were great at times but have the downside of sort of becoming book reports after a while rather than spending two hours talking about the key concepts of the book. It is easier than her other classes work-wise in that you read one book with your group to present on and two much shorter books that give context to the class as a whole, along with a course reader. The presentation groups provide notes on their presentations and books that can be used in the final paper. I found that I did the least reading in this class out of the three classes of hers I’ve taken in this one, and felt the least stressed about it over all. I highly recommend taking this class if you want to seriously delve into a topic in privacy and security, but honestly you only get out of this class what you get into it - if you zone out you can still do fairly well but you won’t actually learn any of the incredibly relevant information discussed.
Winter 2019 - This class is incredibly different from her Political Science courses. Her PoliSci courses involve an exam and two-part final paper, meanwhile this class is based off of one group presentation and one final paper. The topics covered in class are very interesting and her lectures are very informative. Unfortunately, much of the class is devoted to said group presentations. Groups of 3-5 students give their presentations for nearly the entire two hour session, one group presenting each session. Usually there would have been a few more days devoted to her lecturing, but she was sick and had scheduled absences so the majority of class was student-led. These presentations were great at times but have the downside of sort of becoming book reports after a while rather than spending two hours talking about the key concepts of the book. It is easier than her other classes work-wise in that you read one book with your group to present on and two much shorter books that give context to the class as a whole, along with a course reader. The presentation groups provide notes on their presentations and books that can be used in the final paper. I found that I did the least reading in this class out of the three classes of hers I’ve taken in this one, and felt the least stressed about it over all. I highly recommend taking this class if you want to seriously delve into a topic in privacy and security, but honestly you only get out of this class what you get into it - if you zone out you can still do fairly well but you won’t actually learn any of the incredibly relevant information discussed.
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