I hated this class. Lucky to have gotten an A- but the directions are sometimes unclear, can be a harsh/weird grader, and lectures were often pointless. That being said, you only need to attend the first two lectures, where about 30 mins is him taking attendance. After that, I would skip the lectures entirely or only stay for ~30 minutes since most lectures are discussion based and no notes need to be taken.

The grade was composed of several writing assignments: two 'author sketches' and four other papers. Lots of writing is required for this class since the lectures are discussion based, but you can skim the readings and do just fine (I think very few students ever really read the entire thing).

Lastly, there was a "discussion leader" assignment that required you to select a reading & author and demonstrate your knowledge to the class. Most students waited until the last week to do it, and then there was about 50 students with only 10ish available readings left. DO IT EARLY!! Saves a lot of stress and is a huge inconvenience trying to do it towards the end of the class (and he grades that very easy, I got a 98).

Overall, I would stray away from this class, but if you can handle multiple writing assignments, you'll be fine. I'd say effort is required for an A/A-, but any B grade is easy with minimal effort.

The class and the professor was not bad. There were a ton of reading and we had to choose one of these readings and for that day, the professor would ask questions based on the context of your reading, so that was a challenge. Overall, there were no midterms and final exams but instead consisted of essays, short and long (3~5 pages) and one final paper (12~15 pages) and the TA was a tough grader. While the class experience was average for me, the professor himself was not bad and was very nice during office hours and would offer useful advice to help you with your essays. Overall, the whole thing was okay and I would likely take another one of his classes again if an opportunity shows up.

This class wasn't at all what I was expecting when I enrolled in it. I did read reviews prior but didn't understand how his journalistic perspective or outlook could actually shape the class. There was a ton of reading, much of which had nothing to do with the four writing assignments throughout the quarter. The quantity of readings per class was excessive, but if you like participating in a small class discussion then doing them may be helpful. He does not lecture, and that was something difficult to overcome because I personally love taking notes and learn better through lectures with slides rather than through the views and opinions on what my classmates thought about the reading for the entire class period. The grading for the assignments fluctuates and is really unpredictable, especially because he grades on creativity and accuracy which seems difficult to balance perfectly. Guest speakers were a highlight of this class, and the fact that he is an accomplished journalist himself. Maybe this course just wasn't my cup of tea because I prefer a more struct academic environment and look to lectures to provide more structure. I was initially very interested in this topic before this course, but the more American government courses I seem to take here, the more I regret my major.

PS 149 is an okay class, even though the subject material: Presidential elections seems very intresting. The class covers the 1948, 1964, 1972, 1984, 2008, 2012, and 2016 elections. However it is important to note that the class covers the material from a journalistic lens rather than a poli sci or historical view. Lecture was more like a giant "discussion" where Sasha would make some leading statements and members of the class would talk about the readings and events. Since partcipation does not matter class became boring affairs where six people dominated the class. After Week 2, a vast majorty of the class stopped showing up. The class grade was based on a couple of assignments:

10% 2 Short Assignments
These assignments were easy but tedious because they were thrown at the begining of class and involved analyzing and researching articles that Sasha posted, and writing a short paragraph for each. However the number of articles was over dozen, and the first one was due on the second class meeting. The assignments were graded leniently and were given full credit if the instructions were followed.

25% Discussion Forum
The easiest part of the class was the weekly disucssions (all ten weeks) on CCLE which depending on the week and your last name you either had to respond or post something that occured recently in politics that related to the 2016 election. It is important to note that the response group needed to allude to one reading from the week to get full credit. However Sasha was also lenient on ther grading for these assignments.

30% (10% each) Essays

Throughout the quarter there are three larger written assignments each with different prompts and approaches. One asked to explore Barry Goldwater's loss and how susbquent events have changed or not the view towards his landslide loss against LBJ. The second one asked to exmaine and analyze the GOP 2012 Autopsy and argue if it was effective or not. The last one was unqiue as it was bacially writing an essay prompt for a future essay assignment for a future redition of the course. The essays were easy but the grading was very vague, and felt like grades were given at random.

35% Final Research Paper (12-15 Pages)
The final research paper given during week 7/8 had us pick a democratic candidate from the 2020 field and have us analyize how their candidacy tries to reflect or reject the narrative outcome of the 2016 election among a variety of factors. Even thouugh Sasha said the paper would require immense research, it was not that hard to write if you are familiar with American politcs. Also Sasha gave extra credit if you picked a candidate that nobody else picked.

Overall the class was not terrible but it was not extraordinary because it felt as if we were learning more about journalism rather than how the American electorate and poltical parties have metamorphized and deplpyed different stratgies in the last 50 yrs. The only redeeming qualities of the class is connections Sasha has because he brought great guest speakers who brought great insight about the world of politics.

BEST PROFESSOR EVER. Take him when you get the chance!! Some people have stated that he gives out too much papers to work on but its really easy. He also assigns readings (which may be a lot but you can skim through it). The prompt for the papers are really straightforward. There are papers that are 1-2 pages long or 3-5 pages long (which is not bad). He also has a final paper that is 12-15 pages but it's about choosing a President like Clinton, Bush, Reagan, etc. So its not bad and really fun. I got to learn a lot from him and props to this professor. You don't have to go to his lectures but you can get extra credit for participation. We do these activities like Defending/Presenting with the readings he assigned us. DEFINITELY RECOMMEND. I wish he had other classes and if he did, I would definitely take him again.

This class was a joke. The professor assigns roughly 8-12 different readings per class, many of which are well over 20-30 pages. In total, you are expected to read (or skim as some people say) over 100 and sometimes over 200 pages per class. However, the problem with the class is that these readings (and even the lectures) are completely useless in your grade. There are about 4-5 writing assignments that make up your entire grade, and the papers are not related to the lecture material at all. The final paper is a research paper, (which is about any president from the 20th century) so most of what you actually learn is self-taught.) Also, there are no lectures, just discussion about the readings (most of which never even get talked about because there are so many). It's not very hard to get a good grade (given you are good at writing) but the lectures (which are actually discussions so you don't learn anything there either) and readings are just completely unrelated to the assignments. Luckily, I figured this out in week 4, when I stopped doing the readings or attending lecture completely. I have never done this in any other class, but the amount of readings assigned and my lack of time to spend 4-5 hours reading for each class was enough to make me stop even going. Also, if you don't do the readings, the lectures make even less sense because the entire discussion is mostly student-run discussion about the readings (which are horrible because nobody talks because nobody can finish all the readings). There are break out rooms every class, and a bunch of time is wasted. The material was interesting, but the professor really went with quantity over quality in this one and I would not take it again, even though I got an A with minimal work.