Spring 2027

Selected Topics in Political Science

Selected Topics in Political Science is a topics course for exploring current issues in the field.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Mark Copelovitch4.3/5

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Katherine Cramer

Weekly readings seemed daunting at first but were described as accessible for political science journals.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
POLISCI 401

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

Mark Copelovitch

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.51/5 from 77 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2007: 3.12 GPA, 41.2% A/AB (n=17 letter grades); Fall 2010: 3.14 GPA, 43.1% A/AB (n=72 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ERICA SIMMONS is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JESSICA WEEKS is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KATHERINE CRAMER is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARGARET PETERS is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Spring 2013. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARK COPELOVITCH is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2010. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
SEM 001Classroom Instruction0 / 250

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Katherine Cramer

Students found the course engaging and accessible, with one describing it as their favorite class and highly recommending the experience.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.95 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=22 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.82 GPA, 94.9% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.72 GPA, 91.3% A/AB (n=46 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Katherine Cramer

Weekly readings seemed daunting at first but were described as accessible for political science journals.

Past student reviews · Jessica Weeks

One student found the professor encouraging, kind, and responsive via email, noting she facilitated excellent class discussions and integrated feedback to make the course straightforward.

Topics

  • Current issues in Political Science

Skills

  • Exploring current issues in Political Science

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
POLISCI 401 · Spring 2027

Selected Topics in Political Science

Recorded 2026-10-14
POLISCI 401 · Spring 2027

Politics of Global Finance

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:778:015918",
    "course_id": "POLISCI 401",
    "course_uid": "course_cad402a99b92ef16cfa9ecd2",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "015918",
    "source_subject_id": "778",
    "title": "Selected Topics in Political Science",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:778:015918.163",
    "course_id": "POLISCI 401",
    "course_uid": "course_cad402a99b92ef16cfa9ecd2",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "015918.163",
    "source_subject_id": "778",
    "title": "Politics of Global Finance",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "398a6c28f6137dc61fffcae0d5328510426f37b14dc3e65b15f7654318bca206",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}