The American Presidency
POLISCI 408 examines the multifaceted roles of the U.S. President as administrative, political, and military leader.
Summary
Historical reviews of David Canon, Kenneth Mayer: Workload features difficult tests and papers with clear expectations, requiring significant reading and hard work to succeed.
Grade history
↗letter grades
All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapSophomore standing and (POLI SCI 104 or 184)
- Sophomore standing
- POLISCI 104
- 184
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- All of
- Sophomore standing
- Any of
- POLISCI 104
- 184
Professors
Fall 2026No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Historical reviews of Kenneth Mayer: Kenneth Mayer is described as knowledgeable, passionate, and engaging, with students noting his humor and clear lectures. However, some find his lectures boring and report that paper prompts can be confusing, creating mixed experiences regarding enjoyment and clarity.
DAVID CANON is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2014, Fall 2018, Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
KENNETH MAYER is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2024. 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
Fall 2026Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
No records available.
Student experience
the class
Kenneth Mayer and David Canon are historically praised as engaging, knowledgeable instructors who make the course interesting, though student experiences range from easy to demanding.
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.56 GPA, 84.6% A/AB (n=78 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.86 GPA, 95.3% A/AB (n=43 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.67 GPA, 84.6% A/AB (n=65 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Historical reviews of David Canon, Kenneth Mayer: Workload features difficult tests and papers with clear expectations, requiring significant reading and hard work to succeed.
Historical reviews of Kenneth Mayer: Students appreciate helpful TAs and posted slides, but some find lectures boring or grading confusing due to ambiguous paper prompts.
Topics
Grades
Fall 2026 · Projected
Before grades are released– average GPA
Approximate 80% prediction interval
About this estimate
The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 6 recent terms, weighted toward recent results.
The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.
6 earlier forecasts · 0.16 GPA average error.
Grades over time
Through Fall 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
1283 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
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.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
[]
Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesModel outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
{
"model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
"model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
"task_version": "14",
"output_id": "17a8abd94f8a948fdfd01d4295c6eb51bd29132eac17f2f9f4da2723713fb9d1",
"requirements_status": "needs_review",
"dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}