Spring 2027

The American Presidency

The American Presidency examines the President's roles as chief administrative leader, political leader, foreign policy initiator, commander-in-chief, and head of state.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Eleanor Powell3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Kenneth Mayer

The course required significant reading and involved three papers. While the workload was manageable for some, others noted that the paper prompts could be confusing and the assignments tough.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Examine fundamental questions about the President's role as formal head of the executive branch of government and head of state, and as the focal point of public attention.

  • Explore the sources of presidential power.

  • Understand the factors that explain how presidents are elected.

  • Examine how presidents govern.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing and POLI SCI 104

    • Sophomore standing
    • POLI SCI 104
    take all
POLISCI 408

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • All of
    • Sophomore standing
    • POLI SCI 104

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.07/5 from 15 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 — Spring 2026: 3.67 GPA, 84.6% A/AB (n=65 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

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.

ELEANOR POWELL is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. 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

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1020
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 532Classroom Instruction0 / 00
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 170

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 · Kenneth Mayer

Kenneth Mayer taught this course with passion and knowledge, often posting lecture slides on Canvas. Students found the material interesting and the instructor supportive, though some found the course challenging.

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

Past student reviews · Kenneth Mayer

The course required significant reading and involved three papers. While the workload was manageable for some, others noted that the paper prompts could be confusing and the assignments tough.

Past student reviews · Kenneth Mayer

One student appreciated that Mayer posted his lecture slides on Canvas, which was very helpful. However, that same student found the paper prompts to be often confusing.

Topics

  • Presidential roles: chief administrative leader, political leader, foreign policy initiator, commander-in-chief, and head of state.
  • Sources of presidential power.
  • Factors explaining how presidents are elected.
  • How presidents govern.

Skills

  • Examining the President's role as head of the executive branch and head of state.
  • Exploring the sources of presidential power.
  • Understanding factors explaining how presidents are elected.
  • Examining how presidents govern.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · 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 4 same-season 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.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.25 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

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 408 · Spring 2027

The American Presidency

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:778:015921",
    "course_id": "POLISCI 408",
    "course_uid": "course_9a6ba2ddb6b1f0437d5d784b",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "015921",
    "source_subject_id": "778",
    "title": "The American Presidency",
    "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 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "3571eabf426438d28372fda5060a44f11bc57a432de83c9f0137a5073c8a18b1",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}