Spring 2027

Bascom Course

Bascom Course develops critical reading, logical thinking, evidence use, and library resource skills, with an emphasis on writing in field-specific conventions.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Gay Seidman3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Gay Seidman

One student reported that the course involved weekly readings that were not graded, along with two short papers and one final paper for the semester.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Define sociology as a discipline and explain how it is different from and related to other fields.

  • Analyze received explanations of social phenomena.

  • Apply relevant sociological theory to the empirical topics of the course and evaluate the explanatory power and limitations of those theories.

  • Craft written arguments incorporating sociological research as evidence by engaging in the writing process (brainstorming, outlining, drafting, incorporating feedback and revising).

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

Satisfied Communications A

  • Satisfied Communications A
SOC 236

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Satisfied Communications A

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.68/5 from 28 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.

For this course: 4.5/5 raw quality · 2.0/5 difficulty · 2 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Gay Seidman

Gay Seidman made class discussions fun and worthwhile, with assignments that pushed students to learn. She was extremely open to help at office hours and after class.

Gay Seidman was very lenient with due dates and grading criteria. Students completed two two-page papers and one ten-page final paper, while weekly reading was not graded.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2020: 3.68 GPA, 94.7% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.60 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=15 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.73 GPA, 90.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Alice Goffman

Alice Goffman taught this course in Fall 2019, where students described her as amazing and eye-opening. She provided detailed feedback and brought food to class, which reviewers appreciated. The course was rated easy, and the reviewer strongly recommended it.

ALICE GOFFMAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

GAY SEIDMAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Spring 2024, Fall 2025. 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 / 300

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Gay Seidman

Students found Professor Seidman’s discussions fun and worthwhile, noting she made the material engaging while remaining approachable for help.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2020: 3.68 GPA, 94.7% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.60 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=15 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.73 GPA, 90.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Gay Seidman

One student reported that the course involved weekly readings that were not graded, along with two short papers and one final paper for the semester.

Past student reviews · Gay Seidman

One student appreciated that Professor Seidman was extremely open to helping during office hours and after class.

Topics

  • Sociology as a discipline and its relation to other fields
  • Received explanations of social phenomena
  • Sociological theory applied to empirical topics
  • Critical reading, logical thinking, and library resources

Skills

  • Critical reading, logical thinking, use of evidence, and use of library resources
  • Writing in the conventions of specific fields
  • Defining sociology and explaining its relation to other fields
  • Analyzing received explanations of social phenomena
  • Applying sociological theory to empirical topics and evaluating its explanatory power
  • Crafting written arguments using sociological research through the writing process

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— 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 Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

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
SOC 236 · Spring 2027

Bascom Course

Recorded 2026-10-14
SOC 236 · Spring 2027

Global Social Problems

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": "1274:900:017548",
    "course_id": "SOC 236",
    "course_uid": "course_58c5efa4d73f20761eaf6279",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "017548",
    "source_subject_id": "900",
    "title": "Bascom Course",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:900:017548.3",
    "course_id": "SOC 236",
    "course_uid": "course_58c5efa4d73f20761eaf6279",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "017548.3",
    "source_subject_id": "900",
    "title": "Global Social Problems",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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": "cddb6501ef922ca7bc55b184ab6cabb96567bcd65d042de181ecd6e54b8789ce",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}