Current instructor

Barry Burden

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.44/5 from 25 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.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

PS306 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Burden is genuinely one of my favorite professors at UW. He is so smart and very genuine. He really cares about the subject matter and his students, and not to mention, is super well respected in his field. He cracks a few jokes here and there, and they're pretty funny. Overall, just a great guy with cool dad energy. TAKE HIS CLASS! HES THE BEST!
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PS305 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Burden is great. He makes the issues of elections clear in a digestible and fairly non-partisan format and feels more down-to-earth than most professors. His intelligence is also very clear, but he never felt like he talked down to us. His lectures were quite topical and focused with room for questions/participation. Light readings.
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PS306 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Dr. Burden is probably one of favorite professors at this school. He knows everything about American politics and often does panel talks for the University related to that field. The lectures are interesting and focus on concepts you would cover in a civics class. However, I never opened the textbook, and I'm not even sure why he assigns one.
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PS306 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
I took two classes with Professor Burden, and both were great. Exams are most of your grade & draw on readings/lectures, so making sure that you do the readings and know main ideas is really important. Lectures were amazing and taught me a lot, and going over them before exams helps you figure out what the key terms for short ID are going to be.
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PS305 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 3/5
I enjoyed this class and all of the discussions. This is such an interesting field of study. My only issue with Barry Burden is his lack of staying non bias. While it is clear that he tries to stay non partisan, many times throughout the semester his political side would show which did not help when trying to form your own opinion.
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PS305 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Prof Burden has been the best professor I have had at this school. He is great to talk to and great to listen to. He knows what he is talking about and conveys his knowledge in interesting ways. His research is very interesting and definitely worth a read. I would 100% recommend any of his classes to any student.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Barry Burden

POLISCI 305 examines the psychological and social drivers of voting behavior, current electoral trends, and the role of voters in governance.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.31 GPA, 63.3% A/AB (n=98 letter grades); Fall 2022: 3.37 GPA, 63.2% A/AB (n=95 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.53 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=117 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Fall 2025

Intensive study and research in selected problems within the constituent fields of political science.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2019: 3.62 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Spring 2022: 3.67 GPA, 91.7% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.75 GPA, 90.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Fall 2024

POLISCI 699 offers directed study projects for juniors and seniors arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026POLISCI 305Elections and Voting Behavior
Fall 2026POLISCI 601Proseminar: Topics in Political Science
Fall 2026POLISCI 699Directed Study
Fall 2026POLISCI 990Research and Thesis

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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