Matthew Dickinson

Professor Dickinson can seem daunting in the beginning, but he is quite funny (in a weird way) and is very passionate about American politics. He assigns a lot of readings (like minimum 200 pages every week) but they are important to understanding the class. He requires 4 short papers, on top of a long essay paper. I would HIGHLY recommend doing the 4 short papers the first 4 weeks of classes, otherwise you can get overwhelmed by other classes and the copious readings in this class (He will also go easy on you in terms of grading if you get it done earlier). If you are ever confused about something, he is fairly helpful in in office hours, although you really need to put effort in to do well. Discussion sections can be awkward if you don't do the readings/discussion questions for that week so always be prepared to answer anything from any of the readings (which is hard). Also some of the readings are old PDF's from like the 90's that are scanned terribly so you can't ctrl+f and search for terms of highlight which is frustrating. Lectures can be boring, so try and stay awake! I would probably preferred to take this course with Bert Johnson!

Professor Dickinson can seem daunting in the beginning, but he is quite funny (in a weird way) and is very passionate about American politics. He assigns a lot of readings (like minimum 200 pages every week) but they are important to understanding the class. He requires 4 short papers, on top of a long essay paper. I would HIGHLY rec …Read more

Read about a book a week and wrote 7 papers for a total of 26-36 pages of writing. Overall a good class; one definitely needs a clear investment in the course material to get the most out of it though.

If you've taken any course with Prof Dickinson, you know it's bound to be a lot of reading. This one was no different and while the amount of reading was immense, he provides discussion questions to help guide your reading and the weekly discussion section. PSCI 0104 discussion was my least favorite hour of my week this semester, as Dickinson is not afraid to cold call, but if you do the reading and take your notes according to the discussion questions you should be fine. He assigns 12 weekly "response papers," all 2-3 pages each, and you choose 4 to submit. Additionally, there's a midterm exam, a final exam, and a 1 "long" (5-7 page) paper. Overall, I enjoyed the class, and Dickinson is a fairer grader than he initially portrays himself to be. However, it is not for you if a) you hate writing, b) you hate court cases, or c) you aren't good with doing upwards of 100 pages of reading for each class. He's an engaging lecturer, and overall a funny guy, it's just a lot of work (especially for an intro class).

If you've taken any course with Prof Dickinson, you know it's bound to be a lot of reading. This one was no different and while the amount of reading was immense, he provides discussion questions to help guide your reading and the weekly discussion section. PSCI 0104 discussion was my least favorite hour of my week this semester, as …Read more