Should I take Political Science in my first semester?

College Life
1

I’m Starting college this spring and I’m debating weather I should take Political Science as one of my first college courses

The courses I’m taking are:
English 101, Math 115, Psychology 1 ( Intro). and in order to have 12 units or more I need to add one more class. Is Political Science a good choice? Is it a hard class to take for my first semester?

2

Seems fine to me

3

Depends on the course. I would look at the syllabus to get a feel for how reading and paper intensive it will be. Overall it would probably be okay.

4

What is your major and what are your interests?

5

I know a lot of people that took an intro political science course during their freshman year. I think it counted towards general education requirements. Assuming this is an intro course, I don’t see the issue. Might not be as easy as some of the other general ed classes, but you should be fine.

6

I was a poli sci major so I took the intro course my first semester. It’s generally an overview class. If you are interested in the subject, take it. If you are concerned about too much writing, maybe take a science course, like meteorology, which is not usually writing intensive and which can satisfy a gen ed requirement.

7

Intro Poli Sci classes usually have a specific focus - either American democracy, International, or Political Theory are the usual sub-groups.

If you are an international student, the focus on American government might be more difficult for someone who has not gone through US high school classes on Government etc. Political Theory is more like a philosophy class. International can be great for someone interested in international affairs etc.

8

I’m majoring in computer science.
And thank you all for your answers!

9

Is there an intro to CS class to take??

10

Specific focus, yes, but providing a broad survey in a given subfield within political science whether it’s American politics, International Relations, or Political theory.

Intro poli-sci classes tend to not be regarded as very difficult, especially considering many non-majors tend to take them to fulfill distribution requirements. Some examples of popular ones for non-majors at several colleges I know of include American government, Intro to poli-sci, Intro to international relations, etc.

Granted the degree of difficulty can vary depending on college and individual department/Prof, but intro poli-sci courses shouldn’t be too difficult unless you don’t find the subject/field engaging or you don’t like courses with light to moderate reading loads(80-300 pages of reading per week).

Disclosure: Was a poli-sci minor who took some poli-sci intro courses in college which were easier than comparable ones I took in HS (i.e. American govt) and bypassed some intro/intermediate poli-sci courses to take the advanced seminars*.

  • Skipped intro/intermediate courses on Chinese/East Asian politics and skipped intro/intermediate courses in Marxist Political theory straight into the Marxist theory seminar usually taken by students who were focusing on Marxist theory** as a challenge.

** In retrospect, I don’t recommend taking advanced theory courses without taking at least an intermediate course beforehand unless you’ve had extensive exposure to the subfield beforehand.

11

Well this will definitely be an interesting spring here politically speaking.