GVPT200 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	Very passionate, pretty simple class just keep up with readings (important) and go to lectures. she also tries to help network you to people in the gvpt field which is nice.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/03/2024	professor Kopchick is not a great lecturer but the subject is interesting enough to make up for it. The class is easy and you don't really need to go. exams aren't too hard but a lot of memorization, and the TAs are useful and discussion is helpful review.
Ryan Frazier GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/01/2024	Pretty nice guy and not a super tough grader although classes can get repetitive since it's almost always a lecture in the same format every time
Taylor Vincent GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/29/2024	I took this class over the winter and I learned a lot despite the course being condensed into 3 weeks. The assignments are really easy and theres no exams. Theres a few discussion posts, a few quizzes and 2 short papers. She also teaches well in her lectures and you can learn quite a bit from this class.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/20/2023	Professor Kopchick is not a great lecturer. The class is incredibly easy and he spends the lecture just repeating what is on the slides. Other than that there is nothing egregious: exams aren't too hard, grading is somewhat generous, and the TAs are useful if you are confused.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Anonymous 12/13/2023	Overall, I think my consensus on this course is to avoid it if you are not some type of government-related major. I am not and have found the class to be incredibly challenging. The terms used in class are very out there if you do not have prior knowledge of them. I went to every lecture and discussion and when it came time for the exams and quizzes I still found them to be super difficult. He is a very nice person, but I wish he had formatted his class to be set up better for those of us with more limited knowledge of the topics discussed. For a supposedly "intro" level course it didn't always feel that way.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/13/2023	the best gov class ive ever taken! Ta's Tim and dev were the best. really interested and prof cares of his student's mental health.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/12/2023	The class is incredibly easy. The readings aren't really necessary because he summarizes the relevant parts in lecture, but some of the readings are actually interesting. The lectures were sometimes boring, so I usually had to multitask in class. Quizzes and exams are all really easy.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/11/2023	Professor Kopchick is a wonderful teacher and really nice. He keeps things interesting and engaging during lecture, and his exams are wildly easy. You have to do a lot of readings but TAs always work to explain them.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A- emmaz12 12/07/2023	I 100% recommend taking gvpt200 with professor Kopchick, as a comp sci major and it was a perfect gen-ed. You can really tell that professor Kopchick cares about the success of his students, as he stays after class and answers anyones questions, but he also is a great lecturer. I will say the class does have a good bit of readings each week but the test and quizzes reflect exactly what is taught ( no curveballs.) But overall professor Kopchick makes lecture interest and a good class to take.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/07/2023	He is the best professor i've had this semester. I would 100% recommend taking gvpt200 taught by professor Kopchick, he is a great lecturer and you can tell he really cares about the success of his students. I would say there are a good bit of readings each week but quizzes and test reflect everything you learn in class (no curveballs.) Overall if you do the readings and take notes in class you should be fine in the class.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/04/2023	Incredible professor. Classes were interesting and the exams and weekly mini-quizzes basically came directly from the slides. The class had two midterms and a final broken up into mc and short answer sections. Readings introduced material discussed in lecture and weren't entirely necessary to read. Overall, highly recommend taking GVPT200 with Kopchick.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/04/2023	Highly recommend taking GVPT200 with Kopchick. Lectures are clear and easy to comprehend (I recommend going to class). He posts the lecture slides on canvas which are incredibly helpful for the quizzes and exams. There are roughly 7 open note, untimed mc/true false question quizzes and 3 exams including the final. If you do a decent amount of studying you'll do well. He is very accommodating, organized and an overall great professor.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/04/2023	Excellent professor, would definitely recommend taking a class with Professor Kopchick. He is a really nice person and was lenient with quiz grades and often gave back points for them. The exams were quite easy and consisted of 2 midterms and one final. The slides contained all the content on the exam and they're always posted. The content was very organized with weekly readings and then lectures on the topics. I found GVPT200 to be very interesting and discussed applicable case studies on international relations.
Connor Kopchick GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/29/2023	classes are really easy. though there are many quizzes, they're all open-note and untimed. the exams are word for word from slides, so if you study or pay attention, you'll be fine. kinda boring but otherwise okay
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 10/09/2023	Exams were based heavily on readings and the lecture slides barely helped. Lectures were rather boring, but she went slow enough to let us take notes. Readings are super long but necessary. There were very few grades and no weekly quizzes in discussion, so overall grade relied heavily on exams. However, the film paper helped bring my grade up at the end.
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/24/2023	Lectures were rather boring, but it's entry-level so that was ok. Attendance was mandatory because professor Jones WILL NOT record lectures OR post slides. There were also only like 5 grades for the entire course (3 midterms, participation, and a short paper). TA's do all of the grading, so just reach out to them. Heavy reading.
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/20/2023	I like her lectures but the readings were long at times and not always connected to the lecture slides. She also would not post slides and the discussions were mandatory but useless. There are not many assignments and exams are weighed heavily so you will need to do all the readings to do well. I was very excited about this class beforehand but the structure of it was not beneficial for my success nd overall enjoyment of the course.
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2023	Very engaging lecturer. However, it kind of threw me off for 1-2 weeks every time she cancelled lecture and posted a recording instead. To be honest, I can't bring myself to watch recorded lectures anymore ever since COVID & online school, it was kind of traumatizing. Unfortunately, since Prof. Jones had to cancel the first couple of lectures of the semester, I got off to kind of a rough start. It wasn't exactly frequent, but this did happen a couple more times during the semester (which is not her fault, just something you should know). The only grades in this class are 3 quizzes and section participation. I heard a lot of negative feedback about this from classmates, but personally, I loved that. It helped keep my workload down throughout the semester, and her quizzes were very fair. It's just so much better getting to focus and absorb the lectures, rather than being constantly stressed about completing assignments. That's another thing to know in case you're not a fan of that grading system.
Michael McCowan GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/01/2023	Michael is a fantastic TA, and imo even better than the professor especially in discussion sections. He asks students thoughtful questions and gives the best exam prep so if you're taking GVPT 200 or 201 try to get him as your TA.
Ryan Frazier GVPT200 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/26/2023	I had Mr. Frazier as a professor for GVPT200 over the winter term. Although he is definitely not a people person, he is in behavioral sciences for some reason! At the beginning of term, he said there would be a half hour to an hour of work a day, which seemed reasonable, but in reality, it was more like 4 hours each day. His syllabus is fully weighted on the exams, which represent 70% of the grade. If you messed up on one, there was no mercy, you just have to take the L, despite your hard work. The other 30% was on essays; these were very time consuming, yet he only put ONE comment on the whole paper. It did not seem like he cared much about the course or the students, choosing to record lectures and have us do HOURS of work. I would not suggest wasting your time off in his class for a B, and then coming back in the Spring with lower grades and no rest. I would not recommend him nor take any of his classes again.
Ryan Frazier GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/24/2023	Had him as my professor for GVPT200 Winter semester. Mr. Frazier was great, would recommend him especially if you're planning on taking this course during the winter semester (I would recommend doing so, it's pretty easy: 3 short papers and 2 exams, and the course content consist on pretty basic IR concepts + lots of textbook readings which can be hard to balance with other classes). While I took this course asynch, Mr. Frazier was great with keeping lectures straightforward and as brief as possible (it was primarily him explaining textbook readings and going a bit more in-depth which I found to be helpful for exams), his grading and exams are fair and he's relatively timely at posting grades (at least for the winter semester, had essays + exams graded within a day or two). He also responded extremely quickly to questions I had regarding essays which I appreciated, so would highly recommend!
Ryan Frazier GVPT200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/16/2023	I had him for the Fall 2022, and I believe this was his first time teaching alone so props to him. The actual class was quite boring, basically just copying down slides but the slides did seriously help on the exams (which were always online and open note, even the final). You normally read one or two articles each week for the discussion post on Thursday and the discussion post reply on Friday. Discussion posts are about 10-15% of your grade so that's an easy bump. Exams are weighted 20% or so each, but they aren't bad at all. Most are multiple choice with one or two short answers that he goes over in class if you pay attention. There's a research project also weighted 20% but as long as you don't totally procrastinate and use your notes from class, it's not bad. This class was one of my easier ones and Frazier knew what he was talking about, definitely recommend.
Todd Allee GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/16/2023	To be fair, I did like the topic and tried really hard, but it is not a bad class. Really interesting and in-depth lectures. The class was a midterm, a final, one paper, and discussion posts. We covered a lot, but the midterms did have random information that he mentioned like once and never again. Overall, for gen ed, there are better options, but if you are doing the class for your major, you are fine.
Todd Allee GVPT200 Anonymous 12/25/2022	He waits until the very end of the semester to grade any assignments, and his questions on exams are ridiculous, to put it nicely. He asks very specific questions about countries mentioned in readings or little anecdotes he mentioned in class once. I got As on all assignments all year and a B- on the final (which I think is pretty good for never going to class). However, he rounded my 89.8 down to a B+ so I am a little salty. I took this as an "easy gen-ed", which it is in my opinion, but he kinda sucks :/
Madeline Fleishman GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/28/2022	(Summer asynchronous class) Ms. Fleishman was an incredibly kind and understanding professor. The course is very reading heavy, but she has excellent explanations in recorded lectures. It was also nice to be able to speed up the recordings because she speaks at a slower pace. She tries to connect everything we learn to the real world, which is useful since the first half of the course is so theory focused. Half of your grade is dependent on the final exam and a paper. The other half is from a few quizzes and discussion posts. I think the class average was around a B+.
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2022	Pretty good overall. Her lectures were engaging, and I especially appreciated when she would discuss her own research/experience in the field. The exams were heavily based on each week's readings, which ranged in quality from interesting to very boring. I think the class could have been better if the lectures were in-person (as asking questions through the Panopto live streaming interface was not convenient), and if assignments were graded more quickly, but overall the class was well run and covered interesting material.
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Anonymous 05/13/2022	Decent, but not great professor. I found her lectures very informative, but the readings were very dull and at times seemed like they didn't connect well with the lectures. The exams were heavily related to these readings. There were only a couple assignments, and they have been taking a while to grade them. Many times, she would cancel class only minutes before it was supposed to start, but it was online, so it wasn't the biggest deal, just annoying. She lectures also were automatically uploaded to the ELMS page, which was nice if you needed to rewatch them. However, there was about a 40 second delay on the live stream, so if you had a question, it would often require backtracking from what she was talking about.
Margaret McWeeney GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/30/2022	Dr. McWeeney is such an interesting professor, and this was definitely my favorite class. Dr. McWeeney is also super accessible outside of class, if you just email her with any questions/concerns, she will get back to you quickly.
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/15/2022	I took it as a GenEd while the class was hybrid, so the other reviews seem really different to what I experienced. Dr. Jones is pretty nice and covers lectures thoroughly online. Even if we don't understand something, we have the panopto recordings to go back over, and she's generally pretty available by email. I agree with other reviews in that she doesn't really make it clear what we're supposed to study. But the lectures were livestreamed through Panopto (weird but whatever) and she posted all the recordings of lectures after class. The exams were in essay format and we had 24 hours to submit it. Really no surprises on the exams, they were really simple to respond to. You just had to reference readings and lectures and write well to get an A. That being said, I highly recommend keeping up on the readings week-by-week since it's helpful to understand course material (and especially for the exams). I found it to be pretty interesting material-wise and we related the concepts to things happening in the world currently (like the Russia-Ukraine war). Common misconception: this class is NOT a current events class. Its about international relations theory and how to link that to what's happening now. I'd be fine with taking this course again as long as it was still hybrid. If you have to take this course fully in-person I'd trust the other reviews more than mine, but if youre taking it online or hybrid, it's not really bad at all.
Ryan Frazier GVPT200 Anonymous 02/21/2022	I had Ryan as a TA for Todd Allee during the Fall of 2021. Discussion sections were helpful and he seems to genuinely care about his students. He'd usually start by reviewing a few important topics from lectures earlier in the week before going into a discussion activity for the day. These were sometimes discussions as a class, group activities, games, etc. The assignments could be a little difficult but I think he was applying a rubric created by the professor. Ryan always left detailed comments on assignments to make it clear why things were scored a certain way. Be careful with writing assignments because he does pay attention to writing quality.
Hyunki Kim GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2022	I took GVPT200 with Hyunki over the winter term, so it was in three weeks. Because of the timeframe, this class is pretty heavy reading-wise in such a short period of time, but the assignments are straightforward. The entire thing was asynchronous, so I would simply watch the lectures on Panopto on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, after doing all the course readings for those days (none on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Overall, I'm glad I got this one done over the winter term. Hyunki is a grad student doing her Ph.D., so she is not a full professor, but she was clearly knowledgeable about the topics covered. Her lecturing is a bit slow, but this is not a problem because Panopto has the option to speed the lecture up to 1.25x, so it felt perfectly normal. I would recommend taking this class with her if you have the chance.
Karim Makkawy GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/31/2021	Professor Karim is still a grad student, but he was an excellent professor. He listened to feedback from his students, graded fairly, and didn't give out too much work. He was also generous with the extra credit. If he's teaching a GVPT course ever again, try and get Professor Karim.
Todd Allee GVPT200 Anonymous 12/21/2021	I liked having Allee for GVPT200. His lectures were a little boring, but nbd. He assigns readings every night, but I didn't do them most of the time and still did well. The first exam was a little annoying because he asked very specific questions that threw most of us off, but he was nice and made the final online. I liked him, class was fine.
Todd Allee GVPT200 Anonymous 12/20/2021	Allee is really interesting to listen to and is a really fair professor.
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting a P Anonymous 05/09/2021	The type of professor who thinks you already know all the material for the class before you even begin. I struggled HARD with this class because I didn’t have basically any precious knowledge of international relations. Vague slides and not very helpful. Won’t take again
Sean Rao GVPT200 Expecting an A- jgrayer 04/22/2021	By far the best class I took last semester, and a lot of that was due to Professor Rao! He's smart, funny, and has engaging lectures. You can get by with a decent amount of commitment, nothing too crazy. Overall great class and professor!
Todd Allee GVPT200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/12/2021	I had him spring 2020, the semester we shifted to online learning. Prof Allee was really accommodating and I enjoyed his style of lecturing--he kept it really engaging throughout. There were a few essays throughout the semester that weren't difficult if you paid attention in lecture.
Sean Rao GVPT200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/27/2020	one of my favorite professors this semester. he gives very good feedback and what you can improve on in class
Todd Allee GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/01/2020	Professor Allee is a great professor! He's extremely passionate about this topic and it's a great class that connects to the current time. He connects a lot of concepts to current events and had a great time connecting it to the world as the course progressed.
Todd Allee GVPT200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/26/2020	Professor Allee seems like a nice, cool guy and he tries to keep his lectures interesting. BUT, if you're not planning on keeping up with a large number of very long, dry readings, you won't learn anything. Lecture attendance isn't counted and he posts the slides online but the slides are very general so they don't help that much if you didn't go to lecture. There is a discussion section attendance/participation grade. My discussion section was kinda rough but it was probably because it was a 9 AM on a Friday. Overall it was just an OK class, you probably want to look into taking it with someone else if you know you won't do any readings because it'll be hard to get by without doing them. The two papers were somewhat difficult in terms of topic/research but they were open-ended
Marjorie Breslawski GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/09/2019	I only took her GVPT200 online but she was quick to respond to messages, eager to help, and was straightforward with expectations. Gave a generous curve on the final because a lot of folks struggled with it.
Seungjun Kim GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2018	Kinda hard to understand him sometimes. All pertinent information is given in powerpoint form, which means missing this class isn't awful. However, there are five pop quizzes during the semester, and if you're not there, you get a zero for that quiz. The paper was graded easily and SJ gave assistance to those who asked for it. Straightforward exams. He wants you to succeed.
Calvert Jones GVPT200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 06/24/2018	Trashcan of a professor. She's really annoying and is actively unhelpful - she expects you to know the entirety of a subject but will only test on a fraction of it. Says it's "extra knowledge" but it really just stresses you out because you don't know what to study. You have to go to lectures because she doesn't post slides. She gave us photocopies of anthologies as a textbook - for the most part, you don't have to read them - it's just more "extra knowledge" and wastes your time.
Scott Kastner GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/02/2014	Not the most engaging class, since it's all about basic international political relations, but Dr. Kastner does an excellent job of making sure everyone understands the concepts. Even in a 150+ person lecture, he tries to engage his students by asking questions and calling on students to answer. I must admit, I didn't go to all the lectures because once we learned a theory or concept, that was about all he went over for the next couple lectures, just to ensure everyone understood it, but his PowerPoints are very informative and he posts them regularly.
Scott Kastner GVPT200 Expecting an A somewhatslightlydazed 12/01/2012	I really liked Kastner's class; it wasn't the most interesting thing in the world because it's a survey class and didn't get into much depth in anything, but it was fairly enjoyable. He's also really helpful in office hours if there's something you need help understanding or just want to discuss further. And if you have any choice in your TA's, David Prina's awesome!
Scott Kastner GVPT200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/27/2012	I actually love this class. I feel bad when I miss it. It is really interesting (well, some topics). I would say this class is kind of like intensifying your common sense. Most of the topics are pretty simple and the readings are really not that bad. Some of them are pretty long, but I usually go over them briefly and then search for topics that were talked about in class. Discussion is worth 20% of your grade, so you should definitely go and you actually have to participate to get full credit. Definitely do the readings before-hand. Otherwise, the structure of the class is 15%- First Exam, 15%- Second Exam, 20% 4-5 Page Paper with a choice of a few topics, and a 30% final exam. Don't wait until the last minute to study for the exam though, because it's a lot of information sometimes. In addition, he posts the lecture slides on ELMS, but he really expands on his points and gives many examples in class that help on the exams so I would encourage everyone to go. Also, this semester, every TA got to lead a lecture, which is sometimes nice but a few are pretty poorly done. Overall, Kastner is a really nice guy, he really cares about his students and always willingly answers questions. I would definitely rank him as one of the top professors I've had.
Scott Kastner GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2011	The class is very easy, but Kastner is not a good lecturer. He essentially reads the powerpoint and lectures as if he is reciting a speech. However, the class itself is very easy. If you get to choose your TA though, Nathan Grossman was phenomenal. I never went to lecture but I never missed a discussion!
Scott Kastner GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/05/2011	Professor Kastner was great. Sure, he's not the greatest lecturer, but they aren't so dull that you'll dread going. And he posts them all on elms, so if you decide to miss one or two, you're still fine. He is very understanding; I had surgery this semester and had to miss 3 weeks of school around midterms. He gave me as much time as I needed to make up the test and the paper we'd had due earlier. There are two papers in here and two tests, the midterm and the final.
Virginia Haufler GVPT200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/05/2011	Professor Haufler is a great lecturer! The topics she covers in international relations are very helpful. I also found her to be very charismatic about her students and would often post internship listing and attempt to help in anyway she could. You really don't need to go to lecture but for some reason EVERYONE did. She posts her slides online which are very explanitory and the book is also an easy read with great definitions. I often felt that before an exam reading the book was the best way to study. For the class you have about 5 homework assignments, a midterm, a ten page paper, and a final. She also offers a point of extra credit which helped me the A in the class. You MUST go to discussion this can seriously hurt your grade if you don't go. Overall, I highly recommend her class!!
Virginia Haufler GVPT200 Salimatu 12/20/2010	Professor Haufler is interesting, but lectures are pretty boring to me. If you want to be engaged in the lectures, you really have to sit near the front. Haufler was very helpful in promoting activities outside of the class, that would help us understand the stuff she taught us. However, you need to establish a relationship with your TA, or you need to do well on your midterm, final paper, and the final. Haufler also offered extra credit. As I look back on the course, it was a lot more enjoyable than through the semester. The concepts are really easy, and Haufler made it easy to understand.
Virginia Haufler GVPT200 Anonymous 12/11/2010	Haufler is awesome and a great lecturer. That being said, the TA is the one who makes or breaks your grade. My TA (who will remain nameless) made the class much harder than it needed to be and definitely graded harder than the other TA's.
Scott Kastner GVPT200 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2009	nice enough guy but not the greatest lecturer. Class is easy, 2 tests and a paper. However avoid the TA Tara like the plague. She is no help whatsoever in discussion. Does not seem to care about how her students do. Plus she is a very, very hard grader. If you have the opportunity to switch to a different section do it, you will not regret it.
Virginia Haufler GVPT200 Expecting an A gG 01/23/2009	GVPT200 is my favorite course. A contributing factor is the fact that Professor Haufler teaches so well. She makes it soo easy to internalize the course information, especially since she relates it all to current events. Really manageable class. I suppose you don't need to attend lecture, but why wouldn't you? I went to every lecture and enjoyed it.
Virginia Haufler GVPT200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/29/2008	Worst experience at UMD. Martin Elissetche has to be the worst TA in government and politics. He is rude and demeaning and calls people out in class. He honestly is an arrogant prick. Try to get Jennifer for your TA if you take this course.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/07/2024

Very passionate, pretty simple class just keep up with readings (important) and go to lectures. she also tries to help network you to people in the gvpt field which is nice.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/03/2024

professor Kopchick is not a great lecturer but the subject is interesting enough to make up for it. The class is easy and you don't really need to go. exams aren't too hard but a lot of memorization, and the TAs are useful and discussion is helpful review.

Ryan Frazier
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
02/01/2024

Pretty nice guy and not a super tough grader although classes can get repetitive since it's almost always a lecture in the same format every time

Taylor Vincent
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/29/2024

I took this class over the winter and I learned a lot despite the course being condensed into 3 weeks. The assignments are really easy and theres no exams. Theres a few discussion posts, a few quizzes and 2 short papers. She also teaches well in her lectures and you can learn quite a bit from this class.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/20/2023

Professor Kopchick is not a great lecturer. The class is incredibly easy and he spends the lecture just repeating what is on the slides. Other than that there is nothing egregious: exams aren't too hard, grading is somewhat generous, and the TAs are useful if you are confused.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Anonymous
12/13/2023

Overall, I think my consensus on this course is to avoid it if you are not some type of government-related major. I am not and have found the class to be incredibly challenging. The terms used in class are very out there if you do not have prior knowledge of them. I went to every lecture and discussion and when it came time for the exams and quizzes I still found them to be super difficult. He is a very nice person, but I wish he had formatted his class to be set up better for those of us with more limited knowledge of the topics discussed. For a supposedly "intro" level course it didn't always feel that way.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/13/2023

the best gov class ive ever taken! Ta's Tim and dev were the best. really interested and prof cares of his student's mental health.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/12/2023

The class is incredibly easy. The readings aren't really necessary because he summarizes the relevant parts in lecture, but some of the readings are actually interesting. The lectures were sometimes boring, so I usually had to multitask in class. Quizzes and exams are all really easy.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/11/2023

Professor Kopchick is a wonderful teacher and really nice. He keeps things interesting and engaging during lecture, and his exams are wildly easy. You have to do a lot of readings but TAs always work to explain them.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A-
emmaz12
12/07/2023

I 100% recommend taking gvpt200 with professor Kopchick, as a comp sci major and it was a perfect gen-ed. You can really tell that professor Kopchick cares about the success of his students, as he stays after class and answers anyones questions, but he also is a great lecturer. I will say the class does have a good bit of readings each week but the test and quizzes reflect exactly what is taught ( no curveballs.) But overall professor Kopchick makes lecture interest and a good class to take.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/07/2023

He is the best professor i've had this semester. I would 100% recommend taking gvpt200 taught by professor Kopchick, he is a great lecturer and you can tell he really cares about the success of his students. I would say there are a good bit of readings each week but quizzes and test reflect everything you learn in class (no curveballs.) Overall if you do the readings and take notes in class you should be fine in the class.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/04/2023

Incredible professor. Classes were interesting and the exams and weekly mini-quizzes basically came directly from the slides. The class had two midterms and a final broken up into mc and short answer sections. Readings introduced material discussed in lecture and weren't entirely necessary to read. Overall, highly recommend taking GVPT200 with Kopchick.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/04/2023

Highly recommend taking GVPT200 with Kopchick. Lectures are clear and easy to comprehend (I recommend going to class). He posts the lecture slides on canvas which are incredibly helpful for the quizzes and exams. There are roughly 7 open note, untimed mc/true false question quizzes and 3 exams including the final. If you do a decent amount of studying you'll do well. He is very accommodating, organized and an overall great professor.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/04/2023

Excellent professor, would definitely recommend taking a class with Professor Kopchick. He is a really nice person and was lenient with quiz grades and often gave back points for them. The exams were quite easy and consisted of 2 midterms and one final. The slides contained all the content on the exam and they're always posted. The content was very organized with weekly readings and then lectures on the topics. I found GVPT200 to be very interesting and discussed applicable case studies on international relations.

Connor Kopchick
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/29/2023

classes are really easy. though there are many quizzes, they're all open-note and untimed. the exams are word for word from slides, so if you study or pay attention, you'll be fine. kinda boring but otherwise okay

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
10/09/2023

Exams were based heavily on readings and the lecture slides barely helped. Lectures were rather boring, but she went slow enough to let us take notes. Readings are super long but necessary. There were very few grades and no weekly quizzes in discussion, so overall grade relied heavily on exams. However, the film paper helped bring my grade up at the end.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/24/2023

Lectures were rather boring, but it's entry-level so that was ok. Attendance was mandatory because professor Jones WILL NOT record lectures OR post slides. There were also only like 5 grades for the entire course (3 midterms, participation, and a short paper). TA's do all of the grading, so just reach out to them. Heavy reading.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/20/2023

I like her lectures but the readings were long at times and not always connected to the lecture slides. She also would not post slides and the discussions were mandatory but useless. There are not many assignments and exams are weighed heavily so you will need to do all the readings to do well. I was very excited about this class beforehand but the structure of it was not beneficial for my success nd overall enjoyment of the course.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2023

Very engaging lecturer. However, it kind of threw me off for 1-2 weeks every time she cancelled lecture and posted a recording instead. To be honest, I can't bring myself to watch recorded lectures anymore ever since COVID & online school, it was kind of traumatizing. Unfortunately, since Prof. Jones had to cancel the first couple of lectures of the semester, I got off to kind of a rough start. It wasn't exactly frequent, but this did happen a couple more times during the semester (which is not her fault, just something you should know). The only grades in this class are 3 quizzes and section participation. I heard a lot of negative feedback about this from classmates, but personally, I loved that. It helped keep my workload down throughout the semester, and her quizzes were very fair. It's just so much better getting to focus and absorb the lectures, rather than being constantly stressed about completing assignments. That's another thing to know in case you're not a fan of that grading system.

Michael McCowan
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/01/2023

Michael is a fantastic TA, and imo even better than the professor especially in discussion sections. He asks students thoughtful questions and gives the best exam prep so if you're taking GVPT 200 or 201 try to get him as your TA.

Ryan Frazier
GVPT200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/26/2023

I had Mr. Frazier as a professor for GVPT200 over the winter term. Although he is definitely not a people person, he is in behavioral sciences for some reason! At the beginning of term, he said there would be a half hour to an hour of work a day, which seemed reasonable, but in reality, it was more like 4 hours each day. His syllabus is fully weighted on the exams, which represent 70% of the grade. If you messed up on one, there was no mercy, you just have to take the L, despite your hard work. The other 30% was on essays; these were very time consuming, yet he only put ONE comment on the whole paper. It did not seem like he cared much about the course or the students, choosing to record lectures and have us do HOURS of work. I would not suggest wasting your time off in his class for a B, and then coming back in the Spring with lower grades and no rest. I would not recommend him nor take any of his classes again.

Ryan Frazier
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/24/2023

Had him as my professor for GVPT200 Winter semester. Mr. Frazier was great, would recommend him especially if you're planning on taking this course during the winter semester (I would recommend doing so, it's pretty easy: 3 short papers and 2 exams, and the course content consist on pretty basic IR concepts + lots of textbook readings which can be hard to balance with other classes). While I took this course asynch, Mr. Frazier was great with keeping lectures straightforward and as brief as possible (it was primarily him explaining textbook readings and going a bit more in-depth which I found to be helpful for exams), his grading and exams are fair and he's relatively timely at posting grades (at least for the winter semester, had essays + exams graded within a day or two). He also responded extremely quickly to questions I had regarding essays which I appreciated, so would highly recommend!

Ryan Frazier
GVPT200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/16/2023

I had him for the Fall 2022, and I believe this was his first time teaching alone so props to him. The actual class was quite boring, basically just copying down slides but the slides did seriously help on the exams (which were always online and open note, even the final). You normally read one or two articles each week for the discussion post on Thursday and the discussion post reply on Friday. Discussion posts are about 10-15% of your grade so that's an easy bump. Exams are weighted 20% or so each, but they aren't bad at all. Most are multiple choice with one or two short answers that he goes over in class if you pay attention. There's a research project also weighted 20% but as long as you don't totally procrastinate and use your notes from class, it's not bad. This class was one of my easier ones and Frazier knew what he was talking about, definitely recommend.

Todd Allee
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/16/2023

To be fair, I did like the topic and tried really hard, but it is not a bad class. Really interesting and in-depth lectures. The class was a midterm, a final, one paper, and discussion posts. We covered a lot, but the midterms did have random information that he mentioned like once and never again. Overall, for gen ed, there are better options, but if you are doing the class for your major, you are fine.

Todd Allee
GVPT200

Anonymous
12/25/2022

He waits until the very end of the semester to grade any assignments, and his questions on exams are ridiculous, to put it nicely. He asks very specific questions about countries mentioned in readings or little anecdotes he mentioned in class once. I got As on all assignments all year and a B- on the final (which I think is pretty good for never going to class). However, he rounded my 89.8 down to a B+ so I am a little salty. I took this as an "easy gen-ed", which it is in my opinion, but he kinda sucks :/

Madeline Fleishman
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
07/28/2022

(Summer asynchronous class) Ms. Fleishman was an incredibly kind and understanding professor. The course is *very* reading heavy, but she has excellent explanations in recorded lectures. It was also nice to be able to speed up the recordings because she speaks at a slower pace. She tries to connect everything we learn to the real world, which is useful since the first half of the course is so theory focused. Half of your grade is dependent on the final exam and a paper. The other half is from a few quizzes and discussion posts. I think the class average was around a B+.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/21/2022

Pretty good overall. Her lectures were engaging, and I especially appreciated when she would discuss her own research/experience in the field. The exams were heavily based on each week's readings, which ranged in quality from interesting to very boring. I think the class could have been better if the lectures were in-person (as asking questions through the Panopto live streaming interface was not convenient), and if assignments were graded more quickly, but overall the class was well run and covered interesting material.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Anonymous
05/13/2022

Decent, but not great professor. I found her lectures very informative, but the readings were very dull and at times seemed like they didn't connect well with the lectures. The exams were heavily related to these readings. There were only a couple assignments, and they have been taking a while to grade them. Many times, she would cancel class only minutes before it was supposed to start, but it was online, so it wasn't the biggest deal, just annoying. She lectures also were automatically uploaded to the ELMS page, which was nice if you needed to rewatch them. However, there was about a 40 second delay on the live stream, so if you had a question, it would often require backtracking from what she was talking about.

Margaret McWeeney
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
03/30/2022

Dr. McWeeney is such an interesting professor, and this was definitely my favorite class. Dr. McWeeney is also super accessible outside of class, if you just email her with any questions/concerns, she will get back to you quickly.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/15/2022

I took it as a GenEd while the class was hybrid, so the other reviews seem really different to what I experienced. Dr. Jones is pretty nice and covers lectures thoroughly online. Even if we don't understand something, we have the panopto recordings to go back over, and she's generally pretty available by email. I agree with other reviews in that she doesn't really make it clear what we're supposed to study. But the lectures were livestreamed through Panopto (weird but whatever) and she posted all the recordings of lectures after class. The exams were in essay format and we had 24 hours to submit it. Really no surprises on the exams, they were really simple to respond to. You just had to reference readings and lectures and write well to get an A. That being said, I highly recommend keeping up on the readings week-by-week since it's helpful to understand course material (and especially for the exams). I found it to be pretty interesting material-wise and we related the concepts to things happening in the world currently (like the Russia-Ukraine war). Common misconception: this class is NOT a current events class. Its about international relations theory and how to link that to what's happening now. I'd be fine with taking this course again as long as it was still hybrid. If you have to take this course fully in-person I'd trust the other reviews more than mine, but if youre taking it online or hybrid, it's not really bad at all.

Ryan Frazier
GVPT200

Anonymous
02/21/2022

I had Ryan as a TA for Todd Allee during the Fall of 2021. Discussion sections were helpful and he seems to genuinely care about his students. He'd usually start by reviewing a few important topics from lectures earlier in the week before going into a discussion activity for the day. These were sometimes discussions as a class, group activities, games, etc. The assignments could be a little difficult but I think he was applying a rubric created by the professor. Ryan always left detailed comments on assignments to make it clear why things were scored a certain way. Be careful with writing assignments because he does pay attention to writing quality.

Hyunki Kim
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/25/2022

I took GVPT200 with Hyunki over the winter term, so it was in three weeks. Because of the timeframe, this class is pretty heavy reading-wise in such a short period of time, but the assignments are straightforward. The entire thing was asynchronous, so I would simply watch the lectures on Panopto on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, after doing all the course readings for those days (none on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Overall, I'm glad I got this one done over the winter term. Hyunki is a grad student doing her Ph.D., so she is not a full professor, but she was clearly knowledgeable about the topics covered. Her lecturing is a bit slow, but this is not a problem because Panopto has the option to speed the lecture up to 1.25x, so it felt perfectly normal. I would recommend taking this class with her if you have the chance.

Karim Makkawy
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/31/2021

Professor Karim is still a grad student, but he was an excellent professor. He listened to feedback from his students, graded fairly, and didn't give out too much work. He was also generous with the extra credit. If he's teaching a GVPT course ever again, try and get Professor Karim.

Todd Allee
GVPT200

Anonymous
12/21/2021

I liked having Allee for GVPT200. His lectures were a little boring, but nbd. He assigns readings every night, but I didn't do them most of the time and still did well. The first exam was a little annoying because he asked very specific questions that threw most of us off, but he was nice and made the final online. I liked him, class was fine.

Todd Allee
GVPT200

Anonymous
12/20/2021

Allee is really interesting to listen to and is a really fair professor.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting a P
Anonymous
05/09/2021

The type of professor who thinks you already know all the material for the class before you even begin. I struggled HARD with this class because I didn’t have basically any precious knowledge of international relations. Vague slides and not very helpful. Won’t take again

Sean Rao
GVPT200

Expecting an A-
jgrayer
04/22/2021

By far the best class I took last semester, and a lot of that was due to Professor Rao! He's smart, funny, and has engaging lectures. You can get by with a decent amount of commitment, nothing too crazy. Overall great class and professor!

Todd Allee
GVPT200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/12/2021

I had him spring 2020, the semester we shifted to online learning. Prof Allee was really accommodating and I enjoyed his style of lecturing--he kept it really engaging throughout. There were a few essays throughout the semester that weren't difficult if you paid attention in lecture.

Sean Rao
GVPT200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/27/2020

one of my favorite professors this semester. he gives very good feedback and what you can improve on in class

Todd Allee
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/01/2020

Professor Allee is a great professor! He's extremely passionate about this topic and it's a great class that connects to the current time. He connects a lot of concepts to current events and had a great time connecting it to the world as the course progressed.

Todd Allee
GVPT200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/26/2020

Professor Allee seems like a nice, cool guy and he tries to keep his lectures interesting. BUT, if you're not planning on keeping up with a large number of very long, dry readings, you won't learn anything. Lecture attendance isn't counted and he posts the slides online but the slides are very general so they don't help that much if you didn't go to lecture. There is a discussion section attendance/participation grade. My discussion section was kinda rough but it was probably because it was a 9 AM on a Friday. Overall it was just an OK class, you probably want to look into taking it with someone else if you know you won't do any readings because it'll be hard to get by without doing them. The two papers were somewhat difficult in terms of topic/research but they were open-ended

Marjorie Breslawski
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/09/2019

I only took her GVPT200 online but she was quick to respond to messages, eager to help, and was straightforward with expectations. Gave a generous curve on the final because a lot of folks struggled with it.

Seungjun Kim
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/27/2018

Kinda hard to understand him sometimes. All pertinent information is given in powerpoint form, which means missing this class isn't awful. However, there are five pop quizzes during the semester, and if you're not there, you get a zero for that quiz. The paper was graded easily and SJ gave assistance to those who asked for it. Straightforward exams. He wants you to succeed.

Calvert Jones
GVPT200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
06/24/2018

Trashcan of a professor. She's really annoying and is actively unhelpful - she expects you to know the entirety of a subject but will only test on a fraction of it. Says it's "extra knowledge" but it really just stresses you out because you don't know what to study. You have to go to lectures because she doesn't post slides. She gave us photocopies of anthologies as a textbook - for the most part, you don't have to read them - it's just more "extra knowledge" and wastes your time.

Scott Kastner
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/02/2014

Not the most engaging class, since it's all about basic international political relations, but Dr. Kastner does an excellent job of making sure everyone understands the concepts. Even in a 150+ person lecture, he tries to engage his students by asking questions and calling on students to answer. I must admit, I didn't go to all the lectures because once we learned a theory or concept, that was about all he went over for the next couple lectures, just to ensure everyone understood it, but his PowerPoints are very informative and he posts them regularly.

Scott Kastner
GVPT200

Expecting an A
somewhatslightlydazed
12/01/2012

I really liked Kastner's class; it wasn't the most interesting thing in the world because it's a survey class and didn't get into much depth in anything, but it was fairly enjoyable. He's also really helpful in office hours if there's something you need help understanding or just want to discuss further. And if you have any choice in your TA's, David Prina's awesome!

Scott Kastner
GVPT200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/27/2012

I actually love this class. I feel bad when I miss it. It is really interesting (well, some topics). I would say this class is kind of like intensifying your common sense. Most of the topics are pretty simple and the readings are really not that bad. Some of them are pretty long, but I usually go over them briefly and then search for topics that were talked about in class. Discussion is worth 20% of your grade, so you should definitely go and you actually have to participate to get full credit. Definitely do the readings before-hand. Otherwise, the structure of the class is 15%- First Exam, 15%- Second Exam, 20% 4-5 Page Paper with a choice of a few topics, and a 30% final exam. Don't wait until the last minute to study for the exam though, because it's a lot of information sometimes. In addition, he posts the lecture slides on ELMS, but he really expands on his points and gives many examples in class that help on the exams so I would encourage everyone to go. Also, this semester, every TA got to lead a lecture, which is sometimes nice but a few are pretty poorly done. Overall, Kastner is a really nice guy, he really cares about his students and always willingly answers questions. I would definitely rank him as one of the top professors I've had.

Scott Kastner
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2011

The class is very easy, but Kastner is not a good lecturer. He essentially reads the powerpoint and lectures as if he is reciting a speech. However, the class itself is very easy. If you get to choose your TA though, Nathan Grossman was phenomenal. I never went to lecture but I never missed a discussion!

Scott Kastner
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/05/2011

Professor Kastner was great. Sure, he's not the greatest lecturer, but they aren't so dull that you'll dread going. And he posts them all on elms, so if you decide to miss one or two, you're still fine. He is very understanding; I had surgery this semester and had to miss 3 weeks of school around midterms. He gave me as much time as I needed to make up the test and the paper we'd had due earlier. There are two papers in here and two tests, the midterm and the final.

Virginia Haufler
GVPT200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/05/2011

Professor Haufler is a great lecturer! The topics she covers in international relations are very helpful. I also found her to be very charismatic about her students and would often post internship listing and attempt to help in anyway she could. You really don't need to go to lecture but for some reason EVERYONE did. She posts her slides online which are very explanitory and the book is also an easy read with great definitions. I often felt that before an exam reading the book was the best way to study. For the class you have about 5 homework assignments, a midterm, a ten page paper, and a final. She also offers a point of extra credit which helped me the A in the class. You MUST go to discussion this can seriously hurt your grade if you don't go. Overall, I highly recommend her class!!

Virginia Haufler
GVPT200

Salimatu
12/20/2010

Professor Haufler is interesting, but lectures are pretty boring to me. If you want to be engaged in the lectures, you really have to sit near the front. Haufler was very helpful in promoting activities outside of the class, that would help us understand the stuff she taught us. However, you need to establish a relationship with your TA, or you need to do well on your midterm, final paper, and the final. Haufler also offered extra credit. As I look back on the course, it was a lot more enjoyable than through the semester. The concepts are really easy, and Haufler made it easy to understand.

Virginia Haufler
GVPT200

Anonymous
12/11/2010

Haufler is awesome and a great lecturer. That being said, the TA is the one who makes or breaks your grade. My TA (who will remain nameless) made the class much harder than it needed to be and definitely graded harder than the other TA's.

Scott Kastner
GVPT200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/14/2009

nice enough guy but not the greatest lecturer. Class is easy, 2 tests and a paper. However avoid the TA Tara like the plague. She is no help whatsoever in discussion. Does not seem to care about how her students do. Plus she is a very, very hard grader. If you have the opportunity to switch to a different section do it, you will not regret it.

Virginia Haufler
GVPT200

Expecting an A
gG
01/23/2009

GVPT200 is my favorite course. A contributing factor is the fact that Professor Haufler teaches so well. She makes it soo easy to internalize the course information, especially since she relates it all to current events. Really manageable class. I suppose you don't need to attend lecture, but why wouldn't you? I went to every lecture and enjoyed it.

Virginia Haufler
GVPT200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/29/2008

Worst experience at UMD. Martin Elissetche has to be the worst TA in government and politics. He is rude and demeaning and calls people out in class. He honestly is an arrogant prick. Try to get Jennifer for your TA if you take this course.

Reviews for GVPT200