M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes

Information	Review
M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes PLCY100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/09/2024	Professor Calderon is really generous with this course and its deadlines, and also offers a good amount of extra credit. The midterm was quite simple, and I got an A on it without even ever reading the textbook, so please don't buy it -- it's never used in the class and you don't need the information in it. The lectures were boring and the information is super obvious, and the guest speakers were also boring for someone who's not interested in policy, but there's a participation grade, so it pays to think of a question or two anyways. The group projects are pretty annoying, but they are also pretty doable, so worst case scenario you can do them yourself or with just two and then not put the other peoples' names on it.
M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes PLCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2024	Boring class, but a nice professor. Work was annoying, and too many group projects for my liking. The turnaround time for grades was also super long, so don't expect to know what your grade is till the end of the semester. Lots of guest speakers, which is nice for students who want to explore different approaches you can take with policy knowledge. The class was kind of disorganized, and TAs were kinda clueless, but you should be able to get a B or an A if you put in some effort.
M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes PLCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/03/2024	I loved the guest lecturers. Really opened my view point and my career interests.
M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes PLCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2024	I took this class as one of my first required courses for the public policy major Pros: reasonably fair grading on MCQ midterm and final policy memo, pretty little homework (except readings), good organization on ELMS Cons: not very engaging lectures, lots of content and textbook reading but not much of it is tested/used but you need to study it anyway Other notes: most classes are basic lectures where you take notes, second half of semester was mainly guest speakers coming in to talk about their careers, which was often not very interesting/helpful but could be helpful if you want to learn more about the field
M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes PLCY100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/05/2023	The class itself is not very hard, but only having one midterm was a bit unusual and made things a bit difficult because it covered so much material. Dr. C is very nice and great at answering questions, and having guest speakers come in to speak to us is what made the class so interesting. The TA I had (Fatima) was very nice, and for most discussion sessions, she let us out early mainly because for our group activities, many groups finished really early, and she takes attendance, so that's a huge part (and sometimes all) of your participation grade in discussion.
M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes PLCY100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/22/2023	Really easy class. Suspiciously easy, really. But her lectures are sooooo boring and the discussions with your TA is worse. You have to go to the discussions because they take attendance and you're graded on this and you HAVE to participate a few times. This class is basically a high school government class. I can't complain too much because there were like 4 easy assignments and no exams, so honestly dealing with the boring classes is fine because the 98% you're probably going to get in the class for doing next to nothing is worth it.
M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes PLCY100 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/09/2023	My main criticism is that paying attention is extremely difficult, as lectures were often difficult to take notes on and repetitive. Her bias shows through in teaching, and while a lot of us agree with that perspective, it makes learning policy feel jaded. I will say, not having any tests was nice and I appreciated her stance that it does not help us learn well. That being said, the final project is not well communicated and having almost all of the weight on one assignment is daunting. I would take the class because you have to take the class and it was an accessible grade, but I would not necessarily want to choose this professor in a class I was genuinely interesting and engaged in.

M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes
PLCY100

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/09/2024

Professor Calderon is really generous with this course and its deadlines, and also offers a good amount of extra credit. The midterm was quite simple, and I got an A on it without even ever reading the textbook, so please don't buy it -- it's never used in the class and you don't need the information in it. The lectures were boring and the information is super obvious, and the guest speakers were also boring for someone who's not interested in policy, but there's a participation grade, so it pays to think of a question or two anyways. The group projects are pretty annoying, but they are also pretty doable, so worst case scenario you can do them yourself or with just two and then not put the other peoples' names on it.

M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes
PLCY100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/03/2024

Boring class, but a nice professor. Work was annoying, and too many group projects for my liking. The turnaround time for grades was also super long, so don't expect to know what your grade is till the end of the semester. Lots of guest speakers, which is nice for students who want to explore different approaches you can take with policy knowledge. The class was kind of disorganized, and TAs were kinda clueless, but you should be able to get a B or an A if you put in some effort.

M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes
PLCY100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/03/2024

I loved the guest lecturers. Really opened my view point and my career interests.

M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes
PLCY100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/25/2024

I took this class as one of my first required courses for the public policy major Pros: reasonably fair grading on MCQ midterm and final policy memo, pretty little homework (except readings), good organization on ELMS Cons: not very engaging lectures, lots of content and textbook reading but not much of it is tested/used but you need to study it anyway Other notes: most classes are basic lectures where you take notes, second half of semester was mainly guest speakers coming in to talk about their careers, which was often not very interesting/helpful but could be helpful if you want to learn more about the field

M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes
PLCY100

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/05/2023

The class itself is not very hard, but only having one midterm was a bit unusual and made things a bit difficult because it covered so much material. Dr. C is very nice and great at answering questions, and having guest speakers come in to speak to us is what made the class so interesting. The TA I had (Fatima) was very nice, and for most discussion sessions, she let us out early mainly because for our group activities, many groups finished really early, and she takes attendance, so that's a huge part (and sometimes all) of your participation grade in discussion.

M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes
PLCY100

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/22/2023

Really easy class. Suspiciously easy, really. But her lectures are sooooo boring and the discussions with your TA is worse. You have to go to the discussions because they take attendance and you're graded on this and you HAVE to participate a few times. This class is basically a high school government class. I can't complain too much because there were like 4 easy assignments and no exams, so honestly dealing with the boring classes is fine because the 98% you're probably going to get in the class for doing next to nothing is worth it.

M Apolonia Calderon Cervantes
PLCY100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/09/2023

My main criticism is that paying attention is extremely difficult, as lectures were often difficult to take notes on and repetitive. Her bias shows through in teaching, and while a lot of us agree with that perspective, it makes learning policy feel jaded. I will say, not having any tests was nice and I appreciated her stance that it does not help us learn well. That being said, the final project is not well communicated and having almost all of the weight on one assignment is daunting. I would take the class because you have to take the class and it was an accessible grade, but I would not necessarily want to choose this professor in a class I was genuinely interesting and engaged in.