Karol Soltan

This professor has taught: GVPT101, GVPT319J, GVPT439A, GVPT439D, GVPT459G, GVPT459H, GVPT459I, HONR218G, HONR238U, MLAW100

Sort By:

Information	Review
Karol Soltan GVPT439A Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/27/2022	Soltan himself is a nice professor and a pretty understanding guy. He has a pretty dry sense of humor that he incorporates into his lectures, and the lectures themselves are not the easiest to follow but he posts very clear and detailed notes after each one. He was understanding about questions and absences, and as a person is a perfectly nice guy. The class itself, though, is not structured well. There are three assignments that make up your grade (25% each midterm and final, 50% paper), and you don't know your grade or the feedback on the last two unless you come in over break and collect it. Also, he doesn't operate on numerical grades so you can't really know where you stand until final grades are in. The paper guidelines are pretty vague and there is not a clear direction of what he wants out of you. The class itself is manageable, but you have to be prepared to come to him with questions because he will not outright explain things very clearly.
Karol Soltan GVPT439A Expecting a B Anonymous 12/22/2022	I do NOT recommend taking this class at all. The class is based around three assignments: midterm (25%), paper (25%) & final (50%). There are no guidelines for the paper whatsoever. There was not a prompt given nor a rubric. Students were told to pick a topic and write. There were not justifications for the paper grade nor either exam grade. Exams were not graded using the traditional number grading system, rather only letter grades that were never posted in ELMS. This class is extremely frustrating and not worth the headache of receiving an unjustified grade.
Karol Soltan GVPT439A Anonymous 05/24/2022	Soltan is a knowledgeable professor and really knows his stuff but there were a few issues I had with the class. Firstly, there was just no clear rubric for the assignments (the paper prompt was really vague too). The lectures were also boring at times, and it was really hard to maintain attention towards the subject. One thing I did like about the class, however, was the fact he would give out extremely thorough reviews of each lecture and they were really helpful with studying for the midterm and final. And finally, the class also stressed me out because the class was graded by just a few things. That in itself not uncommon but here, the final was worth HALF the grade. If the assignments were worth a third of the grade each, I certainly wouldn't have been as stressed.
Karol Soltan GVPT439A Expecting a C Anonymous 05/14/2022	Save yourselves a semester of misery and DO NOT take his class!!!!!! Professor Soltan seems like a sweet guy, and at times he tries to be comical - but he is the most ineffective teacher I have ever head. His lectures are intolerable and I was completely lost the entire semester. I attended EVERY single class, and each class - without fail - would open my laptop to take notes, and then lose him completely 2 min into his lecture. He rambles on and on and goes on tangents about only God knows what. The material is already difficult and abstract to begin with, and he does a terrible job of explaining it. He seems knowledgable on the course, he is just horrible at teaching it. Not to mention, you have no idea where you stand grade wise - until the day teachers have to submit final grades. This class was a nightmare.
Karol Soltan GVPT439A Anonymous 04/21/2022	Great professor and great class. The lectures are easy to follow as long as you do the reading.
Karol Soltan GVPT459H Anonymous 12/09/2020	Dr. Soltan was a great professor this semester! I really enjoyed learning about the cases with him and I appreciated how much he had to say about each topic. It was clear he was very knowledgeable about the topics we learned. It was difficult to understand some of the harder topics in the course, so it was hard to know what he was looking for in the exams, but otherwise, I loved this course! Having never had a background in law, it was interesting learning about some of these topics.
Karol Soltan GVPT439A Expecting an A hshapiro 07/14/2014	Professor Soltan is a really smart guy who is really focused on an end goal of civic engagement. I found little hints of his motivations in his lectures which I loved. Regardless of it you agree with him, he is a great teacher and has experience with constitution making. He really likes to move through lectures and expects you to do the readings. They are really interesting and are easy to follow so if you can manage those you are in the clear for the entire class. I seemed to be one of the few who read them or participated in class. I think he became annoyed with me that I answered most of the in class questions, but oh well. He leaves the work and how you want to do it completely up to you. So if you are a student that likes everything laid out for you for papers, etc. do not take his courses. However, he basically feeds you the midterm questions and final questions. So all you have to do for the class is literally read the assignments and write a paper on basically anything at the end of the semester. Interesting topic, motivated teacher, class worth taking.
Karol Soltan Expecting an A I<3Testudo 10/27/2011	Great, interesting, very friendly guy, but not the greatest lecturer. The material he presents is incredibly broad and abstract, and I often had trouble getting a grasp on it. Someone in my class made a Google Doc before each exam and they helped a lot. Make sure you understand Game Theory, and USE THE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES HE PROVIDES YOU WITH in your essays (e.g. mention "the old lady from Sarajevo"-you'll know what I'm talking about when you take the course).
Karol Soltan Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/21/2010	I love this guy. He is genuinely interested in his students, has a great knowledge base, and has brilliant conversations. If anything, that is his greatest flaw. He teaches his class like a brilliant conversations, which can sometimes be tough to follow in the format of an introductory lecture.
Karol Soltan Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2010	I didn't love his teaching style. His lectures were hard to follow, and I often took less than half a page of notes per class. However, his grading system makes the class easy to get an A or B in, so if you have to take this class and aren't a gov major, he isn't too bad.
Karol Soltan GVPT100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/17/2010	I really liked Professor Soltan's class! He made GVPT100 very easy to understand, and my TA was great too.
Karol Soltan GVPT100 Anonymous 12/13/2009	Professor Soltan is a good guy and can be entertaining at times. You don't need to go to lecture; the things he says don't follow in a clear train of thought, so it's almost impossible to take notes. He puts his own notes up before each exam and if you look at them, you'll do well. I had a good TA who made it unnecessary for me to read most of the readings, but you can do that at your own discretion. There is a generous curve and it overall is a good class.
Karol Soltan GVPT100 Anonymous 12/03/2009	Unless you are interested in the philosophical side of government, DO NOT take this class. Lectures with Professor Soltan are unbearable. While Soltan is very well educated and often funny man, he is unable to covey his ideas in an efficient manner. It’s almost impossible to follow his train of thought and translate it into coherent notes. Most times, I walked away from lecture with more questions than answers and a TON of readings. Discussions did not help much either. While I cannot speak for the other TAs, my TA struggled to communicate his ideas. In addition, the grading was extremely unclear and sometimes harsh. Grades were only given for exams and participation in discussion. Even though we got our exams back once they were graded, I could never understand the comments given or the pattern of grading. Also, the levels required to receive an A seemed impossible at best. It often felt like they were just looking for trivial bits in essays to mark you off for. Finally, the professor was extremely disorganized. He refused to use blackboard to post grades and made you reach his syllabus by Googling it. There is no doubt that Soltan is a genius when it comes to this subject, but he struggles to teach the material. As a student who was interested in the actual workings of government verses the philosophical workings of government, I was very disappointed with this chore of a class.
Karol Soltan Expecting a B Anonymous 10/19/2009	To be honest I hated this class. But to be fair I think it was only because I took it to fulfill both honors and core and don't actually have much of an interest in gvpt. There are a lot of long, tedious readings that I didn't care to do. Classes are very unstructured and I usually left asking myself what in the world I was supposed to have learned from them. If you can manage not to zone off (he's got a lovely accent that tended to be more meditative than engaging) and take notes, the class is probably not too difficult. But I would recommend that if you are not majoring in gvpt, have limited interest in gvpt, or very little background in the area, just stick to the regular version and get your honors credit elsewhere. It'll save you and the teacher a semester-long headache.