By far the easiest yet most valuable class I've taken at UCLA. Each week consists of a guest speaker and Q&A session from a different career within political science. There's only a few assignments that make up your entire grade (no tests or quizzes) and all of them are super easy. Sherrer also gives really good advice on financial and educational planning that will help you make good decisions to guide your future.

If you need a bump in your GPA and want some life skills along the way, this is the class you need to take.

Professor Sherrer is my favorite professor I've had at UCLA. He's super funny, engaging, and good at conveying information. You can tell he really cared about this class and put a lot of work into it. There's a once a week discussion section that just reviews the material we went over during the week and a few exams that are nearly impossible to get a bad grade on. The exams were pretty easy, but there were definitely some questions that were very specific to certain readings (so make sure to do all of them). I would definitely retake this class!

I really enjoyed this class! Professor Sherrer is SO funny and chill, I found that I was super engaged every time I attended lecture. His exams are fair and the assignments are quite easy and practically grade cushions. You just need to select a social issue that interests you and write a few hundred words about it. He allows unlimited handwritten notes for the midterm and final which is super helpful as I pulled some of the answers for both MC and short answer right out of my notes. I'd love to take another Public Affairs class with him, he's awesome!

This class was so so chill. Most lectures are guest speakers who are actually really interesting. This class balances both being chill and being useful at the same time. Sherrer is funny and helpful. Only thing is that you do have to show up to lectures. He has a code each lecture + simple & open questions about the guest speaker's speech or his own lecture that you have to submit to prove you were there. There are some assignments too but those are really chill and never take too long (ex: editing your resume, writing a sample cover letter, editing LinkedIn). Overall, TAKE THIS CLASS you will not regret it.

While I definitely enjoyed taking this class, and I believe Professor Sherrer is an amazing teacher, it is not a class anyone should take if they are looking for an easy upper div Poli Sci course. Don't get me wrong, the content was interesting, and Sherrer is a guy that's difficult not to like, however, the exams are anything but easy and depending on your TA, grading can be all over the board. One of my friends, who is a professional writing minor, received a C+ on one of her papers, with little to no explanation. While it isn't Sherrer's fault, the TAs completely determine whether or not your are successful in the course. Further, Sherrer supplements the lack of a discussion section with a large sum of weekly readings, which also show up on exams. All in all, this is a great class if you have ample time to commit to the workload and kiss up to your TA, but it definitely isn't a skate in the park. I took this class in the spring and most people I know received an A-s and Bs, with only a few actually getting an A. I also heavily suggest buying the course reader!

Professor Sherrer made for a great PUB AFF 10 experience. The course itself is mostly just an American history class covering major social changes from the Civil Rights Movement to the present day. Those who took AP US History and AP US Government will have an even easier time with this class. Professor Sherrer makes the class engaging through his lectures, booming voice, and by asking students questions. A big thing to note, however, is Professor Sherrer's no-electronic policy and his encouragement for paper notes. Professor Sherrer promotes paper notes by allowing any paper notes into the Midterm and Final Exam, a big help. I have found the exams to be slightly difficult due to certain questions focusing on overly specific details; having extremely detailed notes may help avoid missing these questions. One last thing to note about the exams is their big makeup of your overall grade, even getting a B or A- on an exam can hurt your overall grade a lot. Other than this, the class is very relaxed, only two homework assignments and once simple final project. I would recommend this class to anyone looking to be a PUB AFF major or simply looking for an easy GE.

I took this class in the Winter of 2023, and would not take him again. He seemed nice at the beginning/middle but that changed. This class is made up of 3 homework assignments, midterm, and final (both online w/ 40 minutes each). First, the averages on the homework were good, and everyone did fairly well through the course. Second, the midterm was nice where the average was a 90%. Lastly, once everyone got to the final, the entire class average went down.
In my honest opinion, Prof. Sherrer seemed peeved at the fact that students did well on the midterm, without showing up to in person classes. He then made the final more difficult and then made the class average go from a 90% on the midterm to a B- on the final. Talking to classmates, I heard that many had a solid A to A+ grade, and many dropped to a B+; some even B-, or C+. By the way, these students are not slackers. So overall, my takeaway from this class is stay consistent with notes, for midterm/final review cumulatively even when he tells you to predominately "study week 6-10" (he snuck in content from week 4), and lastly try to go to every single class as he does also get peeved with low in-person attendance. He likes to sneak in specific info into his multiple choice questions so they aren't like broad questions at times; he references graphs.
In a nice way of putting it, is that he takes himself too seriously and felt like this exam was mean't to lower grades. From a classmates experience, I don't know how someone can go from a 98% to a B- or C+. He did not curve the exam or even try to help student's that were consistent. Talking with previous students, I found out that this isn't the first time he has gotten angry at people for not showing up to class since the zoom is intended for colds/emergencies. I think people not showing up in person (even though he had the zoom option) made him peeved; sometimes even shading students on the zoom call. So my best advise is go in person. I went in person just to minimize damage for the final but that didn't help...only like 15-20 students showed up at most. Just take good notes and put effort in.

BUT don't give him the benefit of the doubt that he will be nice, take feedback on why some of his questions are bad, or curve the grades.

I enjoyed taking this course with Professor Sherrer. He always seemed passionate about discussing the topics of each of our lectures. I recommend going to office hours early in the course and continuously asking for guidance during the course to make sure you are staying on track. Exams are exactly based on the lectures and readings provided. My only issue with this class was asking for office hours to go over an assignment and being marked down even further down on the assignment. Try to stay on the professor's good side, because he will not hesitate to mark points down on student assignments.

Very interesting class. It was mainly focused on political polarization and less on actual campaigning. I feel like the course could have addressed the latter a bit more and maybe give insight on different campaign styles, successful ads, and more practical electoral campaign knowledge. Every lecture was recorded. Professor was very chill and overall the course is insightful without being stressful.

Midterm exam: 30%
Written assignment: 20%
Homework assignment: 10%
Final Exam: 40%

Sherrer is a funny, interesting guy and a great professor. This class has one midterm, one writing assignment (short), one homework assignment (very short), and one final. Both tests are multiple choice and short answer. No textbook, all readings are posted on the website. This class is so enjoyable, I wish I could take it again and would definitely recommend it to all.