Course Title: PS 149 - Careers in Political Science

This was easily the most laid-back class I’ve taken at UCLA. Nothing about this class was stressful, and it was overall a super easy class. All this class is about is preparing you for jobs and internships and finding a career path that interests you. There’s a guest lecture once a week from people who graduated from UCLA (whether a recent graduate or someone who graduated 20 years ago), many of whom are in law school or current lawyers. Professor Sherrer is simply amazing. He is so chill, kind, helpful, and insightful. It’s obvious that he wants all his students to succeed and even cracks a joke or two during lectures. I have nothing negative to say about him. I plan on taking a class with him again in the future!
Here’s a grading breakdown:
ATTENDANCE/PARTICIPATION: 20% of your grade. Professor Sherrer usually has two check-ins per class, one at the beginning and one at the end. The answer for the check-in question at the beginning of class was given to us, and the second check-in question was usually something like “What did you learn today?” Sometimes, Sherrer had one check-in or none. The check-in points were usually just one or two, so if you miss a few, it won’t affect your grade too badly, but it does stack up over time. So make sure you attend class and pay attention!
CAREER JOURNEY JOURNAL: 30% of your grade. There are three journals, so each is worth 10% of your grade. This assignment is super easy, as there’s no wrong answer to the questions asked since it’s YOUR journey. 
RESUME AND COVER LETTER: 20% of your grade. For this assignment, Professor Sherrer asked us to find a job or internship posting that interests us and tailor our resume and cover letter to that position.
CREATE/UPDATE LINKEDIN, HANDSHAKE, AND UCLAONE PROFILES: 10% of your grade. This is pretty self-explanatory.
CAREER RESEARCH PAPER: 20% of your grade. This isn’t actually a paper; it’s a Google Slides presentation. That being said, we don’t actually present our slides; we just turn them in. For this assignment, we research a career path that interests us. We have to answer six questions, and there’s a 700-900 word limit for our answers. We have to interview one person with this career path and ask them a few questions, and we must include some part of the interview in our assignment. 
We had one assignment per week, which is so nice, especially during a summer class! There were no tests or quizzes, just quick assignments that took less than an hour to complete. Additionally, we are allowed one absence as long as we notify him ahead of time, and the participation points for that day you miss won't be counted against you.
Overall, I highly recommend this class. I was never stressed or worried about this class, and as long as you do the assignments and show up to class, you are guaranteed to get an A. Plus, it's nice that this class is trying to set you up for the future! The point is, there's no downside to this course. Take it!!!

Dr. Sherrer is great. Midterm was very easy exam, final was a bit more difficult but with the research presentation it is very easy to get an A! Good class.

This class is a super easy GE. There’s a midterm and a final which were both really straightforward and open note, along with three homework assignments spread throughout the quarter. Content-wise, Dr. Sherrer is a really great lecturer and lets you know everything you will be tested on for the exam. He keeps the class really engaging with a lot of graphs, photos, and videos. While the first half of this class might be a review for a lot of people, the second half was super interesting and dove into a lot of policy issues that I didn’t know about yet. Would highly recommend!

Relatively easy and simple class. An occasional assignment here and there. Midterm which was based on readings and slides. Final was almost all slide material from lecture that he posts after class.

One takeaway: you have to get perfect scores on everything in order to do well.

Because this class is dependent on very little assignments and those assignment not containing many points, unless you get a perfect score it is very difficult to get a good grade.
Sherrer overall is a good professor who makes lectures entertaining

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!

This class with Professor Sherrer was an excellent experience. As a freshman, this was one of the first courses I took at UCLA, and it truly set a positive tone for my fall quarter. The class consists of weekly readings that you should complete before class, but you can definitely get away with skimming them since Professor Sherrer includes the important concepts from the readings into lecture notes. Attending the lectures is highly recommended, as he explains tables, graphs, and key takeaways that are not always fully written on the slides. That said, all slides are posted after each lecture, which makes reviewing and studying much easier. There are three homework assignments throughout the quarter. They are very straightforward, clearly explained, and manageable to complete within one to two days. The final homework is graded slightly more strictly, but expectations are still very reasonable as long as you follow the guidelines. Both the midterm and final exams are open-note (using a physical notebook), so be sure to take thorough notes! Before both of these large exams, Professor Sherrer goes over the concepts that will be covered, so I would recommend highlighting those parts in your notes so you can quickly refer to them! Discussion attendance is mandatory, but the discussions are genuinely engaging and allow students to participate in meaningful conversations. Participation is encouraged and makes the class more enjoyable overall. I would 100% recommend this class to anyone looking for an easy GE or if it is a required class for pre-public affairs majors!

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!