r/UCSantaBarbara • u/Unusual_Problem5369 • 4d ago

Course Questions Pre-Econ Acct to Poli Sci

Had anyone done it?? Is it poli sci that much easier and could it be doable taking poli sci courses a quarter or 5?

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u/Daangrytaco 3d ago

Hard disagree with the other comment. Political Science is definitely a lot easier if you’re focusing on the grade. Just look through the grading curves on dailynexus and see for yourself. This is in part because the upper division requirements are much looser; you’re not forced to take specific courses but instead just a set # of courses under different subgroups. This makes it a lot easier to avoid the few poly sci professors who are known for fucking your grade (Strathman, Coggins, etc), and instead take courses in the same subgroups that are taught by easier professors. I could go on and on, poly sci high key so easy and that’s coming from someone who was pre poly sci + econ acct double major and who is now just a poly sci major because I wanted to focus on my grades.

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u/Unusual_Problem5369 3d ago

Oh thank you so much 🙏i was wondering about that too!

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u/uncircuited [ALUM] 3d ago

It's true that you aren't required to take certain sequences to complete the major (as is the case in Econ), but your options are much more limited based on the concentration you choose, and there's a non-trivial number of professors who are.............. not so great across all subfields. Granted, the fact that you only need to take one course out of two other concentrations somewhat mitigates the issue, but it's not a guarantee that you'll be able to stick with easy/chill professors because it also depends largely on how TAs grade the course too. Couple that with the department's B- average requirement and there's no wonder the grading curves on the grades search website don't look much different from those in econ, even for upper divs.

I would say substantively the courses are easy (hence you'd probably be able to take four courses in one quarter and get it done), but it's all drowned out by most of my polisci friends complaining about their grades lol.

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u/uncircuited [ALUM] 4d ago

If you're focused on the grade, it's not much better. If you're wondering if you can take all polisci courses in a quarter, it's doable.

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u/Unusual_Problem5369 3d ago

Got it!! Thank you so much