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Dibs Fall 2026

POL SCI 40

Introduction to American Politics

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Basic institutions and processes of democratic politics. Treatment of themes such as constitutionalism, representation, participation, and leadership coupled with particular emphasis on the American case. P/NP or letter grading.

Course statistics

Predicted GPA
3.48
n = 2,932 · 12 terms · ± 0.010
A range
64%
of letter grades
Taken P/NP
4%
91% of those passed
D / F / W
2.0%
incl. withdrawals

Sections in Fall 2026

Sections offered, with live enrollment and predicted GPA
Section Status Enrolled Seat risk Meets Instructor Predicted GPA
Lec 1 Closed
190 of 190
100% full
 fills MW 11:00am-12:15pm Thompson, D.
3.54n=955 · this instructor

Enrollment history

Final enrollment per term, averaged across that term's sections. Four years deep, summer excluded. Per-section live curves are on each section page.

  • 17621F
  • 28122W
  • 35822F
  • 39923W
  • 40123F
  • 28224W
  • 29524S
  • 34224F
  • 28725W
Enrolment by term: 21F 176, 22W 281, 22F 358, 23W 399, 23F 401, 24W 282, 24S 295, 24F 342, 25W 287
Peak 401 Most recent 287 in 25W 9 terms on record

Grade distribution

  • A+ 382 · 12.5%
  • A 1,005 · 32.8%
  • A- 478 · 15.6%
  • B+ 317 · 10.3%
  • B 286 · 9.3%
  • B- 168 · 5.5%
  • C+ 106 · 3.5%
  • C 101 · 3.3%
  • C- 29 · 0.9%
  • D+ 10 · 0.3%
  • D 15 · 0.5%
  • D- 10 · 0.3%
  • F 25 · 0.8%
  • P 97 · 3.2%
  • NP 10 · 0.3%
  • I 24 · 0.8%

Grey bars are non-letter outcomes — P/NP, S/U, incompletes. They are excluded from the GPA entirely rather than scored, because counting a P as a 4.0 would be a fabrication.

By instructor

Instructor Predicted Raw n Terms A range
TAUSANOVITCH, CHRISTOPHER NICOLAS 3.39 3.39 1,506 5 57%
THOMPSON, DANIEL 3.54 3.54 955 4 68%
PAYSON, JULIA 3.79 3.80 286 1 85%
EWING, SEAN 3.67 3.71 61 2 80%
SHERRER, THOMAS A 3.37 3.35 57 1 65%
PRIVETT, CHASE ALLEN 3.21 3.13 50 1 46%
COURBE, JACQUES PHILIP 3.56 3.62 17 small sample 1 76%

“Predicted” is shrunk toward the course average, which is itself shrunk toward the department — so an instructor with a handful of students sits near the course mean rather than topping the list.

By term