POLI 1081
Introduction to International Politics · 2 instructors on record · 7 sections
That is the class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it. Who taught it, and how each of them scored, is the board below — that is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between.
Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question for this class only — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score.
Boston College reports workload for this class only as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.
Course restricted to political science majors only. This course may NOT be taken by any International Studies majors or minors. Class restricted to political science freshmen and sophomores. This course examines the principle sources of the behavior of countries in international politics, including the nature of the international system and the decision-making process within states. It examines such issues as the sources of power, the causes and implications of the security dilemma, the dynamics of alliances, the causes of war, international political economy, and the dilemmas of world order. This course is strongly recommended for students who plan to take upper level international politics courses.
Scores are real averages. The order also accounts for how many records back each one — the count is under every score — so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them.
| Rank | Instructor | Overall | Workload | Challenge | RMP overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Timothy CrawfordProfessor · Political Science | 784 records | 81st | 82nd | 801 rating · all classes |
| 2 | Robert RossPolitical Science | 643 records | 78th | 55th | 605 ratings · all classes |
How this board is orderedPositions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted. The comparison here is the class itself: a thin record is read against how this class was rated overall, not against the university.
Every instructor with an evaluation record for this class is on this board — it is not a top ten, and nothing is hidden behind a “show more”. Overall is the instructor's blended score for THIS class only, and its one contributing source is Boston College's evaluations for the sections in the row's record count — nothing on this board is an average across the other things they teach. Workload and Challenge are RANKS against every class we hold, not scores: BC's questions all sit near the top of the 1-5 scale, so a raw number would put almost every row in the high eighties and tell you nothing. Challenge is BC's “intellectually challenging” item, which students answer positively about courses that stretched them — it is not a measure of difficulty or grading. Neither column is ever marked better or worse. The RateMyProfessors column is an instructor's overall figure across everything they teach; that site has no course dimension, so it is shown for information and kept out of the ranking.
The line
All 13 items · means across 7 recordsBar length is the rank against every comparable record we hold, not the raw score: BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so a raw-scale bar would be nearly full on every row and would tell you nothing. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one.
Game log
7 sections · newest first| Instructor | Term | Sec | Instr | Course | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Ross | Spring 2026 | 01 | 59 | 59 | 60 |
| Timothy Crawford | Fall 2025 | 01 | 79 | 74 | 80 |
| Robert Ross | Spring 2025 | 01 | 68 | 65 | 60 |
| Robert Ross | Spring 2024 | 01 | 64 | 61 | 60 |
| Timothy Crawford | Fall 2023 | 01 | 83 | 78 | — |
| Timothy Crawford | Fall 2022 | 01 | 80 | 81 | 60 |
| Timothy Crawford | Fall 2021 | 01 | 70 | 71 | 60 |
How to read this boardInstructors are ranked on their record in this class only, never on their average across everything they teach. Scores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Workload is BC's own five-band figure, not a number of hours, and is shown as a rank. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero.