Class record · POLI · MCAS

POLI 2549

United States Foreign Policy 1945 to Present · 1 instructor on record · 4 sections

How the curve score is built

79Teaching89 raw · 59th percentile of BC classes

±0Easiness adjustmentworkload not reported — takes nothing off the score

79Curve scorethe teaching curve — nothing added or taken off

Boston College's ratings are bunched at the top — the median instructor averages about 88 out of 100 on the raw scale, and 44% of them clear 90 — so a raw score cannot separate anybody. Every figure here is ranked against BC classes and that rank is re-expressed out of 100, which is what turns a raw 88 — the middle of the university — into a figure that says where somebody actually stands. On this scale 77 is the median, 84 the top quarter and 91 the top tenth. Workload is then an adjustment on top of that, worth nothing at all for an ordinary one. Boston College's workload question was not reported in these records, so easiness could not be worked out. That is missing data, not a heavy class — and it takes nothing off the score.

What the course score is made of

89BC evaluations4 records · weight ×1.0 · Fall 2021 – Fall 2025

—Student reviewsno reviews — does not contribute

—RateMyProfessorsno ratings — does not contribute

The class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it — who taught it is the board below.

How is this worked out?

That is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between: the board carries each instructor's own score for this class, and the score above is the class averaged across all of them.

What the challenge rank is made of

—BC — “Intellectually Challenging”4 records — does not contribute

Not reported in these records — which is missing data, not an easy class.

How is this worked out?

Boston College's “intellectually challenging” question was not reported in these records, so there is nothing to show. That is missing data, not an easy class.

What the workload rank is made of

—BC — “Workload”4 records — does not contribute

Not reported in these records — which is missing data, not a light class.

How is this worked out?

Boston College's workload question was not reported in these records, so there is nothing to show. That is missing data, not a light class.

This course examines the causes, conduct, and consequences of U.S. foreign policy since 1945. What were the underlying patterns and logics guiding U.S. leaders? How did changes in the structure of the international system influence U.S. foreign policy? What caused America's foreign interventions and wars? Topics covered include: the origins of the Cold War; the strategies of containment, engagement, and rollback; U.S. policy in the Western hemisphere; the evolution of U.S. nuclear doctrine; detente; U.S. interventions in Korea, Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan; the collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of American unipolarity; as well as current foreign policy issues relating to the Middle East, Russia, and China.

The only instructor on record

4 sections · nobody else has taught itFull record

Instructor	Curve	Easiness	Challenge	RMP overall
Lindsey O'RourkeAssociate Professor · Political Science	8191 raw · 4 records	—	—	964 ratings · all classes

There is no ranking to read here: Lindsey O'Rourke is the only instructor with evaluation records for POLI 2549, so the number is a record, not a position. The RateMyProfessors figure is their overall score across everything they teach, not their score in this class.

Also taught by Lindsey O'Rourke

4 other classes

Class	Instructors	Course score
POLI 2548The World Wars: Causes, Conduct, and Unintended Consequences	14 records	86
POLI 2550Nuclear Weapons and International Relations	14 records	87
POLI 4595Current Issues in U.S. Foreign Policy	13 records	95
POLI 2500International Politics and Morality	11 record	65

Other POLI classes

All of them

Class	Instructors	Course score
POLI 1021How to Rule the World: Introduction to Political Theory	645 records	82
POLI 1041Fundamental Concepts of Politics	1037 records	76
POLI 2360Seminar: Rights in Conflict	923 records	84
POLI 1042Introduction to Modern Politics	519 records	83
POLI 2665The Question of Justice	919 records	80
POLI 2440A Continent on the Move: Immigration in Contemporary Europe	110 records	86

The line

All 13 items · means across 4 records

Nothing reported

None of the evaluation questions were reported for these records.

Game log

4 sections · newest first

Instructor	Term	Sec	Instr	Course	Work
Lindsey O'Rourke	Fall 2025	01	90	88	—
Lindsey O'Rourke	Fall 2024	01	88	92	—
Lindsey O'Rourke	Fall 2023	01	91	92	—
Lindsey O'Rourke	Fall 2021	01	95	85	—

How to read this board

Instructors 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.