Carney Curve

Boston College course evaluations · every published number, ranked class by class

Top of the board1.ECON 9902962.LAWS 8856973.PRTO 3300984.BSLW 2299975.PHIL 4932986.LAWS 8308987.SCWK 9960998.EESC 99011009.MUSP 16609610.UGMG 10109811.UNCP 55119712.SCWK 883197

Positions 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.

Instructor record · Political Science · Fall 2021 – Spring 2026

Lindsey O'rourke

Associate Professor · Political Science · 16 evaluation records across 5 classes

On each class's board
POLI 2548only instructor on recordPOLI 2549only instructor on recordPOLI 2550only instructor on recordPOLI 4595only instructor on recordPOLI 2500only instructor on record Provisional
What the overall is made of
89BC evaluations16 records · weight ×1.0 · Fall 2021 – Spring 2026
96RateMyProfessors4 ratings · weight ×2.0 · 75% would take again
—Student reviewsno reviews — does not contribute

Sources are averaged by how much we trust each one and by how many records sit behind it, so a handful of reviews nudges the number rather than replacing it.

What the challenge rank is made of
—BC — “Intellectually Challenging”16 records — does not contribute

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. RateMyProfessors separately rates this instructor 46 out of 100 for difficulty — that IS a difficulty measure, but it is about the person across everything they teach, not about any one class, so it is shown here rather than folded into the number above.

What the workload rank is made of
—BC — “Workload”16 records — does not contribute

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.

Ratings from outside BC

Not evaluation data

Collected from RateMyProfessors, not from Boston College: 4 ratings, 75% would take again, difficulty 46 out of 100. Difficulty is not a quality signal in either direction — a harder course is not a worse one.

Anyone can post there — no @bc.edu check and no enrolment check — so it is weighted alongside the evaluation data, never above it.

The line

All 13 items · means across 16 records

Nothing reported

None of the evaluation questions were reported for these records.

Class by class

5 classes · 16 sections

How each position is worked outPositions 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.

POLI 2548 The World Wars: Causes, Conduct, and Unintended ConsequencesOvr86Chal—Work—
On this class's boardonly instructor on record

4 sections on record · course itself rated 86 out of 100. See the full board for POLI 2548.

TermSecInstrCourseWork
Spring 2026018984—
Spring 2025019388—
Spring 2024018585—
Spring 2022017887—
All 13 items for POLI 2548

Nothing reported

None of the evaluation questions were reported for these records.

POLI 2549 United States Foreign Policy 1945 to PresentOvr91Chal—Work—
On this class's boardonly instructor on record

4 sections on record · course itself rated 89 out of 100. See the full board for POLI 2549.

TermSecInstrCourseWork
Fall 2025019088—
Fall 2024018892—
Fall 2023019192—
Fall 2021019585—
All 13 items for POLI 2549

Nothing reported

None of the evaluation questions were reported for these records.

POLI 2550 Nuclear Weapons and International RelationsOvr88Chal—Work—
On this class's boardonly instructor on record

4 sections on record · course itself rated 87 out of 100. See the full board for POLI 2550.

TermSecInstrCourseWork
Spring 2026019290—
Spring 2025018888—
Spring 2024018687—
Spring 2022018583—
All 13 items for POLI 2550

Nothing reported

None of the evaluation questions were reported for these records.

POLI 4595 Current Issues in U.S. Foreign PolicyOvr94Chal—Work—
On this class's boardonly instructor on record

3 sections on record · course itself rated 95 out of 100. See the full board for POLI 4595.

TermSecInstrCourseWork
Fall 20250198100—
Fall 2024019093—
Fall 2021019391—
All 13 items for POLI 4595

Nothing reported

None of the evaluation questions were reported for these records.

POLI 2500 International Politics and MoralityOvr80Chal—Work—
On this class's boardonly instructor on record Provisional

1 section on record · course itself rated 65 out of 100. See the full board for POLI 2500.

TermSecInstrCourseWork
Fall 2023018065—
All 13 items for POLI 2500

Nothing reported

None of the evaluation questions were reported for these records.

How to read this pageScores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Almost every class scores high on that scale (the median is about 90), so challenge and workload are shown as a rank against every instructor we hold rather than as a score; the raw figure is in the breakdown above. Neither describes quality, and neither is ever marked better or worse anywhere on this site. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero. The position printed against each class is this instructor's place on that class's own board, computed from the same records the board itself is built from.