Reviews of professor Elise Carlson-Rainer

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor Rainer is amazing! One of the best classes I have taken at UW. There is a lot of reading so making reading groups was really helpful. The lectures were extremely interesting and she made the topic really engaging. She wanted a lot of sources for each paper (the majority being from class readings) so don't procrastinate the readings.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Assigned over 100 pages of academic literature weekly on top of videos and other articles and expected you to go through it all. Picks on students to answer questions even if they didn't raise their hand. Can sometimes be condescending (tried correcting her on something and was met with attitude). Harsh grader with no clear late policy.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor Rainer is extremely knowledgeable, but she's not an amazing teacher. She forgets that she's teaching students and not experts. She does not make her expectations clear and often contradicts herself. When you do misunderstand her, she frames it as your mistake rather than her lack of clarity. Only take this class if you're a Pol S major.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor Rainer truly is a professional in their discipline and structured her class super well, when you participate you learn more about the world and actually become a better person. As a teacher she's very kind and assigns a lot of reading but it's pretty manageable. I'd take a class she taught again just because it's her teaching it.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
For people looking for an intense and knowledgeable foreign affairs/international relations teacher, Prof Rainier for "Human rights diplomacy" is amazing. She has high expectations, which I loved. She also brought in a lot of guest speakers and taught networking. She pushes you, if you want to engage heavily. Exams/projects are pretty easy though.