PUBPOL-700S
POLICY ANALYSIS OF DEVELOPMENT
Offered Fall 2026
Term
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students say they actually learn something useful. Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
DepartmentPPS
Terms offeredFall
Typical enrollment14–16
Semesters of data3
6.3
Hrs / week
43
Responses
74
Enrollment
58%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.3
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.5
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.2
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.6
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysishigh
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 117 comments across 5 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students say they actually learn something useful. Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
Student Reports
How hard is the A?
A is doable but not automatic
The signal here is more do-the-work-and-you-should-be-fine than easy-A chatter. Students do not describe the A as automatic, but the evidence also does not paint grading as punishing.
Homework Load
Moderate homework load
Homework load looks moderate. The recurring signal is steady weekly work, but not a course that turns every assignment into a grind.
Lecture Load
Lighter lecture burden
Student comments describe this as more discussion-, seminar-, or workshop-driven than lecture-dependent. The lecture burden itself does not sound like the main source of friction.
Strengths
• Students repeatedly say the course teaches something concrete, whether that is content mastery, research skill, or a strong foundation.
• Discussion is a clear strength; students repeatedly describe the class conversation as engaging and useful.
• Readings, films, or outside materials come up repeatedly as a real strength rather than filler.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
Watch out for
• A large share of the evidence comes from one instructor's version of the course, so this may not generalize cleanly.
Student Responses
Intensive knowledge about policy analysis process. Learn about many tools used for policy analysis. Implement a real world policy.
Fall 2023 · Mirovitskaya, Natalia
.
Fall 2023 · Mirovitskaya, Natalia
I really liked the way that she instructed, she taught me on to use numerous frameworks, and how to think about problems.
Fall 2023 · Mirovitskaya, Natalia
I belive this course is one of the most important of our entire program! I learned so many things, among which how to properly identify a public policy problem, generating criteria for evaluating options and analyzing each of the latter, suggest steps for implementation; all of which made possible by learning different important tools, such as: Stakeholder Analysis, PESTEL Analysis, Problem Tree Framework etc.
Fall 2023 · Mirovitskaya, Natalia
problem analysis, solution analysis, market failures, distributional failures, government failures
Fall 2023 · Mirovitskaya, Natalia
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | Mirovitskaya, Natalia 4.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.0Difficulty3.0Would retake0%Based on 1 ratingClick to view on RMP → | 4.4 | 3.6 | 7.7 | 30 |
| Fall 2024 | Mirovitskaya, Natalia 4.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.0Difficulty3.0Would retake0%Based on 1 ratingClick to view on RMP → | 4.2 | 3.3 | 4.8 | 14 |
| Fall 2023 | Mirovitskaya, Natalia 4.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.0Difficulty3.0Would retake0%Based on 1 ratingClick to view on RMP → | 4.3 | 3.8 | 6.5 | 30 |
Instructor
Also teaches
PUBPOL-704 MASTER'S PROJECT PREPARATION4.1PUBPOL-754 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY SYSTEM4.6