- Welcome everyone.
Congratulations on your admissions
to St. Mary's College of Maryland.
This is really exciting.
I know we are all in this very
strange time at the moment.
The biggest sort of light
at the end of the tunnel
for me is that this will end.
There will be a time when
we are back on campus,
and I look forward to hopefully
meeting many of you in
person at that time.
As Roderick said, my
name is Professor Fehrs.
Actually, that's not my name.
My name is Matthew Fehrs.
I am the chair of the
political science department.
I am one of the eight
members of the department.
And so I thought I would talk a little bit
about the departments and what we offer
and some of the sort of
professional activities
that are involved with the department.
And then I would be
happy to take questions.
And of course, if you have questions
that come up while I'm speaking,
feel free to, as Roderick said,
you can either unmute yourself
and just ask the question
or you can type it into the chat box.
So, anyway, let me just
talk a little bit about it.
And yeah, and you can raise
questions as we go along.
And then of course,
after I'm done talking,
I am happy to take any
questions then as well.
This is not very St. Mary's-like.
Normally it would be more engaged.
But this is the system
that we have right now,
so we're gonna work
with it the best we can.
So there are eight
members in the department,
and we cover all of the major
subfields in political science.
Those subfields are American
politics, comparative politics,
international politics,
and political theory.
And we basically have two faculty members
that teach in each of those subfields
so that we have really nice coverage.
We have specialists in Asian politics,
Latin American politics, Congress,
Supreme Court, international
peace and conflict.
So we cover a lot of different
areas within the department.
It is one of the larger majors
and more popular majors at St. Mary's.
We usually have a graduating class
between 30 and 40 students.
And that's out of a not
huge graduating class,
because St. Mary's is a
reasonably small place.
And so it is, you will have
a lot of other students.
And students are generally very
familiar with political science.
I also happen to think one
of our major advantages
is we have great professors
in the department.
They're great teachers.
They really care about the students.
A number of them have won teaching awards.
So it's a good place to be a student.
So I think that's an
important thing to remember.
It is also very popular for students
of political science to double major.
So we have a lot of
students that will major in
public policy, in economics,
in history, in English,
but also in maybe more far flung majors
like computer science, math, bio.
Those are all possible.
So, it's a popular major,
I think in part because it's
also a jack of all trades major.
You can do a lot of different
things with political science.
One route that our students
take is they really go in
for sort of the politics or law route.
They sort of see themselves as ending up
either being in law or
being in government.
Another route is that
students really see this
as an opportunity to hone certain skills.
They become better researchers.
They become better writers.
They become better at understanding data
and how to analyze data.
And then the third route is really
the sort of leadership route.
And so other students
use this that are less,
maybe interested specifically in politics,
although it sort of interests
them in a basic way,
but they're really there to be able to
better understand how to work as a team,
how to exert leadership skills,
improve their public speaking
and their public presence.
And I think no matter
what your interests are,
you can get a lot out of the major.
So, I want to talk a
little bit about classes.
Because obviously that's a big part of it,
particularly for students
who are just coming in.
What sort of classes will you take?
What sort of experience will
you have in these classes?
So a lot of the classes
can tend to be hands-on.
So, not a lot of lecturing.
There may be some, particularly
in the introductory classes.
But you're also going to be
doing a lot of group work.
You may be doing simulations.
You will be put in different positions.
So you're going to be
engaged in the class.
I saw there was a
question about class size.
And I think Roderick has sort
of answered that already,
but just to sort of reiterate that,
the largest classes are intro classes.
They max out at 25.
But as Roderick pointed out,
they're not always that size.
So they may be closer to 20.
And then they get progressively
smaller from there.
So really, the largest class you're
going to have is going to be about 25.
And in all of those classes,
we're expecting it to be discussion-based.
We're expecting all students
to be engaged and involved,
even in the so-called larger type classes.
So just to give you an example
of some of the engagement
that you might have in class,
Professor Grogan, who
is our law specialist,
she teaches a class on the Supreme Court
where students prepare
briefs and make arguments
as if they are arguing
before the Supreme Court.
And students take different roles
as justices and as lawyers.
She also has a class on
parties and elections
where students work as election judges.
Professor Eberly, who also
teaches American politics
like Professor Grogan, he
has a class on Congress
where all of the different
students in the class
become different
representatives in Congress
and they have to work to
get legislation passed.
They have to take on the
background of the senator
or representative that they
are playing and all of that.
He also has a class,
Professor Eberly that is,
on Maryland politics
where every week you go
and meet with different
officials around the state.
They could be at the municipal
level, at the state level,
to get a better understanding
of sort of what people's
different roles are in
government in Maryland.
In my own classes I have
simulations that I use
to give students a better grasp
on international politics.
So in my international politics class,
which people generally take either
late in their first year
or in their second year,
students participate as delegations
trying to solve some
international problem.
In my US foreign policy class,
students represent different portions
of the American government and try to
get through different crisis scenarios.
So you can sort of see, right,
that there is a lot of interactive
nature to these courses.
In addition, there are a
bunch of different groups
that go along with the
political science major.
So we have Pi Sigma Alpha,
which is the honors society
for political science.
And they organize different
activities throughout the year
and are involved in bringing speakers
and community engagement.
We also have Maryland student legislature,
where students come together
and reenact the Maryland legislature.
And one cool thing about that, excuse me,
is that any legislation
they pass will actually be
taken up by the actual
Maryland legislature.
There's also a pre-law group
that specifically looks
at setting up activities
for students who are interested in law
and being engaged in
preparing for law school.
We also have a number of pre-professional
elements to the major.
I'm gonna take a drink of water
because I'm talking a lot.
(clearing throat)
Excuse me.
So one element of the pre-professional
part is our law track.
So as I already mentioned,
Professor Grogan is really the
focal point for the law track
and she can help advice you on what
sort of courses you might take
and what sort of preparation you might do
if you're interested
in going to law school.
In addition, we have a serving judge
and a former judge advocate
general in the US Navy
who teach courses for us
on various law topics.
So we have law really well covered,
particularly considering that
St. Mary's is a fairly large school.
We do very good coverage of law.
We also have something called
the Washington Program.
It's directed a fellow
faculty member and myself.
And it's a summer internship
program in Washington, DC
where you receive a class,
mentoring from St. Mary's alums,
and we work with you to place you
in an internship in the capital.
And that occurs every summer.
You have to be selected to take part,
but students often do that after either
their sophomore or junior year.
And it's a great way to get to
know the St. Mary's alumni network,
which is really strong in Washington, DC
as well as overall on the East Coast.
And then lastly, internships
in general are very popular
for political science
and public policy majors.
We have the highest internship
participation of any majors on campus.
And those can occur at the local level
interning in local government.
They can also occur at the state level
in Annapolis or in Baltimore.
Or of course at the federal
level in Washington, DC.
And it might be useful here, Roderick,
if you could just talk a little bit
about your own internship experience.
Because you had a really
unique St. Mary's experience.
- Yeah.
So I participated in the Schaefer
Legislative Internship
here at the college.
In that role, the student will serve as a
liaison to the Office
of Business and Finance,
where they will travel to Annapolis
and track and sit in on hearings
pertaining to the college,
'cause we are a public school
and we get a lot of our
funding from the state,
as well as legislation pertaining
to higher ed in general
that can affect the college as well.
So the main role of the intern
is to travel to Annapolis,
sit in on these hearings, take notes,
potentially meet with members
of the House of Delegates
or on the city side and have
conversations about legislation
that the vice president
is interested in having.
At the end of that internship,
you will compile a report of the
legislation that you tracked and,
like, a summary of bill.
And that report is provided
to the vice president
as well as the president of the college.
And they share this report
with the board of trustees.
This internship, since it's,
it coincides with the legislative session,
it only happens in the spring semester.
And it provides a tuition
waiver for that student
for the entire semester
as well as a stipend.
So it's a lot of benefits that
comes with the internship by itself.
But when you factor in the exposure
that you are getting with
traveling to Annapolis
several times throughout the week
and meeting and having face time
and having conversations
with important people
who are gonna make the
difference in helping you
get into the next step in
your undergraduate career.
So, those are the type of internships
that you should be looking for.
And the political science department,
like Professor Fehrs said,
has ample opportunities with
internships just like the
Schaefer one that I took
advantage of when I was a student.
- Yeah, thank you, Roderick.
I mean, like the number of things
that go along with the Schaefer internship
are really pretty incredible.
So it's a great opportunity
and a great chance for students to,
as Roderick said, get a lot
of professional exposure,
get a really good sense of
how things work in Annapolis,
get a hands-on sense of what that's like.
- Professor Fehrs, if I could
say just one more thing.
- [Matthew] Yeah, absolutely.
- The most surprising thing that I learned
participating in that internship
is that Annapolis is
full of St. Mary's alums.
Every office that I stopped by
had at least one alum
working in the office.
So if you're interested in politics,
if you're interested in getting
into government type work,
really look at the
political science department
of St. Mary's because it
has a very good track record
of getting students where they
want to be ultimately, career-wise.
- Absolutely.
And I'll say another place that's
full of St. Mary's alums is Capitol Hill.
If you go to the US Capitol there are,
it's crazy how many St. Mary's
students are working there
both in Maryland representatives'
and senators' offices,
but also representatives
and senators from all over the country.
St. Mary's is very, very well represented.
So this is sort of a good point to pivot
to the last thing that
I wanted to talk about,
which is sort of what happens
after students graduate
with a major in political
science or public policy.
So most of our students
go into the workforce.
And as I mentioned earlier,
political science is a sort of
jack of all trades type major.
So they go into many different things.
Many do go into government at the
local or state or federal levels.
So we do see a lot of students there,
as we were just talking about
in Annapolis or in Washington, DC.
We also have a lot of students
who are passionate about a certain issue
and they will go on to work in a
nonprofit that is dealing with that issue.
It could be something like poverty.
It could be something like human rights.
But they will go and work in
nonprofits in those areas.
We have students going
on to work in the media,
in education, and then of
course in the private sector
in a whole host of different capacities.
So really, students end up
doing a lot of different things.
Political science is a
very versatile degree.
And a lot of them also sort
of take advantage of that
St. Mary's alumni network that
we were just talking about.
About 20 to 30% of students
go onto graduate school
in either law or to further their studies
in politics or public policy.
And there we have great success
of placing students in really top schools.
So just some recent placements.
We put students at Stanford,
Georgetown, Johns Hopkins.
For law we've put students at
University of Virginia,
Cornell, Georgetown.
So we've had a lot of
success in getting students
into very good schools
to further their careers.
So, just to wrap up,
I think if you come to St. Mary's,
what you will see is that the faculty
are really interested in your success
and working with you to discover
or help you cultivate
what your interests are
and how you can pursue
them professionally.
That's really sort of the journey we take
in the four years that you're here.
So that when you become a senior,
you know what you would like to do
and have an idea of how you
will make that transition
from being a student to
being a professional.
And that's really a big
part of our goal here
as you move through the
political science program.
So, that's the end of my spiel.
- [Roderick] Professor Fehrs?
- [Matthew] Yes, please.
- We got a question.
What are some examples of policies
that are studied in the
public policy major?
I know that when I took
public policy as the class,
it was kind of broken
down where we kind of
reviewed education
policy part of the class
and then there was, like, some
maybe environmental policy.
Like, we touched on many different topics,
but we didn't too much into
detail in any particular area.
Maybe you have some?
- Yeah, that's right.
So, public policy can cover
such a wide range of things.
So the public policy
major is divided between
the domestic track and
the international track.
And what Roderick was
just referencing there are
some of the factors you would
look at in the domestic track.
Big important issues
that face the country.
Things like, exactly, like
education, healthcare.
If you have heard a
politician talking about it,
it's probably going to be something
that's covered in that class.
On the international track you think about
international security policy.
You think about development
policy, foreign aid.
All sorts of things to cover there.
The difference, so one
thing that people often ask,
sort of the difference between
public policy and political science,
public policy is mostly
housed in political science,
but you do end up taking some
economics courses as well.
And that's in part because public policy
wants you to be able to do cost benefit
economic analyses of policy proposals.
Whereas political science has
a somewhat different focus.
There's a lot of overlap.
I mean, I don't want to overemphasize
the difference between the two.
But there are some differences there.
And I see we have another question.
- Yes.
I'm interested in going
into environmental policy.
How would the political science
and the environmental studies
majors overlap at St. Mary's?
- Very well.
So, the way that environmental studies
at St. Mary's is structured is
they really like it when
you have another major.
And so you take environmental
studies classes,
but then you pair that
with a lot of the things
that they're looking
for in a second major.
And so the path that
you're proposing, Lilly,
is one of that many students have done.
Because environmental studies
is another very popular major.
And when I was listing other dual majors,
that should have been one that I listed,
because that's what a lot of students do.
And they're exactly interested
in what you're interested in,
which is sort of, okay,
I understand the science
and what's going on with the environment.
I get that.
How do we translate that into
policy to actually see change?
And we have lots of
students go down that path.
I was actually just emailing
with a former student
the other day who did that double major.
And she has worked both in nonprofits
dealing with the Chesapeake Bay,
but now works in Washington, DC
dealing with the National Parks Service.
And so, yeah.
It's very, very common.
- Garrett wants to know
if there's any notable
study abroad options
for political science.
I didn't study abroad.
I was too busy campaigning
when I was at school.
But I want to say that I heard
that maybe Australia has a unique program
with the political science department?
- Yeah, so we've got a couple.
It depends what your
language preferences are.
So if you are an English only speaker,
first of all, learn another language.
It's a good thing.
But second, yeah, we've got
two for English speakers.
As Roderick mentions,
Australia is a really good one.
And then Ireland, they've got
public policy focused studies
at University of Dublin College.
And so those are two big ones.
If you happen to be a French speaker,
we have this great relationship
with Sciences Po in Paris.
First of all, if you can go
to Paris, you should do it.
But second, if you speak French
and want to study abroad,
Sciences Po is the Kennedy
School of Government of Paris.
Everybody goes through there.
It's an incredible opportunity.
So we have both the
English and some other,
and of course, if you go
and talk to study abroad,
they can point you to some
non-signature programs
that might be particularly related.
If you're a Spanish speaker, for example,
or if you are Italian or whatever.
Whatever language you are interested in,
they can work it out for programs
that aren't necessarily
signature programs.
But I'm just thinking of some
of our signature programs
there where we have strong
ties with political science.
Good question, Garrett.
- Yeah.
All these questions are
really good questions.
- This is the awkward moment in class
where it's just quiet and
we all look at each other.
I always tell my students, I
am good with awkward silences.
We can do lots with silence.
- All the professors at St. Mary's
are good with awkward silence.
They revel in it.
- So we've got another
question here from Raphi.
Is there an end project?
If you would like.
So, there are sort of two
different paths for the
end of your political science
or public policy degree.
So, you can either take
coursework to finish it
and you will take what's
known as a capstone,
a 400 level seminar where
you will have to write
a pretty serious research
paper as part of that.
Or you can do a St. Mary's project,
which is known as an SMP for short.
And there you spend a year working
intensively one-on-one
with a faculty member
to complete a yearlong project
that you will then present
at the end of the year.
So we're just now coming to
the end of the academic year,
and my SMP students are all getting ready
to do their final presentations.
So yes, there is an end project,
but it won't be the same for everyone.
So some students really want to have that,
like, intensive one-on-one interaction
with a professor for the whole year.
Other students are like, I just,
I don't have a particular thing
and I'm just gonna do the classes.
So we're good either way you go.
But the sort of end project you do
will depend upon which path you choose.
- Another good question.
- Yeah.
So I know there was a,
oh yeah, we have another.
Let's see.
Does St. Mary's offer
internships at intergovernmental
organizations such as
the UN, OAS, et cetera?
So, good question, Diego.
Yes.
There's certainly opportunities
at places like that.
Not so much the, I mean,
the UN is a little bit tougher
because it's in New York.
But you have a bunch of intergovernmental
organizations that are
headquartered in DC.
And we do have some relationships there.
We don't necessarily have slots
there that we slot you into.
That's not really how it works.
I will also say nobody has that.
But we do have relationships
with some of those
organizations that we could
work on to get people in there.
And that would be more true
for places like The World Bank,
International Monetary Fund, OAS,
where students might
intern during their time
and use that to get a leg
up on a future career.
And those are all sort of,
obviously internationally focused.
I mean, that's a big concern of mine
because of what I teach.
I'm focused on international relations.
And absolutely St. Mary's has
a number of students
there in places like that,
but also in the US government,
in State Department, CIA,
other three letter organizations
where they can't tell me
exactly what they're doing.
But you get the idea.
Yeah, great question.
- Professor Fehrs, do we still have E-law?
- Yes, we do still have E-law.
And so E-law is short for,
like every good organization,
we have our acronyms,
experiencing liberal arts in the world.
And so part of what we want students to do
during their time at St.
Mary's is get out of the,
so the St. Mary's bubble
is a beautiful bubble.
It's very fun to be in.
Especially at this time of year,
it's just stunningly beautiful on campus.
But we want students to also
go out and do something else.
And so E-law is saying, look,
if you study abroad, that
counts towards E-law.
If you have an internship,
that counts towards E-law.
You can do certain types of research.
That can count towards E-law.
But the point is we want
to sort of push students
a little bit to have those
different kind of experiences.
So, yes, they're on campus for four years,
but they're also engaging with
the outside world during that time.
For political science majors,
public policy majors,
it's a piece of cake.
It always happens.
- Exactly.
I bring it up because
if you guys come across
any internships that aren't advertised
by our department or by our school,
potentially petition for that internship
to count towards E-law and
college course credits.
So, always be on the
lookout for internships
that are on maybe a LinkedIn
or being advertised at
other organizations,
'cause there can be room for collaboration
between the school and that internship.
- Is it required to study abroad?
Diego asks.
No, it is not required.
It's certainly a nice option.
It's not for everybody.
So for example, biology majors,
I know their requirements make it
extremely challenging
for them to study abroad.
It's much more possible for
a political science major.
And like we said, if you studied a program
that has a focus on public
policy or political science,
you'll get some of those
classes to transfer back.
And so that will actually
help you towards your degree.
And then Abdul asks if it costs extra.
The question there is, it varies.
So, in some cases it won't cost any extra.
In other cases it will.
It depends on the program you pick.
Because you can pick a
signature program at St. Mary's,
and my understanding is
the signature programs
are all at the cost of the institutions.
They are all regular tuition cost.
But if you choose a non-signature program,
it may be that it costs more
because it's being offered
by another institution.
So we're sort of dependent upon
what they say the costs are.
So there's a lot of variation there.
And if you're interested,
I would just highly recommend
once you come to St. Mary's
to come and check out the
International Education Center
and sort of see what the options are.
I mean, the number of
options is truly amazing.
And so it's really a
matter of picking one that,
of course, one, fits
in with your finances,
but two, fits in with your interests
and sort of where you would like to,
what part of the world
you would like to see.
I think that's a big part of it.
Raphi asks if I'd
recommend double majoring.
I double majored when I was a student.
I think that's gonna, it's
going to vary greatly.
It's gonna depend upon your preferences.
I mean, I don't think
either for career reasons
or for some other reason,
you don't need to.
There's no need to double major.
But if you were one of those
people where your interests
are sort of the
intersection of two fields,
if it's about the environment
and about policy for you,
yeah, double major.
If you're really interested in, like,
economics and politics,
right, and how they intersect,
yeah, double major, great.
If you really like history
but also like politics, right,
like, we get a lot of students
that are in that boat.
Yeah, great.
But there are those
students who are just like,
"I love public policy and I just want to
"do this all day and all night."
Okay, you're good.
Do your thing, right?
So I think it really comes
down to your own interests.
And what's great is it's
very possible, right?
So you need 128 credits to graduate.
To major in political
science, you need 48 credits.
Even as a political science major,
you can probably do the math on that.
It's less than half.
So you've got a lot of
space in your schedule
to do other things if you would like to.
So, I mean, it becomes
sort of a ridiculous.
You see at graduation.
You've got the double
majors plus the two minors
or the triple majors.
Like, that is not necessary.
You don't need to do that.
But if it fits with your interests, great.
Pursue it.
It's awesome.
While I've been wasting time here,
people are putting up good questions.
So Matthew asks, are there required
general education courses you're aware of
prior to diving into political science,
public policy, economics?
So there are.
We're actually in the process,
as we're changing a little bit
how we do those general
education requirements.
You don't need to complete them
before you start the major.
So, you can leap in in
your first semester.
Take Intro to Politics.
Start doing all the stuff you would do
in political science or public policy,
and simultaneously doing
some of those requirements.
We're changing them somewhat to make them
a little bit less of a a la
carte where it's just sort,
let me grab my math class
and my science and all that,
to try to give them more
of a cohesive feeling.
But with that said, you
do those simultaneously.
So you do your general
education requirements
at the same time you're
getting into the major.
Those things are not
mutually exclusive at all.
And students are absolutely,
they're starting off their majors
as soon as they set foot on campus.
Could a double major lengthen
the time it takes to graduate?
It could, but it shouldn't.
It really should not.
I think the goal of every advisor here
is to get a student out
in four years or less.
I've got a student that
I'm working with right now
who's going to graduate in three.
I don't necessarily recommend that.
It is very fast.
But
four, absolutely.
And look, if it comes to
getting a double major
or graduating in four years, look,
graduate in four years,
get a single major,
have classes in the other one but get out
and get into your career.
So, the fact is, as I already pointed out,
there's a lot of extra room, right?
If you're taking political science
with 48 credits to graduate
and you need 128 for your degree,
there's a lot of room for other classes.
And if it's something like
environmental studies,
there's a lot of double
counting that goes on.
If it's something like public policy,
there's a lot of double counting.
That means that you take one class
and it counts for both majors.
And so that really cuts down on the
number of classes you can take.
So in general, no.
It should not take you more
time if you double major
and the vast majority of double majors
are not taking more time.
Diego asks, is there an international
relations major, minor at St. Mary's?
There is no international relations major.
You can choose to do an international
relations track within political science
or you could choose to do the
international track of public policy.
Or if that's not glamorous enough for you,
you can create your own
international relations major.
I've had a number of
students who have done this,
where they create something more specific.
I had a student create an
international conflicts major.
Great.
Do it.
It's actually not that tough.
So if you have a very,
a more specific interest
than what we offer
and you want that realized in
the classes that you study,
it is absolutely possible.
I also had sort of a student do something
about sort of international
religion and politics,
looking at sort of the
role that religion plays
in different societies in the world
and how it gets reflected
in their politics.
She just made it up.
That was her passion.
It's what she's doing.
So again, there's lots of opportunities
both within the existing framework
and outside of the existing framework.
Matthew Carrier says thank you.
Well thank you for joining us, Matt.
That's a good name.
A good, strong name.
- Professor Fehrs, I'm starting to regret
not taking any of your classes.
- Yeah, so this is the irony, right?
Is you,
you're hosting a session
and yet somehow you made
it through four years
at St. Mary's and you
never took a place from me.
Roderick.
- And I took longer than four years
and did not take it.
But I was on a very focused
American politic track.
So, I spent a lot of time with
Professor Grogan and Professor Eberly.
- Fair enough.
- [Roderick] I harassed them enough.
- And they're fantastic.
- They're fantastic
- It's not like they're
teaching you a shoestring class.
Or I mean, they are fantastic,
fantastic professors.
So I can't fault you.
- [Roderick] Yeah, yeah.
- Any other questions?
We've got some more time here
and I'm happy to take any other questions.
Yeah, so Raphi says, you
mentioned an honors program.
So since St. Mary's is the honors college,
we do not have a separate honors program.
But what we do have is Pi Sigma Alpha,
which is the political
science honors society.
After you achieve a certain
level of success, that is,
I think after your GPA over your first
four semesters is more than 3.5,
you are invited to join Pi Sigma Alpha.
And they, like I mentioned before,
they do a number of
different programs on campus.
And they bring in speakers.
In addition, when you graduate,
you get to wear this really
cool Pi Sigma Alpha medallion,
which is just a cool flex at graduation.
So, yeah.
That's the honors society that
you have the option to join.
And a lot of other majors have their own
honor societies that you
have the option to join.
So Garrett asks, due to St.
Mary's being a small school,
how helpful is it for developing a
relationship between
professor and student?
- How close are you trying to get?
- So that's a great question, Garrett.
I mean, when I went to
graduate school to get my PhD,
I knew that I wanted
to be at a small school
because that's where I had
gone as an undergraduate.
And to be honest with you,
and I don't want to disparage
our larger partners,
but I am going to disparage
them for a moment.
I don't think anybody does
it better than we do it.
I think we give students a real education.
And I think that comes from exactly
that relationship that
you're talking about.
The relationship between the
professor and the student.
I write every year dozens of
letters of recommendation.
And when I write those,
I'm not saying let me
just give you what I have
from my grade sheet that I can
tell you about the student.
I am going into remembering what
we talked about outside of class,
the sort of questions they asked.
Because I can actually,
if I am your reference
for a job, I know you.
I know what sport you play.
I know where you're from.
I know what your brothers'
and sisters' names are.
I know that you have been
passionate about working
in the State Department since you were 12.
Like, you have that opportunity
because these are small classes.
Professors have office hours.
They're around.
You get to know them.
I mean, you will get to know me,
maybe more than you would like.
And that's part of being at St. Mary's
is you will have people
who can vouch for you.
I've done a bunch of
security clearances
for St. Mary's students
where these agents come down
and interview me about whether
or not this person is a security
risk or what they're like.
I can tell them.
I know.
This person, I have seen them in
all sorts of different circumstances.
They are absolutely the
sort of person who should be
working in the US government
in a secure capacity.
Right?
So, yeah.
I feel like, come to St.
Mary's for that relationship.
You are going to get that relationship.
Absolutely.
Elizabeth asks, in the
political science major,
what is the average size of each class?
Yeah.
As we were just mentioning
before really quickly,
the largest class is the intro class,
and those are between, they
are capped at 25 students.
That's the largest they can be.
At 200 level classes,
which you would take after
taking the 100 level,
those are capped at 20 and then
the caps go down to 18, 16.
That's the maximum.
Oftentimes, particularly if
you're in a senior seminar,
it may be less than 10.
So I have taught, so, to be honest,
I don't know if I should really share,
but I taught a class one
time with two students in it.
Two students.
It was crazy.
It was awesome, actually.
A couple times we met out
and sat out on the docks
and talked about political philosophy.
It was so cool.
Those students, by the way,
one is now studying at Stanford
and the other is a practicing
lawyer who went to Georgetown.
So I feel like that speaks
to the St. Mary's experience.
But, okay, atypical.
But in general the classes,
they're gonna be small.
Any other
questions?
Maybe one last question
here before we sign off.
It's been nice meeting
all of you virtually.
I'm sorry, I haven't
set my screen up right.
I'm wearing my St. Mary's,
my college spirit tie here
and I'm not really showing it off.
That, well, okay.
Yeah.
I should have brought up,
I have a St. Mary's mug
and I could be fake drinking coffee
while I'm doing this and advertising.
Hey.
So to all of you guys,
thank you for taking part in this.
Thank you for thinking about St. Mary's
and thinking about political science.
It's a really tough decision.
I know it's tough to think about
where you're gonna spend the
next four years of your life.
I think St. Mary's is just,
it is a special place.
It's a unique place.
And so I hope you give
it serious consideration,
but I'm sure you also have some
other cool places you're looking at.
You have my name there on the screen.
And if you, after this
want to shoot me an email,
I'd be happy to answer
any questions you have.
I've been answering emails
for some incoming students.
People have some very good questions.
It's really, really awesome.
So, please feel free to email me
and I'm happy to respond to that.
But other than that, it was
great speaking with all of you,
and good luck with your decision.
- All right, guys.
If you have any questions for me,
feel free to shoot me an email.
I'll provide my name and
email in the group chat below.
And I'll be more than happy to connect you
with the admission
council that's assigned to
the region of the state you're from
or the country where you're from.
And if you are one of my students, well,
I'm glad we already met.
And if you want to talk
some more, just let me know.
All right.
All right, thanks Professor Fehrs.
- Oh, absolutely, thank you.
This was fun.
- All right.
Take care, everyone.
- [Matthew] All right, bye.
