Master of Arts in Political Science

Admission Requirements

The student must apply to and meet all criteria for admission to the Graduate School. In addition to the general requirements of the Graduate School, a student must have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in upper-division undergraduate study. The applicant must also submit to the Department of Political Science three letters of recommendation and a statement of his/her personal goals that will be weighted equally with the applicant’s GPA.
The program employs an admission scoring system that awards M.A. applicants points based on the evaluation and scoring of three components:

  1. Upper-division undergraduate GPA.
  2. The quality of letters of recommendation.
  3. The quality of the applicant’s goal statement.

Applicants who are slightly under official admission requirements may be admitted if they are given an overall favorable admissions score.

Students may choose a thesis or non-thesis program. The requirements for these respective options are detailed below.

Thesis Program

Requirements include a total of 36 credits in graduate level courses approved by the Department of Political Science and the Graduate School. Internship credits are not counted as part of the 36 total credit requirement. Required courses are POLS 5519 and POLS 5519L (Political Research Methods, 4 credits) and POLS 6650 (Thesis, 6 credits). Students must also complete course work in two sub-fields. Other requirements include a minimum of 15 credits (other than POLS 6650) taken at the 6000-level; a maximum of 9 credits of directed reading courses; a comprehensive oral examination that covers the student’s graduate course work and the literature in two sub-fields; and the M.A. thesis. The thesis may be defended a second time if the first defense is not satisfactory and further revisions are required.

Non-thesis Program

POLS 5519 Political Research Methods and POLS 5519L are required. Other requirements include a total of 36 credits in graduate level courses approved by the Department of Political Science and the Graduate School; a minimum of 15 credits taken at the 6000-level; a maximum of 9 credits of directed reading courses; a comprehensive written examination that covers the student’s graduate course work and the literature in two sub-fields; and a final oral examination, which, like the final written examination, may be taken no more than twice. Internship credits are not counted as part of the 36 total credit requirement.