Graduate Program
The Graduate Program in Political Science seeks students with a clear sense of intellectual purpose whose academic profiles and promise are outstanding. The program is highly selective. Each year about 200 students apply for admission, and our entering classes number about 40 students. Approximately one-third of each year's class pursue Ph.D.s, while two-thirds seek terminal M.A. degrees. We have M.A. programs that specialize in Political Campaigning, Public Affairs, and International Relations. Our PhD students can choose among several fields of study, including American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Political Theory, and Political Methodology. The Department also has strengths in a number of areas that traverse these fields, including religion and politics, environmental politics, state political institutions and policies, and urban politics and policy.
The Department has attained national and international visibility for its faculty, scholarship, and sophisticated but flexible academic programs. Members of the Department have published books with the most prestigious university presses and have had their articles published in the discipline's most notable journals. In recent years, our faculty have won over a dozen university-wide teaching awards. Faculty integrate theoretical, empirical, normative and policy concerns into their teaching and research and are involved in an impressive array of public affairs issues. They seek to provide students with critical insight, comprehensive knowledge of their fields, and rigorous methodological training.
Each year the Department supports 24-30 new and continuing Ph.D. students with teaching and research assistantships, nominates many more for college and university financial awards, and aids others in obtaining external scholarships, fellowships, and grants. For students interested in studying language in conjunction with their substantive interests, FLAS Fellowships are available through the Center for African Studies and the Center for Latin American Studies. Support is also available from the Center for European Studies for those interested in studying the politics of Europe and the European Union.
Our students have access to 10 libraries on campus, which house well over 3 million holdings. Many of our graduate students participate in the University's well-established interdisciplinary programs. The Department is also a federated member of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and the Consortium on Qualitative Research Methods (CQRM). Every year, the Department sends several graduate students to the programs hosted by each of these institutes where they gain valuable experience using various quantitative and qualitative methods.
