OVERVIEW
School
of Arts & Sciences
The Graduate Program
The Department of Political Science offers the degrees of Master of Arts
and Doctor of Philosophy. However, the MA degree functions primarily as
a stepping stone to the PhD. The department does not have a distinct MA
program, and does not, except under very unusual circumstances, admit
students for graduate study who seek a terminal Master of Arts degree.
However, PhD students who, for various reasons, choose to discontinue
their training after two years are eligible for a terminal MA, contingent
upon the successful completion of the requirements outlined below.
The graduate program in political science incorporates six fields:
Students choose three of these fields as areas of concentration. The
first field must be one of the following: American Politics, Comparative
Politics, World Politics, Normative Political Theory. Students may combine
work for the MA and PhD degrees with a program of regional specialization
leading to a certificate in Latin
American studies, Asian studies,
West European studies, or Russian
and East European studies.
Admissions
Applicants for admission must submit transcripts of all college-level
work, three letters of recommendation, a career statement, and scores
on the verbal, quantitative, and writing assessment-analytical sections
of the Graduate Record Examination. International applicants whose first
language is not English are required to submit either the TOEFL administered
by the Educational Testing Service with a minimum score of 550 (paper-based
test)/213 (computer-based test)/ 80 (new internet based test or iBT) or
the IELTS administered by the University of Cambridge, Local Examinations
Syndicate with a minimum score of 6.5 (taking the academic writing and
reading modules).
For admission and awards consideration, complete applications must be
submitted by January 1. The department admits students only for the fall
term.
Financial Assistance
Unless specifically informed otherwise in the offer of admission, the university guarantees all Ph.D. students four years of financial support (fellowships, assistantships, teaching), conditional upon the continued demonstration of good progress toward the Ph.D. (see above for the precise definition of “good progress”). All such fellowships, assistantships, and teaching assignments provide students with full tuition, an outstanding healthcare benefits package, and a competitive living stipend. Exception: Students who enter the program with external funding (e.g. a Fulbright Fellowship, etcetera), are guaranteed university financial support through their fifth year in residence (which may amount to less than four full-years of university support, if the student arrives with two or more years of external support).
In most cases, first-year students receive a fellowship (from either the School of Arts and Sciences [A&S Fellowship] or the department itself [Umberger Fellowship]), which does not carry a work requirement -- thereby enabling first-year students to focus entirely on their studies.
Students already enrolled in the program are asked to file a written application for an award if they wish to be considered for funding in subsequent years. Funding in years two and three typically takes the form of an assistantship (teaching, research, administrative), or may take the form of a Foreign Language Assistance Scholarship (FLAS) or Gutierrez Fellowship.
Some fourth and fifth year students receive fellowships, thereby enabling them to focus entirely on dissertation research. These come in three forms. First, up to five A&S Social Science Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships (SSDD) will be awarded to outstanding students for their fifth year of study, IF THEY HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED A DISSERTATION OVERVIEW BY 1 DECEMBER OF THEIR FOURTH YEAR IN RESIDENCE AND HAVE DEMONSTRATED CONSISTENT EXCELLENCE THROUGHOUT THE PROGRAM. Second, up to five outstanding 3rd and 4th year students will be nominated each year for university Mellon Fellowships (with preference given to 3rd year students), to be used the following year (in year 4 or 5). Third, in some rare instances, the department may award an Umberger Fellowship to a 4th or 5th year student.
Those fourth-year students who do not receive such fellowships, but who have maintained good academic standing, receive assistantships, as in their second and third years, or may teach their own courses. Furthermore, in most cases (contingent upon funding availability from the university) students will obtain a fifth year of funding through the teaching of their own courses.
Aside from the fellowship and teaching opportunities listed above, there is no guarantee of financial support in a student's 5th year. As such, students are strongly encouraged to apply for external fellowships and scholarships, beginning after their third year in residence. A database of externally funded scholarships and fellowships is maintained by the university’s Office of Research.
Students in years 2-5 have a travel budget of $400 per year, to spend on travel expenses, conference registration fees, and hotel accommodations, for paper/poster presentations at approved academic conferences. Of these funds, $250 may be spent on the student’s first conference of the year, and $150 on a second. An additional fund of $3000 is designated to reimburse additional expenses, for students who demonstrate they tried but were unable to secure other university travel grants. The graduate awards/evaluation committee considers applications for these reimbursement funds and offers such awards to those demonstrating the most need and the most scholarly promise.
The university financially supports student participation in prestigious summer programs such as the quantitative methodology program and survey research program sponsored by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, the Annual Summer Institute in Political Psychology at Stanford University, and others.
Requirements for the PhD
Credit Requirement: A minimum of 72 credit
hours, including the master’s degree, earned from any suitable combination
of formal course work, independent study, research, teaching, or dissertation
work as detailed elsewhere in this bulletin.
Students in the PhD program must choose three fields, one of which must
be from the four main fields: American politics, comparative politics,
world politics, and normative theory. The requirements for the first field
are outlined above in the section regarding requirements for the MA. Unless
otherwise stated below, students are required to complete at least four
graduate seminars from one of the remaining five fields of study for their
second field, and three courses from one of the remaining four fields
of study beyond the departmental core (PS 2020, 2030, and 2040) for their
third field.
Students who select American politics as their second field must complete
the core course in American politics (PS 2200). Students who select world
politics as their second field must complete a minimum of four courses
in world politics, including PS 2501, two courses in one area of concentration
within world politics and one course in another area of world politics.
Students for whom world politics is a third field must complete a minimum
of three courses including PS 2501.
Supervised Teaching Experience: Supervised
teaching experience is an integral part of the doctoral program. Normally,
teaching experience is gained first by conducting recitation sections
of an introductory course or by assisting a faculty member in an undergraduate
course, followed by the teaching of one’s own course, in the 4th
or 5th year of study.
Comprehensive Examination: Students take a comprehensive examination at the end of their coursework to qualify for Ph.D. candidacy, consisting of a written exam in each of the first and second fields, and an oral exam in both fields. Students are not required to take an exam in their third field of study.
Dissertation Overview: Following successful
completion of the comprehensive examination, the student files an application
for admission to candidacy for the Doctor of Philosophy degree. At this
stage the student presents a proposed topic for doctoral research and
a research design for its execution to be reviewed by the dissertation
committee.
Dissertation Defense: The final oral examination
in defense of the doctoral dissertation is conducted by the doctoral committee
and is open to the University community.
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