Political Science Graduate Program

The M.A. degree requires a minimum of thirty semester hours of graduate-level coursework including successful completion of a thesis (to find out more, see the list of thesis topics for previously submitted theses). Each student will engage in an independent research project closely supervised by a committee of three faculty members selected by the student. Students are required to submit and orally defend a thesis proposal in the academic term preceding the semester in which they plan to write the thesis. The completed thesis will be evaluated by the student's faculty committee and must be successfully defended before that committee in an oral examination.

The full-time course of study is four semesters of graduate work. The first three semesters are used primarily for required foundation courses and elective coursework, while the fourth is used to write the required Master Thesis.

The following are course requirements with a basic scheduling outline, where required courses are underlined . A full listing of courses, with descriptions, is also available.

Students who plan to take more than 12 hours per semester should obtain the approval of the Graduate Director. At least 21 semester hours must be earned through substantive courses and at leat nine (9) hours of Research and Thesis are required as part of the minimum 30 for all students.