Political Science, (MA)

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MA Degree Program

Program Admission

Admission to the program will be based on selections from a pool of applicants who meet the University’s Graduate School admission requirements.
Significant weight is given to the following factors in determining admissions to the MA program:
1. An undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale from an accredited college or university.
2. GRE or LSAT scores.
3. Letters of recommendation from two persons (at least one academic) familiar with the applicant’s academic background or experience, specifying in detail the applicant’s capabilities for graduate study.
4. A statement of approximately 1000 words indicating the applicant’s present interests and career goals, including why the applicant wants the MA degree.

Program Requirements

Students who write a thesis must complete 33 hours of graduate courses, including 3-6 hours of credit for POLS 7996 , Thesis. Students electing to write a thesis should familiarize themselves with the Thesis/Dissertation Preparation Guide before beginning to write. Students who do not write a thesis must complete 36 hours of graduate courses.
All students must complete POLS 7100 , Seminar in Scope and Methods of Political Science Research, and POLS 7401 - Sem Political Theory , and POLS 7101 - Political Statistics , with grades of B or better in each course.
At least 27 semester hours of the courses (30 hours for the non-thesis option) must be taken at the 7000 level, at least 21 (24 for the non-thesis option) of which must be in Political Science.
No more than 6 semester hours of internship courses may be counted toward the 33 or 36 semester hour requirement. Without the approval of the graduate coordinator and chair, no more than 6 semester hours outside the department of Political Science may be counted toward the 33 or 36 semester-hour requirement.
Non-thesis students must pass a comprehensive examination and thesis students must pass an oral defense of their thesis. The oral defense of the thesis constitutes a comprehensive examination over all course-work.
Comprehensive examinations will consist of four questions total. Students will answer two exam questions from any two of the following fields: American Politics, Public Law, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Political Theory, Public Policy or a combination of International Relations and Comparative Politics. A student should take a minimum of nine hours in each of the two examination fields.
1. With the approval of the academic coordinator and the chair, a student may substitute 9 hours in a collateral field for one of the two examination fields.
2. The examination committee will consist of a chair and two other faculty, chosen by the student in consultation with the academic coordinator and the chair of the examining committee.
3. Each of the two written exams will be graded by at least two faculty readers, at least one of whom is a member of the examination committee.
4. Students receive a grade of “low pass,” “pass,” “high pass,” or “fail,” on each of the two exams. If a student receives a grade of “high pass” on both of the exams, the oral examination is waived. Otherwise, the student will, upon passing the two written exams, submit to an oral exam with the committee, to cover both examination areas.
5. Students who fail either of the written exams will not submit to an oral exam with the committee that semester. The student will be required to re-take the failed written exam(s) the following semester and then submit to an oral examination upon passage of said exams.
6. Should students earn a low pass on any portion of the written exam(s) and then fail to compensate for the written weaknesses during their oral examination, the members of the examination committee will allow the students one week to successfully rewrite the examination answers in question. If the student fails to sufficiently improve their answers, they must retake the exams the following semester.