POLITICAL SCIENCE - DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
The department has designed the existing curriculum with two primary goals in mind:
- To provide majors with a thorough grounding in the discipline, and
- To support the overall educational mission of the University.
In keeping with these goals, the faculty have identified five major objectives that the current curriculum is designed to meet.
First, the Department wishes to ensure that our majors have a fundamental understanding of contemporary domestic and international political institutions and issues. To this end, the curriculum requires all majors to take:
- POLS 101, American Government
- POLS 102, World Politics
- POLS 200, Research Methods
Second, the Department seeks to expose majors to the broad contours of their chosen discipline. The curriculum accomplishes this objective by grouping courses into five subfields:
- Political Behavior and Methodology,
- Political Theory,
- Public Law and Administration,
- American Institutions and Processes, and
- International Relations and Comparative Government.
Majors are required to take courses in at least three of the five subfields.
Third, the faculty wishes to provide majors with a thorough grounding in one particular area of the discipline of Political Science. Accordingly, the curriculum makes available to students four different academics areas from which they may choose their major concentration.
Fourth, the Department seeks to offer students the chance to supplement what they learned in the classroom with experience in the real world of government and politics. To this end, the curriculum incorporates several opportunities for experiential learning, including internships and individual studies courses.
Finally, the faculty desires that students acquire the skills essential to success either in the job market or in the pursuit of an advanced degree. Thus, the Department requires (depending on the concentration chosen) Political Science majors to complete additional courses in written communications and statistics.
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