Plan of Study

Each political science major is required to take 36 political science credits. Eighteen of the credits are completed through the five major requirements, which are as follows.

• POLS 102. American Politics 
• POLS 103. International Relations 
• POLS 203. Comparative Political Systems 
• POLS 204. Political Thought 
• POLS 307. Research Methods in Political Science 
• POLS 498. Political Science Capstone 

The remaining 18 credits are satisfied by the students' choice of upper-level political science elective courses.  See the course descriptions link for a description of all the political science courses.

During their freshman year students meet with their major advisor to map out a plan for satisfying the major and University requirements as well as planning for study abroad or internship experiences and the possibility of declaring a minor or a second major.

Changes in the sequence of the plan of study below may be desirable. These must be made in consultation with the student's academic advisor. To see the title of a course in the plan of study, simply pass the cursor over the course's number. To see an overview of a course, click on its number. A list of all political science courses is found on our Course Descriptions page.

* The School of Arts and Sciences requires all majors to complete a foreign language course at the 202 level or higher. Students not prepared to begin at this level will need to take additional courses in the language, which count as general electives.