The Department of Political Science

The Department of Political Science offers a course of study leading to the Ph.D. degree. It does not have a Master's degree program. A departmental faculty committee makes admission decisions based on an assessment of all of the material required in the University application: biographical data, statement of interests and goals in graduate school, transcripts of grades, letters of recommendation, Graduate Record Examination aptitude scores, and a brief writing sample. The committee wants to know what an applicant finds intellectually exciting and why they want to spend their next few years studying. The completed application, including all supporting material, must reach the Division of the Social Sciences by December 28 preceding the academic year for which the application is being submitted. The department does not consider applications except at that time. The department is committed to training doctoral students in political science broadly conceived. We believe that the best work in political science often crosses subfields and disciplines. Our aim is to help students develop and pursue their intellectual interests while grounding them in the various approaches and methodologies that characterize the discipline. Our recently revised program requirements mix research papers, coursework and exams so that students can achieve these goals as they proceed expeditiously towards the Ph.D. degree.

The Graduate Program

For purposes of course distribution and comprehensive exams, the department offers courses and exams in five fields. At present, they are theory, U.S. politics, comparative politics, international relations, and methodology. To meet the course distribution requirement, students must complete three courses in three fields. Overall, eleven courses are required by the end of the seventh quarter.

The most important project in the first two years is the Master’s paper, a piece of original research that is modeled on a journal article and addresses an important research question or debate in the concentration area. By the end of the first year, students must also write a research paper as part of the normal writing requirement of a class.

Students are required to pass comprehensive exams in two fields. The exams are offered twice a year and they may be taken at any point but the final deadline by which the exams must be taken is the eighth quarter (normally Winter Quarter of the third year).

Students beyond the A.M. level usually have opportunities to be teaching assistants and subsequently may be selected to teach in the College Core curriculum. Every year, several students at the advanced dissertation level are awarded Grodzins Prize Lectureships to teach their own course in the department.

After completing courses and exams, students turn to the Ph.D. dissertation. The first step is a dissertation proposal that briefly outlines the research question, significance, argument, hypotheses and methodology of the dissertation. The proposal must be approved by a committee of three faculty who agree to supervise the dissertation research and present the proposal for departmental approval. To meet the special needs of advanced graduate students-who often work alone while conducting library research or writing-the department has established a set of workshops where advanced graduate students present research in progress for discussion and constructive criticism. Within the department there are workshops in American Politics, Comparative Politics and Historical Sociology, Political Theory, International Relations, Nations and Nationalism, Organizations and State-Building, Social Theory, and Theory and Practice in South Asia. There are many other interdisciplinary workshops throughout the University ranging from Law and Economics, to Gender and Society, to Russian Studies which are open to political science students. Writing a dissertation is usually an extended process of going back and forth with committee members on drafts and redrafts of chapters. Upon receiving final approval by the dissertation committee, the candidate gives a formal presentation based on the dissertation at the University. Following the presentation, which is open to the public, the candidate is questioned by an examining committee of three faculty members.

Our home page on the World Wide Web, with more information about current faculty, students, and courses may be reached through the following URL: http://political-science.uchicago.edu.

This text was last revised on 10/18/2002.