Current
Students
First
and Second Year Requirements
Third
Year Requirements
Beyond
Third Year
Commune
Graduate
Conference /Research Funding Application
First
and Second Year
All
students ordinarily are required to enroll for a full time
course load of three courses per quarter. Usually these
courses will be selected from among the graduate 400 level
offerings of the department. In consultation with their
advisor, students may also take courses in other Social
Science departments, the Program of African Studies, Center
for Comparative and International Studies (CICS) Ph.D. certificate
courses, or relevant courses offered by the Kellogg Graduate
School of Management and the Law School. Students may benefit
from taking a fourth course, particularly in languages or
methods. Such a fourth course may often be taken Pass/No
Pass. All other courses must be taken for a grade.
Generally,
students will take core courses in the fields in which they
intend to major and minor.
Required Statistics Courses
All
students, except Political Theory majors, must take Introduction
to Probability and Statistics (Poli Sci 403) and Linear
Models (Poli Sci 405). These required courses are usually
completed in the first year of studies. However, students
may elect to take some or all during their second year,
and should consult with their advisor about the best options
for completion of this requirement given their overall program
of studies. Students who wish to be exempted from these
classes on the basis of equivalent training prior to coming
to Northwestern must have written permission from the instructor
of the course.
Second
Year Paper
The
Second Year Paper is expected to be a substantial scholarly
paper demonstrating the student's ability to analyze a significant
problem in the format of a journal article. It should be
30 - 60 pages long. Frequently though not always, such papers
will be an elaboration or deepening of a paper that a student
has written in the context of a seminar.
Students
choose a topic in consultation with two faculty members
who will then serve as advisors for the paper. Under normal
circumstances, the primary advisor will be a member of the
Political Science faculty. In exceptional circumstances,
the student may petition the chair to have a primary advisor
from outside the department, but in any event one of the
two advisors must be from the Political Science department.
Most
of the work will be conducted independently (but in consultation
with the advisors). However, during the Fall or Winter quarter
of the second year, students may enroll in Practicum in
Political Analysis (PS404), which provides an opportunity
to discuss the paper and its research techniques in a seminar
context.
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Third
Year Requirements
In the third year, students generally begin to reduce
their course load and concentrate on research. Students
also prepare a proposal for doctoral research work. Typically,
students form a dissertation committee of faculty and defend
the thesis proposal by the end of their third year.
During the third year, students take qualifying examinations
in their major and minor fields.
The
qualifying (prelim) examinations are offered twice a year
– once in the fall (typically October) and once in
the winter (typically February).
Students
must have completed all their coursework (18 courses), cleared
all incompletes, and fulfilled the second year paper requirement
before taking their qualifying examinations.
Students
must take written examinations in their major field and
in one minor field. They must qualify in a second minor
field by taking a minimum of two courses in that field.
The individual subfields, under the direction of the Field
Chairs, will be responsible for writing the exams and for
establishing the rules governing their administration. All
Political Theory majors that pass the written exam will
also sit for an oral exam. In the case of other fields,
the committee that reads the written exam may require an
oral exam as well.
Qualifying
exams must be taken in the third year. If students have
not passed their exams for the major and minor by the end
of the third year they will be considered not making satisfactory
academic progress by the department and risk ineligibility
for continued financial aid.
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Beyond
Third Year
In consultation with their dissertation committee, students
are working full-time on their thesis. The goal is to prepare
a completed thesis chapter that can be used as a "job
market paper."
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Commune
The
Graduate Student Commune is the organization of Political
Science graduate students. It provides advice to the department
on teaching, recruitment, other matters, and organizes resources
and activities for graduate students. It is composed of
all students currently enrolled in the graduate program.
The Commune elects representatives to represent the graduate
students in matters affecting the graduate community as
a whole.
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