Graduate Degree Requirements

The master’s degree is designed to be completed in two years. While all graduate students are required to complete a foundational curriculum of courses in political science theory, research, and teaching, the program intentionally allows for a great deal of flexibility. Students can tailor their elective coursework according to their particular interests and goals, and even substitute internships for credit during their second year.

During the first year in the program, all graduate students are required to take a 1-credit orientation course; “Advanced Overview of Political Science,” which provides a kind of “sampler platter” experience of each of the primary subfields of political science; two courses on theory and research in political science; their choice of two seminars in the primary subfields of political science; and two additional political science electives. A 1-credit Thesis course is required during the third semester, during which students will develop ideas, initial research, and a proposal for their master’s thesis topic.

The second year is structured around researching and writing the master’s thesis, with the aim of defending in the final semester. Students are also required to take a 2-credit teaching course. The remainder of required credits are taken by elective course work and/or up to 8 credits of internship. Whether our graduate students are aiming to enter a PhD program or to get a foot in the door with a career in the world of politics, our goal is to empower them with the tools they need to succeed in the next steps in their professional and academic journeys.

Coursework, including credit for work on the master’s thesis (see below), is distributed as follows:

Year 1 Coursework

Year 2 Coursework

The total credits hours for the degree program is 52 credits. Graduate students may use no more than 2 online courses to satisfy their degree requirements unless suspended due to extenuating circumstances. Check with your advisor or the Program Coordinator. 

The following courses qualify as Field Seminars:

PS 520 Seminar on American Political Institutions

PS 530 Proseminar in International Relations

PS 569 Comparative Political Institutions

PS 585 Political Theory and Governance

What would an Internship (PS 504) look like? 

Internships (PS 504) allow students to acquire practical experience in such fields as public policy, legislative affairs, the foreign service, and the non-profit sector. The Department’s internship program has a long history of placing interns in local, state, and federal government, the Oregon delegation to Washington, nonprofit organizations, and election campaigns.

Thesis

The final requirement for the master’s degree is, of course, the master's thesis—an investigation demonstrating mastery of a topic in political science and the capacity to formulate an original argument, effectively communicated to an audience of one's peers. The faculty expect that a student’s thesis will put on display a high level of resourceful-ness, productivity, and mature perception of the political science discipline.

The thesis topic is chosen during the Spring term of the first year in consultation with the student's thesis advisor, who supervises the drafting of a thesis prospectus. By the end of the term, the student presents the thesis prospectus to the advisor and one other faculty member, at which time the student either receives approval to move forward with the-sis research or is directed to revise the prospectus for approval during the Fall term of the second year. Thesis advisors work with students to establish criteria for an acceptable thesis prospectus, but generally this is a synopsis of the literature relevant to a particular topic, the contribution the student intends to make to our understanding of that topic, and the methodology to be employed.

All research involving human subjects, including research involving surveys and questionnaires, must have Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) approval. The student should allow a minimum of six weeks for the approval process. A student cannot have a thesis committee appointed until HRPP approval is granted.

The completed thesis is defended during the Spring term of the second year in an oral presentation laying out the purpose, implementation, and findings of the project, and making a case for its contribution to political science scholarship. The successfully defended thesis must follow specific formatting guidelines and is submitted electronically to the Graduate School.

While working on the thesis, students enroll in Thesis credits (PS 503). There is no upper limit on the number of thesis credits a student may take, but only 9 of those credits will apply to the degree requirements. You must be enrolled for at least one thesis credit during the term in which you expect to defend your master’s thesis or paper.

For further details regarding the thesis committee, deadlines, procedures, and forms, read the Graduate Student Handbook.