Politics and Global Affairs

Bachelors + Masters Pathway Program

Political Science

Bachelors + Masters Pathway Program

Meet the Pathway Program Advisor

Melody Valdini

 Professor Melody Valdini

Contact Dr. Valdini about this content

Save Time and Money to Complete a Master's Degree

Is a Bachelor's Degree just a starting point for you? A Graduate Degree, and greater earning potential, may be within your reach.

Our Bachelor's + Master's Pathway Program allows currently admitted political science undergraduates to get a head-start on a master's degree! Students admitted into our Pathway Program are able to take up to 20 credit hours of 500-level coursework as an undergraduate and apply the credits to undergraduate and graduate degrees. Admitted Pathway students have the potential to start the graduate program with 20 of the 52 credits required for the master's degree already completed. 

This accelerated program is meant to save students time and money since the credits you take as an undergraduate are billed at the undergraduate tuition rate.

 

Learn about the Graduate Program about this content

In your Junior Year

In order to apply for the Pathway Program, you must be a political science major who has already completed at least 12 credit hours of 300 or 400 level political science classes. Also, at the time of application, your institutional GPA must be at least 3.3. 

Deadline: Applications are due by the end of finals week of the third term of your junior year. 


Interested students should submit the following to the Department’s Graduate Program Coordinator, Dr. Melody Valdini:

  1. Statement of purpose identifying your planned areas of study in the master’s program as well as your professional goals (500 words).
  2. Names of two faculty members who will be providing letters of recommendation. Please ask recommenders to submit their letters directly the department at pga@pdx.edu.
  3. International students from partner universities may also be required to submit TOEFL scores.
Contact Dr. Valdini about this content

In your Senior Year

You must have an institutional GPA of 3.3 upon graduation to be fully admitted into the graduate program. In addition, you must have earned a ‘B’ or higher on all graduate courses taken for shared credits. 


In your senior year of your undergraduate degree, you will need to complete two steps to be admitted as a graduate student the following academic year:

  1. Students should meet with the Graduate Director for advising before registering for graduate courses. 

  2. Submit a simplified Pathway application for the Master's program. You will find this application by clicking "Graduate" and "Political Science Pathway" when you go to start your application. This application is open year round and will have no application fee or required documents. 

    Deadline: This application should be completed before the end of your last term as an undergraduate.

  3. Apply for graduation with an undergraduate degree. 
Apply for Grad School about this content