Candidates for the M.A. may elect either a thesis option, which requires 30 hours of graduate course work plus a thesis, or a non-thesis option, which requires 33 graduate hours and a bibliographic essay. The M.A. program usually takes two years to complete.

There are two plans under which graduate students can earn a Master of Art’s degree: Plan I, which requires 30 hours of coursework and 6 hours of Master’s thesis hours; and Plan II, which requires 33 hours of coursework and 3 hours of Bibliographic Essay hours. Master’s students in Political Science are encouraged to plan their studies based on one of four Concentrations: American Politics, Comparative Politics, Political Analysis, and Political Theory. Each of these is described below. Students may also create their own Concentration with the permission of the graduate director. Other graduate level political science courses outside the Concentration may be used as electives for the remaining hours. Students should submit a degree plan form and declare their concentration by the time they have completed 9 hours of course work.

MA Information

• MA Thesis Guidelines (pdf file, 18K size
• Blibliographic Essay(pdf file, 225K size) 

Concentrations

• American Politics (pdf file, 13K size)
• Comparative Politics (pdf file, 13K size)
• Political Analysis (pdf file, 15K size)
• Political Theory (pdf file, 13K size)

Degree Plans

• MA Degree Plan I (Word file, 8K size)
• MA Degree Plan II (Word file, 8K size)
• Normal Progress Toward the MA degree (pdf file, 13K size)

Student Progress Sheet

• Progress Report (pdf file, 5K size)