Ph.D. Coursework Requirements

To qualify for the Ph.D., students must complete 12 Political Science courses, distributed as follows.

A minimum of 8 political science courses for a total of at least 30 points, including:

  • 2 political science colloquia or seminars (8000- or 9000-level courses) or, with prior approval of the Director of Graduate Studies, a graduate political science course that requires the writing of a research paper
  • 3 additional political science courses, normally, in one of the four subfields (American politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political theory)
  • 3 additional political science courses, or courses in a related field with prior approval of the Director of Graduate Studies

In choosing courses to fulfill M.A. requirements, students should be aware of course distributions required for the M.Phil. degree detailed below. Some courses required for the M.Phil., such as field surveys or methods courses, may be offered as electives for the M.A.

All courses offered in fulfillment of sequential M.A. and M.Phil. degree requirements must be taken for Examination, “E,” credit. Students must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.5 in order to be eligible to take comprehensive exams.

Courses may be taken for Registration, “R,” credit only with permission of the instructor obtained at the beginning of the semester; however, courses taken for R credit do not fulfill any degree requirement towards the M.Phil.

Please click here for a detailed explanation of the GSAS grading system.

In addition to the 8 courses completed for the M.A., at least 4 additional courses such that upon award of the M.Phil., the student will have completed:

  • 3 of the department’s 4 field surveys (GR6101, 6210-11, GR6410-11, GR 6801)
  • 4 of the department’s colloquia and seminars (8000- and 9000-level courses), at least 2 of which must involve the preparation of research papers
  • 1 course in quantitative analysis or formal modeling
  • At least 2 courses in each of two different subfields of political science, not including the three required field survey courses or the one course required in quantitative analysis or formal modeling
Field survey courses
  • POLS GR6101, Issues in Political Theory
  • POLS GR6210-11 Theories and Debates in American Politics I and II
  • POLS GR6410-11, Comparative Politics Survey I and II
  • POLS GR6801, Theories of International Relations

Majors in American politics and comparative politics must complete both semesters of the two-semester field surveys in those fields and two additional field surveys. American politics and comparative politics minors are strongly encouraged to take both semesters of those fields’ surveys. Students not majoring in American or comparative politics need to take only one semester of those field surveys to fulfill the field survey requirement.

Additional courses have been designated to be approved in place of the third field survey in the field that is not the student’s major or minor field. The Director of Graduate Studies must be informed if the student will replace one of the field survey course requirements with one of these courses.

Substitutes for third field survey

Comparative Politics:
• Any 8000 level course in comparative politics

International Relations:
• GR8804: International Political Economy
• GU4895: War, Peace and Strategy

Political Theory:
• GU4134: Modern Political Thought

Courses for the quantitative analysis or formal modeling requirement
  • POLS GU4710 Principles of Quantitative Political Research 1
  • POLS GU4712  Principles of Quantitative Political Research 2
  • POLS GU4720 Quantitative Methods 1: Applied Regression and Causal Inference
  • POLS GU4724, Quantitative Methods 3: Experimental Methods
  • POLS GU4730 Game Theory and Political Theory
  • POLS GU4732, Research Topics in Game Theory
  • POLS GU4764 Design and Analysis of Sample Surveys
  • POLS GU4790 Advanced Topics in Quantitative Research: Models for Limited and Qualitative Dependent Variables
  • POLS GU4792 Advanced Topics in Quantitative Research: Models for Panel and Time-Series Cross-Section Data
  • STAT GU4330 Regression and Multilevel Models
  • STAT GR7110  Political Science Methodology
  • STAT GR7300  Research in Bayesian Statistics

Courses in other departments may be substituted for those of the Department of Political Science with the prior written approval of the Director of Graduate Studies.

All courses offered in fulfillment of sequential M.A. and M.Phil. degree requirements must be taken for Examination, “E,” credit. Students must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.5 in order to be eligible to take comprehensive exams.

Courses may be taken for Registration, “R,” credit only with permission of the instructor obtained at the beginning of the semester; however, courses taken for R credit do not fulfill any degree requirement towards the M.Phil.

Please click here for a detailed explanation of the GSAS grading system.