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Advising Information for New Graduate Students

In no particular order, here are the highlights.

1. We have guidelines for the MA and PhD programs on the Political Science Graduate webpage, or you may request paper copies from the Graduate Coordinator. Please also check out the Representative Graduate Seminars page for more information.

2. Course numbering:

• 700-1000 are graduate level courses

• 600-699 are upper level undergraduate courses that graduate students may take (NOTE: graduate students have a separate "line number" for enrollment in these classes)

• Both the PhD and MA programs have restrictions on the number of undergraduate courses that may be taken, so check the guidelines

3. Many graduate courses have prerequisites. Most commonly, advanced courses will require the following field seminars:

• American Politics: POLS 810

• Comparative Politics: POLS 850

• International Relations: POLS 870

• Public Policy: POLS 720

• Public Administration: POLS 840

Typically, we offer 810, 850, and 870 once per year, or perhaps once per three semesters. As a doctoral student, your choice of fields is only partly a matter of your personal interests, it also depends on what is feasible and what we are able to help you with. We suggest you familiarize yourself with the faculty's research interests and publications and see the PhD guidelines for more details.

4. Check on the Research Methods requirements.

• All MA and PhD students must take Statistical Research Methods, POLS 706

• A prerequisite for 706 is a course in Research Design, which we offer as POLS 705.

• All Ph.D. students must take POLS 707, Research Methods II, and in addition must either take another course in research methods or master a foreign language (which, of course, is a research method for people who do field studies)

5. POLS 940, "Teaching Political Science", is a one credit hour course required for all new Graduate Teaching Assistants and recommended for all Ph.D. students.

6. Students with a strong background in Political Science and research methods might begin the program by enrolling in:

• POLS 705 Research Design

• And two courses from this set: 810, 850, 870, 720, 840

If you do not have a strong background in Political Science, a reasonable first semester schedule is as follows:

• POLS 705 Research Design

• One course from this set: 810, 850, 870, 720, 840

• One course from the 600 level that matches your substantive interests

If you plan to work only on an MA degree, the only vital thing is to take POLS 705 in your first semester, and you may take anything else in the 600-1000 range that looks interesting to you. During your time here, you will need to take a couple of upper level graduate seminars, and it is up to you to decide when to take them. If you take them early, they will serve as prerequisites for other courses you might want to take later. Note that MA students may only take nine hours below the 700 level.

Juliet Kaarbo, Graduate Director, Department of Political Science University of Kansas

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