Admission

To be admitted to the Master of Arts or Master of Science programs, a student must have:

1. a bachelor’s degree awarded by an accredited college or university;
2. a minimum of 24 hours of undergraduate or graduate work in political science;
3. an acceptable grade point average on the last 60 hours and acceptable GRE scores; for standardized admission test requirements, contact the department or the Toulouse Graduate School ;
4. three letters of recommendation, preferably from professors;
5. a 500-word statement of purpose; and
6. an academic writing sample.

Degree Requirements

The master’s degree in political science requires a minimum of 30 semester hours, at least 24 of which must be taken in the Department of Political Science, including PSCI 5340 - Seminar in Political Science Scope and Methods , and PSCI 6320 - Quantitative Political Research Methods . A minor of 6 hours outside the department is optional. If an outside minor is chosen, the master’s degree will include two fields in political science and the outside minor. If an outside minor is not chosen, the program must include two fields in political science.

The fields of political science available for inclusion are American government and politics, comparative politics, international relations, political theory, and research methodology.

Candidates for the Master of Arts degree must present evidence that they have a reading knowledge of at least one foreign language. Language competency is typically defined as two years of language study or the equivalent. Candidates for the Master of Science degree must present evidence that they have achieved competence in a non-language research tool, typically by showing evidence of having completed courses at the graduate level for one of the non-language research tools listed in “Political Science Tool Requirement.” This document is posted on the department’s web site (www.psci.unt.edu/Graduate/TOOLCLAS.html).

Graduate credit course requirements are identical for the two degrees.

Successful completion of a thesis and satisfactory performance on an oral comprehensive examination complete the requirements for the master’s degree.

Additional program information is contained under the link “Degree Program Requirements” posted on the department’s graduate program web site (www.psci.unt.edu). The student is responsible for knowing the program requirements.