If the evaluation committee convened at the end of the student's first year of courses finds that a student's work provides sufficient evidence of the research and writing skills ordinarily demonstrated in a master's thesis, it may recommend that the student be allowed to proceed with a doctoral program. When a first-year evaluation committee finds the quality of a student's work inadequate for recommending continuation toward the Ph.D., the committee may recommend that the student be permitted to seek the nonthesis M.A. as a terminal degree. The Ph.D. program in political science is designed to prepare students for research, teaching, and scholarly endeavor in academic settings and private or governmental institutions. It produces graduates who are deeply committed to the study of politics, familiar with fundamental knowledge about political processes, well-trained in methods and techniques for careful investigation of basic and applied research questions, and determined to make contributions to the discipline of political science and to society. About seven Ph.D. students are admitted each year, so students work closely with faculty members, often collaborating on research and publication.
Graduate students know one another and enjoy supportive, congenial working conditions.
Curriculum Doctoral study usually lasts four to five years. The first-year curriculum for all students consists of core courses equally divided between substance and methodology. Special attention is given to research design, collection of observations, analysis and interpretation of data. The second and third years of study are spent in small seminars with focused, substantive topics. Papers written for these seminars might be submitted to journals or read at professional meetings.