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Department of Political Science University of Wisconsin-Madison GUIDE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS August 2020 This Guide is in three chapters. Chapter One provides some useful words of advice in addition to an outline of the program and its requirements. Chapter Two sets out in greater detail the formal rules concerning the requirements for obtaining an M.A. or Ph.D. Chapter Three contains descriptions of the general prelim fields in the Department. It is your responsibility as a graduate student to be familiar with the rules of the Department and the Graduate School that apply to you. CHAPTER ONE I. General Structure of the Program The basic structure of the graduate program is explained in detail in Chapter Two. To summarize, in addition to taking a suitable course load (discussed below), you should: A. Take and pass Political Science 800 in your first semester. B. Take and pass the research design course Political Science 817. C. Take and pass three credits of coursework in statistical methodology. D. Meet with your advisor to discuss the faculty’s First Year Assessment of your progress in the program by the start of your third semester. E. Meet with your advisor the start of each semester. F. Take and pass two general prelims from the specified list (International Relations, American Politics, Comparative Politics, Political Theory, Political Methodology) in June following your fourth semester. G. Present one or more possible dissertation ideas to a committee with a minimum of two faculty members no later than September 15th of the 5th semester. H. Take and pass the dissertation proposal workshop course Political Science 801. I. Submit a solo-authored conference-level research paper for review by December 15th of the 5th semester.
J. Complete the Graduate School Minor requirement (9 credits) and meet the minimum graduate credit requirement (51 credits). K. Fulfill any requirements specified by the student’s primary subfield, such as presenting at a workshop. L. Maintain minimum of B average in coursework. M. Remove all Incompletes before defending the dissertation proposal. N. Produce an approved dissertation proposal before the start of the seventh semester. O. Write, defend and deposit a thesis of an acceptable standard that makes an original contribution to knowledge. II. Getting Advice A. One of the first people you will meet is the Graduate Program Coordinator. The Graduate Program Coordinator can give invaluable information on many of the questions you will have. If you have a question about specific procedures, deadlines, forms, and so on, you should always check with the Graduate Program Coordinator even if you have received advice from other individuals. B. During your first week in the department you will have an appointment with the Associate Chair, who is also the director of graduate studies for the department. The Associate Chair will help you find an advisor whose interests you share. The Associate Chair will also be happy to give advice throughout your career here in discussing department policies and requirements and defining your academic goals and program. C. Your advisor will be your first source of advice on questions concerning your work here. You should meet with this person at least once each semester. It is not uncommon for graduate students to change their advisor as their own interests change. All that needs to be done to change advisors is to obtain the consent of your new advisor and to notify both faculty members involved, the Associate Chair, and the Graduate Program Coordinator. Students should also feel free to bring their questions to other faculty members. It is never too early to be thinking about the composition of your committee. D. Each spring at the end of the semester, the faculty will meet to discuss the progress and performance of each of the first year students. Following this meeting, the Associate Chair will provide each student with a First Year Assessment. Students are then required to meet with their advisors to discuss the faculty’s evaluation of their performance. E. Each semester students are required to meet with their advisor to review past successes and discuss future goals.
chance to meet with scholars from other universities. Workshops are more than courses to take. With most fields requiring a presentation during the second or third year in the program, they provide a place to learn the rules of the game in terms of how to present, comment on, and discuss research. The number of credits for which you enroll, 1-3, varies based on your level of involvement in the workshop. D. Each course has its own requirements. However, all courses are designed so that the work required can be completed during the semester. We advise strongly against taking an incomplete for courses. Incompletes tend to accumulate, progressively reducing your ability to focus on work required for new courses you have started. Moreover, incompletes on your record are usually a disadvantage in competitions for financial aid (see below). Ultimately, if incompletes are not cleared, the Graduate School may deny you permission to register. If you have an incomplete after a semester, clear it as soon as possible. No student can receive a degree or defend the dissertation proposal with outstanding incompletes. E. Because the department offers a large variety of courses, it is rarely necessary for students to register for Political Science 999 (Independent Work). A 999 should not simply duplicate the reading list from a regularly offered course, and some faculty might refuse a request to do such a 999. If you do take a 999 you will need the consent of the professor. Be sure you agree clearly with the professor (preferably in writing) at the outset on the type of work and assignments required and the number of credits (2 or 3) you can earn. Forms for stating such agreements are available from the Graduate Program Coordinator. Only three credits of 999 coursework can be counted toward an M.A. or Minor requirement. F. Your courses are only one element in your education. Be sure to use other resources available to you, including seminars and special lectures given by visitors, attending talks by job candidates, and participating in conferences. Make contact with faculty in the department whose work interests you even if you are not taking a course with them. You aren’t an undergraduate any longer; don’t be just another face in a seminar or lecture! As a scholar in training, take the opportunities offered to you to enhance your professional development. IV. The Dissertation The writing of a good dissertation is the most important aspect of your career as a graduate student. It is your dissertation, more than your prelim performance or even your seminar grades, which will be crucial in getting you your first job. It is your dissertation that you will mine for publications as an assistant professor as you build a tenurable record. You will live with your thesis and subsequent publications for many years and it will have a major impact in defining your academic career. It follows that you should select a thesis topic with great care, consulting widely with faculty on your ideas for a thesis. It is your job, not the faculty’s, to identify a research topic, but faculty are certainly ready, willing, and able to help you sort through the possibilities you have identified.
A. From your very first semester, you should thinking about what interests you most. B. In selecting a topic for your dissertation, you will additionally have to make a trade-off between defining a topic that is “do-able” with the resources and time available, and defining a topic of potential intellectual significance. Your task is to identify a question that is likely to be of theoretical interest to a range of scholars in your field. A well- chosen question is critically important. The sign of a good question is that virtually any answer to the question will interest other scholars. If you start the other way—what would be an interesting answer for me to find—you may find yourself quite worried if your research doesn’t support that answer and trying hard to salvage the answer. You have to avoid both the grand but unmanageable thesis topic and the insignificant topic. You should think carefully about the “so what” question—that is, why should anyone care what the answer to the question is? Make sure you consult with your committee as you are developing your question. Departmental workshops are also useful for getting feedback on dissertation ideas. C. These questions should be in the back of your mind as you take courses. You should also be thinking about who you would like to be on your dissertation proposal and final committees. D. In your third year, you should be starting to transition to the dissertation and your research as your primary focus. The department’s third year requirements are designed with that in mind.
- At the start of the fifth semester, you must meet with at least two faculty members to discuss one or more dissertation ideas. The meeting is an excellent opportunity to get concrete about a topic and to receive initial feedback. You are not locked into the topic or topics you present. You are also not required to include the faculty with whom you meet on your eventual dissertation proposal committee.
- The dissertation proposal class in your fifth semester is also a crucial place in which to learn how to structure a proposal, read examples of other proposals, and to otherwise prepare you to defend your proposal by the end of the sixth semester.
- In addition, while the research paper you hand in at the end of the fifth semester may be independent of your dissertation, that paper is also an opportunity to develop ideas and to work with ideas that are potential dissertation topics. E. You are expected to defend a dissertation proposal before start of the seventh semester. Writing the proposal is an essential process to go through, for it will force you to confront difficulties such as the ambiguity or confusion in your concepts, areas in which you need to read more deeply, gaps between your arguments and the evidence you plan to gather to sustain them, and the significance (or insignificance) of your work for political scientists who happen not to share your fascination with your thesis topic. F. It is your responsibility to arrange to meet frequently and regularly with your advisor and supervising committee to discuss progress and problems in your work.
those for dissertation proposals are outlined below. Beyond this, the Associate Chair, in consultation with the student’s advisor, may grant extensions to normal progress requirements for students who face circumstances similar to those that permit assistant professors to obtain extensions on their tenure clocks: as noted in university regulations, this includes childbirth, adoption, significant responsibilities with respect to elder or dependent care obligations, disability or chronic illness, or circumstances beyond one’s personal control. The typical extension for such purposes will be one semester; anything beyond this will be granted only in the event of highly extraordinary circumstances. Extensions will be granted formally with a note of explanation to be placed in the student’s file. C. Taking account of any extensions, as discussed in the previous point, students who fail to pass the requirements by September 15th of their seventh semester will have an enrollment Hold placed on their record and receive a letter stating that if they fail to attain dissertator status by the first day of instruction of their eighth semester they will be dropped from the program. VI. Graduate School Rules: Credits and Minors You also need to comply with Graduate School rules involving the minimum credit requirements and completing a Minor. A. The Graduate School establishes the minimum number of UW-Madison credits that you must have to receive a graduate degree. A Ph.D. requires 51 credits, at least half of which should be at the 700 or above. The Graduate School will not transfer any work done at another institution toward fulfillment of the minimum UW-Madison credit requirement. Students must have at least a 3.0 GPA in these courses to receive their degrees. All credits taken at UW-Madison, including those taken during the summer and at a distance, count toward this requirement so long as the course is considered a UW- Madison course. B. As you plan out your courses, you will need to be thinking about when to take courses to satisfy your Minor requirement. Many students focus on the Minor in the fall of their third year. You should think of the Minor as a chance to add some additional research skills, concentrate in an area in which you’d like some teaching competency, or focus on an area that you believe might be beneficial for your dissertation research. The Minor requirement can be met in two ways, Option A or Option B.
- Option A, “External Minor,” requires a minimum of at least nine credits in a single department other than the Political Science department. This option requires the approval of the department in which the Minor is done, and that department might add specific criteria to meet. Your advisor also needs to give his/her approval.
- Option B, “Distributed Minor,” requires a minimum of nine credits that can be taken in multiple outside departments or across subfields within the Political Science
department. These credits should provide an intellectually coherent theme within an area of study. One possible path for the Distributed Minor is an “Internal Minor” in which all nine credits are taken in the Political Science department. The purpose of the Internal Minor is to broaden a student's perspective beyond the specific fields which constitute the student's preliminary examination fields. However, if a student can demonstrate to the Associate Chair and his or her advisor that a course within a tested field but outside a tested subfield fits within an intellectually coherent theme that complements and broadens a student’s perspective and would constitute a legitimate Distributed Minor or Internal Minor, the student may petition to count that course toward the requirement. In all cases, such an exception will be limited to one course only. A student will not be allowed to count required courses (e.g., PS 800 or PS 817 and required coursework in statistical methods) toward a Minor. Up to three credits earned in departmental research workshops may be applied toward Internal Minors. All Option B Minors require the approval of the student’s advisor and the Associate Chair. VII. Financial Support A. Financial support in the department consists mainly of teaching assistantships and project assistantships. The department also makes nominations for a number of fellowships and hires advanced graduate students to design and teach courses as lecturers. The department ensures five years (ten consecutive semesters) of funding for students who are making normal progress. If you receive outside funding during those five years, the department’s guarantee is not extended to additional years, but you will have high priority for funding beyond the fifth year. The guarantee of support assumes that you remain a graduate student in good standing with the department and that your teaching or other responsibilities are performed well. If either of these conditions are not met, your financial guarantee may be terminated. B. How are these positions allocated? The Associate Chair allocates a small number of project assistantships to incoming students; there is no application process for these positions. Otherwise, PA positions are posted by the faculty member who supervises the position. He or she evaluates applicants and then decides whom to hire. Graduate-student lecturer (Lecturer SA) appointments typically have ABD status and are at an advanced stage of their graduate careers. Teaching Assistant appointments are made by the Graduate Program Coordinator after soliciting course preferences from graduate students. In addition to student preferences, the following factors are taken into account when making TA appointments:
- Normal progress. Students off normal progress receive lower priority for financial aid and may lose their guarantee of financial aid. If a student falls off normal
will be considered seriously at whatever level of institution to which you are individually qualified to apply. Second, the department will give you all possible help in finding a suitable job. A. Your advisor and the Associate Chair will help you decide when you are ready to go on placement. The season usually begins in August with online job listings at the American Political Science Association website (www.apsanet.org). However, some listings are posted even earlier than this. It is your job to check the site frequently to read new listings and identify jobs that interest you. B. Neither the Associate Chair nor your advisor can answer questions about the type of institution (e.g., Liberal Arts College or Research University) or geographical region of the country in which you should work. You need to consider, therefore, what type of institution and what parts of the country you would like to work in. Be aware that the more flexible you are about regions and institutions in which you could work, the easier it will be to find a job. C. In general, you should not consider going on placement until you are sufficiently advanced with your thesis to have a minimum of two revised chapters that you feel are of the highest standard you can produce, and be sure that you will finish your dissertation within the academic year. Most quality departments are unwilling to accept on face value vague assurances that you will “defend some time next summer”; you will have to be able to convince them that you really are close to finishing a good dissertation. The more you have finished, the better, as you will be competing against students who have completed their dissertations as well as assistant professors looking to move to a new department. D. You need to arrange with at least three faculty members who know you well to place letters in the file. Give faculty plenty of time and adequate application material so that they can write strong letters. E. A meeting is held annually in May for people going on the job market. At this meeting, the Associate Chair will give you further information on placement. It is a good idea to attend this meeting the year before you plan to enter the job market to gain a sense of what lies ahead. The Associate Chair also examines all placement files and makes suggestions to you about how your file might be improved. IX. Professional Conduct The Department of Political Science abides by the university’s code of academic conduct. Information about the university’s definitions, policies, and disciplinary sanctions are available at https://grad.wisc.edu/acadpolicy/#misconductacademic. When an instructor suspects a student has committed academic misconduct in a non-course setting (conference papers, project assistantship, project data, etc.), he or she should notify the Associate Chair. The Associate Chair will consult with other faculty when appropriate and decide on a disciplinary sanction. Sanctions range from a written reprimand that may be placed in the student’s department file for
removal from the program. If a student is removed from the program, he or she is not removed from the university. The decision to remove the student from the university is part of the university’s official misconduct review process. When an instructor suspects a student has committed academic misconduct in a course, he or she will be guided by the university’s academic misconduct process. The instructor also has the option of recommending to the Associate Chair that the student be removed from the department’s graduate program. The Associate Chair, after consultation with faculty, will decide whether this disciplinary action is appropriate. Department faculty may ask applicants for project assistant positions whether they have been found to be in violation of academic conduct standards, either at this university or elsewhere. The department faculty reminds students that they need to let faculty know if they are planning to submit a paper that is a revised version of a paper they have already written, or are submitting the same or a similar paper for more than one course. These plans must be cleared with faculty well ahead of time before submitting the paper: students should seek permission from the faculty member prior to beginning the revising or writing of the paper. The faculty considers the submission of “recycled” papers without prior faculty approval to be a breach of both the university’s standards for academic conduct and our department’s standards of academic integrity. The Department of Political Science is committed to a professional and welcoming workplace environment for students of every background. Students are expected to abide by the department’s “Statement on a Professional Workplace Environment” posted in the Graduate Student Lounge. The department adheres to the university’s policies on sexual and other forms of harassment. For further information on sexual harassment and the procedures for filing a complaint, consult the university’s Dean of Students Office at https://www.students.wisc.edu/doso/reporting- allegations-of-sexual-assault-datingdomestic-violence-and-stalking/ or contact the Chair or Associate Chair.
- Submit a solo-authored conference-level research paper for review by December 15 of the 5th semester.
- Complete the Graduate School minimum credit requirement of 32 credits and the Minor requirement.
- Earn a minimum 3.0 grade point average.
- Have no Incompletes.
- Successfully defend a dissertation proposal before a committee of four faculty members B. To receive the Ph.D., a student must also:
- Have completed 51 credits of course work. This includes credits from PS 990: Research and Thesis.
- Produce a dissertation of an acceptable standard that makes an original contribution to knowledge.
- Pass a two-hour oral dissertation defense before a committee of at least four graduate faculty members. At least one of the four faculty members must represent a graduate field outside your major. Three positive votes are required to pass the defense.
- Deposit an approved copy of the dissertation with the Graduate School. III. Ph.D. Requirements A. Preliminary Exams Each student will select a First Field and a Second Field. The First Field is the field within which the student expects to write a doctoral dissertation. The Second Field complements and supports the First Field and the student’s intellectual and research interests. Students will indicate which fields they intend to test through submission of the Preliminary Exam Signup form. Each exam will be graded by or on behalf of field committees. Students are encouraged to work with other students in preparing for prelims, but the taking of prelims is an independent exercise.
- Scheduling of Exams a. All preliminary exams will be administered during the first two weeks of June following the student’s fourth semester. The schedule of exams will vary each year, depending on how many students sign up for each exam and in what combination. Both the First Field and Second Field written exams for each subfield will be distributed simultaneously.
i. For example, in a given year, it might be that the American Politics and Comparative Politics exams are distributed the first week, while in the second week the International Relations and Political Theory exams are distributed. ii. The second-field methods review essay, which is not in an exam format, is due on the last day of the exam window. b. With the exception of retakes, discussed below, only one sitting will be provided in any year. c. In extraordinary circumstances, as noted elsewhere in the Graduate Guide, the Associate Chair may permit students to proceed outside the above schedule of exams.
- Exam Procedures a. The department’s prelim exams are designed for students to display breadth and depth of knowledge and their ability to identify and discuss important research questions and directions in the field. Thus, based on the field’s approach to assessing this, the exam format varies by field. b. The first and second field American and Comparative exams and the second field Theory are exams with written responses taken during a 56-hour sitting. i. Students will be given the list of questions for the entire exam at the start of the exam. ii. Students taking the First Field exam in American must answer four of six questions. Students taking the First Field exam in Comparative Politics must answer three out of four questions. Answers for the first field American and Comparative exams are limited to 8,000 words for all questions combined or approximately 25 pages. iii. Students taking the Second Field exam in American must answer two of six questions. Answers for the second field exams in American Politics exams are limited to 4,000 words for all questions combined or about 13 pages. iv. Students taking the Second Field exam in Comparative Politics must answer two out of four questions. Answers for the second field exams in Comparative Politics exams are limited to 5,000 words for all questions combined, or about 15 pages. v. For the Political Theory second field exam, students must answer three questions from three separate subfields. Answers for the exam are limited to 6,000 words for all questions combined or about 20 pages. vi. Upon receipt of the preliminary exam questions, students may not discuss the exam questions or answers. Violations of this policy, as determined by the Associate Chair, will be grounds for a grade of “Deficient” on the exam. vii. Students are allowed access to notes and other written materials while writing their exams. Inappropriate use of published or online materials that constitute academic misconduct as defined by the university, and as determined by the Associate Chair, will lead to a grade of Deficient on the exam. It is each
e. The Appeal Committee will not consider appeals of prelim grades based on content.
- Any field committee that wishes to change its exam policies from those set out in Chapter 2 will present the proposed changes to the Associate Chair who will forward them to the Graduate Program Committee and the department for comment and approval. B. Proposed Dissertation Ideas Consultation By September 15th of the 5th semester the student will meet with a minimum of two faculty to discuss at least two possible dissertation ideas. The student, in consultation with their advisor, will choose which faculty will be a part of the meeting. C. Dissertation Workshop All students are required to take and pass PS 801: Dissertation Workshop before or during the 5th semester. D. Research Paper Requirement A solo-authored conference-level research paper written on topic in the student’s first field must be submitted to the Associate Chair by December 15th of the 5th semester. Each field chair will select a committee of two faculty from within the field that will review the papers submitted in that field. The reviewers will assess the paper as a Pass or Revise and Resubmit and provide comments to the student by the Spring Semester Instruction Begins date set by the Academic Calendar for the 6th semester. If the two reviewers disagree in their assessment, the Field Chair will cast the deciding vote. If the author receives an assessment of Revise and Resubmit, the student has until the last day of classes for the 6th semester to submit a satisfactory paper, along with a memo outlining how they responded to the comments. The prior review committee will assess the revised paper and the response memo as Pass or as another Revise and Resubmit by the last day of finals. If the two reviewers disagree in their assessment, the Field Chair will cast the deciding vote. If a second revision is necessary, students have until June 30th to submit a revision. Faculty will evaluate this revision by July 15. A student will have no more than two opportunities to revise and resubmit their paper. Failure to submit a satisfactory paper after two revisions is cause for removal from the program. Students may submit papers used to fulfill another requirement for the purpose of meeting the research paper requirement. Unless there are exceptional circumstances approved by the Associate Chair, a student who fails to meet the requirement by July 15th following their sixth semester will have a Hold placed on their records, blocking enrollment for the eighth semester. E. Dissertation Proposal Defense
- Before the start of the seventh semester, each student will defend a dissertation proposal at a conference with his or her dissertation proposal committee. The proposal should clearly identify the research question or topic, establish the theoretical framework for the proposed topic, reference the relevant literature, and
describe in detail the proposed research design and methods. A proposal will typically be 20 to 30 pages in length.
- The dissertation proposal committee will consist of a chair and at least three additional members. The chair of the committee will also be considered the student’s advisor. One of these three additional members may be from a department outside Political Science.
- One month before the scheduled defense date, the student will notify the Graduate Program Coordinator when the defense will take place. Students will need to be certain that they consult with their committee so that this deadline can be met. The student should circulate drafts of the proposal to committee members for comments in the months leading up to the one-month proposal preclearance. The version of the proposal to be discussed at the conference should be received by committee members two weeks prior to the conference.
- It is the student’s responsibility to schedule the defense so that a result can be communicated to the Graduate Program Coordinator before the start of the seventh semester. The Associate Chair, in consultation with the student’s advisor, may grant extensions for those needing to take extensive language or methodological training or those students electing to pursue an M.A. degree or significant coursework in another department. Personal circumstances, as explained in Chapter One, can also be a valid reason for giving students more time to defend their dissertation proposals. The normal extension will be one semester for personal reasons or one to two semesters for academic reasons; anything beyond this will be granted only in the event of highly extraordinary circumstances.
- The proposal defense will consist of two portions, the first of which encourages the participation of faculty and graduate students in Political Science and the second of which will be a workshop format involving only the student and the faculty committee members. Both portions will be chaired by the student’s advisor. For a defense to go forward, the student must announce the proposal title, a one-page abstract, and time and venue of the defense. At least one week before the defense, this information should be distributed via e-mail to department faculty and graduate students. In the first portion of the defense, the student will make a brief presentation and there will be ample time for the student to field questions from the attendees. When the committee chair judges it appropriate, the defense will go into a closed session consisting only of the student and the faculty committee members. This second portion of the defense will be a workshop format, the purpose of which is to provide the student and committee members with the opportunity to discuss the suggestions already provided as well as solicit further suggestions on specific issues from committee members. It would be appropriate for faculty to ask questions that
proposal committee. The final oral defense committee will consist of at least four members, three of whom must be UW-Madison graduate faculty or former UW- Madison faculty up to one year after resignation or retirement. The committee may have a chair and a co-chair, one of whom must be from the Political Science Department. One member of the committee must be from outside the discipline, and one member may be from outside the UW-Madison campus. The department encourages students to select the full set of committee members early in the dissertation research process.
- The dissertation shall be defended at a two-hour oral exam before the dissertation committee. As with the proposal defense, this shall consist of an open session followed by a closed session.
- Copies of the dissertation shall be made available to members of the committee no later than two weeks before the oral defense.
- To successfully defend the dissertation, the committee must be satisfied that the dissertation is an original and significant contribution to knowledge, that the arguments of the thesis are presented coherently, and that the arguments of the thesis are supported adequately by evidence and documentation. The committee must also be satisfied that the student has a broad and intensive knowledge of the major field in which the thesis is written. At least three positive votes are required to pass the defense.
- An approved copy of the dissertation must be deposited with the Graduate School. IV. Field Committee Policies A. American Politics The American Politics field covers all aspects of and approaches to American politics. Topics covered include but are not limited to political behavior, all institutions of government (Congress, the presidency, courts, and the bureaucracy), state and local government, parties and public policy, American political economy, interest groups, and social movements. Methodologies used by faculty in the field are wide-ranging including archival research, statistical analysis, and cultural analysis. The courses faculty offer and their own research cover both the workings of American political institutions and political behavior today on the one hand, and the broad sweep of American political development on the other.
- The American politics field consists of the following subfields: a. National Institutions i. Presidency ii. Congress iii. Supreme Court iv. Bureaucracy
b. Federalism and subnational politics i. Federal system ii. State politics (including state and local institutions such as the judiciary, legislatures, and governors) iii. Urban politics c. Political behavior i. Mass and elite behavior (including political culture and political communication) ii. Public opinion iii. Socialization iv. Elections d. Policy, Political Economy, and Public Administration e. Extragovernmental Organizations i. Parties ii. Interest groups iii. Social movements f. Constitutional Law and Administrative Law
- Requirements a. Required Courses. i. First Field: Quantitative techniques are so common in the literatures covered in the American Politics field that we require students whose First Field is American Politics to take PS 812 and PS 813 before taking the American Politics prelim. This requirement is intended to help students gain the ability to read critically books and articles using quantitative techniques; it does not imply that students are expected necessarily to use quantitative techniques in their own research. ii. Second Field: The requirement to take PS 812 and PS 813 does not apply to students whose Second Field is American politics. Students declaring American politics as their Second Field are required to take a minimum of three graded graduate courses in American politics. This requirement should be viewed as a minimum number of courses and students are strongly encouraged to take additional courses to prepare for their prelims.
- Preliminary Exams a. A committee of three American Politics faculty will be responsible for writing prelim questions and grading the essays. The committee may consult other faculty for guidance on the content of questions and essays. The committee’s evaluation will reflect the degree to which the essays display knowledge of scholarship in American Politics as well as the ability to make high-level analytical arguments. All questions will be weighted equally, and the field
