Whom to schedule an appointment with, and how

All incoming Politics majors must meet with a department representative in order to complete their sign-in registration. It is explained below whom to make an appointment with and how.

What to do in preparation for your appointment

To prepare for your meeting, please follow these important steps below at least 3 hours prior to your meeting*: 

  1. Complete the Sophomore Intake Form in its entirety.

    [A copy of your internal transcript must be uploaded into the form and can be obtained via TigerHub.]
     
  2. Declare Politics as your major online only if you are certain about your choice. 

    [Upon declaring the major, you will be given the option to select your primary field from the following: American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Political Theory. Please be aware that if you choose a primary field now - which might be listed as a “sub-plan” in TigerHub - it can be changed at a later date by simply informing the Department.]

*Departmental representatives need to have access to your academic record and Degree Progress Report in order to effectively advise you and ample time is necessary to process the information. If you’re unable to complete the 2 steps at least 3 hours prior to your meeting, we ask that you cancel your appointment and reschedule for another time. 

Deadline to register

During the sophomore declaration period (March 28-April 15), prospective Politics majors must meet with one of the departmental representatives listed above. 

In addition, students must also officially declare the major online for the University.

The deadline to register in the Department of Politics as well as to choose your major online is Monday, April 15.

POL 300

Politics majors are required to complete POL 300 (Conducting Independent Research in Political Science) in the Fall semester of junior year. POL 300 is designed to complement the Fall Junior Independent Work requirement and will count for course credit.
 
All prospective Politics majors in the Class of 2026 must block out TTH, 10:00-10:50 AM in their schedules in order to take POL 300 (which will only be offered in the Fall semester), and must register for this required departmental course when TigerHub opens to sophomores on April 17. Upon course registration, students will need to select one of two tracks for the lecture component of POL 300, either the technical track (L01) or the conceptual track (L02).
 
The technical track is designed for students who are particularly interested in pursuing quantitative/statistical analyses in their independent work. To enroll in the technical track, students must have completed the Politics analytical requirement in a statistics-based course by the end of their sophomore year. These include: 
 
POL 345/SOC 305/SPI 211 Introduction to Quantitative Social Science
POL 346 Applied Quantitative Analysis
ECO 202 Statistics and Data Analysis for Economics
ECO 302 Econometrics
ECO 312 Econometrics: A Mathematical Approach
ORF 245/EGR 245 Fundamentals of Statistics
SOC 404 Social Statistics
SPI 200 Statistics for Social Science
 
Please also note that the technical track assignments and precepts will involve the use of the R statistics program. [If you have taken an analytical course that uses a different program (e.g. Stata), you are still welcome to take the technical track.] 
 
The conceptual track has no prerequisites and does not presume fulfillment of the analytical requirement before your junior year. While covering many of the same topics as the technical track, it focuses less on underlying statistics, and is more appropriate for students interested in qualitative and historical research. Please note that if you plan to focus on Political Theory, you should choose the conceptual track. In addition, students who fulfill the prerequisite for the technical track may still choose the conceptual track.              

Junior Practicums

As part of POL 300, Politics juniors will take a practicum. The Practicum complements Fall Junior Independent Work. The Practicum will meet for 80 minutes, on a weekly basis, beginning the fourth week of the semester.

The list of Fall 2024 Junior Practicums with descriptions and meeting times can be found on our website.  

Students in the Politics Class of 2026 will receive an email with instructions on how to designate their Junior Practicum preferences soon after declaring the concentration. Sophomores will have an opportunity to adjust course schedules accordingly in TigerHub after being notified of their Junior Practicum assignment during the week of April 29.

Other Information

Sophomores electing to enter the Department of Politics must have completed two Politics courses on a graded basis before the end of the current academic year. Only one of these may be a course on the Department's list of courses meeting the analytical requirement (see below).

Students must complete a course satisfying an analytical requirement by the end of the Fall semester of the junior year. In exceptional cases, the Director of Undergraduate Studies may approve delaying the completion of this requirement until the Spring semester of the junior year.

All courses to be used to fulfill departmental requirements must be taken on a graded basis.

The Department maintains a list of all cognates approved by the Cognate Approval Advisor for each student. The cognates must be approved during the semester in which they are taken (no later than the last day of classes). Courses taken in the Freshman or Sophomore year cannot be designated as cognates. See the cognate policy for additional information.

In order to complete the POL 300 course requirement, Politics juniors need to be on campus and cannot participate in study abroad during Fall semester of junior year.

You can find more information about the Politics Undergraduate Program on our website.

Email addresses for sophomore sign-in contacts

Professor Iaryczower, miaryc@princeton.edu
Professor Whittington, kewhitt@princeton.edu
Professor Gieczewski, germang@princeton.edu 
Professor McConnaughy, corrinem@princeton.edu
Gayle Brodsky, gbrodsky@princeton.edu