Normally, students entering the Department must have successfully completed at least two courses offered by the Department of Politics on a graded basis before the end of the sophomore year. The first two courses in Politics taken are considered prerequisites. The following rules apply to the designation of prerequisites by Politics majors:
- Prerequisites may not be taken as P/D/F.
- Grades in prerequisites are counted in the calculation of departmental honors.
- Prerequisites may be used to fulfill distribution requirements.
- Politics majors are required to take an analytical course. This course should be taken no later than the first semester of their junior year, though students are encouraged to satisfy this requirement prior to declaring the major.
- Note that if a student plans to take exactly two prerequisites, both cannot count as meeting the department's analytical requirement. In other words, if two analytical courses (e.g., POL 345 and POL 347) are taken as prerequisites, a third non-analytical Politics course will additionally be required by the end of sophomore year.
Transfers and Late Majors
Students who submit late requests for admission to the Department or who wish to transfer into the Department will be accepted, only if the Department can provide adequate supervision for junior and senior independent work. Students who have not completed prerequisites may be admitted at the discretion of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.