This page offers short answers to the most common questions about our graduate programs. Students are strongly encouraged to read through these questions and answers, as well as more detailed information about graduate studies on other portions of the Political Science Department webpage.
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The Political Science (POSC) and International Affairs (INAF) graduate programs use a rolling admissions approach. Applications will therefore be accepted up to a month before the start of the semester in which the student wishes to begin the program. That said, space considerations limit our ability to guarantee even top applicants a spot in the program if they apply after the financial aid deadline. Students desiring to begin the program in the fall are, therefore, strongly encouraged to apply for admission by the financial aid deadline of February 15.
Both are possible. Although beginning the program in the spring semester is unusual, a small number of students each year apply to begin their program in the spring semester. If students plan to take a graduate course in the summer prior to starting their full-time studies in the Fall term, they should apply for summer admission.
No. All completed applications should be sent to the Graduate Admissions Office.
Yes, although applicants are encouraged to send all supplementary application materials (including letters of recommendation and transcripts) together in one packet. In such a case, those writing letters of recommendation must place the letter in a sealed envelope with the signature of the reviewer across the seal of the envelope prior to giving the letter to the applicant. If this is a problem, letters and transcripts can be sent directly to the Graduate Admissions Office by the recommender or university in question.
No, low scores do not automatically disqualify you from admission. The committee that reviews applications will carefully read all the information in the application file. Because average GPA scores vary greatly from one university to the next, your GRE scores will be particularly considered.
The university’s institutional GRE code is R1448. The relevant GRE program codes are 1901 for International Affairs and 1902 for Political Science.
Yes.
If you received a Bachelor’s degree from an American college or university, you do not need to submit a TOEFL score. Applicants who attended a college or university outside the United States but where English was the language of instruction should contact the Director of Graduate Studies to discuss the possibilities for a waiver of the TOEFL requirement.
Only slightly more than half of the applicants for Fall 2005 admission were admitted, but this was a very strong applicant pool.
A student admitted into the program can defer the admission for one year. The student should inform both the program’s Director of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Admissions Office of this decision. Deferrals for more than a year are rare, must be justified by the applicant, and must be approved by the program and the graduate school.
For more information on admissions procedures, see our department's page on "Applications Procedures and Deadlines."
It is hard to generalize, since the members of the committee reviewing applications to our graduate programs read each application carefully. As a result, weaknesses in some areas can be countered by strengths in other areas. Though we do consider all parts of the application, successful applicants will generally have good to very good GRE scores, good to very good undergraduate GPAs, and very strong letters of recommendation. The applicants who received admission offers for Fall 2005, for example, averaged above the 75 th percentile on their GRE verbal score and above the 70 th percentile on their GRE analytical score. Admitted students have also often completed significant service activities domestically or abroad. Students are encouraged to highlight such activities in their statements of purpose.
We are interested first and foremost in good students. Applicants are thus not required to have majored in either political science or international affairs. Other things being equal, applicants with a strong background in their proposed field of study are preferred over those who lack such a background. However, a large number of our students, including many who received financial aid, had not taken a great deal of political science as undergraduates.
Combined, the two programs have around 40 students. This allows us to keep class sizes small and allows for a great deal of interaction with professors in the Political Science Department.
Though the majority of our graduate students are full-time, there are also a number of students who, often because of working full time, take only one or two courses per semester.
Graduates of our M.A. programs follow diverse career paths. Our students generally fall into one of three categories. The first group is seeking further scholarly training and preparation prior to applying to leading law schools or top Ph.D. programs. We have become an elite program for training students seeking admission into top Ph.D. programs. We have a very good record of placing students into Ph.D. programs who would not have been admitted into such programs prior to entering our program. Some of our recent graduates, for example, have been admitted into political science Ph.D. programs at Connecticut, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan State, MIT, South Carolina, Syracuse, Texas, UCLA, Wisconsin, and Yale. A second group of M.A. students seeks employment in government service. Some of these students have been offered jobs in national, state, and local government. Others have become active in electoral politics, while still others have successfully pursued work for international organizations. The third group of students desires to work in the private sector, in fields where an advanced understanding of politics and policy-making is beneficial. Such jobs include -- but are not limited to -- teachers at private and/or preparatory schools, analysts for research institutes and “think tanks,” and advocates for particular interest groups or causes.
Requirements include 30 credits of graduate coursework, two seminar-quality research papers, and successful completion of written and oral comprehensive exams.
Typically, students complete the degree requirements in four semesters. Because our courses are each three credits, successful completion of ten courses is required. Students normally take three courses each of their first three semesters and one course plus their comprehensive exams in their fourth semester. The work involved in preparing for comprehensive exams is the equivalent of at least an additional course.
No. At this time, the Political Science and International Affairs programs only offer M.A. degrees. Because of the quality of the faculty and the design of the M.A. program, we have been encouraged by outside reviewers to establish a Ph.D. program. The Political Science Department has begun discussing this possibility.
In conjunction with the Law School, students can pursue a joint M.A.-J.D. degree in political science or in international affairs. Through this combined program, students are able to receive both the J.D. and M.A. degrees in only four years. Additional joint degree programs are available with the College of Communications (leading to two M.A. degrees, one in each field) and the College of Business Administration (leading to an M.A. and an M.B.A.). In both of these cases, students can earn the two degrees in one year less time than if they had pursued each degree separately. For more information, see pages on Joint MA-JD and/or Joint MA degrees with the Colleges of Communication and Business.
A graduate student can normally transfer six credit hours of graduate course work completed at another university. In rare cases, the transfer of more than six credits (up to a maximum of nine) may be allowed. A transfer request will be reviewed by the Director of Graduate Studies, taking into account the rigor of the individual courses and the general strength of the graduate program the student attended. The recommendation of the Director of Graduate Studies will then be reviewed by the graduate school which makes the final decision about transfer credits.
As an M.A.-only program, we do not offer teaching assistantships to our students, though occasionally graduate students are given the opportunity to lecture in a session of an undergraduate course. A research assistant thus does not bear any direct teaching responsibilities, but is typically called upon to assist professors with their current research projects or help with classroom teaching tasks. Typical assignments include, but are not limited to: data entry, retrieval, and analysis, literature searches, proofreading, editing, grading, photocopying, etc., up to 20 hours a week.
Our department respects the idea that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to political science. Our faculty employ a variety of methodological approaches and types of data in their research and hold varied positions on questions of political ideology. That said, the programs are theoretically and empirically rigorous. There is a general emphasis in the graduate programs on the importance of the use of theory in research and on conducting empirical research according to accepted methodologies. Unlike some Master’s programs, we do not provide students with a descriptive education covering the nuts-and-bolts of daily government work. Students are instead encouraged to develop their capacities to think critically about political outcomes and social relations and their abilities to conduct research on the causal factors that affect such political and social processes.
When you study political science or international affairs at Marquette, you are learning at a top university from a distinguished faculty. Without exception, the political science faculty at Marquette have received their academic training at elite educational institutions, and many have established international reputations in their fields. A ranking of political science departments in the late 1990s based on faculty publications in top scholarly journals placed Marquette’s Political Science Department at number 30 in the United States. Our department was the only one of the 50 departments in this ranking without a Ph.D. program. The faculty’s areas of specialization cover all the fields and most of the subfields of political science. Along with our strong orientation to scholarship and research, the faculty members share a common commitment to teaching. The department generally ranks near or at the top in student teaching evaluations among the numerous departments in Marquette’s College of Arts and Sciences. See also our faculty list which includes links to individual faculty home pages.
Many Ph.D. programs now require an M.A. degree from applicants. But even for those students considering Ph.D. programs that do not require an M.A., our programs have particular advantages. Our M.A. programs are designed very much like the first two years of a Ph.D. program. There are core seminars and research seminars, a methods requirement, and written and oral comprehensive exams. This design, combined with the strength of our faculty, mean that our students get into much better programs than they would have before receiving an M.A. from us, and they are much better prepared for the coursework portion of their Ph.D. program.
Yes. A number of our students intern in local, state, or national political offices, as well as at organizations in Milwaukee and Chicago. They also have opportunities to participate in the Les Aspin Center summer program in Washington DC, which includes an internship in a congressional or other federal government office.
When considering costs of graduate school, students must take into account living expenses. Milwaukee is very affordable. Our graduate students often live in studio apartments on the edge of campus for less than $400/month. Other students share apartments and pay as little as $200/month in rent.
Information about graduate housing is available on the university website at: http://www.marquette.edu/pages/home/orl/uni/gradhousing. In addition, students are encouraged to visit the Off Campus Housing office webpage at: http://www.marquette.edu/pages/home/orl/uni/offcampus. The university publishes a Tenant Guide each year with descriptions of houses and apartments available for rent on or near campus. An electronic version (.pdf file) is available at: http://www.marquette.edu/images/orl/tenantguide.pdf. Students can also search for apartments on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website (http://www.jsonline.com/).
RA positions are very competitive. In a typical year, only three or four RA positions are available to incoming students. If you are interested in being considered for an RA fellowship, you may contact the Director of Graduate Studies directly to discuss the likelihood of receiving one. You must also remember to meet the February 15 deadline.
Yes. Fellowships are awarded on the basis of the student's academic record and research experience, the number of available RA positions, and the particular research assistance needs of the faculty. A large number of our RAs over the last several years have been foreign students.
As mentioned above, our program has only a small number of research assistant (RA) positions to offer each year. In addition to these awards, a number of our students receive partial tuition scholarships or other forms of financial support. Almost half of our students received some form of financial aid from our program or from the university in the 2004-05 academic year. Still others helped defray costs through working part time or through student loans.
Because the pool of applicants and the amount of financial aid differs from year to year, financial aid offers cannot be guaranteed for students who defer admission. However, that applicant will be considered for financial aid for the following year along with other new applicants who meet the financial aid deadline.
A number of students who begin the program without financial aid receive some support in their second year. This aid is given on a merit basis as a reward for performance in classes during the first year in the program. In addition, the Director of Graduate Studies works with students seeking university-based tuition scholarships in their second year. Neither of these possibilities, however, happen for all students in the program. If you do not receive financial aid in your first year, you should not expect to receive it in your second year.
The graduate school has a webpage devoted to financial aid available at: http://www.grad.mu.edu/finaid/index.shtml.
More information is also available on our department's financial aid page.
Students with specific questions not addressed on this page are welcome to contact the Director of Graduate Studies for the Political Science and International Affairs programs, Dr. Lowell Barrington at: Lowell.Barrington@marquette.edu. In addition, students are encouraged to browse through the graduate school webpage, available at: http://www.grad.mu.edu/.
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