Bachelors + Masters Pathway Program

IS A BACHELOR'S DEGREE JUST A STARTING POINT FOR YOU? 
A GRADUATE DEGREE, AND GREATER EARNING POTENTIAL, MAY BE WITHIN YOUR REACH.

Our Bachelor's + Master's Pathway Program allows currently admitted political science undergraduates to get a head-start on their master's degree! Students admitted into our Pathway Program are able to take up to 20 credit hours of 500-level coursework as an undergraduate and apply the credits to their undergraduate and graduate degrees. Admitted Pathway students have the potential to start their graduate program with 20 of the 52 credits required for the master's degree already completed. This accelerated program is meant to save our students time and money since the credits you take as an undergraduate are billed at the undergraduate tuition rate. 

Admission Criteria

In order to apply for the Pathway Program, you must be a political science major who has already completed at least 12 credit hours of 300 or 400 level political science classes. Also, at the time of application, your institutional GPA must be at least 3.3.

Application Process

Interested students should submit the following to the Department’s Graduate Program Coordinator, Dr. David Kinsella:

1. Statement of purpose identifying your planned areas of study in the master’s program as well as your professional goals (500 words).
2. Names of two faculty members who will be providing letters of recommendation. Please ask recommenders to submit their letters directly the department.
3. International students from partner universities may also be required to submit TOEFL scores.

Application Deadline

Students must apply by the end of the third term of their junior year. Applications need to be submitted by the end of finals week.

Continuation Criteria

Students must have an institutional GPA of 3.3 upon graduation to be fully admitted into the graduate program. In addition, students must have earned a ‘B’ or higher on all graduate courses taken for shared credits.

Transitioning from Undergraduate to Graduate Student Status

In their senior year of their undergraduate degree, students will need to complete two steps to be admitted as a graduate student the following academic year:

1. Submit a simplified Pathway application for the Master's program. You will find this application by clicking "Graduate" and "Political Science Pathway" when you go to start your application. This application will be open from Jan. 1st through Apr. 15th of each year, and will have no application fee or required documents.
2. Apply for graduation with an undergraduate degree.