A political science major requires 45 hours of coursework. Thirty-three of these hours come from political science classes; these are the core requirements. The remaining 12 hours are called supporting coursework.
Civic Leadership Concentration
| Requirements | Hours |
|---|---|
| PS 100: Introduction to Political Science | 3 |
| PS 101: Introduction to US Government and Politics | 3 |
| Select one of the following: PS 125: The Washington Experience PS 191: Topics in Civic Leadership |
1-3 |
| Select any additional 100- or 200-level political science courses | 6 |
| Select 300- or 400-level political science courses, at least 9 hours of which must come from the Civic Leadership concentration course list maintained by the department. The other 6 hours may be any 300- or 400-level political science courses | 15 |
| Select one of the following: PS 291: Internship PS 491: Internship |
3 |
| To reach 33 hours, select up to 2 additional hours of any political science course at any level | 0-2 |
| Total Hours | 33 |
The political science major requires at least 15 hours of advanced coursework (300- or 400- level). Of those 15 hours, at least 12 hours must be taken on the Urbana-Champaign campus. For the purposes of this requirement, a student participating in PS 490 (Individual Study) and/or PS 491 (Government Internship) hours which are supervised by faculty of this campus, no matter where the independent study or internship is located, will be considered “on-campus”.
Students interested in the Civic Leadership concentration can use the Civic Leadership concentration planning form as a guide. View all concentration course lists.
Supporting Coursework
Students must select at least 12 hours of thematically-related coursework at the 200- level or higher that is outside political science and developed in conjunction with an academic advisor. If a student has selected a second major or a minor, this can generally be considered supporting coursework. See exceptions below.
The following courses may NOT be used for supporting coursework: political science courses or courses cross-listed with political science, basic composition courses, language courses below the fourth level that are being used to complete the non-primary language general education requirement, and any courses taken credit/no credit or satisfactory/unsatisfactory.