Applicable only to students admitted during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Political Science

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Political Science offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Political Science.

Admission

Program Name

Political Science

Address

4289 Bunche Hall
Box 951472
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1472 

Phone

(310) 825-3372 

Email

joseph@polisci.ucla.edu  

Leading to the degree of

M.A., Ph.D.

The department admits only students whose degree objective is the Ph.D. degree. 

Admission Limited to

Fall 

Deadline to apply

December 1st 

GRE (General and/or Subject)

GRE: General 

Letters of Recommendation 

3 

Other Requirements

In addition to the University's minimum requirements and those listed above, all applicants are expected to submit a statement of purpose and a sample of their analytical writing skills (e.g., senior or master's degree thesis, term paper).

An M.A. degree may be earned while completing requirements for the Ph.D. 

Master's Degree

Advising

Students are assigned an academic adviser when they enter the graduate program, and are expected to regularly consult with the adviser. Students may change advisers whenever they wish by obtaining the signature of the faculty member who has agreed to become their new adviser and notifying the graduate counselor of the change.

Areas of Study

Consult the department.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

A student must successfully complete twelve of the sixteen courses required for the doctorate with an average grade of 3.0 or better.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

The master's comprehensive examination consists of the submission of one doctoral qualifying paper that is deemed acceptable by the faculty.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

Under normal circumstances students are expected to obtain the master's degree within seven quarters of full time study.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Students are assigned an academic adviser when they enter the graduate program, and are expected to regularly consult with the adviser. Students may change advisers whenever they wish by obtaining the signature of the faculty member who has agreed to become their new adviser and notifying the graduate counselor of the change.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Six fields of study are offered: political theory; international relations; American politics; comparative politics; formal theory and quantitative methods, and race, ethnicity, and politics.

Foreign Language Requirement

Prior to advancement to candidacy students must fulfill either Requirement A (Foreign Language Requirement) or Requirement B (Research Methodology Requirement):

(A) Foreign Language Requirement: Students may satisfy the requirement by completing, with a grade of B or better, the final course in a two-year sequence of college courses in a foreign language, or by passing a proficiency test offered by a university language department at an equivalent level.

(B) Research Methodology Requirement (Mathematics, Mathematical Economics, or Statistics): Students may satisfy the requirement by completing a sequence of three courses in mathematics, or mathematical economics at or above Mathematics 31A (Mathematics 38A-38B cannot be counted), or by completing a sequence of three courses in statistics at or above the level of Political Science 200B. Courses applied toward this requirement may not be applied toward any other course requirements.

Students are required to pass the foreign language or research methodology requirement before they are advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D., but may pass the requirement after the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

Course Requirements

Students must take Political Science 200A, four courses in each of two major fields, one course in each of two minor fields, and four additional graded courses, including no more than two independent study courses. Fields determine which courses meet major and minor field requirements.

Of these 16 required courses, students must take at least seven during their first year of graduate study and 12 by the end of their second year.

With the approval of the graduate adviser (and the Graduate Division for the master's degree requirements), graduate courses in political science taken elsewhere may be applied toward departmental course requirements. The maximum number of such courses is six if students come to UCLA with a master's degree in political science and choose to forego another master's degree from UCLA. In all other cases, the maximum is four for courses taken at another UC campus and two for courses taken outside the UC system.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass University written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations the University oral qualifying examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to University requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

Research Paper Requirement. Students must submit two research papers in order to qualify for advancement to candidacy. These papers may also have been used to meet course requirements. Each paper is assigned to two or more faculty graders by the Graduate Studies Committee. Papers are graded qualified, not qualified, or qualified with distinction. If a paper is graded not qualified, students may submit a revised version or another paper, once only. If a resubmitted research paper is graded not qualified, the student is evaluated for termination of graduate study by a committee of at least five members drawn mostly from the student's primary field.

The first qualifying paper is due by the beginning of the second week of the sixth quarter in the graduate program. The second paper is due by the beginning of the second week of the eighth quarter. If the first paper is graded not qualified on initial submission, the resubmission is due by the second week of the seventh quarter. If the second paper is graded not qualified on initial submission, it must be resubmitted by the beginning of the eight week of the ninth quarter. For the Ph.D. degree, students must receive at least a qualified grade on both papers.

Papers are evaluated for knowledge of subject, originality of ideas, and craftsmanship of research. They are also evaluated for conciseness; good papers may vary in length but are not expected to exceed 40 pages, including notes, figures, and tables. Papers need not be publishable, but in their structure and format and in their coverage of topics and tasks are expected to resemble papers published in peer-reviewed journals of their fields. The faculty members evaluating the papers assume that students have not devoted all their research time to two papers but have selected for submission, or for revision and submission, the best two from a portfolio of several seminar papers.

Students may take the University Oral Qualifying Examination after they have completed their course and paper requirements and written a dissertation proposal accepted by their research adviser. Students must take this examination no later than their twelfth quarter of graduate study, and the examination committee must have the proposal at least two weeks before the examination. The examination committee judges the feasibility and worth of the project and the student's ability to undertake it. The committee also may recommend changes in the research design.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student's ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

Time to degree for the Ph.D. degree is 18 quarters.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.0) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.0) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Upon releasing grades of papers, the faculty graders provide students with a written assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the papers. A student may appeal a not qualified grade on a research paper submission. Substantive appeals go to the original graders and one or more additional readers. Their decision either reaffirms the original grade or changes the grade. The Graduate Studies Committee only considers appeals that are based on procedural or other concerns and not those based on academic quality. All appeals must be filed no later than two weeks after the grade was received.

Students who receive one or more not qualified grades on resubmitted research papers, whose grade-point average falls below 3.4 for more than two quarters, who postpone submission of research papers for more than two quarters, who fail to complete 12 graded courses by the beginning of the seventh quarter, or who fail to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination by the end of the eighteenth quarter may be recommended for termination of graduate study.  Recommendation for termination evaluations are made by a field evaluation committee of at least five members and are based on the student's entire record in the graduate program. Final decisions to recommend termination are made by the Graduate Studies Committee after reviewing the field committee's recommendation.

Students are notified in advance by the departmental graduate adviser if they are to be evaluated for a possible recommendation for termination, or if they are recommended for termination. Students may submit a written appeal and any other materials they wish to include as part of the file that is to be evaluated by the field evaluation committee or by the Graduate Studies Committee.