Mar 28, 2024  
2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Political Science, B.A.


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Offered by Political Science .

Students who major or minor in political science receive excellent instruction and training from the Political Science faculty, both on the main campus and at Shady Grove. Students excel in the classroom and are involved in many different extracurricular activities, such as internships, research, study abroad, and participation in clubs. Upon graduating, alumni have worked for local and state governments, the federal government, legal offices, and in the civil service. Others have gone on to law school or graduate school for some aspect of political science or public policy. Some alumni become teachers, with several beginning their teaching careers with the Teach for America program. The Political Science Department also has an excellent record in statewide and national competitions. For example, political science students from UMBC have served as the University of Maryland student regent, have received Fulbright grants for teaching and research around the world, and have won the highly selective Truman Scholarship for outstanding public service leadership. Furthermore, Political Science students have led UMBC’s Mock Trial team to national prominence and have placed exceptionally well at Model United Nations conferences. Students have opportunities to interact with each other in the department through the Council of Majors, politically-oriented clubs, and Pi Sigma Alpha, the national honor society for political science. Beyond regular coursework, there is a lot to do in the department and Political Science faculty and staff are proud that students are leaving their mark in various ways both while at UMBC and after graduation.

University Requirements


Completion of Minimum University Requirements for an Undergraduate Baccalaureate Degree .

  • Minimum 120 credits and minimum GPA of 2.0
  • Completion of 45 upper-level credits, residence requirement, Writing Intensive requirement, and General Education requirement

Major Requirements


  • Minimum 36 credits
  • Minimum grade of ‘C’ in courses applied to the major
  • Minimum 15 credits completed in residence at UMBC

Course Requirements


Lower-Level Course (3 credits)


Complete the following:

Upper-Level Electives (18 credits)


Complete 18 credits in Political Science at the 300 or 400 level, including a minimum of two courses at the 400 level.

Students have many course options from which to select for completing the upper level course requirements for the major. Political Science courses are organized by disciplinary subfields and through specific number sequences.  Students can also complete their upper-level course requirements for the major through independent study course options (e.g., POLI 401  and POLI 402 ) and through selected topics options offered every semester in various subfields.

A partial list of upper-level course options is provided below.

Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Programs


Qualified students may apply to an accelerated program, which allows them to share courses between a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. Students take graduate courses as undergraduate students and later apply those courses to master’s degrees. An undergraduate may apply to participate in an accelerated program even if the desired graduate program is in a department other than the one in which the student is majoring. More information is available from the Accelerated Program page of the Graduate School website.

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