Advising FAQs

Before you enroll in any non-UM course see the Undergraduate Advisor to determine whether a particular course will transfer. You will need to bring the name of the Institution, the name and number of the course, a course description or syllabus, and the appropriate course equivalency form from your School or College advising office at UM (e.g., Arts & Sciences, Business Administration, etc). Note that 21 credits of the major (or 9 credits of the minor) must be taken in residence.

The political science department offers students the opportunity to complete 6 credits in London through our summer program. More information on this is available here. Before you enroll in any study abroad course see the Undergraduate Advisor to determine whether that particular course will transfer. You will need to bring the name of the Institution, the name and number of the course, a course description or syllabus, and a course equivalency form from the Study Abroad Office. Note that 21 credits of the major (or 9 credits of the minor) must be taken in residence.

To see what subfield a course fulfills click on Major/Minor Requirements.

Find the Major/Minor requirements here.

First Year Students: The Undergraduate Advisor

First-year Students (Including Transfer Students in the First Year at UM): The Undergraduate Advisor

All other Students: All majors will be assigned a specific advisor in the political science department. If you are currently a sophomore, junior, or transfer after your first year and have not yet been assigned an advisor, please contact Dr. Casey Klofstad.

 Prof. Arthur Simon.

Political science majors with junior or senior standing may do a for-credit internship if they fulfill the following requirements:

An overall GPA of at least 3.3

A political science GPA of at least 3.5

The student must find a faculty member to supervise their participation in POL520 or POL521 before beginning the internship.

If the faculty member requires, the student must keep a weekly journal documenting their internship experiences.

In conjunction with the faculty sponsor, the student must write a 30 page academic research paper related to their internship. The faculty member will then determine a grade for the course based on this paper and (if applicable) the journal.

See the Departmental Honors page

For students interested in going on to graduate study in political science, or students strongly motivated to do independent research on a specific political science topic, it is possible to write a senior thesis. This process entails working with a tenure-line professor and enrolling in POL563 and POL564: Senior Honors Thesis I and II. The first of these courses (taken in a student’s second-to-last semester) involves researching the thesis and the second course (taken in a student’s last semester) involves writing the approximately 100 page thesis. Each course is for three credits and will be graded by a student’s supervising professor. A student’s thesis must ultimately be approved by the supervising professor and a second political science professor. The two courses do not fulfill the department’s two 500-level seminar graduation requirement, nor can they be used fulfill a subfield requirement. Interested students should identify a tenure-line faculty member with whom they want to work and approach that person prior to the beginning of the student’s final year at UM. View a list of tenure-line faculty here.

POL 590 Directed Readings and POL 589 Directed Research allow students to study or conduct their own original research on an in-depth topic not covered in a regular UM course. This option is also available for students who need 1 or 2 credits of POL to reach the 30 credits required for a major (or the 15 required for a minor). Interested students should contact a tenure line faculty member and propose a 1-3 credit course of study. The faculty member will work with the student to develop an appropriate reading list and work load. 

View a list of tenure-line faculty here. 

First, see details about the program on the MPA website. If you think that it would be a good opportunity for you, discuss enrolling with your advisor. You may also discuss the program with Professor Jonathan West.