Political Science, Pre-Law Concentration, BA or BS

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The major in political science requires completion of HIST 222 , POSC 100 and POSC 216 , at least one credit of an internship or directed research, and 34 credits in additional work in political science. Qualified majors may avail themselves of Congressional District Office Internships around the state, internships with the Washington Center and Institute for Experiential Learning in Washington, D.C., law offices, businesses, and a wide variety of state and local government offices.

The optional pre-law concentration requires completion of HIST 222 , POSC 100 and POSC 216 , at least one credit of an internship or directed research, and 40 credits in additional courses, including 31 credits in political science, 3 in psychology, 3 in philosophy, and 3 in economics or accounting.

The optional global politics concentration requires 24 credits of core political science courses, 15 credits of courses focusing on regional area studies, and 9 credits of courses focusing on transitional communities and related issues.

Political science majors may earn either the Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree.

No grade below “C-” will be accepted for courses applied to the major.

Civitae Core Requirements (39-40 credits)

Civitae Core

History majors in the Pre-Law concentration may count Civitae Core courses satisfying major requirements as also satisfying their respective Civitae Core requirements, up to two Pillar courses and one Perspectives course. The following are the courses in this major that may be used in this way:

HIST 125 and HIST 126 can satisfy the Global Citizenship Pillar requirement, for students who place into a 211-level language course or above
HIST 221 , among others, can satisfy the Historical and Contemporary Insights Pillar requirement
POSC 100 can satisfy the Human Behavior and Social Institutions Pillar requirement

Courses satisfying major requirements that are designated as Civitae Core courses subsequent to the print deadline of this Catalog will not appear in the above listings but will be eligible to also satisfy Civitae Core requirements, subject to the same rules as the others. (If doing so would otherwise decrease the total credits required for the degree below 120, General Elective credit must be substituted to restore the total.)

Transfer students go to Transfer Student General Education for requirements.

Additional Degree Requirements

Additional Degree Requirements BA Degree 3 credits
Additional Degree Requirements BS Degree 3-4 credits

Major Requirements/53-59 credits

Choose three credits from the following courses:

One credit from one of the following three courses

POSC 490 - Directed or Independent Study in Political Science
POSC 492 - Internship in Political Science
POSC 498 - Honors Research in Political Science (must be approved by the Senior Honors Research Committee)
**A minimum GPA of 2.5 is required to enroll in an internship.

General Electives

General Electives for BA (18-25 credits)
General Electives for BS (17-25 credits)

Pre-law students are advised that they should present at least a 3.0 GPA (as well as a good LSAT score) to the law school admissions committees in order to be competitive law school applicants.

Total Credits Required

BA, BS in Political Science with a concentration in Pre-Law 120