Overview

The Department of Political Science offers a five-year BA/Masters program for highly motivated Political Science majors that allows undergraduate students to take graduate level courses during their senior year and earn and MA in five years. You will be eligible to take up to 12 hours of graduate level courses that will apply toward your BA core or elective requirements. These courses will also count as fulfilling requirements for the MA, giving you a jump-start on your political science graduate degree at UNT.

Admission Requirements

1. You must be a current UNT Political Science major.
2. You must have completed 75 credit hours at the time of application. This will typically be during your junior year. Students are eligible for acceptance (at the end of their Junior year) upon completion of 75 undergraduate hours, including PSCI 2305, PSCI 2306, PSCI 2300 (renumbered as 3300 in the future), and three advanced PSCI classes (3000/4000 level) from three different fields
3. You must have a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
4. You must have one letter from a faculty member nominating you for admission to the program and two additional letters of recommendation from Political Science Faculty members who can attest to the your ability to do graduate level course work.
5. During the first semester of your senior year, you must apply to the MA program and Toulouse Graduate School.

Grad Track Pathways Requirements

How to Apply

1. Applicants should meet with the Political Science Graduate Advisor before they submit their application documents to check on eligibility and determine courses.

2. Fill out the Political Science Grad Track Admission Application

3. Fill out the Conditional Admission and Advisor Course Approval Form

4. In addition, you will need

• three letters of recommendation, with at least two from members of the political science faculty. Have them send this DIRECTLY to Political Science Grad Track Administrative Assistant at Brenda.Davidsonswartz@unt.edu
• a writing sample
• statement of purpose,
• a resume

5. Submit all documents to the Political Science Grad Track Administrative Assistant at Brenda.Davidsonswartz@unt.edu.

6. In your senior year you will need to submit an application to the Toulouse Graduate School for formal admission into the graduate program

What Courses Do I Take?

Instead of 4 advanced undergraduate electives in the 4th year, student will take PSCI 5340, 5320, and two of 5310, 5610, 5900, 6000, 6321 or an approved substitution for these courses. Submission of GRE scores is not required.

Once you have been formally accepted into the graduate program by the Toulouse Graduate School, in your fifth year you will take sufficient hours to complete a total of 30 hours of graduate credit (which includes the graduate credit you took in your 4th year). You will need 30 hours of graduate credit to earn the MA. In addition, you will be required either to write a thesis, or take a field examination to complete your MA degree requirements.

If you have any questions about the program, please contact the Graduate Advisor, Dr. John Ishiyama at john.ishiyama@unt.edu .