Degree Requirements

The major consists of 11 courses. Four courses are in the Basic Curriculum, six courses in an  Area of Study , and one course for the  Internship Capstone Requirement .

All students must complete the basic curriculum, introducing students to the concepts and tools needed to understand and work in the policy world. It ensures that all Policy Studies majors have a common professional vocabulary and conceptual frame of reference.

The Policy Studies Basic Curriculum encompasses four courses. The courses can be taken in any order. They do not need to be completed before beginning courses in the Area of Study.

Basic Curriculum Courses: 

• Policy Analysis (POLI 338/POST 301). This course includes applied analytical techniques, theoretical notions of public goods and externalities, and an introduction to general governmental issues such regulation and political feasibility.

• Public Policy Management and Advocacy (POST 300) , providing a hands on, practical approach to issues and policy management in the private sector, including risk management and media relations; or Bureaucracy and Public Policy (POLI 337), providing an introduction to the organization and working of governmental bureaucracy.

• Principles of Economics I (ECON 211) or an approved advanced course. Economic analysis is fundamental to the study of policy.

• One advanced analysis course that provides students more depth in discipline-specific research methods or approaches, focusing on research approaches within a discipline, advanced statistical or other data techniques, or an advanced language (if appropriate). Students are required to get approval from the policy studies advisor for credit for this requirement.

Students must also complete an approved  Area of Study  and the  Internship Capstone Requirement .