Doctor of Philosophy Degree Requirements
- POLS 8800, POLS 8805, POLS 8810, and either POLS 8830 or POLS 8840
- A minimum of 54 hours of coursework for Direct Admit / Fast Track Ph.D. students. For students who enter the Post-M.A. Ph.D program, a minimum of 24 semester hours, excluding the required methods sequence.
- Comprehensive Exams. A comprehensive examination is required in two of the following fields: American government and politics, comparative politics, international politics, methods, political theory, and public law.
- To take these exams, a student must have a 3.4 grade point average in graduate Political Science courses taken at Georgia State University.
- Students should take at least 3 courses in each of their examining fields.
- Students must register for POLS 8900 during the semester of the exams. Students may take the exams twice if necessary.
- Major Area Paper. Following successful passage of their written comprehensive exams, students must write a major area paper related to their proposed dissertation topic. Major area papers must be read and approved no later than 90 days after the successful completion of comprehensive exams.
- Satisfaction of the foreign languages and research skill requirement.
- Completion of a M.A. non-thesis paper for Direct Admit / Fast Track students.
- Professionalization/Research Paper Presentation. All doctoral students must present a major research paper by the completion of 36 hours at the annual GSA Graduate Student Conference. Doctoral students are also expected to attend departmental colloquia, workshops and other events on a regular basis as a part of their ongoing professionalization activities.
- First and Second Year Reviews. All doctoral students will be evaluated by the Department’s graduate faculty as to their performance in the program at the end of their first and second years in the program.
- Twenty hours of POLS 8999, Thesis Research.
- A successfully defended dissertation proposal and final dissertation.
The Ph.D. degree can be completed on either a full-time or part-time basis. However, the Department strongly encourages students to pursue the degree full-time if possible, and any students considering part-time study should discuss their plans with the Director of Graduate Studies.
