political science phd programs in california

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Ph.D. in Political Science

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about OUR PROGRAM

Ranked #21 among all public political science programs in the country ( U.S. News & World Report ), the UCI graduate program in political science offers students six years of guaranteed funding .

UCI political science faculty publish regularly in top academic journals, and graduate students have ample opportunities to publish alongside them. Faculty and graduate students consistently present research at conferences, universities, and before governmental entities across the globe. Their expert advice is sought by journalists in the national media, lawyers, and policy makers. Members of the faculty have received national and international awards and testified before Congress to impact policy.

And if that wasn't enough, the UCI campus is located less than 10 miles from Newport Beach, is the #1 university doing the most for the American dream ( New York Times College Access Index ), the #9 best value university ( Princeton Review ), and the #10 ranked public university in the U.S. ( U.S. News & World Report ).

Learn more about political science at UCI...

university committed to economic diversity and upward mobility - New York Times College Access Index

best value university - Princeton Review

public university in the U.S. - U.S. News & World Report

best public political science program in the U.S. - U.S. News & World Report

LOCATION Campus is located less than 10 miles from Newport Beach.    

FUNDING Admitted students receive 6 years of guaranteed funding.    

FIELDS Primary research fields exist in American politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political theory.  

DEGREE Ph.D.; a master's degree may be earned while in pursuit of the Ph.D.      

ENROLLMENT Full-time, on-campus with housing.        

CURRENT MASTERS Political science Ph.D. students can simultaneously pursue an M.A. in demographic and social analysis.    

JOB PLACEMENTS

American Council on Learned Societies

Cal Poly Pomona

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Canadian Federal Government

Carnegie Mellon University

Loyola Marymount University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

National Chengchi University, Taiwan

Rice University

University of Florida

Read more about alumni job placements...

  A top-ranked program with research strengths in American and comparative politics, international relations, and political theory.  

what makes us

  UCI political scientists explore changing notions of citizenship, politics of race/ethnicity, studies in the global supply chains and contested notions of democracy.

Students select a primary field from among American politics, comparative politics, international relations, or political theory. They select a secondary field from these or from a more specialized area. Examples of secondary fields include critical theory; democracy studies; ethics; methodology and modeling; political economy; political psychology; public law; and race, ethnicity and politics, among others. Faculty actively mentor doctoral students and encourage them to become productive, publishing scholars before completing their graduate studies.

Students have an opportunity to earn a master's degree while in pursuit of their Ph.D., and are encouraged to enroll in interdisciplinary coursework.

Alumni have entered tenure-track positions at top research universities, highly competitive post-doctoral positions, and research-oriented jobs in both the public and private sectors.

So what are you waiting for?

APPLY TODAY

If full funding, opportunities to publish, and a proven track record of excellence in the field are what you're looking for in a graduate program, contact us today to learn more about UCI political science.  

UCI Department of Political Science

Online Application

Department Chair

Sara Goodman   [email protected]  949.824.4865

Graduate Program Director

Marek Kaminski   [email protected]  

Graduate Admissions Director

Robert Uriu   [email protected]  949.824.1868

Graduate Advisor

Jennifer Gerson   [email protected]  949.824.4074

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Graduate Program

Phd requirements.

The Political Science department at UC Berkeley admits students only for the Ph.D. degree. The Ph.D. program has two major phases: coursework and examinations, and dissertation research and writing. The two phases typically take approximately five or six years (three years to candidacy and two or three for dissertation research and writing).

The coursework and examination phase requires 40 units (typically 10 classes) of graduate-level coursework and competence in three of nine  Subfields . Subfield competence is demonstrated through written exams offered each semester. The Field Exams are typically taken in the student's second and third years of the program. All students must pass one exam in a major subfield (Comparative, American, International Relations, or History of Political Theory). Competency in a second and third subfield may be demonstrated by taking a prescribed series of courses in that field with a combined GPA of 3.5.

The particular sequence of courses that a student takes in preparation for the comprehensive exams is not prescribed. Rather, the faculty assist students with selection of courses that best meet their intellectual and academic interests. There are no formal foreign language or statistics requirements although many students will find that their program of study and dissertation research will require the engagement of particular foreign language or methodology coursework.

When the coursework and examination requirements have been met, the student prepares a prospectus for dissertation research. The student convenes a committee known as the Qualifying Exam (QE) committee. The Qualifying Exam committee advises on the prospectus and examines the student on specific research plans. Berkeley is highly committed to interdisciplinary scholarly engagement and this is codified in the requirement that both the Qualifying Exam committee and the dissertation committee include a faculty member from another department at Berkeley. Engagement with members of the faculty from other departments should commence during the coursework stage so that the advisement and input of the "outside member" is represented in the prospectus.

When sufficient preparation for the proposed research has been demonstrated to the Qualifying Exam committee, the student is advanced to doctoral candidacy. It is expected (and for most funding packages, required) that students advance to doctoral candidacy by the end of their third year.

Doctoral candidacy initiates the second phase of the program during which the student normally devotes full attention to the research and writing of the dissertation. The student's dissertation committee is typically comprised of the members of the Qualifying Exam committee although there are sometimes changes in committee membership as the research evolves. The doctorate is awarded when the student submits a satisfactory dissertation to the dissertation committee. A reasonable estimate of the research and writing phase of the program is approximately two to three years although students whose dissertations require more extensive research may take longer to earn their degree.

• Second year
• Sixth year and beyond

The second year is used to further narrow down one's interests and to continue exploring ideas and potential advisors for a dissertation topic. Coursework continues as students prepare for the M.A./Second Year Paper and Field Exam.

Students who plan to continue in the Ph.D. program are expected to engage in advanced topical research leading to a research paper to be completed by the end of the second year, together with any additional coursework appropriate to their topical focus. Three faculty members (one of whom is selected by the student and serves as principal advisor for the paper) will review this paper. This paper, which continuing students will submit at the end of their second year, also serves as the M.A. project.

Completion of a yearlong graduate seminar (Research & Writing 290A and 290B) during the second year is strongly recommended.  Each student taking this course is advised by a faculty advisor external to the course (who will also serve as one reviewer of the second-year paper) as well as the two co-instructors of the seminar. The goal of the seminar is to assist students in preparing a high-quality research paper, which will serve as the M.A./Second-year paper as mentioned above.

All students are reviewed at the end of the second year of study on their continued overall academic performance. This overall evaluation will include GPA, successful completion of all required units, and successful completion of the M.A./Second-year paper. The Graduate Studies Committee will take these factors as well as the rigor of the academic program and the number of incompletes into consideration when determining whether to invite the student to continue in the PhD program.

Students in their second year also usually serve as a Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs), which are 20-hour per week positions

During the third year, most students continue to teach as GSIs and complete their coursework in addition to taking their Field Exam. Political Science graduate students must show competency in three Subfield specialties to be eligible to sit for the oral prospectus defense (known formally as the Qualifying Exam). Instead of sitting for three Field Exams, students have the option to "course out" of two field specialties by taking a prescribed set of three-four courses in the Subfield.

Students may sit for the Field Exam as early as the beginning of the second year, but if desired, students may sit for an exam in their second year or in the third year. Field Exams are offered at the beginning of the Fall and Spring semesters. All students are expected to have completed their Field Exam, to have “coursed out” of a two fields, and to have written and defended their dissertation prospectus (passed their Qualifying Exam) by the end of the third year. It is highly recommended (and essential to most funding packages) that students advance to Doctoral Candidacy by the end of the third year. The third year is also when students should begin to apply for extramural fellowships to support their dissertation research.

All applicants should upload unofficial transcripts from all academic institutions into the Application for Graduate Admission.  Department of Political Science is currently not accepting hard copies as staff are working remotely.  Graduate Students who are admitted into the program will be asked to submit official hard copy transcripts after admissions decisions are released.

Note: The application and all supporting documents must be submitted by December 1st, 2024. No extensions will be granted. Please read the instructions prior to contacting the graduate office.

Application Instructions

To apply for admission to the UCLA Political Science Department’s Ph.D. program, you must use the form on the Graduate Division website ( http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gasaa/admissions/applicat.htm ). That online form will guide you through the process. Be sure to select “Political Science” as your academic program in the “Plans for Graduate Study” section in the online admissions form. Note that the department does not have a separate  master’s degree  program, so if you’re interested in doing graduate work in our department you must apply for admission to the Ph.D. program.

As part of the application process, we are going to need three  letters of recommendation . You should not ask your recommenders to send their letters directly to the department. Instead, you will provide names and contact information online for three people who have agreed to write letters for you. The letter writers will be contacted directly via email, and will also submit their letters electronically. This procedure is described in more detail on the application form website. For this purpose, you will not use the application form but will instead click into the link for “Recommendations” on the lower left-hand side of the online application form.

You must submit a statement of purpose and a writing sample. The section on  “Statement of Purpose”  in the application form will give you a good sense for what the Statement should be. It should be about three to five pages, double-spaced, in length.

Your  writing sample  is another requirement that will be taken into account when your application is assessed. We are not interested simply in seeing how well you write English, although that of course is important. We are also interested in getting some sense for your analytical abilities. Normally, the writing sample would be a paper you did in college or in a master’s program that you are particularly proud of, but one that is not purely descriptive in nature. An applicant will sometimes send in a copy of his or her senior thesis or master’s thesis. The sample should be at least five pages and at most 25 pages long (double-spaced).

You are also required to send in your official transcripts from previous academic work you have done. Upload transcripts onto the application form and mail official hard copy transcripts to the department. The one exception has to do with applicants who have gotten their undergraduate degree from UCLA. Those applicants do not have to provide an official transcript, but they will still need to submit an unofficial copy of their final transcript after they graduate, which they can get from the registrar’s office, to prove they have actually gotten their degree. If your undergraduate transcript does not show explicitly that you have been awarded a bachelor’s degree, at some point before you actually enroll you will need to send us a copy of your  diploma , as officially issued by your university registrar. If that diploma is in a foreign language, you should also submit, in hard copy, an official English language translation of the diploma which you would get from the registrar (or equivalent office) at the institution that awarded it.

Finally, an international student who has been admitted and has decided to enroll in our program will have to send us a copy of his or her  passport  by April 11, so that the visa-issuance process will have enough time to run its course. All hard-copy material should be sent to:

Graduate Students who are admitted into the program will be asked to submit official hard copy transcripts after admissions decisions are released.  Please send them to this address below.

ATTN: Graduate Advisor, UCLA UCLA Political Science Department BOX 951472, 4289 Bunche Los Angeles, CA 90095-1472

You will also have to take the  General Graduate Record Examination  and have the results sent directly to the department. You should take the GRE’s no later than November 1 so that we receive the test results before your application is processed. UCLA’s institution code for this exam in 4837 and the department code is 1902. The Educational Testing Service, which administers the exam, should be provided with this information so it knows where to send the results of the test.

Applicants from abroad whose native language is not English must take either the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam and have the results reported directly to the department. UCLA’s institution code is 4837 and the department code is 89. More details can be found at  https://grad.ucla.edu/admissions/english-requirements/ . The minimum scores you would need to get are described on that webpage. We recommend that you take your TOEFL or IELTS exam by November 1st so that we can receive the results by the time applications are reviewed. Since it is very important that we know that your English is good enough to do graduate work in our department, we may at some point arrange for a Skype interview. Please note that in order to work as a teaching assistant, non-native speakers will also need to get a passing score on the University’s Test of Oral Proficiency examination.

When your application is complete you will be automatically prompted to pay the application fee. The fee is to be paid via credit card. If you think you’ve completed the form but are not prompted to pay the fee, click the link for “Check Your Application” on the lower left-hand side of the online application form to see what is missing. As you’ll see on the “Fee Waiver” section of the application form, certain applicants are eligible to have that fee waived. More information on fee waivers is available on the Graduate Division website at  http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gasaa/admissions/admisinfo.html#Fees .

The application for students planning to enter in the fall of a given year will be available by mid September of the previous year. (Our department accepts applications only for students planning to enter the Ph.D. program in the fall). The application is due on December 1st, 2024. Note that the application has to be complete in order to be submitted, so please plan accordingly. The applications will be reviewed by the faculty in December and January, and for those students who are admitted, acceptance letters will generally go out in early February. Those letters will also include information about the financial package an applicant is being offered. Students who are offered admission will normally have until early April to let us know whether or not they are going to come.

If you have additional questions about our program, please first read the section on the graduate program on the department website here and also the department’s graduate handbook, which is available  here  (new hyperlink should be:  http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/content/graduate-handbooks ). If after reading this material you still have questions about the program or about the application process, please feel free to contact the graduate advisors in the department’s graduate office  [email protected] .

Financial Aid Information

The department tries to provide whatever financial support is needed to enable a student who is accepted into the program to make satisfactory progress toward the Ph.D. But this is just a goal, and, if you are offered admission, what we will actually be able to promise you will be outlined in the offer letter.

You will need, of course, to find some way—generally with the department’s help—of covering both your living costs and tuition and fees, if those costs exceed what you were promised in the offer letter. Here are some basic facts that relate to this problem. What you would have to pay, in theory, for tuition and fees depends on whether you have California residency. California residents pay only in-state tuition (formerly called the “Educational Fee”). U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are not California residents must in addition pay “Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition” (NRST) in the first year in the program. They can, however, be reclassified as California residents for tuition purposes after the first year, and, if approved, will no longer be charged for NRST. For more information about this, go to  http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/Fees-Residence/Residence-Requirements .

International students cannot become California residents for tuition purposes and must continue to pay non-resident tuition until they advance to Ph.D. candidacy (i.e., until they have completed all course and program requirements except the dissertation). Thereafter, there will be a 100% reduction of NRST (but not of basic Tuition) for a total of three years after they advance to candidacy.

Thus for the academic year 2024-2025, California residents paid a total of about $18,136 in tuition and fees. The corresponding figure for non-residents (both from out-of-state and abroad) was about $33,238. Students, however—and this applies to both California residents and non-residents, including international students—who work as teaching assistants, research assistants, and in many cases as readers (i.e., graders) receive substantial fee remissions. For more information, including current figures, see the “Graduate Student Fees and Fee Remissions” page on the Graduate Division website ( http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gss/library/feesintro.htm ).

Living costs will be covered by a stipend you receive from the department, by the salary you receive by being a teaching assistant, or in other ways (e.g., by various fellowships or mentorships you are awarded after you are enrolled).

Note that you do not have to apply separately to be considered for financial aid. If you are accepted into the program, you will automatically be considered for a fellowship and the offer you receive will include provisions relating to financial support. If, however, for one reason or another you might not need any, or much, financial support from the department, you should let the graduate advisors ( [email protected] ) in our graduate office know about this as soon as you apply. If, for example, you are getting funding, or have a good chance of getting funding, from some source outside of UCLA (like a foundation or a government agency), we would need to know about this so we can take it into account in the admission process. This also applies to students who are prepared to pay for their own education. If you are an international student with external funding that will cover NSRT, you should make this clear in your application.

If you’re interested in being considered from one of the special Graduate Division fellowships listed on the application form, you will simply need to fill out the corresponding section on that form. But please don’t check the box for any of the fellowships listed there that you don’t really feel you’re qualified for.

The most important of the Graduate Division fellowships is the Cota-Robles fellowship, which “is intended to help ensure access to graduate study for students who have experienced significant socioeconomic disadvantages or overcome other major educational or physical disadvantages in their pursuit of higher education.” More information about this program is available on the Graduate Division website at  https://grad.ucla.edu/ . As noted above, you apply for it directly on the application form.

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