弗吉尼亚理工大学

The Master of Arts in Political Science was established in 1969. Currently, the program enrolls 20 to 25 full-time students on campus each year and approximately 20 to 25 off-campus students in the On-Line Master of Arts in Political Science Program (OLMA/PSCI). This relatively small scale provides excellent opportunities for close student-faculty interaction in both the residential and on-line degree programs.

The Master of Arts Program covers all sub-fields of the discipline, and it prepares students for careers in academe, government, non-profit and for-profit organizations. It is especially well suited for students who want to acquire sophisticated theoretical and analytical skills before either pursuing a doctoral degree in political science or entering careers in public or private research organizations. The usual course of study is four semesters of full-time graduate work. The first three semesters are used primarily for required foundation courses and elective coursework while the fourth is used to write a master's thesis. In recent years, M.A. students in political science have enrolled in this program from a wide variety of American colleges and universities. Other graduates have taken professional positions in government agencies, political parties, interest groups, research institutes and non-profits.

On-Line M.A. Program in Political Science

The On-Line Master of Arts (OLMA) program in Political Science began as an innovative experiment in graduate education. The online program in Political Science is identical in course content, requirements, and workload to the residential M.A. degree program. The faculty, among the nation's most professionally active political scientists, are well-known for their research publications, editorial board service, research grants, and classroom teaching. The OLMA program features a broad array of methodologically sophisticated, theoretically grounded, and empirically oriented graduate courses, to students in the Commonwealth, across the United States, and around the world.

The M.A. degree requires a minimum of 30 semester hours of graduate-level coursework including successful completion of a thesis. Students engage in independent research projects closely supervised by a committee of at least three faculty members selected by the student subject to faculty availability. Students are required to submit and orally defend (in person, via teleconference or video conference) a thesis proposal in the academic term preceding the semester in which they plan to write the thesis. The completed thesis is evaluated by the student's faculty committee and must be successfully defended before the committee (in person, via teleconference or video conference).