You can apply for the Major Program in Political Science at the end of your second year in the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.
Applying to the Major
Our 2024W application portal will close on May 15, 2024.
To be formally admitted into our Major Program, a student must:
- be enrolled in the Faculty of Arts*; and
- have completed at least 54 credits of post-secondary course work.**
We would like Major applicants to have completed at least nine credits of our 12-credit lower-level POLI requirement (POLI 100, 101, 110, and 240)–ideally by May 2024–and to have attained a cumulative average of at least 65%.
If you will not complete at least three of POLI 100, 101, 110, and 240 by May 2024 and/or have not achieved our minimum average requirement, you are still welcome and encouraged to apply for our Major Program. We have reserved seats in our 2024W class of Majors for applicants who fall into this category.
*Applicants who are not enrolled in the Faculty of Arts as of May 2024 have until August 31, 2024 to transfer into the Faculty.
**We can conditionally offer admission to an applicant who has completed as few as 42 post-secondary credits; however, to formally enter the Major Program during the 2024W admissions cycle, students must complete their full 54-credit requirement and be promoted to third-year standing by August 31, 2024. One thing to note: if you have completed fewer than 54 credits at the conclusion of 2023W, your year standing will remain at Year 2. This will affect your registration date for 2024W.
Degree Requirements
To graduate with a Major in Political Science, students must complete at least 42 credits, but not more than 60 credits, of POLI in their overall 120 credits of the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.
At least 30 of these POLI credits must be in courses numbered 300 or above, including two required courses: POLI 380 and one 400-level POLI seminar (the seminar is a BA requirement and can be fulfilled outside of the POLI specialization, if preferred or necessary).
Please note:
- POLI 100 serves as a foundational course for the rest of our undergraduate course catalogue. We highly recommend that students take this course before taking POLI courses at a higher level.
- In addition to POLI 100, 110, 101, and 240, we encourage students to take our other two foundational courses on Comparative Politics (220) and International Relations (260).
- Students will not get credit for both POLI 380 and any of the following courses in counting up the required 120 credits needed to graduate: STAT 200, 203, BIOL 300, COMM 312, 291, ECON 325, EPSE 482, 4POL83, FRST 231, GEOG 374, KIN 371, PSYC 218, 366, SOCI 328.
- All our fourth-year seminars satisfy the Research Requirement for the BA degree. Students can satisfy the Research Requirement by taking other appropriate courses in Arts, but we strongly encourage Majors to take at least one fourth-year seminar in POLI.