Master of Arts in Political Science
The Department of Political Science at the University of Florida offers a Master of Arts in Political Science. Students in the M.A. program are permitted, but not required, to pursue a companion certificate program in Public Affairs, Political Campaigning, or International Development Policy and Administration. Information on those programs is available from the Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Political Science.
Students may complete their M.A. degree with a thesis or without writing a thesis. Students pursuing the M.A. with Thesis option must complete 30 hours of graduate coursework. Students pursuing the M.A. without Thesis option are required to complete 36 semester hours of graduate course work and submit two qualifying papers.
Students in the certificate program in Political Campaigning, Public Affairs, and International Development Policy and Administration pursue the M.A. without Thesis.
For both M.A. with Thesis and M.A. without Thesis students, course work in political science, exclusive of core courses, must include a minimum of two graduate-level courses in one field of political science. The fields are American Government and Politics, Comparative Politics, Public Affairs, International Relations, Political Behavior and Methodology, and Political Theory.
Descriptions of these fields of study are available through linking to the Doctoral Program. M.A. students may pursue a joint degree program with the Levin College of Law, which would allow students to earn both the Master of Arts and the Juris Doctor degree in approximately four years.
