Major Requirements

Major: Political Science - Public Service Option

Degree Type: B.A. or B.S.
Required Degree Credits to Graduate: 122

Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Degree Requirements                                                                            

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Degree – The completion of a minor program of study, a second major, or a second degree is required.                                                                            

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Degree – Second year language proficiency required.

General Education Requirements

First Year Experience (F):
UNIV 189	Skills For Academic Success (Students transferring in 24 or more credits do not need to take UNIV 189.)	1
Communication (C):
ENGL 110	College Composition I	3
ENGL 120	College Composition II	3
One Course in Upper Level Writing. Select one of the following:		3
ENGL 320	Business and Professional Writing
ENGL 321	Writing in the Technical Professions
ENGL 358	Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences
ENGL 459	Researching and Writing Grants and Proposal
COMM 110	Fundamentals of Public Speaking	3
Quantitative Reasoning (R):
STAT 330	Introductory Statistics	3
Science & Technology (S):
A one-credit lab must be taken as a co-requisite with a general education science/technology course unless the course includes an embedded lab experience equivalent to a one-credit course. Select from current general education list		10
Humanities & Fine Arts (A): Select from current general education list		6
Social & Behavioral Sciences (B):
POLS 110	Introduction to Political Science	3
or POLS 115	American Government
Select from current general education list		3
Wellness (W): Select from current general education list		2
Cultural Diversity (D): Select from current general education list
Global Perspectives (G): Select from current general education list
Total Credits		40

Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences College Requirements

An additional 9 credits are required by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for all Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degree programs of study, except the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, the Bachelor of Music degree, Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree, and the Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree:

AH&SS College Requirements
Courses used to satisfy any general education requirement cannot be used to also count toward the AH&SS College Requirements. A minimum of three credits is required in each of the 3 following areas for a total of 9 credits. Choose only those courses with the prefixes listed for each area. A course with the WGS prefix can only be used in one area.
Area One: Humanities		3
ARB, ENGL, FREN, GERM, HIST, HUM, PHIL, RELS, SPAN, or WGS
Area Two: Social Sciences		3
ANTH, CJ, COMM, EMGT, POLS, SOC, or WGS
Area Three: Fine Arts		3
ARCH, ART, ENVD, LA, MUSC, or THEA
Total Credits		9

Major Requirements

General Education Requirements		40
AH&SS College Requirement		9
Pre-Political Science Requirements: Must complete the following 12 credits of pre-political science courses with an average GPA of 3.00.
POLS 110	Introduction to Political Science	3
or POLS 115	American Government
POLS 220	International Politics	3
or POLS 225	Comparative Politics
POLS 240	Political Ideologies	3
POLS	100 or 200 level	3
Professional Major Requirements: Professional courses will require a minimum 3.0 GPA.
POLS 215	Problems and Policies In American Government	3
POLS 325	Applied Research Methods	4
POLS 420	Political Behavior-Executive-Legislative Process	3
POLS 422	State and Local Politics	3
POLS 423	Public Policy Analysis	3
POLS 430	Constitutional Law-Civil Liberties	3
or POLS 431	Constitutional Law-Criminal Justice
POLS 442	Global Policy Issues	3
or POLS 444	International Law
or POLS 446	Current Topics in International Law
POLS 450	Politics of the Developing Countries	3
or POLS 451	Politics of the Industrialized Countries
or POLS 452	Comparative Political Economy
POLS 489	Senior Seminar	3
POLS 496	Field Experience	9
Supplemental Requirements: Pre-requisites apply to all courses. Select 5 courses from the following:		15
ACCT 200	Elements of Accounting I
ACCT 201	Elements of Accounting II
MGMT 320	Foundations of Management
COMM 383	Organizational Communication I
ECON 202	Principles of Macroeconomics
EMGT 101	Emergencies, Disasters, and Catastrophes
ENGL 320	Business and Professional Writing
SOC 115	Social Problems
HDFS 353	Children, Families and Public Policy
Degree Requirements: Potential of 9 credits to reach 122		9
Total Credits		122

Degree Requirements and Notes

• Students should refer to www.ndsu.edu/cjps for information regarding application to professional program.
• The department will review applications on a rolling basis. Student must apply to be a major or minor no later than the first day of classes of the semester in which they intend to graduate.                                            
• To apply, a student must have completed a minimum of 36 credit hours and achieve a minimum GPA of 3.0 in the pre-political science courses and 2.75 overall in NDSU coursework.                        
• Once admitted to the professional political science program, failure to maintain a minimum GPA of 3.00 in the professional political science courses and a cumulative 2.75 in all coursework will result in an academic warning issued by the department for the first violation.  Students will receive notification of this warning at their NDSU email address.  Failure to return to these minimum standards will result in being administratively removed from the program.                                                                           
• Internal and external transfer students will be handled similarly to students who commence their studies in the pre-professional program.                                                                  
• Students who entered the University and declared political science as their major prior to fall 2012 will be grandfathered into the program and will not be subject to these guidelines.
• These guidelines apply for all majors and minors of political science.