Graduate Handbook

The Political Science department Graduate Handbook contains information about programs requirements, milestones and procedures.

Guidance for Conduct in Graduate Seminars

College of the Liberal Arts Graduate Information

This page provides information from the college.

Dissertation Information from the Graduate School

This website provides links to all of the information you need to complete your dissertation including questions about formatting and submitting the final versions. Do not use the information about M.A. theses, as our department’s rules for this are different.

Graduate School Calendar

This website provides links to semester deadlines, especially the deadlines for submitting dissertations to graduate in each semester.

Doctoral Committee Policy

All doctoral committees must have a minimum total of four Penn State Graduate Faculty members, two of the our must represent the major field (one of which must serve as the chair), one of the four must represent an outside field member, and one must serve as outside unit.

The outside field member and outside unit member can be the same person. For students pursuing a dual-title field of study, both programs must be represented in the chair position. If you political science advisor is not affiliated with the dual program, a co-chair representing the dual-title field must be appointed.

In most cases, the same faculty is a member of both major and dual-title fields, so they are serving as a sole chair. The doctoral committee paperwork should be at the time you are scheduling your oral comprehensive exam. All the paperwork should submitted no later than three weeks prior to your oral comprehensive exam.

Request to take a course in addition to 601

Scholarship and Research Integrity

All graduate students are required to complete a unit on Scholarship and Research Integrity (SARI).