Political Science

Political Science: Major

17³Ô¹ÏÍø students who major in political science gain in-depth understanding of the American political system, other political regimes, the international system, and political philosophy. In uniformly small classes, students also improve their critical and analytical skills and competence in oral and written expression.

Political science is one of 17³Ô¹ÏÍø’ most popular majors. The major is rigorously structured so as to ensure breadth as well as depth, with courses required in each of the discipline’s four subfields. Department faculty conceive the most fundamental purpose of the major as helping students to become thoughtful, well-informed, and ethical citizens of a constitutional, self-governing republic. Political science majors have gone on to successful careers in local, state, and federal government, academia,  law, journalism, business, high-school teaching, nonprofit organizations, the armed forces, and the priesthood. 

Program Highlights

Students majoring in political science take courses in four main areas:
 
  • American government
  • political philosophy
  • comparative politics
  • international relations
students and a professor in a class
Subfields

Learn more about the political science department’s four subfields.

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Charles Carroll Program

The program brings guest lecturers to campus, funds a sophomore seminar and provides paid summer research internships.

Group of students in Washington DC
Washington Semester Program

Many political science majors spend a semester working, studying, and conducting research in Washington, D.C.

Political Science News

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Charles Carroll Program at 17³Ô¹ÏÍø to Host First Ever Conference on Adam Smith
The 17³Ô¹ÏÍø will host a two-day conference on Thursday, April 3 and Friday, April 4, to explore the ethical, political and economic thought of 18th- century Scottish moral philosopher and pioneer of political economics Adam Smith.  …
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Fmr. Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman Calls for End to Ideological Partisanship
Approximately 400 people filled the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom to hear former Utah governor and ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman Jr., deliver the 48th annual Hanify-Howland Memorial Lecture on Nov. 13. The Republican presidential candidate in the 2012 election primaries …
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28 17³Ô¹ÏÍø Students Inducted into Jesuit Honor Society
Twenty-eighty students from the class of 2014 at the 17³Ô¹ÏÍø were inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the Jesuit honor society, on October 27. Alpha Sigma Nu seeks out students at Jesuit institutions of higher learning who …