Graduate Study in Political Science

Berkeley's Department of Political Science is consistently ranked among the top departments of political science in the United States, and its esteemed faculty of past and present have trained some of the world's finest scholars and teachers in the field. As a doctoral program, we admit only for the Ph.D. The department values diversity among its student population, drawing qualified applicants from all over the United States and the world. Each year approximately 25 new graduate students enter the Department's doctoral student body of about 200. Once here students find such a rich environment that they produce superlative work in the field. In the last twenty years, our Ph.D.s have won more "best dissertation" prizes from the American Political Science Association than the graduates of any other political science department, and our students consistently find rewarding jobs at leading colleges and universities, as well as in research, industry, government and public policy.

The Department does not embrace or promote any particular school of theory or method of analysis, valuing instead theoretical diversity, intellectual breadth, analytic rigor, and scholarly excellence. It is committed to maintaining among its faculty, and in its graduate student training, the full range of expertise contained within the sub-fields of contemporary political science. The varied methodological approaches appropriate to the rigorous analysis of political phenomena are integral parts of the research environment.

Berkeley brings the benefits of a large research university--libraries, resources, and a wide variety of perspectives--but graduate courses in political science are small enough for intensive dialogue among participants. Most seminars have fewer than ten students. There are many other opportunities for close contact between faculty and students, including special reading courses, teaching and research assistantships, detailed dissertation supervision, and informal seminars and lunches. Research between graduate students and faculty often lead to joint presentations at professional conferences and co-authored publications in leading academic journals. (See list of recent jointly authored publications).

"The quality and range of faculty resources in this department speaks for itself. Faculty members are truly committed to graduate teaching, and constantly make themselves available ... as teachers, advisors, and senior colleagues."

The Berkeley campus augments the Department's many strengths. In addition to its bucolic and verdant charm, the distinction of its academic departments and professional schools--across all disciplines--makes UC Berkeley one of the highest-rated graduate institutions and research universities in the nation and a leading intellectual center of the world. Political Science graduate students are encouraged to take advantage of Berkeley's intellectual and disciplinary richness. There are formal programs of interdisciplinary study such as the Designated Emphasis program that brings faculty from different departments to help a student create an individualized specialization, as well as boundless opportunities for intellectual involvement with other fields of study. Students take courses in related social science departments and professional schools, and they often become involved with many of the campus' interdisciplinary research institutes and centers. For political science students, the most important of these are:

Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE)
Center for the Study of Law and Society
Institute for the Study of Social Change
Institute of Government Studies
Institute of Industrial Relations
Survey Research Center
International and Area Studies
- Center for African Studies
- Center for German and European Studies
- Center for Latin American Studies
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies
- Center for South Asian Studies
- Center for Southeast Asian Studies
- Institute of East Asian Studies
  - Center for Chinese Studies
  - Center for Japanese Studies
  - Center for Korean Studies
- Institute of European Studies
- Institute of International Studies
- Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

The Department of Political Science provides a variety of support in order to help its graduate students attain their professional and career goals. We employ two full-time graduate assistants who support incoming, current, and finishing students, and we maintain our own computing facility, to which graduate students have exclusive access. Approximately fifty office spaces are assigned to advanced graduate students each year, and the department surely boasts the graduate student lounge with the best view. A placement office, with a full-time graduate assistant, aids those students who are completing their graduate program and entering the academic job market. Various forms of financial assistance are available; each year the Department allocates over four million dollars in the form of grants, salaries, and remissions to assist its students in financing their graduate education.