FUTURE CHANGES IN THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM
Beginning Fall 2008 for freshmen entering the university and beginning Fall 2009 for entering junior transfer students, there will be new requirements to declare and complete the political science major. Additional information will be forthcoming. These changes will NOT affect students entering Berkeley prior to these respective dates.
Current Political Science Requirements
General rules governing the major
- All 12 major requirements must be taken for a letter grade.
- AP credit does not fulfill a major requirement, however, students who scored a 4 or 5 on the American Government AP exam may opt to take an upper-division American Politics course instead of PS 1 (American Politics courses number from 101B to 111B, or 157A/B, or 171). This course, which may be taken either before or after declaring the major, may not also be used to fulfill an upper-division requirement.
- Courses cannot be double-counted in the major (i.e. one course satisfying two requirements).
- All of the lower-division courses, with the exception of PS 3, can be taken at other colleges or universities. There are no equivalents to PS 3. To determine which lecture-based courses at California community colleges fulfill our lower-division requirements, check the Assist Program at http://www.assist.org.
Lower Division Requirements
- PS 1, Introduction to American Politics
- PS 2, Introduction to Comparative Politics
- PS 3, Introduction to Empirical Analysis and Quantitative Methods
- U.S. History (see pre-approved course list below)
- History of a geographic region outside the U.S. (see pre-approved
course list below)
Note: PS 1, 2, and 3 are not sequential courses. You can take them in any order, although it's best to take PS 1 and 2 first since they must be completed to declare the major.
Upper Division Requirements
Seven (7) Political Science
courses from those numbered 102-189 (plus C196W, the UC in DC Program,
and 191 junior seminars) in accordance with the following provisions:
- All 7 upper division courses must be Political Science Department courses.
- You may not use Honors, De-Cal courses, independent studies courses, P/NP courses, labs, simulations, nor similar non-lecture courses to fulfill requirements for the major.
- Courses cross-listed between Political Science and another department will satisfy requirements.
- Graduate Political Science courses (numbered 200/above) may be counted.
- It is not necessary to specialize in the major; courses may be drawn from any of the nine sub-fields.
- Up to three of the upper-division courses may be satisfied by courses taken at other 4-year institutions. Courses taken elsewhere must conform to standards set by the Polisci faculty and must be pre-approved. Please read our policy regarding courses taken at other institutions below and speak to a Polisci Advisor.
Policy regarding courses taken at other institutions
Up to 3 upper division Polisci requirements may be satisfied by courses taken at other 4-year institutions, either in the U.S. or abroad. All courses must be approved by the department and must conform to the same standards used for our own UCB courses. For requirements and procedures on getting courses approved see either: Transferring Coursework (for U.S. schools), or Studying Abroad (if you are going abroad).
Taking courses at quarter-system
schools
To fulfill an upper-division requirement on a one-to-one basis,
courses must be taken at a semester system school. Courses taken a quarter
system schools will be viewed as partial credit (using the university
standard of 2.66 units) for one of our 4-unit courses. This means that
two quarter courses must be taken to fulfill one upper-division requirement;
three quarter courses to fulfill two requirements;and so on. The maximum
number of quarter courses transferable to fulfill upper-division Polisci
requirements is five. This is the equivalent of three semester classes.
List of Approved Courses
for American History
Effective Spring 2006, only courses currently on the list below will be accepted for the history requirement.
| History
7A or B History 16AC History 121A or B History 122AC History 123 History 124A or B History 126A or B History 130A or B History 131A or B History 132A or B History 137AC History C139B History 139D African Am St. 111 Economics 113 Ethnic St 21AC Ethnic St 130AC PACS 125AC |
Intro
to the History of the United States (satisfies AC) The Forging of America (satisfies AC) The Colonial Period and American Revolution Antebellum America: Advent of Mass Society (satisfies AC) Civil War and Reconstruction The Recent United States The West in United States History (satisfies AC) Diplomatic History of the United States Social History of the United States Intellectual History of the United State The Re-peopling of America (satisfies AC) The American Immigrant Experience (satisfies AC) Liberal Superpower: Reform & Pol Econ in Postwar US History Race, Class & Gender in the United States American Economic History Comp. Study of Racial & Ethnic Groups in US (satisfies AC) The Making of Multi-cultural America (satisfies AC) War, Culture & Society: The Amer. Experience (satisfies AC) |
List of Approved Courses for History of a Geographic Region Outside the US
Effective Spring 2006, only courses currently on the list below will be accepted for the history requirement.
|
History 10 |
Africa |