More about our degrees

Explore the details of your degree options and internship opportunities.

Our political science program encourages you to combine required courses with a wide variety of electives that expand possibilities for your future career.

By engaging in practical activity, and then framing and contextualizing that activity with a theoretical lens, your academic internship provides opportunity to see how the ideas that underlie the study of the field manifest and play out in everyday lives. This both enriches the scholastic understanding of what you study as well as help you discover your potential contributions when you discover shortcomings or gaps in what you have learned.

Your Degree Options

In order to earn the bachelor of arts degree with a major in political science, students must complete a minimum of 180 credits with a cumulative and major/program grade point average of 2.00.

Macroeconomics is required as partial fulfillment of the social science core. Political science majors are strongly encouraged to take additional courses in history, economics, and languages. Advisors may recommend electives in public affairs, business, sociology, philosophy, and writing.

The political science departmental honors major offers an opportunity for motivated and capable students to engage in more extensive interaction with faculty and to complete challenging individual research projects that will further their personal and professional goals.

  • Application to the major: To be accepted to the program, students must have a cumulative and major/program grade point average of 3.50. Interested students should apply in spring quarter of the junior year or fall quarter of the senior year. Upon acceptance, a Change of Major, Degree or Specialization form is submitted to the Office of the Registrar.
  • Completion of the major: During senior year, honors students will complete, over multiple quarters, a ten-credit departmental honors thesis (PLSC 4790). Students in the departmental honors program complete 5 credits of course work above the norm for political science majors (for a total of 65 credits in political science) and write a substantial thesis under the direction of a faculty member. The thesis will be graded by departmental faculty. In order to complete the requirements for departmental honors and receive a notation to that effect on their transcripts, students must also maintain a cumulative and major/program grade point average of 3.50. In addition, the grade received for PLSC 4790 Departmental Honors Thesis Supervision must be an A or A-. In addition to the bachelor of arts major in political science requirements, the honors major also includes ten credits in departmental honors, including PLSC 4790 - Honors: Thesis Supervision.

In order to earn a minor in political science, students must complete 30 credits in political science, including two of the following four courses (PLSC 2000 - Introduction to U.S. Politics; PLSC 2300 - Introduction to Comparative Politics; PLSC 2500 - Introduction to Political Theory; PLSC 2600 - Introduction to International Politics). A maximum of 15 transfer credits may be used for the minor in political science.

The Value of Internships

Internships also allow you to pursue opportunities that enhance your resume for your future career or graduate school. Political science is an impressively diverse field that can lead you in a number of potential career directions. Supervised internships allow you to try out areas that interest you, to see if the reality of the field matches your preconceived notions. If you fall in love with the field, it presents the opportunity to get a foot in the door and begin to build professional contacts. If you find that the work is not what you imagined, you can avoid pursuing a path they would not enjoy. Either way, your future is enriched by exploring these opportunities.

Internship Opportunities

Students work in a number of fields in government, the non-profit sector, in law firms, and on political campaigns. Our political science program has a special relationship with one internship program that we particularly recommend to our students, The Washington State Legislative Internship Program. Available only in winter quarter, it requires an application and competitive screening process. Selected students take a 15-credit internship course that sees them working full-time as a staff member for a member of the Washington state House or Senate. Students have the opportunity not only to work in the legislature but will also participate and attend in a specially developed curriculum focused on the Washington state legislative process.

Other opportunities have included:

Legislative

  • Rep. Suzan DelBene (D - 1st District)
  • Rep. Pramilya Jayapal (D - 7th District)
  • Rep. Adam Smith (D- 9th District)
  • Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
  • Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)

Government

  • City of Seattle
  • State of Washington
  • WA Attorney General
  • King County Prosecutor
  • US Dept of Justice

Legal/Nonprofit/NGO

  • ACLU of Washington
  • African Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest
  • Apex Law Group
  • Be:Seattle
  • Food Lifeline
  • Fund for American Studies
  • Hopkins & Sachs
  • King County Democrats
  • King County GOP
  • King County Bar Association
  • King County Bar Association
  • Save the Children Action Network (SCAN)
  • Seattle Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area
  • Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
  • Washington Policy Center
  • World Affairs Council

Current Students

Learn how to find and apply for internships, including the Washington State Legislative Program.