Department of Political Science

Political Science
1414 Social Sciences Building
267 19th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: 612-624-4144
Fax: 612-626-7599
E-mail: polisci@umn.edu

Chair: Raymond D. Duvall

Funding

Financial Support

It is the department's policy to extend full financial support for at least five years to all those accepted into the Ph.D. program. Several types of financial support are available to incoming students in our department.

Fellowships

There are a number of fellowships available to incoming graduate students. The admissions committee decides which applicants to nominate for these fellowships, choosing the strongest files that fit the fellowship criteria.

Each year a few students are nominated for Graduate School Fellowships . Others are nominated for MacArthur Program Fellowships or for Graduate School Educational Opportunity Fellowships. All are considered for the department's own fellowships, the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, the Vernie Wolfsberg Fellowship (for women) or the Clara B. Ueland Fellowship (for women). These fellowships are roughly equivalent to the Graduate School Fellowships in providing a stipend of more than $12,000 plus full tuition and health insurance. The university also has a number of financial awards specifically for minority students. These include the CIC Minorities Fellowship and MacArthur Program Minority Fellowships. All these awards are available to incoming students who are African-American, Hispanic-American or Native-American.

Applicants who intend to study Political Theory are advised to consider applying for an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies.

Teaching and Research Assistantships

The majority of Ph.D. students are funded through teaching or research assistantships. At present assistants earn about $12,000 per year, plus an additional $3,000 summer stipend. The students also receive medical insurance benefits and a tuition waiver during the academic years. Assistants do not teach individual classes; rather they grade and otherwise assist professors in teaching undergraduate classes.

Assuming normal progress in coursework and satisfactory performance of teaching assistant duties, students receive aid for four years. Financial aid also covers the Graduate School residency requirement.

After passing preliminary written and oral examinations, usually in the spring of the third year, students are eligible for a wider set of opportunities. Each year a few students win dissertation fellowships in a university-wide competition. Some students continue to receive assistantships. Most students secure an instructorship and thereby teach a course of their own during this period. The department's general policy is to offer all graduate students the opportunity to teach at least one course of their own before graduation.