Learning Outcomes

Students completing the Political Science B.A. major are expected to:

  • Think critically about basic political processes, institutions, and concepts as these operate in different national and cultural contexts. Evaluate arguments in an impartial fashion.
  • Locate, evaluate, and use information and scholarship needed to place particular political events in broader historical, cross-national, and theoretical contexts. Demonstrate familiarity with various approaches to the study of politics, and their application to specific questions, puzzles, and debates.
  • Apply mathematical and logical reasoning to political processes, and use and evaluate statistical and other types of evidence in arguments, while recognizing the limits of both quantitative and non-quantitative analysis.
  • Acquire a knowledge of diverse theories of politics, by engaging critically with texts, media, and contexts. Learn to employ cultural, hermeneutical, normative, and historical approaches.
  • Make written and oral arguments about significant political processes, events, and concepts using appropriate evidence, with sensitivity to opposing perspectives.