By contrast, Lerner’s study depends on intensive interviewing, carried out by his field assistants. Further, as noted, the phenomenon described through process tracing is Tannenwald’s main independent variable; thus, the nuclear taboo is her hypothesized explanation for the US post-World War II non-use of nuclear weapons. By contrast, for Lerner the posited modernization of the village is the dependent variable triggered by an electoral shift and the initiative of the victorious party to build new infrastructure. Finally, while both Lerner and Tannenwald offer a rich and detailed description of a key variable, Tannenwald also gives substantial attention to rival explanations.

Every semester, the Political Science Department administers a comprehensive exam for all its graduating seniors. This is the Major Field Test, devised by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, as a way of allowing a general assessment of how well political science majors have come to understand their field. ●     Through the online application submit a Personal Statement describing interest in, and motivation for pursuing a graduate degree in public policy.

Praxis Government/Political Science (

In quantitative fields, the second year paper will generally be a “results-blind” paper which includes a draft preregistration of all data collection and analysis (students should not formally preregister until their advisor(s) give the go-ahead). To insure that scores are available when admission decisions are normally made, you should take the GRE and TOEFL (if required) no later than the December before the fall for which you are applying. Requests for transcripts and letters of recommendation should also be made no later than December in order to give the senders time to get the documents to Rice before the deadline. If you have met a class prerequisite via AP or IBO scores or college credits, but have not yet transferred them to USU, you can request a temporary prerequisite override. Not getting your test scores/credits to USU before August 1, 2023 will result in that class being dropped.
Central here is Holmes’s method of elimination, a strategy invoked various times in Doyle’s stories. Put simply, when the investigator has eliminated all plausible alternatives, the remaining scenario must be the correct one. Variants of this method are widely recognized, as with eliminative induction in Bayesian analysis (Vineberg Reference Vineberg1996) and J.S. Table 4 presents two hoop tests, both focused on the hypothesis that Simpson killed Straker (H6). Simpson carried a potential murder weapon, so that he passes the corresponding hoop test and is therefore not precluded as a suspect.
Another test is suggested by Mahoney’s (Reference Mahoney2010, 125–31) causal-sequence framework. The inference thereby derived may further support the causal importance of the independent variable or intervening mechanism. In “Silver Blaze,” the lame sheep are an example of an auxiliary outcome (table 7).

Get real-time answers to your test prep questions by attending one of our Webinars. We want to help you prepare as thoroughly as possible for this exam, which is why we’re offering you our free GACE Political Science practice test. Test I features 60 multiple choice (“selected-response”) questions, and a two hour time span. In Georgia, all teachers are required to prove their readiness to teach by taking and passing the GACE (Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators) exam.
Indeed, the example passage is arguably even more clear than Huntington’s original, and thus demonstrates what good summarizing can accomplish. Nonetheless, a citation acknowledging Huntington as the source of the ideas is still necessary. The Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on May 25, 1787. Of the 55 delegates who attended the opening session, only 39 remained to sign the completed Constitution on September 17, 1787.
A crucial task in Tannenwald’s study is to establish empirically (a) that this horrified reaction did in fact occur; (b) how widespread it was; and (c) that the elements of this reaction did indeed add up to a nuclear taboo. Process tracing focuses on finding and interpreting diagnostic evidence that addresses these descriptive tasks. This nuclear taboo, in turn, is the key independent variable in the study that is evaluated vis-à-vis rival explanations of the non-use of nuclear weapons.

Political Science Major Requirements: 36 Credit Hours

However, his timid, non-menacing appearance might seem to preclude his being a murderer who “shattered” Straker’s head with a “savage” blow. Table 4 also illustrates alternative interpretations of the same piece of evidence. One could assume, as just stated, that a timid individual such as Simpson would never commit a savage murder—thereby eliminating him as a suspect through the hoop test. Alternatively, it may be unlikely, but definitely not impossible, that a timid and nonmenacing person would commit such a murder. This would yield a straw-in-the-wind that casts doubt on the idea that that he is the murderer—yet he remains a possible suspect.

Temporarily, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the swimming requirement was replaced with an alternative HHPL class. However, as campus will be opening this fall, the pre-covid rules to graduate and the swimming requirement may revert to the pre-covid rules. As swimming is a class outside of POLS, you need to contact Dr. Deborah Johnson, the interim chair of the Health, Human Performance, and Leisure Studies (HHPL) Department, and ask her about swimming classes being offered this year (). Whereas this taboo grew out of the reaction at the level of public opinion, it evolved into a normative mandate embraced by policy makers (Reference Tannenwald1999, 462).
Although you may have taken an American Government course elsewhere, many of these courses or exams do not adequately cover California. Thus for students who meet any of the above circumstances, in order to graduate, you must take the California Component Exam. If students take other general education courses, they must still satisfy these requirements in the major. Individual departments at Howard University do not review or approve International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement transfer credits. Howard University uses a standard system that is applied to all incoming first year students to determine transfer credit.

Test Your Knowledge With Political Science Quiz

Political Science is the study of government, politics, and public policy in the United States and other countries, and of the relations among nations and states in the world community. The Political Science curriculum is designed to provide students with factual knowledge of these subjects and with the ability to analyze and evaluate different governmental systems, ideologies, political practices, and policy proposals. The Political Science major prepares students to be informed and engaged citizens and to pursue careers in government, law, public administration, education, journalism, international institutions, and political organizations. The total number of credits required for graduation in the Political Science major is 120. The Political Science major requires the university-wide standard of a minimum 2.0 grade point average (GPA). Double counting of credits for the Political Science major and for another major or a minor is limited and must have the approval of the Coordinator of the Political Science major or the Chair of the Political Science Department.

Degree Works lists all the credit and course requirements for a students’ degree program. Degree Works indicates what courses you must complete in order to graduate. MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR), in conjunction with the Master of Public Policy Program, offers a limited number of competitive IPPSR fellowships for incoming students. Fellows receive a stipend, tuition and fee waivers (for 9 credits for the Fall and Spring semesters), and health insurance coverage. Mid-career applicants who have worked in Michigan government or the policymaking community are especially encouraged to apply.
As is clear in the exercises, some studies are explicit and precise about the prior knowledge that frames the research, whereas for other studies it is necessary to consult a wider literature to understand the theoretical background. Unfortunately, as investigators write up their research, they may overstate the coherence of the findings vis-à-vis prior knowledge—sometimes making it hard to identify the theoretical starting point. Reconstructing this starting point can require detective work—which is sometimes needed in evaluating diagnostic evidence in some of the exercises. This two-fold deficit motivates this article, which offers a new framework for understanding, applying, and teaching process tracing. Guide to understanding how CLEP scores are calculated and credit-granting recommendations for all exams. The exam contains approximately 100 questions to be answered in 90 minutes.
It is possible to have an exam committee of faculty that students have not taken courses with. The preliminary examinations are designed to test your knowledge of the theories and substantive debates in the discipline of political science. The Department also administers a comprehensive exam in American Political Institutions each term for students seeking certification and 3 units of credit for challenging the content of Political Science 101 (Option B below).
During the regular academic year, please allow at least two weeks for Dr. Guerrero to reply to your email. The test is given on Canvas; once Dr. Guerrero has sent you an email invite, you will be able to complete the exam. The subject matter of the American Government exam is drawn from the following topics. The percentages next to the main topics indicate the approximate percentage of exam questions on that topic. The American Government exam assesses an understanding of civics and political process and behavior.
The paper develops and demonstrates the utility of WATs through an analysis of Chinese citizens’ attitudes towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Procedures for eligibility are the same as those for Option A and B discussed above. Students should check in at the Political Science office either during registration or the first week of classes to find out when and where the exam will be given. The exam consists of 50 multiple-choice questions requiring approximately one hour to complete. The Department of Political Science permits students to meet both the U.S. Constitution and the California State and Local Government parts of the statutory requirement in American Institutions in a variety of ways.
You will get courses taken abroad approved for Howard University equivalents as part of the process for Studying Abroad. To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. In this instance, the form of the murder was so distinctive that it called for a distinctive explanation—which turned out to be the kick of a horse.
Typically, candidates must have a bachelor’s degree and have completed an accredited teacher preparation program. They should be written by individuals, usually professors or instructors, familiar with your work, and thus best qualified to testify to your capacity for graduate study. These letters must be sent directly to us by the person writing the recommendation, preferably electronically through our application website.
Here is a chart that is used to determine what scores are required for transfer credit. If you go to register for a class, and you receive an error message, there are many reasons why an error message may occur. The common reasons you get an error message when trying to register for a class are 1. To declare POLS as your major, you will need to meet with your academic advisor and fill out the appropriate change of major form found on the Registrar’s form page here Forms
Before changing your major, you should consult with your advisor to find the right major that fits your career and academic goals. Please note, only general education courses are evaluated as part of the preliminary evaluation of your transcript, and only courses with a grade of “C” or above are eligible for transfer credit. This review process matches similarly named courses (e.g., Intro to American History, from 1860 is matched to a course at Howard called, American History from 1860). If, after the first review, transfer courses are not accepted, it is usually due to the names or content of the transfer courts not lining up exactly with HU courses. Therefore, students must submit a Transfer Credit Form with the assistance of a faculty advisor.
Political Science majors must have a minor or a second major and must meet the requirements stipulated by that department. Public Administration is not allowable as a minor because those classes can count as part of the Political Science major. At least 6 hours (typically 2 classes) in three of the department’s five subfields (American Government, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Public Policy, Public Administration).
Below is a list of most, but not all, of the pre-law courses offered at Howard University. Pre-law courses are the type of courses that will help you develop your analytical and critical reading skills, writing ability, and oral expression. All Political Science Independent Study Classes (POLS IS) are reserved for POLS majors. IS POLS courses require students to develop their own topic and related paper or project that must be completed in a single semester. It is important to know that an IS course does NOT meet on a regular basis, there is no reading list or traditional syllabus, and it is the student’s responsibility to choose the topics and readings. In other words, being enrolled in an IS POLS course means that you are taking a self-directed course.
These guidelines are for the political theory comprehensive exam specifically, because what counts as command of the field is quite different than in the other subfields in political science. The standard practice to measuring political attitudes is to ask survey respondents to map their feelings onto a quantitative scale determined by the researcher. This approach, while widespread, suffers from a number of well-known problems. Such questions can be cognitively demanding, scales are different across cultures and even individuals of the same culture, and complex attitudes are reduced to a single number. In this paper, we advance the use of Word Association Tests (WATs), where respondents are presented a series of cue words and asked to provide other words that come to mind as quickly as possible. This approach more directly maps to how attitudes actually operate in the human mind, and it provides a richer set of data than a standard survey question.