Requirements and Stucture of the Doctoral Program

Ph.D. Candidates must prepare in two of the following major fields:

American Politics and Public Policy
Comparative Politics
International Relations
Models and Methods
Political Economy
Political Philosophy and Social Theory
Security Studies

In each of the two elected fields students will take a written and oral general examination. To prepare for these examinations, students are expected to take at least three courses in each field, including the field seminar for each field. Students are encouraged to take a broad array of courses across the two fields. In some special cases, a single course may overlap across the subject matter of both major fields. Students may use no more than one such course to “double count” for the course distribution requirement across the two major fields.

Specific fields may have additional requirements.

Students may take subjects in other MIT departments. Cross-registration arrangements also permit enrollment in subjects taught in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University and in some of Harvard’s other graduate schools.

Students are encouraged to do field research and develop close working ties with faculty members engaged in major research activities.

Ph.D. Candidates must also satisfy the following requirements:

1.    A one semester seminar for first year students that will cover the fields of Political Science
2.    1 class in Statistics
3.    1 class in Empirical Research Methods
4.    1 class in Political Philosophy
5.    Reading proficiency in one language other than English (demonstrated by 2 semesters of intermediate course work or an exam) or knowledge of advanced statistics (demonstrated by 3 semesters of course work or an exam)

6.    A Second Year Paper and related workshop in the spring semester of the second year.

This is a paper of professional quality approximately the length of a journal article. This project, designed to involve the student in an advanced research problem under faculty supervision, may develop into a dissertation topic.

Ph.D. Candidates must complete a Doctoral Thesis.

Students should consult the MIT Specifications for Thesis Preparation as well as the Political Science Department’s own guidelines.
Due dates for final submission of defended, signed thesis may be found on MIT’s academic calendar.

No fixed number of graduate subjects is required for a Ph.D. However, candidates ordinarily need two full academic years of work to prepare adequately for the General Examinations, and to meet other pre-dissertation requirements. As a rule, the doctoral dissertation requires at least one year of original research and data collection. About two full-time years of research and writing are normally required to complete the dissertation.

For further information please consult the department handbook.