Government Department

Completing the Government Major

Iinformation listed here is relevant to the requirements as of March 2002.

What requirements can be covered by AP credit?
A score of 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement test in American Government confers credit for Government 201, satisfying this major requirement. Likewise, a score of 4 or 5 in the AP test for Comparative Government earns credit for Government 203,.satisfying this major requirement. Students who receive a 4 or 5 on either of these AP tests may not take 201 or 203 for credit (and would also still need to fulfill the major computing proficiency requirement in another way). Note: Students who entered the College under the old rule, according to which a 4 did not count for credit, are bound by that earlier rule.

A score of 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement test in Human Geography confers credit for Government 381 (Note: No more than two of the following courses may count toward a major in Government: Government 381, 382, 384.

How do you satisfy the subfield requirement in political philosophy?
Students may take either Government 303, Survey of Political Philosophy/Classical Tradition (Ancient and Medieval Christian thought); Government 304/Survey of Political Philosophy/Modern Tradition (Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers); Government 305, Contemporary Political Philosophy (19th century to the present); and Government 392, Topics, in Political Theory (e.g. American Political Thought). None of these courses have prerequisites. Note that Govt. 303, 394 and 305 DO also fulfill GER 7, while Govt. 392 does not.

How do you complete the Department's seminar requirement?
All majors are required to take one Government seminar at the 400-level (obviously freshmen seminars do not fulfill this requirement; nor do Government 494, Independent Study, or Government 495-496, Honors; no class transferred in from another university in the US or abroad may fulfill this requirement). Several are listed in the course selections in the catalog. But please bear in mind that any given 400-level seminar is offered at most once a year and the majority are offered less often than that: students are advised to contact the instructor to see when a particular seminar may next be offered. Specific topical seminars listed under Government 405 or 491 may be offered only once.

What are Govt. 391 courses and how many may count to the major?
Government 391, Topics in Government, is a general rubric for a variety of different courses designed around specific issues. A student may count more than one 391 courses to his/her major provided the topics of each are different (when in doubt contact with specific questions).

How do you complete the Government major Writing Proficiency requirement?
Since every major is required to take a 400-level seminar and all are writing intensive, which entails a minimum of 25 pages of evaluated writing, all Government majors automatically fulfull the College's Major Writing Proficiency--provided they get a grade of C- or better in that seminar. Students who do not must take another seminar.

How do you complete the Government Computing Proficiency requirement?
Government majors must demonstrate the ability to use computers for (1) word processing, (2) searching electronic library catalogs and information sources, and (3) analyzing quantitative data to address issues of governance and politics. They must satisfy this requirement in Government itself (Note: there is no exemption for taking a Computer Science course or--in the case of double majors--for fulfilling the concentration computing proficiency in another department). Here are the options:

As of January, 2007, option (a) is no longer available
a) Introductory-Level Courses
Students may satisfy this requirement by successfully completing a computing lab section (L) in conjunction with selected sections of the following introductory course. Please read the stipulations below carefully.
Government 201, Introduction to American Government and Politics
Government 203, Introduction to Comparative Politics
Government 204, Introduction to International Politics

  • Only certain sections of these introductory courses in a given semester will come with a linked lab section.
  • There may be no lab sections linked to 201, 203 or 204 lectures in a given semester.
  • Students seeking to fulfill the computing requirement must take both the lecture and the lab linked to it in the same semester and with the same instructor, e.g. Govt 201-01 and Govt. 201-L1.
  • Students may NOT enroll in a lab section alone, that is, without taking the linked lecture section as well.
  • Students also may NOT enroll in a lecture section of an introductory course with one instructor and a computer lab with another instructor, even in the same semester (i.e. Govt. 201-02 and Govt. 201-L1).
  • Students enrolled in a given lecture section do not necessarily need to enroll in the linked lab section (i.e. all students in Govt. 201-L1 must be in Govt. 201-01, but not all students in Govt. 201-01 will be in Govt. 201-L1).

b) Intermediate/Upper-Level Courses
Government 301, Research Methods
Government 307, Political Polling & Survey Analysis
Government 465, Seminar: Public Opinion & Voting Behavior

c) Department-approved exemption:
Alternatively, students may satisfy the requirement by demonstrating computer proficiency in a research paper submitted for credit and a grade in another 300 or 400-level Government course, but only under the following stipulations

  • The instructor of the course must agree to do so (Note: Such permission is solely up to the instructor; students may not necessarily expect all faculty to agree to such supervisions).
  • The student must clearly demonstrate the following skills (click here) in his/her research paper.
  • The student must acquire those skills on his/her own, perhaps through courses in another department, and cannot expect the instructor of the Government course to teach him/her those skills, e.g., how to use SPSS or analyze computer output.
  • Both the student and teacher must certify that the student has demonstrated the necessary skills by submitting the following form (click here) and submitting the paper project to the Department.

How many Geography courses count toward the major?
Students may count no more than two of these Geography courses to the 33 credits in Government required for a major: Government 381, Government 382, Government 384 (students may take more than two, but may count only toward the major). Geography courses taken at another university or on a study abroad program will receive credit for Government only if they meet the descriptions of these existing Geography courses in the Department's listings.

How many freshman seminars may count toward the major?
No more than one freshman seminar may be counted in the 33 hours of Government required for a Government major (any student who does take a second freshman seminar in Government will receive general elective credit, but it will not count to the major).