Students who are approved to complete a one-semester thesis must earn three units of credit in the thesis semester. The senior thesis is an integral component of the part of the Reed College degree.
After declaring the major and passing the junior qualifying examination, the student is eligible to register for thesis. The thesis is a two-unit, yearlong course, approved by the major division or committee. The project is to be accomplished in close consultation with the thesis adviser. Any variation in the thesis project, such as a one-semester thesis, must be approved by a petition to the major division or committee.
The thesis may not be taken for more than two units of Reed credit. All petitions must be submitted by the end of the sophomore year. What is your policy towards transfer of credits? The Political Science Department's Policy for transferring credits differs if you are a transfer or a non-transfer student. Transfer students are students who have attended some university or college prior to enrolling at Reed and who are transferring credits from that university.
Non-transfer students are students who began and are continuing their studies at Reed but who plan to take classes elsewhere while on leave or over the summer. What is your policy towards ad hoc majors?
Requests for ad hoc interdisciplinary majors will require a clear and compelling rationale, and will not normally be approved. Students requesting them must not only find two advisors from the participating departments, but must also receive written approval from both departments as specified in the Faculty Code. In order to receive such approval, the student must formally petition the department.
When should I change my advisor to a PoliSci Department member? Certainly by the time you declare, if not earlier. Remember that PoliSci introductory courses are capped and prospective majors have priority. One way the Registrar can tell if you are prospective is by your advisor. Another way is if you go to the Registar and have them change your "proposed major" to Political Science from whatever it was you designated before you came to Reed which is there automatically.
These steps will put you ahead in the priority line for capping, and you should do these as soon as you know you plan to major in Political Science. Is there a form for declaring a major? When you fill out this form and your advisor signs it, you're formally a major in your department of choice.
It's not a formal contract by any means, not even the major, but it is a serious planning process and usually does mean plotting a road map to your graduation.
Everyone wants to make sure all will turn out well. See the catalog entry for Political Science. For the official divisional and college requirements, see the College catalog. In drawing up your schedule here are some additional things to think about:.
Reed College is an undergraduate institution that offers an education in the liberal arts and sciences. Its purpose is to help produce people who are broadly educated, not narrow specialists. The Political Science Department aims not to create political scientists, but rather, liberally educated individuals who happen to have majored in political science. In a sense, it doesn't matter what your major is or what you do with your life after Reed.
We believe that all subjects are equally interesting, that all majors are compatible with a wide variety of career options all of which are legitimate and praiseworthy. You do not have to major in political science in order to become a political scientist, go into politics or government, go to law school and the like.
Of course, we regard advising on curriculum choices, as well as any career and other personal decisions you wish to raise as fundamental parts of our roles as teachers, and welcome such conversations anytime. The point is that these are choices each student controls. We will help in any way we can, but in the end, you are the responsible party. It is nonetheless true that political science graduates tend to follow certain career tracks. Reed is nationally known for having lots of students who choose careers in academia and political science is no exception.
Recent graduates enrolled in Ph. While we are proud of these students, we are also proud of the Reedies who have chosen quite different careers. Although majoring in political science is certainly not necessary for law school, that is what many of our graduates choose. A number of other students have pursued advanced degrees in public policy. Schools of public policy—e.
Ds that often lead to excellent policy analysis jobs in both the private and public sectors, as well as academic appointments. Still other students have pursued graduate degrees in business administration. And, of course, many political science graduates have gone directly into the more or less real world—in business, government, journalism, computers, bartending, ceramics and the like. Political activism seems to attract quite a few with internships or other positions with advocacy groups of various kinds.
We hope, and believe, that all of them have learned how to think at Reed College, and have used the ability to good advantage in their lives after Reed. Many of them report that this has, in fact, been the case. The Department has surveyed as many of our graduated majors as possible to find out where they have gone, what they have done and what advice they have to offer current majors. While a statistically valid picture is not feasible, we can pass on a bit of advice from two of our respondents.
First, two pieces of advice from a student who went on to do a Ph. Learn statistics while you are at Reed: Most political scientists crunch numbers. Even if you don't plan to be that kind of political scientist, in the profession, everyone around you will be a 'quantoid.
That means learning their language Grad school is a bad place for liberal artists to learn basic math. Take your lumps now in the relatively forgiving environment at Reed. Learn a language at Reed: Except for Americanists, most political scientists use a second language as part of their work. Indeed, I think many Americanists are Americanists because they only speak American.
What conceptual issue or puzzle does this topic address in political science or political theory? Grounding yourself in this way will give you a star to navigate by. It will make it easier for you to separate what is important to write about and what you can ignore. And you will find that the clearer your focus, the more you can write.
Keep your perspective on what you are writing. You are not writing Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. While we hope you write a wonderful thesis, we know that you will learn a great deal in the process of researching, writing, discussing and rewriting your thesis—regardless of how happy you are with the final product that you have produced when time runs out at the end of Spring term.
Remember that thesis is as much about process as product, and that you are evaluated not only on what you wrote, but on what you did over the entire year.
The thesis process has its own rhythm, which accelerates as the year proceeds. Usually, the first chapter takes the longest time to write precisely because you are setting out the topic, but as you proceed, you become more sure-footed and the chapters are written more quickly. As an exercise, count back from the first draft deadline usually the beginning of April and figure a month per chapter. Balance your schedule accordingly. The purpose is to ensure sufficient time for the thesis adviser and the thesis first draft reader to read the draft and offer suggestions, and for the author to make revisions before the college deadline and oral exam.
The completion of the thesis first draft by the stipulated divisional deadline is mandatory. Because the division considers the first draft an essential portion of the thesis course, any student who does not meet the first draft deadline risks not graduating at the regular time. If, in spite of this, the thesis is accepted for graduation, the final grade for the thesis course is likely to be lower. Advisers and first readers are not required to give comments on late first drafts.
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