Comprehensive Exams & Field Requirements
Comparative Politics ♦ International Relations ♦ Political Theory ♦ Public Policy ♦ US Politics
General Policies Applicable to All Fields
Exam Committee ♦ Preparing for Exams ♦ Required Coursework ♦ Registering for Credit ♦ Scheduling Exams ♦ Exam Length ♦ Academic Integrity ♦ Oral Exam ♦ Evaluation of Exams ♦ Post-Comprehensive
Doctoral students must pass 1 major and 1 minor comprehensive exam in two different department fields. The major exam includes a written and an oral component. The minor exam is written only. Exams are taken during the 3rd year in the program.
Faculty teaching in the subfield will determine who is on the student’s exam committee.
Students should speak to all members of their subfield to get the broadest understanding of the subfield before taking exams, and meet with the field chair to begin planning for the exam at least one term prior.
Each field has core seminars that cover the major areas in the field’s comprehensive exam. Core coursework must be complete before scheduling a comprehensive exam in that field. All core seminars are offered at least every other year, unless no appropriate faculty member is available to teach them. All course requirements (except for dissertation PS 603) must be completed prior to (or during) the term of the final comprehensive exam.
Register for a minimum of 3 credits of 605 reading the term of each comp exam. Email grad coordinator for registration authorization and copy the field committee chair, who will oversee these credits.
Exams may be taken in week 5 or 7 during fall, winter, or spring terms. If taking more than one examination in a term, one exam will be week 5, the other week 7.
A completed exam contract must be submitted to the Graduate Coordinator by Wednesday of week 3 (for week 5 exams) or Wednesday of week 5 (for week 7 exams). Once contracted, the themes or dates cannot be changed without a formal written request and the consent of the Field Chair and Director of Graduate Studies.
Exam lengths vary based on field and whether it’s a major or minor exam. Regardless of exam length, exams will be emailed to the student at 8:15 a.m. on day 1 and will be due by 4:30 p.m. on the final day.
Exams are open book, but while taking the exam, students may not discuss it with others. Students must properly cite the work and ideas of others. After submission, the exam will be put through plagiarism software, with any findings of academic misconduct reported to the Dean of Students. Confirmed misconduct will lead to a failing grade on the exam, and will be considered by the department for further sanctions, which may include a vote by the faculty on disqualification from the program.
Within one week of completing a major written examination, notification of oral exam status will be communicated by the field committee chair. Oral exams are held within two weeks after the written exam. Oral exams are general in nature and may include material from the written examination. Student and committee determine date and time of oral exam and student or committee chair contact grad coordinator to reserve room.
Exam results will be sent to the student within a week of oral exam (for major exam) or written exam (for minor exam). Exams are evaluated as high pass, pass, low pass, or fail. A single grade will be given for the major exam. The chair of the committee may decide to distribute comments prior to oral examination.
Any examination not completed as contracted or turned in late, will receive a grade of fail. Students who have otherwise made satisfactory progress in the program may repeat failed major and/or minor comprehensive examinations once, but are only permitted a maximum of two attempts on each exam. Thus, a student who switched exam fields after failing a major exam would only have one attempt at another major exam, and similarly with minor exams. Should any comprehensive examination be failed twice, the department will recommend disqualification to the Graduate School.
Post‐Comprehensive
Upon successful completion of all coursework and comprehensive exams, students are advanced to Ph.D. candidacy.
Field-Specific Policies
Comparative Politics ♦ International Relations ♦ Political Theory ♦ Public Policy ♦ US Politics
Comparative Politics
Committee Chair: Tuong Vu
Required Core Seminars (3 courses)
- PS 628 State and State‐Society Relations
- PS 629 Comparative Political Economy
- PS 630 States and Regimes
Resources
Major Exam (4 days)
When scheduling the exam, students declare a primary regional focus from the following:
- Western Europe
- Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union
- Northeast Asia
- Southeast Asia and Oceania
- South Asia
- North Africa and Middle East
- Sub‐Saharan Africa
- Latin America
- North America
The exam has three sections:
- Core. Broad theoretical questions that engage epistemological, methodological, conceptual themes (see core part of reading list), and rely on mastery of all three substantive thematic areas of the reading list. Write one essay from choice of two questions.
- Cross‐regional questions. Write one essay from choice of three questions. The three questions will be drawn identifiably from the three areas of the core seminars (and the three related thematic areas of the reading list), and will all ask for essays that engage empirics from two regions of the world.
- Regional focus questions, tailored by student regional focus. Questions may be on any theme. Students should expect these two questions to draw on the two thematic areas least related to their primary intellectual focus (e.g., a student with main interest in political economy and development should expect questions in this section to speak to states & regimes and state‐society relations).
Minor Exam (3 days)
The exam consists of the first two sections of the major exam. Students do not declare a regional focus because they do not take the regionally‐tailored part of the major exam.
- PS 624 International Relations
- PS 626 International Political Economy
Resources
- Summary of requirements below. However, much more detail is provided in the three documents linked here. All students planning to take a comprehensive exam in International Relations should read all three of these documents in their first or second year as a PhD student.
- Strategy for taking comprehensive exams in International Relations (coming soon)
- International Relations Reading List
- Past Exam Questions
Major Exam (3 days)
Respond to 3 questions, one based on the core theme of the reading list, and two based on two of the following additional themes:
- International Political Economy
- International Security
- International Environmental Politics
- Foreign Policy and Decision Making*
*To develop an appropriate reading list for this theme, contact the field committee chair no later than week 1 of the prior Spring term for a Fall term exam or week 1 of the prior Fall term for either a Winter term or Spring term exam.
Minor Exam (2 days)
Respond to 2 questions, one based on the core theme of the reading list, and 1 based on 1 additional theme from the list above.
Preparing for the Exam
The Reading List identifies required and strongly recommended readings as a starting point to prepare for each theme. As part of writing a contract with their committee, the student should also develop a list of readings for each theme that reflects the committee’s and student’s assessment of important new works not yet on the Reading List. Students’ exams should reflect all relevant work in the field, whether or not those works are on the Reading List. Good comprehensive exams demonstrate the student’s knowledge of important cases and the student’s ability to apply theory to particular empirical contexts.
Additional Information
The goal of the comp exam process in International Relations is to foster your knowledge of the field. Successful preparation should leave you “knowing the field” well enough to identify interesting questions for a dissertation, have an understanding of available theories and cases for answering that question, and have a sense of the “look and feel” of compelling and convincing arguments in the field. Preparation for the exam should also position you so that you are 60‐80% of the way to being prepared to teach an introductory undergraduate course in International Relations.
Political Theory
Committee Chair: Burke Hendrix
Required Core Seminar (1 course)
- PS 622 Political Theory
Resources
Major Exam (4 days**)
For a major examination, the Committee requires a student to offer the core theme (History of Political Thought) and four additional themes from the following:
- History of Political Thought
- Republicanism and the Public Sphere
- Natural Right, Natural Law, and the Social Contract
- Philosophy of Social Science and Interpretive Methodology
- Politics of Identity
- Comparative Political Theory
- American Political Thought
- Critical Theory and Post‐Structuralism
- Liberalism, Utilitarianism, Communitarianism
- Democratic Thought and Equality
- Feminism; Justice and Law
- Marxism, Socialism, and Anarchism
- Theories of Affect, Aesthetics, and Embodiment
- Critical Race Theory.
Minor Exam (3 days**)
For a minor examination, the student will offer the core theme and two additional themes. Students minoring in the field will answer two out of three questions.
Minor exam takers may be required, at the discretion of the examination committee, to meet and discuss their written exam work prior to a grade being given.
Special Instructions
**International students for whom English is not their native language will have an additional day to complete the comprehensive examination (5 days for a major; 4 days for a minor).
Public Policy
The public policy subfield is available only as a minor field.
Committee Chair: Craig Kauffman
Required Core Seminars (2 courses)
- PS 625 Public Policy
- And at least one of the following, when offered by a faculty member in the department’s public policy subfield (Alison Gash, Craig Kauffman, Ronald Mitchell, Dan Tichenor or Gerald Berk):
- PS 566: Legalizing Civil Rights in Post‐Warren Era
- PS 567: US Presidency
- PS 571: Intergenerational Justice
- PS 577: International Environmental Politics
- PS 584: US Supreme Court
- PS 595: US Political Economy
- PS 630: States and Regimes
If these are not offered before the student takes the exam, or if the student was otherwise unable to take one of these courses, the student should contact the chair of the policy field to explore other options to fulfill the course requirements. These alternate options must be approved through an exception process; consult the Director of Graduate Studies.
Resources
Minor Exam (2 days)
Respond to 2 questions, 1 covering the full breadth of the Core Reading List and 1 on the student’s Additional Readings List on a substantive area (e.g., health care, poverty, environment, business regulation, immigration, science and technology policy) or theoretical subfield (e.g., agenda setting, bureaucracy, regulation, political economy, implementation, decision making, and policy evaluation)
Preparing for the Exam
All students must demonstrate their mastery of the Core Reading List as well as additions to that list that reflect the student’s particular interests, developed in consultation with the full Public Policy field committee as part of their contract with the committee. Students should begin this consultation well in advance of the anticipated term of examination. This list is intended to serve as a starting point for student preparation for the core theme and should reflect both the committee’s and the student’s assessment of important new work in the field covered by the theme. All students taking the exam must master additional readings covering EITHER a key theoretical subfield within Public Policy OR a substantive area of expertise. This list will include at least 20 readings (books, articles, chapters) designed to help the student develop a theoretically‐informed mastery of a key theoretical field within public policy (e.g., agenda setting, bureaucracy, regulation, political economy, implementation, decision making, and policy evaluation) or substantive area of expertise (e.g., health care, poverty, environment, business regulation, immigration, science and technology policy). The Public Policy Committee offers a reading list for the “pre‐specified” subtheme of “Law and Public Policy.” The reading list for this subtheme can serve as either a theoretical subfield OR a substantive area of expertise. Again, these lists are intended to serve as starting points for student preparation for the corresponding theme. Students should reference all relevant work in the field, whether or not those were included in the student’s contracted reading list. Good comprehensive exam answers demonstrate empirical knowledge of important cases as well as the student’s ability to explore and understand the application of a theory to a particular empirical context.
For all comprehensive exams, questions will be solicited from all current faculty on the Public Policy Field Committee. The completed examination will be evaluated by three Field Committee members to be determined by the Field Committee chair in consultation with all members of the Field Committee.
Additional Information
The public policy subfield will organize an annual roundtable on preparation for the policy exam. All prospective public policy students should attend. Consult the public policy subfield chair for details.
United States Politics
Committee Chair: Dan Tichenor
Required Seminars (2-3 courses)
For cohorts starting prior to 2024:
- PS 607: American Politics Pro‐Seminar
- One 600‐level U.S. political science seminar*
- One 500- or 600‐level U.S. political science seminar*
For cohorts starting in 2024 and after:
- PS 607: American Politics Pro‐Seminar I
- PS 6XX: American Politics Pro‐Seminar II
* PS 625 Public Policy Seminar does not count towards the U.S. requirements, even if it is taught by U.S. faculty. Consult the subfield chair via email before enrolling if uncertain if a course will count.
Major Exam (3 days)
Major exam students will answer 3 of 5 questions, requiring knowledge of U.S. political institutions, culture, and behavior and drawn from the U.S Politics Reading List and required coursework.
Minor exam (2 days)
Minor exam students will answer 2 of 4 questions, requiring knowledge of U.S. political institutions, culture, and behavior and drawn from the U.S Politics Reading List and required coursework.