Bachelor of Arts in Political Science

The BA in Political Science at Drexel University combines rigorous methods training with issue-specific courses, in which students apply their methodological training to real-world problems. While all students will have the opportunity to specialize their plan of study, the core of our program is a sequence of three courses in research design and methodology. Students begin by focusing on the research process and framing of social science questions through designing research and testing hypotheses. Students then progress to advanced courses in both statistical inference and other quantitative methods in political science, and in-depth training in qualitative methods such as archival work, ethnographic studies and interviews. In addition to political science coursework, students complete four quarters (one full year) of language study, which complements our research methodology training, enabling our students to ask questions and conduct research beyond borders. All students also have the opportunity to specialize their coursework by following one of the informal “tracks” of study detailed below. These three tracks reflect our research and teaching strengths, and are designed to prepare students for a variety of career paths.