The Department of Political Science participates in a three-year Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree program offered by the Honors Tutorial College (HTC). Our HTC students majoring in Political Science would also have an opportunity to use their fourth year in college to complete course requirements for a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree. Only a small number of exceptionally gifted and talented students are enrolled in this prestigious program, which is modeled after the tutorial programs of Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England. Although admissions to the program are made on the basis of competitive applications from top-ranked high school seniors, the program will consider transfer applications by exceptionally promising students who are not already in the program.

The HTC Program of Study in Political Science consists of nine tutorials and collateral studies selected freely from the regularly-scheduled courses. A tutorial is a quarter-long academic engagement for 5 credit-hours between a student enrolled in the Honors Tutorial College and a faculty tutor chosen by the student to study any mutually agreed-upon subject, topic, or problem. A tutorial typically meets once a week for one to two hours to discuss readings assigned to the student. The student is usually required to submit in advance of the tutorial session a brief written report on the assigned readings, which the tutor uses in preparing for the follow-up tutorial session.