The Politics Department offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in two fields: Foreign Affairs, which covers the political science fields of Comparative Politics and International Relations, and Government, which covers the fields of American Politics and Political Theory.

Admissions to both M.A. and Ph.D. programs is handled through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences admissions website. In addition to the materials listed on the Graduate School's page, the Politics Department requires that you submit a writing sample, which should be your best and longest piece of analytic writing.

The application deadline for the Politics Department is December 15. For more general deadlines,see the Graduate School's Deadlines page.

Please note that this single application is used to determine both admissions and Departmental financial aid decisions. Current tuition and fees are detailed on the Graduate School's page.

Please note that international students face tight immigration / visa requirements and slow processing of visas. Please see the list of requirements here: http://www.virginia.edu/iso/issp/. More general information is available here: http://www.virginia.edu/intlstudents.html. Do not delay in seeking the appropriate visa.

It is very important that you be aware of four aspects of Departmental policy as you prepare your application:

• We do not look favorably upon applicants whose overall GPA is less than 3.2 or who have a combined verbal and quantitative GRE score of less than 1200. Applications with GPA less than 3.0 and GREs less than 1100 are almost always rejected. The three year rolling average for applicant GREs is 1310 and for admitted students is 1390. Foreign applicants whose native language is not English must take the TOEFL and attain a score of 600 (paper) or 250 (computer) or 90 (IBT), unless they have an undergraduate degree from a US institution. We also prefer foreign students to have a TWE over 5.0.
• On the application form it is essential that you enter the appropriate degree program in which you wish to enroll. If you do not plan to continue on toward a Ph.D. in our Department, please choose “M.A.-Foreign Affairs” or “M.A.-Government.” Whether or not you currently have a Master's degree, if you plan to go on for the Ph.D. please seelct “Ph.D.-Foreign Affairs” or “Ph.D. Government.” If you do not already have an M.A. in political science, you must obtain an M.A. in our Department, after which you will be evaluated to determine your suitability for further work at the Ph.D. level. In general students already have a Master's degree in political science can be admitted directly into the PhD program; however in some cases these students will be asked to fulfill part of the UVa M.A. requirements. If you wrote an M.A. thesis for your prior M.A. please be sure to send the department a copy at the time you apply for entry into the Ph.D. program, as this is often the critical determinant for admission directly to the Ph.D. program.
• We have an entering class of 10 funded PhD students per year and provide each student with a 5-year financial-aid package that includes an annual stipend of $18,000 (in a mix of Teaching-Assistant wages and fellowship), a full tuition waiver (valued at ~$25,000), and a health insurance voucher (valued at ~$2,400). All aid after the first year is conditional on satisfactory progress through the program, and annual reviews of performance will be conducted. Funding beyond the five-year period may be available, but is not guaranteed.
• Merit-based financial aid is not available for students whose intended terminal degree is the M.A.

• Your writing sample is the most important part of your application. Please upload what you think is your best and longest piece of analytic writing.

If after reviewing the above information and exploring our website you have additional questions, please feel free to email the Director of Graduate Studies (Professor Jeffery A. Jenkins, jajenkins@virginia.edu), or the Graduate Assistant (Bonnie Bragg, bonnie@virginia.edu).