MA in Public Policy and Administration

The minimum requirement for the Masters of Public Policy and Administration graduate degree is thirty-six hours, which must include a minimum of one-half of the semester hours required exclusive of thesis credits at the 5000 level. A Masters of Public Policy and Administration candidate may transfer up to six hours of graduate credit from another program in political science at an accredited college or university. The candidate must have completed the hours within five years of entering Baylor's Graduate Political Science program and the candidate must have earned a grade of B or above in the classes.

There are three components of the MPPA program:

Core Courses (any seven) 21 sem. hrs.

PSC 4300 Political Behavior
PSC 4307 Environmental Law
PSC 4310 Politics and Communication
PSC 4316 Grand Strategy
PSC 4322 Seminar in Public Administration
PSC 4330 Urban Political Processes
PSC 4335 Public Discourse and Foreign Policy
PSC 4342 Courts and Public Policy
PSC 4346 Intelligence and Covert Action
PSC 4350 Political Parties
PSC 4355 Power, Morality, and International Relations
PSC 4385 Diplomacy
PSC 5310 Seminar in American Politics
PSC 5321 Seminar in Public Law
PSC 5323 Research Design and Research Methods
PSC 5330 American Political Development
PSC 5340 The American Founding
PSC 5344 Seminar in Comparative Constitutional Law
PSC 5345 Seminar in American Foreign Policy
PSC 5350 Seminar in Presidential Rhetoric
PSC 5391 Reading Course

Elective Courses 9 sem. hrs.

(including at least one 5000-level graduate course) selected from:

1. Courses listed above.
2. Other Political Science courses.
3. Relevant graduate-level courses in cognate fields (e.g., Accounting, Economics, Environmental Studies, History, Management, Quantitative Business Analysis, Sociology).

Professional Internship/Research 6 sem. hrs.

After consultation with the Graduate Program Director, a student will choose one of the following options:

1. PSC 5V12 Graduate Internship, involving a written report on at least three months of full-time supervised employment with a public service agency. To earn credit for an internship, the student's supervisor must send a letter of evaluation about his/her work to the department's Graduate Program Director. In addition, the student must write a report of approximately 20 pages in length (to be evaluated by the Graduate Program Director), which details the internship and evaluating their experiences in relationship to his/her degree;
2. PSC 5395 Professional Paper and one additional 5000 graduate level elective; or
3. PSC 5V99 Master's Thesis including an oral defense of the project

Total required 36 sem. hrs