POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENT RESOURCES
The
best place to seek guidance on political science resources at HPU is to
see one the department's instructors. We also have staff experts on
campus to help you with
internships,
post-college employment and graduate school preparation, and
improving your
research and
writing. This materials below provide you some basic
information that you may also find useful:
Professional
Organizations
APSA
is the flagship professional organization in political science. The association
publishes numerous journals, including PS, which is the main
journal addressing the occupational concerns and activities of
professional political scientists (this journal available through Smith
Library's Journal Finder)
The American Bar Association.
The ABA is the nation's largest and best know association of attorneys.
Their website will link you to many resources for applying to law
school.
Internship
Resources
Resources
for Applying to Graduate School
Preparing
to apply to graduate school. Published by the University of
Tennessee at Martin, this site provides a comprehensive overview of the
graduate schools application process.
The Association of Professional
Schools of International Affairs. This organization includes
most of the top IA programs in the country. Students
considering graduate school in international relations may find it
useful to review Foreign Policy's
2005 reputational ranking of these institutions.
Graduate school rankings in Political Science. This
interactive website allows students to generate lists of PhD political
science programs by prestige, cost, support for PhD students, time to
PhD, etc. The data are somewhat dated, but it is a nice place to start
thinking about potential programs.
The
Graduate Record Examination. Students applying to graduate
school generally must prepare for and take the GRE, a standardized
examination that assesses a students mathematics, verbal, writing, and
analytical skills. The GRE's website provides an overview of the test as
well as a sample examination. If you have already taken the GRE, the
website provides charts that convert your raw test scores into
percentiles.
If you are applying to law school, you will need to take the Law School Admissions Test
(the LSAT) and to provide various materials to the
Law
School Admission Council (LSAC), which acts as an applications
clearinghouse for law schools.
In depth information on the LSAT examination and the law school applications process
is located on the LSAC homepage. To get a general
sense about the the GPA and LSAT scores students typically need to enter
law school, you may want to review US
News and World Report's annual law school ranking of institutions.
Students thinking about law school
should see HPU's pre-law
services early on in the time at HPU.
The political science department has a very strong track-record in
placing its graduates into excellent law programs, especially when
students prepare adequately for the LSAT by taking a test preparation
course with either Kaplan
or
Princeton Review.
Research and Writing Resources
"Citing Sources," a chapter from a leading student writing manual.
Covers how and when to cite as well as the formatting of bibliographies.
Paul
Hensel's International Relations Data Site (From Florida State).
This will link you to a tremendous number of data sites on countries, US
states, etc.
Political Science Resources on the Web (from the University of
Michigan library)
