The Political Science curriculum at Radford University will give you a broad background in the field while allowing you the ability to specialize in your particular area of interest. The major and minor requirements are designed to develop your critical thinking, information literacy, written and oral communication, citizenship, ethics, problem solving, diversity fluency, and ability to collaborate.
We help you build those skills through the study of law and government. The Political Science curriculum at Radford University studies those areas from the local to the global perspective. Political Science also fits within the REAL Curriculum in all of its aspects. Courses with the R designation will analyze data to understand international conflict, or voting behavior. Courses with the A designation will explore the diverse cultures of the world and how to live inclusively in that world. Courses with the E designation will examine political philosophical and ethical thought throughout history and today. Courses with the L designation will allow you to apply what you learn into real-world scenarios.
Students can choose two degree paths as a major. The primary difference between the two degree choices is focus: the Bachelor of Science degree is great for students who are quantitatively minded and want to use data and analytics in the future. The Bachelor of Arts is more qualitative, with requirements for foreign language classes and philosophy.
Three years at Radford. Two years at Virginia Tech — and a master's before your classmates finish applying.
An accelerated 3+2 pathway lets Political Science majors earn a Radford bachelor's degree and a NASPAA-accredited Master of Public Administration from Virginia Tech in five years total — no GRE, no application fee.
At a Glance
How the Five Years Break Down
Years 1–3 — Radford University: Build your major and your GPA
Complete six semesters in residence at Radford, working through the REAL Curriculum and your Political Science major (BS or BA) while holding a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA — the threshold for the program throughout.
Apply to the MPA — One application, junior year
Apply to Virginia Tech's MPA program in the second semester of your junior year, once you've reached 75 credit hours. The application is fee-waived for RU students and does not require GRE scores. You'll need:
Years 4–5 — Virginia Tech, Center for Public Administration & Policy: Finish both degrees in Blacksburg
Once you've completed 90 RU credit hours and been admitted, your fourth-year coursework counts toward both your Radford bachelor's degree and the VT MPA at the same time. Radford confers your bachelor's degree at the end of year four; Virginia Tech confers your MPA at the end of year five.
Why This Beats Applying After Graduation
Students bound for public service usually finish a bachelor's degree, apply to a master's program from scratch, and start a new application cycle — GRE scores, fees, and a fresh year or more before a graduate degree even begins.
This pathway removes that gap entirely. Your junior-year coursework doubles as your application file, your fourth-year classes count toward both degrees simultaneously, and you graduate with a bachelor's and a NASPAA-accredited master's degree already in hand — putting you ahead of classmates who are just starting to apply.
The agreement is between Radford's Department of Political Science and Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration & Policy, and it's built specifically for students headed toward government, nonprofit, or public-service careers.
Virginia Tech · CPAP
Virginia Tech is a nationally-renowned Research 1 institution, and its Center for Public Administration & Policy offers a NASPAA-accredited Master of Public Administration — the field's recognized mark of program quality.
Coursework covers budgeting, personnel management, public policy processes, and the normative foundations of public administration, capped by a project and report in your final semester.
What It Takes to Qualify
In Their Own Words
“Students seeking careers in public service will find the opportunity to enter the workforce earlier with the benefit of both a bachelor's and master's degree, which will in turn allow them to earn promotion to supervisory roles that much quicker.”
From Radford's agreement proposal with Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration & Policy
Want to Know If You're on Track?
Chapman Rackaway, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Political Science
crackaway@radford.edu
Our department provides students with an immersive, complete college experience. High-impact practices are established techniques professors use to enhance their classrooms by creating that immersive environment, such as:
The department is putting new emphasis on internships. Each year, several students complete internships in governmental institutions. Recent interns have placed in numerous political campaigns, law firms, at the CIA headquarters and State Department’s Ukraine bureau.
Students secure their own internships so they can align the work with their career goals. If you're interested in seeking an internship, start with our internship page for details on seeking and securing an internship as well as procedures to receive course credit for it.
Many POSC classes use simulations to put students into the shoes of diplomats or decision makers. Dr. Daniel Reed’s Political Parties class simulates national party nominating conventions. Dr. Rackaway's American Government class simulates the process of getting a bill through the legislature. Dr. Paige Tan’s international relations classes simulate international diplomacy, often putting students in the shoes of United Nations or European Union diplomats. Dr. Tay Keong Tan’s INST 101 students engage in simulation exercise designed to bring the world back from the brink of collapse. Dr. Tay Keong Tan's INST 101 class held and in class debate over the use of drones in military strikes.
In Dr. Yankle’s POSC 233 class, students conduct an implicit bias assessment using local police traffic stop policies as the background issue.
Dr. Tay Keong Tan’s World Poverty and Global Sustainability class developed an award-winning Anti-Poverty Toolkit for the United Nations using research they conducted in class.
The success of the Anti-Poverty Toolkit resulted in another faculty-student research project undertaken by Dr. Tay Keong Tan and student Anna Ogan to develop a United Nations PRME Sustainability Mindset Repository. This is a repository of open, universally accessible, multimedia materials for scholars in the field of global sustainability and sustainable development (accessible at: www.sustainabilitymindset.net). It has some over 100 artifacts and is currently being used by some 150+ international scholars of the PRME Working Group on Sustainability Mindset.
In Dr. Yankle’s POSC 438 class, the Constitution Day Project required that students create an informative poster that asked groups to provide the details about a Supreme Court case background, a look into the decision, as well as providing greater political and social context for the decision. Students commented on other groups’ posters as well as responded to comments on their group poster.
Students in classes across the major present their work at Political Science Days, the Wicked Festival, and Undergraduate Research events.
Students in Dr. Yankle’s Big Questions in Political Science class developed concept studies to take more in-depth looks at policy issues discussed in class. Students worked in teams to develop a complete policy background brief.
Students in Dr. Rackaway's State and Local Government class created a campus-wide strategic voter registration, education, and mobilization plan for Highlanders Vote
Students in Dr. Paige Tan’s terrorism class do policy recommendations to the US and other governments on how to fight terrorism. Students in dictatorships offer policy proposals to help protesters overcome non-democratic regimes.