Public Policy Major Portal

Public Policy Major Requirements

Semester Course Schedules

Policies

Grade Requirement

Credit toward the major is not given for courses completed with a grade of less than C, or for courses taken on a pass/fail basis. Students are also expected to complete the major prerequisite courses with a grade of C or better.

CAS Residency

CAS students are allowed to take 16 credits in non-liberal arts courses in the other schools of the University; the three required Wagner courses for this major count as 12 of those 16 credits, and any additional Wagner courses will also count against the 16 points. Students with a good academic reason for going over the 16-point limit must petition the Office of Academic Standards (Silver 909, 212.998.8140) for permission to take additional credits outside of the College.

In addition, no Wagner courses can count toward the 64 credits that internal or external transfer students to the College are required to complete in CAS (-UA) courses.

Double Counting Courses

Students can count up to two Public Policy major courses towards the requirements of another major or minor. Students intending to double count any courses would also need to contact the other major or minor’s department to ask if, and to what extent, that department permits overlapping courses.

AP Credits

Students may count four points (the equivalent of one course) from Advanced Placement examinations towards the requirements of the major. The approved exams are Politics (U.S. Gov't and Politics), Politics (Comp. Gov't and Politics), U.S. History, and World History. These credits will count towards the general policy elective requirement only and count towards our double-counting policy.

Internship Credit

Students are encouraged to pursue internships in the field and should use Wasserman to prepare for the job search and look for opportunities.

Students can count an internship course as a general policy elective for the major if they meet the following conditions:

• They are registered for an approved internship course during the semester of the internship. The current approved courses are NODEP-UA 980/981 Internship Seminar and NODEP-UA 9982 Internship Seminar & Fieldwork.
• The internship is approved by the Director of the Public Policy Major as relevant to the major after reviewing a submission from the Internship Review Form.

CAS College Core Curriculum

CAS students are required to fulfill the CAS College Core Curriculum as well as their major requirements. Quantitative Analysis for Public Policy (UPADM-GP 111) satisfies the Quantitative Reasoning requirement for undergraduate majors in Public Policy.

Honors

To graduate with departmental honors in the major, a student must maintain at least a 3.65 average in the 11 courses required for the major, earn at least a 3.65 overall GPA in the College of Arts and Science, and write a senior honors thesis in their final year. Students who wish to pursue departmental honors must take PUBPL-UA 800 Senior Seminar and apply to the honors program in the fall of their final year. Following approval, a student will enroll in PUBPL-UA 801 Honors Seminar  (this course does not count toward the 11 courses required for the major) in their final spring semester. To be awarded honors, a student must complete this two-course sequence and produce a quality senior project.

Course Petitions

Students can petition for a course to count as a requirement for the major using the Course Petition Form. Students are expected to provide a syllabus for the course with a reading list as well as a short memo explaining the course’s relevancy to the major.

Student must petition for any courses taken previously within one month of declaring the major. Subsequently, they must petition for any future courses before the class begins. Any petition for a class taken after declaring that is submitted after the classes began will be denied.

Transfer students can petition transfer courses to count using the same process as long as the credits have been accepted by the university to count toward the student’s undergraduate degree.