Below is information that the Political Science Department has received about internships and graduate study. We believe it to be accurate and represent a legitimate opportunity. However, please note that the Department is not endorsing or promoting any particular non-Carleton program, political viewpoint, party affiliation, or set of values.

• Project Vote Smart

Project Vote Smart seeks to provide voters with just the facts about national, state, and local level candidates. They cover candidates in several areas including speeches and public statements, interest group ratings, voting records and much more. Project Vote Smart is not seeking to change anyone’s mind but rather to provide the tools needed to help voters make educated, factually based decisions about those running for office.

Interns are able to gain hands on experience in several areas including political research, media relations, Internet blogging, donor management, IT administration, and legislative analysis. To qualify for a PVS internship, you must meet the following requirements:

1. Set aside personal and political beliefs; be objective and non-partisan while working.
2. Be in good standing with your university/school.
3. Commit to 10 consecutive weeks
4. Remember that the research facility is located in an extraordinarily beautiful but remote area. Interns will be expected to help maintain the facility.

Student Intern Applicants must submit the following:

1. Completed application form
2. Cover letter
3. Resume
4. Minimum of three references (need only be names and contact information, not necessarily letters

All application materials must be submitted together. Students must specify the term for which they are applying. Applications can be downloaded from website http://www.votesmart.org/ or may be requested by called toll-free hotline 1-888-VOTE-SMART (1-888-868-3762).

• Graduate Study in Political Science at UC Santa Barbara

The UCSB Department of Political Science offers diversified and flexible programs of graduate study leading to the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The department’s faculty, currently consisting of 21 members and 4 affiliated faculty, has wide-ranging interests and expertise in the study of political science. In addition to the substantive areas of emphasis of each faculty member, they share broad interests across subfields in democratization (particularly in extending effective participation to excluded and marginalized groups), political behavior, political economy, and environmental politics. Approximately 60 students are enrolled in the department’s graduate programs. This ratio of just three students per professor permits extensive contact and mentoring by the faculty.

The department participates in four exciting interdisciplinary programs—the Women’s Studies Emphasis, which allows students to take a wide array of courses on women’s issues in other departments; the Global and International Studies Emphasis, which allows students to study the effects of globalization around the world; the Technology and Society Emphasis, which allows students to study the impact of the Internet and other modern technology on politics and society, and the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences program (QMSS), which allows students to gain advanced methods training in a group of departments.

As a further step in developing a flexible, interdisciplinary program, they are allowing students to define their own fields of study. They continue to offer students the opportunity to specialize in five conventional areas—American politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Research Methodology, and Political Theory. However, they also offer students the unique opportunity to design their own fields, drawing on courses in the department and other departments across campus, and to qualify in the fields by writing field papers. They currently have students who have developed fields in environmental politics, women’s studies, evolutionary psychology, and political communication, among others. http://www.polsci.ucsb.edu

• University of Illinois at Chicago

The University of Illinois at Chicago offers challenging, broadly gauged master’s and doctorate degree programs in the major political science subfields and in several interdisciplinary areas. The curricula include courses in urban politics, American politics, comparative politics, political theory, and international relations. Interdepartmental concentrations in gender and woman’s studies, Latin American and Latino studies, and survey research are also available. The emphasis is on public policy formation and governance. www.uic.edu/depts/pols

• Institute for Public Policy Studies, University of Denver

The Graduate Program in Public Policy, which offers the Master of Public Policy (MPP), gives students the opportunity analyze, create, and articulate innovative policies responsive to the most challenging issues facing this nation, while respecting and supporting the passion to serve responsibly.

Most MPP classes are offered in the evenings and weekends, allowing students to gain real life public policy experience during the day through full-time employment or policy internships. In addition, flexible dual-degree program gives the opportunity to enhance one’s future career by combining the MPP with several other relevant graduate degrees, including those from the Sturm College of Law, Daniels College of Business, Graduate School of Social Work, Conflict Resolution Institute, School of Communication, and Graduate School of International Studies, among others.

The Master of Public Policy (MPP) is a two-year, 60 quarter-hour program. www.du.edu/ipps