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Undergraduate Program

Degree Plans:

To earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government, students must complete all degree plan requirements for their appropriate catalog.

Major Requirements:

A major in Government requires 30 semester hours of GOV coursework, 18 hours of which must be upper-division. Additional major-specific requirements include:

  • Fields: 12hrs from at least 3 different Fields of Government
     
  • GOV Tools Requirement: Choose one of the following options
    • Option 1: 3hrs from these GOV courses:
      • GOV 339L - Research Methods in Government
      • GOV 350K - Statistical Analysis in Political Science
      • GOV 355M - Data Science for the Social World
      • GOV 355N - World War I in Real Time
    • Option 2: 3hrs from these statistics-based options: ECO 329, EDP 371, PSY 317L, SOC 317L, 327M; STA 309; SDS 301; AFR 302M
    • Option 3: 6hrs of upper-division coursework in one foreign language, excluding courses conducted in English.
    • For students on the 2022-2024 catalog, the tools requirement must be fulfilled in-residence or with transfer credit; AP credit cannot be used to fulfill it. Note: Only Option 1(GOV courses) will count toward the 30 hours required for the major.
    • Students on the 2020-2022 catalog or any older catalog can use AP or transfer credit to fulfill the tools option. Students on these catalogs can also use any of the following courses to fulfill the tools option: PHL 312, PHL 313, PHL 313K, PHL 313Q, or T C 310.
       
  • GOV Research or Internship Course Requirement
    Satisfied with one of the following:
    • Any GOV with an II Flag
    • Government Research Internship: GOV 362L
    • Political Internship: GOV 374N
    • Archer Fellowship Internship: GOV 662N
      Note: You must take the internship class in order to meet the requirement. Each class requires an application. Plan to complete your internship early!

The 6 hours required for the Core Legislative GOV Requirement can be included in the hours counted toward the major.

A grade of at least a C- is required in all major courses.

Minor Requirements:

For students under the 2014-2016 catalogs:

A minor consists of 12 semester hours, including six hours of upper-division coursework, in any one field of study other than Government.  Six of the required 12 hours for the minor must be taken in-residence.

For students under the 2016-2018 or later catalogs:

Completion of 15 to 21 hours of prescribed coursework in a different field of study than the major is required. A complete list of approved minors, requirements, and instructions on how to declare can be found online. Some minors are restricted and may require an application. A transcript recognized certificate may also satisfy this requirement.

Fulfilling the Legislative Requirement in Government [For All UT Majors]:

The Texas Education Code (Subchapter F, §51.301) requires Texas public university and community college students to complete six semester hours of coursework in government/political science; study of the US and Texas constitutions and related subjects is specified as the required course content.

More information on how to fullfill the Core Government Requirement