The goal of the honors program is to provide small classes for our best students. These classes create opportunities for rich discussion among highly motivated political science majors. They also promote camaraderie among students and faculty: students get to know one another, discuss politics together, and get to know the faculty on a more personal basis.
Sophomore and junior majors who have an overall GPA of 3.75 or above and who have excelled in their political science classes are eligible to join the program. Invitations are emailed by the program director, Prof. Alex Zakaras.
Each semester, the department designates one course at the 2000-level as an honors course. These courses will be open only to members of the departmental honors program. They will typically enroll around 20 students. These courses will fulfill requirements for the major just like regular courses. Whenever possible, the department will rotate the subfield of the 2000-level honors course each semester.
Graduating with honors in political science will require the student to complete three classes in total: two of these 2000-level honors courses and the senior honors seminar (POLS 4800) in the spring of senior year. The senior seminar is a unique course in which students read and discuss the research of UVM’s own political science faculty, and it features visits from those faculty members throughout the term. Students enrolling in POLS 4800 must have taken at least one POLS class at the 3000-level (or enroll in a 3000-level class concurrently). POLS 4800 counts toward the major, but it does not count toward any subfield, since it is interdisciplinary.
Students who successfully complete the honors program will be inducted, at graduation, into Pi Sigma Alpha.
Pi Sigma Alpha
Pi Sigma Alpha, the national Political Science Honor Society, was founded in 1920, and there are now over 460 chapters established at universities and colleges across the United States. The Chi Nu chapter was established here at UVM in 1999, because of our desire to create ways to recognize and honor the achievements of our most outstanding senior students.
There are two pathways for admission to the UVM chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha:
You have successfully completed the departmental honors program and finished with an overall GPA of at least a 3.4.
OR
You have maintained a record of sustained excellence in the department, culminating in a senior thesis.
An installation ceremony and reception for new members is ordinarily held each spring on the Friday of graduation weekend. Invitations to Pi Sigma Alpha are sent out in April. If you have any questions, please contact Chapter President, Professor Alex Zakaras, azakaras@uvm.edu.