Post-Graduation
The main professional networking experience the Department hosts is its Life after UR event, held in the spring semester. Additionally, whenever professors receive emails from professional contacts about jobs, fellowships, or internships, they post those to the listserv for declared political science majors.
While the Life after UR event brings political science alumni to campus, Career Services hosts similar networking events throughout the academic year organized by job sector. Sign up for their listservs to stay informed of these events.
Several organizations offer post-graduation fellowships in area studies, public policy, health advocacy, peace and conflict, and more. Among the major post-graduate fellowship opportunities for political science majors are:
- Commonwealth of Virginia Management Fellowship
- Commonwealth of Virginia Governor’s Fellowship
- Herbert Scoville, Jr., Peace Fellowship
- Family USA Villers Fellowship for Health Care Justice
- American Civil Liberties Union’s Pauli Murray Fellowship
- Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship
- National Academy of Social Insurance’s Kilolo Kijakazi Fellowship
- Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship
- National Security Education Program’s David L. Boren Fellowship
Announcements of these are distributed through the major’s listserv, but students are also strongly encouraged to speak with faculty in the relevant areas of expertise to learn about the opportunities available in specific fields of interest.
Many political science majors pursue further post-graduate education in law or a master’s or PhD program. Students interested in law school should speak with the pre-law advisor, Dr. Jan French (Department of Anthropology and Sociology), and the Department’s faculty with expertise in public law and/or political theory. Students interested in graduate school, either immediately after graduation or after a few years of working, should speak with the Department’s faculty with expertise in their desired area of study.