Frequently Asked Questions

What will my teaching opportunities be?

Duke typically offers the following opportunities to teach:

First year: no teaching (just five hours a week RA-ing) to allow the student to focus on classes and adjusting to graduate school.
Second year: students TA in two sections, usually both in the same semester, leaving the other free of teaching. Occasionally students TA one section each semester.
Third year: two sections of a course each semester.
Fourth and Fifth years: a combination of TA-ing and teaching their own course.

All students TA in their primary field (excluding methods) and usually in a second field as well. Every effort is made to match students' specialties with their TA assignments, but, as departmental needs vary, students will sometimes be asked to TA in fields that are neither their primary nor secondary focus. While hours vary somewhat across courses as well as week-to-week during a semester, our best estimate at present is that each section taught averages about 7 hours of work time a week.

The department and the University view teaching as a central part of our program's pedagogical and professional training. The quantity and quality of teaching assignments are designed with this first and foremost in mind. The department also offers a voluntary and extra--curricular teaching politics certificate program which many students elect to pursue. This program offers mentored teaching with a faculty member, teaching workshops offered by the center for teaching and learning, instruction in syllabus development, regular teaching roundtables with fellow political science graduate students.

What about other work opportunities?

Students typically RA five hours/week during their first two or three years.
Additionally faculty members receiving research grants often employ graduate students to do research.
Workstudy funding is also available for students who qualify.
Advanced students sometimes find employment teaching in other departments/schools (e.g., Public Policy), the library, etc.

Suppose I need an external fellowship?

No guarantees, but over the last five years Duke students have been extremely successful in getting external grants from foundations such as the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Pew Foundation, DAAD, and the Newcombe grants. These grants replace the internal fellowships students are granted when they come into the program.

Several students have also received Foreign Language and Area Studies grants administered by Duke's area studies centers. Political Science students have also done very well in the competition for internal Duke University grants: the James B. Duke Fellowships, Duke Endowment Fellowships, the Earhart, Alona Evans and European Studies Fellowhsips. We expect to do equally well in some new fellowships Duke has recently introduced, notably the John Hope Franklin Center Fellowships.

One important point is that external fellowships do not "top up" internal fellowships: they replace smaller department awards.

How much is a Duke degree worth in the academic marketplace?

A lot, though as with any graduate program what you get out depends on how much time and effort you put in. For students interested in working in a large research university after graduation, Duke offers one of the best placement records in the country. Recent Duke graduates have tenure-track jobs at schools such as Stanford, Chicago, Harvard, Yale, Ohio State and Indiana. Duke's placement record is especially good when we consider that many departments (e.g. Michigan, UCLA, Berkeley, Chicago) with similar numbers of graduates teaching in "top 20" departments graduate considerably more students each year than does Duke. Duke is also successful in placing graduates in the best Liberal arts colleges such as Haverford, Franklin and Marshall Dickinson, and Bucknell.

Look at our recent placement record.

What if I want to work outside of the academy after graduation?

Some of our graduates have done just that. Here are a few examples of jobs held by our recent Ph.D.s: Financial analyst for Morningstar Inc.; consultant for Bain & Co., Associate at Cleary and Gottlieb, consultant for SAIC in Washington DC; Analyst at the World Bank; on the staff of PBS's "Frontline"; and last but not least, Advisor to the Crown Prince of Jordan.

What about academic resources outside the department?

Within Duke, students take advantage of seminar series, joint working groups and fellowships at the Center for International Studies, the Sanford School of Public Policy, the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Religion department, the Philosophy Department, German studies, Classics, Women's Studies, Comparative Area Studies and History. Many of our students also participate in the programs of the new Social Science Research Institute.

Students from Duke also take courses at UNC and there are several seminar series such as DUNC and joint working groups that allow more sustained interaction. There are also several Triangle-wide opportunities for intellectual collaboration, such as the Triangle Institute for Security Studies and the NC National Resource Center for South Asian Studies.

How much contact do graduate students have with Professors?

Duke prides itself on being a department where there is a lot of interaction between faculty and students. Many students choose Duke over other schools because they value the opportunities for close interaction with faculty in workshops, colloquia, research projects and conferences.

What goes on in the department outside the classroom?

A bunch: happy hours, soccer, basketball, plenty of social gatherings, and our annual department trip to see the Durham Bulls baseball team.