Curriculum Requirements & Fall Registration

• Review this document for an overview of program requirements.

• Find a Program Planning Worksheet here.

• Courses required for all PhD students are:

  • PA 8003 (3cr) -- take first semester (fall)

  • PA 8004 (3cr) -- take second semester (spring)

  • PA 8005 (3cr) -- take the semester prior to prelims (usually fourth semester)

  • PA 8006 (1.5cr x 2 registrations = 3cr) -- Year 1: attend both fall and spring semesters without registering for the course; Year 2: register and attend both fall and spring semesters.

  • PA 8888 (24cr) -- In any semester that you have a less than 14 credits of coursework, register for PA 8888 for the number of credits to bring your credit total to 14 credits in that semester (see additional note below).

• All other courses must be chosen in consultation with your faculty adviser.

• All new students (no matter which sub-plan) will take PA 8003 in the first Fall semester of matriculation (PA 8004 will be taken the following Spring semester). Find course details in Class Search.

• If English is not your first language, see note about possible course requirements here.

• Explore this list of suitable methods courses with your faculty advisor. Others may also be acceptable.

• As noted in your admission letter, unless you are already a University of Minnesota full-time employee (75-100%) or have a fellowship award, you will be employed as a 50% time research assistant with tuition and healthcare coverage which requires that you take a minimum of 6 credits each semester (fall and spring). Information about employment requirements and signing up for healthcare benefits will be provided by the Humphrey School's Human Resources staff. Directions will be included in your forthcoming employment appointment letter.

• With a 50% time assistantship, a reasonable credit load to stay on track to make good degree progress is 9-12 credits.

• Your maximum credit registration each semester is 14. Credits above 14 will incur additional tuition costs for which you may be responsible. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you register for a class as "audit," the credits for the class count toward the 14-credit total!! Contact Program Coordinator if this becomes necessary in any given semester.

• During the course of your program, you must register for a total of 24 credits of PA 8888 (Thesis Credit: Doctoral). You will be spreading the 24 credits throughout multiple semesters. For any semester that you have a less than 14 credits of coursework, register for PA 8888 for the number of credits to bring your credit total to 14. For example, if the courses you and your advisor have agreed for you to take come to a total of 12, add 2 credits of PA 8888.

• On occasion, you may decide to register over 14 credits with a plan to drop to 14 once you have attended various classes. If you have registered for over 14 credits -- including audited classes -- you must drop to 14 within the first week of class to avoid being charged!! These additional per credit charges will not be covered by the PhD program -- they will be at your expense. Again, after the first week of class, do not go over 14 credits (including audited classes!!) without specific permission.

• The first day of class is Tuesday, September 8. However, please settle in by Sunday, August 30 so that you are prepared to attend welcome and orientation events throughout that week. If you are an international student, plan to arrive the week prior to attend required sessions for document processing and clearance.

Summary of message sent to PhD students from then-Director of Graduate Studies, Ed Goetz

November 2016

Re: 5000-level courses

• Given the size of our PhD cohorts and the fact that we have four separate tracks, the creation of substantive 8000 courses is very difficult for us. There are some track-specific courses such as planning theory, but these separate courses will have extremely low enrollment, so we simply cannot do this for all of the areas of substantive expertise that PhD students might be interested in. Therefore, we are relying on our range of 5000 level courses to serve this purpose.

• Faculty are working to make these 5000 level courses welcoming and appropriate for PhD students who already have their masters. This was discussed in a faculty meeting and an email was sent to the entire faculty regarding this issue. They have been asked to consider a number of different ways that 5000 level courses might be tweaked so that PhD students can get more out of them. For example, group work and policy memos are probably not as useful for PhD students as they are for masters students. Examples of adapting courses for PhD students were provided, but no specific recommendations were given. Adjustments to 5000 level courses will be designed by instructors. Note that some courses, perhaps quantitative methods courses, may not lend themselves to this kind adjustment.

• When you, the PhD student, register for a 5000 level course with a PA prefix, send an email to the instructor to let them know that you will be in the class the coming semester and that you are hoping to talk to them about how class assignments or exams or other elements of the course might be adjusted for you as a PhD student. Do this every semester.

• This applies only to classes offered at HHH (PA course numbers) -- we have no influence over courses taken in other departments. However, there is probably nothing wrong -- using sufficient tact -- with contacting instructors from other departments for the same purpose.