Admissions

All applicants for the Ph.D. degree must submit a complete application, including college transcripts, three letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and Graduate Record Examination General Test scores. No specific GRE scores are required, but admissions are competitive.  

GRE scores are downloaded from ETS into the ApplyYourself site, but sometimes there are problems with the download. Reasons for problems can include discrepancies with a student's name, date of birth and/or Social Security number. To help alleviate this problem, we recommend that the applicant submit a copy of their test scores to the Political Science Graduate Office, either by mail or or electronically as a PDF document. Having this unofficial copy on record will allow the review of the file by the Admissions Committee.  Official GRE scores will still be required before a letter of acceptance can be sent.

For this download to occur, you must select the University of Pennsylvania as the recipient. The Institution Code is (2926) and our Department Code is (1999).  

Applicants from non-English speaking countries must submit the results of their TOEFL exam unless they have obtained a degree from a U.S. university or college. Applicants from non-English speaking countries are also required to submit a ten-page paper, however any student may submit a writing sample. Writing samples must be written in English, preferably on some aspect of political science. If you submit a writing sample, please upload up to 10 pages with your online application. Transcripts may also be uploaded on-line, but accepted applicants will have to submit original transcripts before matriculating.

Applicants are accepted for full-time work towards the Ph.D. degree. The Political Science Department does not offer a Master's degree. Admitted students typically receive fellowship funding for five years. The funding includes two years of a teaching assistantship and is contingent upon satisfactory academic performance and progress.

The deadline for applications is December 15th, midnight EST. Official reports of GRE scores must arrive by the middle of January. The Graduate Executive Committee reviews all completed applications and makes decisions about admissions. Applicants are required to remember their user ID and password so that they may receive decision information on line. The application fee is $80.00. Please make payment to the “Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.” Please visit the Graduate Division Admissions webpage for additional information about the application process.  

If you do not upload your supporting material with your online application, you should send the material (transcripts, letters, etc.) to the Graduate Division of Arts and Sciences, 3401 Walnut Street, Suite 322A, Philadelphia, PA  19104-6228.