BA in International Relations (Honors) in Rochester United States | University of Rochester

The University of Rochester's Political Science Department stands out as the most compact yet consistently top-ranked program nationwide, with a faculty roughly half the size of comparable elite departments.
Committed to excellence in scholarship, education, and academic leadership, the department builds upon its distinguished heritage while pioneering new frontiers in political science research. Our approach emphasizes:
Developing comprehensive theoretical frameworks
Applying advanced statistical and qualitative methods for rigorous hypothesis testing
Maintaining deep substantive knowledge of political phenomena that inform our theoretical and empirical work
What distinguishes our department is our focus on explanatory theory and broad generalization, coupled with our longstanding influence across the discipline. We maintain a faculty renowned for innovation in both political theory and quantitative methods, while ensuring these analytical tools serve the fundamental purpose of explaining real-world political patterns.
Our honors program offers seniors a culminating research experience where they design and execute original social science projects in an intimate collaborative environment. Unlike conventional coursework that involves synthesizing existing literature, honors students formulate and test their own hypotheses. While many theses incorporate statistical analysis, we also welcome qualitative or theoretical approaches to original research.