College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Political Science

Course Registration Tips for New Students in Political Science

Before you meet with your advisor to register for fall courses, please read over the following information. This is written for prospective political science majors, but most of it pertains to all students and majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Read this before you meet with your advisor!

Choosing Courses for the Fall Semester

For the fall semester, pick 4-6 courses, counting about 14-16 credit hours, with times that do not conflict with each other.

When picking courses from the Course Schedule, write down the course number and the section number (e.g. PO101 02) for each course. It is important that all numbers are presented to the advisor because all of those numbers must be entered into the computer system.

  1. First, choose a Freshman Writing Seminar (EN102) {under English in Schedule of Courses}. It is wise to pick 2-3 alternates, since some of these may be full already or may conflict with other courses you choose. For a list of classes go to the Butler Course Search and search under the Liberal Arts and Sciences College for the English Department.
  2. Second, select an appropriate foreign language course according to your placement results {under Modern Foreign Languages}; for example, Beginning German (GR101) or Intermediate Spanish (SP203). For more information look in the Butler University Bulletin 2003-2005 (Vol. LXXXIX) p. 158.
  3. If you are contemplating majoring in political science, you might want to take one of the introductory political science courses, PO101, 131, 141, 151, 201, 210 or 220 {under Political Science in Schedule of Courses}. For more information look in the Bulletin p. 172.
  4. Select an interesting Core course from one of the 5 divisions, e.g. Intro to Philosophy from Division 1, Art History from Division 2, etc. {under University Core Curriculum}. Bulletin p. 3-5.
  5. Taking one of the two 1-hour PE courses is strongly advised as well (PE 101 or PE 102) {under Physical Education}. Bulletin p. 3.
  6. If 14-16 hours are not reached with all of these courses, consider adding one of the following courses: Public Speaking (SH102) {under Communication Studies}; or a second core course from one of the divisions (see #4 above); or a second course towards the political science or selected major (see #3 above). Bulletin p. 120.