Advising

All students in the Political Science Department are assigned an advisor. If you do not have an advisor, but have declared Political Science as your major or minor or Law and American Civilization as your major, please reach out to Lisa Pressman () and she will set you up with an advisor.

If you have forgotten your advisor's name, you can find that on Towson Online Services.

Registration

You need to meet with your advisor every semester, prior to registration for the subsequent semester. Typically, advisors will email their advisees several weeks or a month before registration starts with information and suggested meeting times.

Students are assigned a day and time when they are allowed to register.  You can greatly increase your chances of getting the courses that you want by registering at that time. This is why advisors reach out to students well in advance of registration; you should make sure to set up a meeting with your advisor a week or more prior to your registration date. To find out when you can register, go to Towson Online Services. 

Students can also always reach out to their individual advisors at any time. Faculty contact information can be found in the TU Directory.

Advising Meetings & Degree Completion Plans (DCP's)

Advising meetings are mainly dedicated to planning for the next semester, although a key part of the process along the way is also the Degree Completion Plan (DCP). Students sometimes complain about the need to complete this DCP form, but this form is required by Maryland Senate Bill 0740, the College and Career Readiness and College Completion Act of 2013.

DCP's must be submitted to advisors once a student reaches forty-five (45) credits or more. The DCP is intended to then be your guide toward graduation. 

Political Science DCP: View the DCP form (XLSX)
Law and American Civilization DCP: View the DCP form (XLSX)

Tips for completing the DCP:

  • Academic Requirements Page. To begin the process, go to Towson Online Services, click on Self Service, and then on Student Center. On the left-hand side, next to your schedule, select Academic Requirements from the drop-down menu.
  • Identify and Write Down Courses/Requirements Remaining. Academic Requirements will show you all of the courses and requirements that you have completed as well as the ones which remain to be completed. The DCP is meant for tracking courses/requirements that you have yet to complete. Create a list of courses/requirements that you still need to complete before graduation.
  • Check Prerequisites. Before filling out your DCP, make sure you have fulfilled the requirements needed for all of the courses/requirements that remain for you to complete.
  • Fill Out Degree Completion Plan (DCP). Using the form linked above, populate the tables by semester. You will see that there are drop-down menus for both the semester and the type of course, to save you time completing the form. The form also adds up your credit totals at the top of the form, and within (but not between) semester.
  • Note that “Total Units Earned” means the number of units you have already earned (past), “Total Enrolled Units” the number of units you are currently enrolled (present), and “Total Units Planned” the number of units you are going to take (future). The sum of these three numbers are “Total Academic Units”, which must be 120 or higher. Make sure that you enter the right number for each category. 
  • Save and Send Your DCP to Your Advisor. When you are finished completing the form, please save it in the following format: TUID#.LastName.FirstName (example: 1234567.Smith.John). Once saved, please send this file to your advisor.