Queens College Political Science Pathways Find your year

Talk to your professors

Office hours, and an email you can copy. Part of Get ready, for graduate school and law school.

Inside the New York State Capitol in Albany

Your research doesn't have to be political science. Methods travel across fields, and CUNY faculty in many departments need student help with surveys, data, experiments, fieldwork and archives.

What research looks like next door

  • Sociology. Surveys and interviews on inequality, immigration, work and neighborhoods. Home of QC's data analytics program.
  • Economics. Labor markets and policy evaluation, often with large administrative datasets and causal inference.
  • Psychology. Experiments on attitudes, prejudice and decision-making, the base of political psychology.
  • Urban studies. Housing, transit, policing and city budgets, often with NYC open data.
  • Anthropology and history. Fieldwork, oral histories and archives.
  • Linguistics. Text as data, and language and identity (see Pair your major).

Going to office hours

Office hours are not only for grade questions. Professors expect students to come in and ask for advice, and most of the opportunities on this site started with a conversation like that.

  • Go to office hours or email to ask for 15 minutes. It's normal, even if you've never taken their class.
  • Ask for advice, not a favor: "What would you do in my position?" "Which classes or programs should I look at?" "Who else should I talk to?"
  • Ask about their research, and read one of their papers first.
  • Look outside your department. Sociology, economics, psychology and urban studies faculty take political science students too.
  • Follow up. Send a thank-you, then tell them what you did with their advice. That is how a professor becomes a recommender.
Sample email

Subject: Advice on research opportunities, [Your name], [major]

Dear Professor [Last name],

I'm a [year] majoring in [major] at Queens College. I read your [paper or project] on [topic], and I'm interested in [one sentence on why].

I'm hoping to get research experience before applying to [PhD or master's programs]. Could I come to your office hours on [day] to ask for advice on next steps? If you ever need help on a project, I can offer [a skill, e.g., R or survey coding] for [number] hours a week.

Thank you,
[Full name]

Programs to apply to

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