Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs offers a multidisciplinary liberal arts major for students who are interested in public service and becoming leaders in the world of public and international affairs. Students will acquire the tools, understanding, and habits of mind necessary to pursue policy problems of their choosing. The major is largely self-designed, but with the structure and guidance needed for an education that is both broad and deep.

Please note: These requirements apply only to SPIA concentrators in the Classes of 2026 and beyond. 
Students in the Classes of 2023, 2024, and 2025 should consult the appropriate archived Undergraduate Announcement for detailed information about departmental requirements.

Program of Study

The curriculum consists of a wide range of courses offered through the school and through our partner departments that are relevant to the study of policymaking, policy analysis, and policy evaluation. Students take courses in economics, sociology, or psychology, and politics or history. An introductory public policy course is required, along with an ethics course and a course on power and identity. Students enroll in policy seminars in their junior year and write a policy thesis in senior year. To aid in students' independent work, a research design workshop is also required.

Majors are required to take statistics and must be able to use the basics of single-variable calculus in order to take economics courses and some advanced elective options. Students who are concerned about their preparation should consider taking a course that provides instruction in single-variable calculus. In addition, the undergraduate program requires that students engage in some extracurricular cross-cultural experience (which may include study abroad), or policy-relevant field experience (overseas or domestic).

By the end of fall junior year, students will have to select their area of intellectual depth: i.e., disciplinary depth or thematic depth (designated by SPIA). Please consult the Undergraduate Program website for more information.

Prerequisites

Students must complete four prerequisites from a list of preapproved courses prior to the fall term of their junior year.  Students should consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most up-to-date list of approved courses.

All courses taken to meet these prerequisites must be taken on a graded basis. First-year seminars may not be used to fulfill prerequisites. Students must earn a grade of C or higher in all courses counting toward prerequisites. The following courses may be used to satisfy the prerequisites:

One Course in Statistics

• SPI 200 Statistics for Social Science
• ECO 202 Statistics and Data Analysis for Economics
• ORF 245 Fundamentals of Statistics
• POL 345 Introduction to Quantitative Social Science

One Course in Microeconomics

• ECO 100 Introduction to Microeconomics (or AP score of 5 on Microeconomics)

One Course in Sociology or Psychology

Students must choose from an approved list of courses. Please consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most current list of courses to meet this prerequisite.

One Course in Politics or History

Students must choose from an approved list of courses. Please consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most current list of courses to meet this prerequisite.

All courses taken to meet prerequisites must be completed before September of junior year with a grade of C or higher. A summer course or a course taken abroad may count to satisfy a department prerequisite if the course has been approved by the relevant department and by either OIP or one's residential college dean or assistant dean for transfer credit. All requests to use a transfer course to satisfy a department prerequisite must be approved in advance by the SPIA director of undergraduate studies.

A course taken at Princeton and used as a prerequisite may also be used to meet either a department core requirement (if it is on the list of core requirements) or as a departmental elective (if it is on the electives list).

Core Course Requirements

Students should review the list of core requirements for their specific class year.

Prior to graduation, students must complete the core course requirements listed below. Students are encouraged to take SPI 298 in sophomore year and must complete the course no later than the fall of junior year. All courses used to meet these requirements must be taken at Princeton on a graded basis. 

• SPI 298: Intro to Public Policy (Fall only)
• SPI 299: Research Design Workshop (Fall only; non-credit-bearing)
• SPI 300: Research Seminar (Spring only)
• SPI 301: Policy Task Force (Fall or Spring)
• One course on Power and Identity:
  • Please consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most current list of courses to meet this requirement.
• One Ethics course:
  • SPI 370 Ethics and Public Policy
  • POL 307 The Just Society
  • POL 313 Global Justice
  • CHV 310/PHI 385 Practical Ethics
  • PHI 309/CHV 309 Political Philosophy
• One Intermediate Economics course (Students who wish to take ECO 300, 301, 310, or 311 are responsible for completing additional prerequisites on their own):
  • SPI 304 Microeconomics for Public Policy (formerly listed as SPI 300)
  • ECO 300 Microeconomic Theory
  • ECO 301 Macroeconomics
  • ECO 310 Microeconomic Theory: A Mathematical Approach
  • ECO 311 Macroeconomics: A Mathematical Approach

Elective Courses

Students must complete six electives according to the following guidelines.

• Disciplinary Breadth (3): Take one course from each of three SPIA-related departments not already covered by the intellectual depth requirement, noted below (ECO is excluded because it is already a required prerequisite and core course). Prerequisites and core courses may double-count; ECO courses may not.
  By graduation, we strongly encourage students to have taken courses in departments where they have not yet taken a course (for example in a natural science, if they are focusing on the social sciences).
   
• Intellectual Depth (3): Disciplinary OR Thematic Depth
  • Disciplinary Depth: Take three courses in one SPIA-affiliated department, e.g., ECO, EEB, HIS, POL, PSY, SOC
  • Thematic Depth: Take three courses that address a given theme. Courses are drawn from SPIA-affiliated departments or SPIA-approved courses.

Among the six (6) electives, a student may take only three electives from one department. For the concentration as a whole, a student may not take more than five courses from one department.

Regional Focus: Students should also pursue regional focus across their SPIA coursework. Thus, across the SPIA prerequisites, core, and electives, students must take at least two courses that focus substantively on a particular continent.

Up to three elective courses may be taken in semester-long study abroad programs.

Independent Work

To satisfy the junior independent work requirement (JP), each student must complete a year-long paper in connection with a non-credit-bearing fall Research Design Workshop (SPI 299) and a credit-bearing spring Research Seminar (SPI 300).

To aid in the writing and preparation of the year-long junior paper, the non-credit-bearing fall Research Design Workshop will introduce students to research design: How does one define an important and researchable question? How does one deploy systematic concepts and evaluate competing hypotheses/arguments? How does one evaluate the plausibility, ethics, and relative success of alternative policy solutions? The course will focus on research design rather than specific methods. 

In the spring research seminar course, a faculty member supervises a small group of students engaged in research on a specific topic in public and international affairs. Faculty will introduce students to the existing state of knowledge and available evidence for research within a well-defined topic that is timely and important in the area of public policy. Supported by the separate coursework required in the research seminar, students will complete their year-long junior paper.

To satisfy the senior independent work, each student must complete a senior thesis that clearly articulates a research question about a significant public policy issue and draws conclusions that contribute to the debate on that issue.

Senior Departmental Examination

The school's senior comprehensive examination is an oral defense of the senior thesis that also tests the student's ability to integrate the senior thesis with coursework.

International Programs

Any concentrator may study abroad in one of the department's overseas programs in the first or second semester of junior year. Recent international programs include Pembroke College at Cambridge University and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. At each site, students enroll in coursework at the host university and take a Policy Task Force directed by a faculty member at the host institution. 

Cross-Cultural or Field Experience Requirement

Prior to the second semester of senior year, each student must have completed an approved cross-cultural or field experience. The requirement may be satisfied in a number of ways, including but not limited to semester study abroad, summer study abroad, summer language study abroad, policy-relevant summer jobs abroad, ROTC training, senior thesis research in the field, extended service in an underserved community, or an internship involving public policy work in a nonprofit, government, or international agency such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the US Congress, or a state or federal agency.

Summer study, language study, or thesis research must be done for at least four weeks to qualify. Students must engage in an internship, job, or community service project for at least six consecutive weeks, and at a minimum of 40 hours per week or a total of 240 cumulative hours to qualify. Eligible community service work must involve policy work that will enhance one's learning and understanding of public service.

Cross-cultural or field experience gained during the first or sophomore year or as a participant in the Bridge Year Program may count toward this requirement. To meet this requirement, all past or proposed work must be approved by the undergraduate program.

Additional Information

The program provides funding during summer, fall, and winter breaks for travel and living expenses related to senior thesis research in public policy. The school also provides funding to students in the department who participate in public policy internships over the summer. For additional information, consult the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Undergraduate Program website.