Going straight from BA to PhD

This is the case across a range of Trinity departments; I myself have a PhD offer from the history department, and I am currently finishing up an undergrad degree.

Obvious advantages are that you can jump straight into research without going through the Master's stage, especially if you know what topics you want to study. Bear in mind though, that Trinity PhDs are usually four years, compared with, for example, in England a lot of funding is only for 3 years for PhD.

Trinity students study for four years for their undergraduate degrees, even those doing arts-type subjects. It is the opinion of many (though not all, it must be acknowledged) that Trinity students do not always need to study for an intermediary degree (i.e. Master's) between undergrad and PhD, especially if your undergrad subject included a research dissertation/project. Of course, some would benefit from this, especially with regard to developing some research-related skills, but it really is a personal thing. For instance, my prospective PhD supervisor has spent the year trying to convince me not to bother with a Master's, because I already have the interests and skills for research; that is not necessarily my opinion too though, and I have applied for a few Master's programmes as well, and am now weighing up my options.

In the case of Trinity's PolSci programme, a lot of the students on it do have some kind of Master's degree. A good few come through the ranks of the Department's own master's programmes (they actively recruit these students), and they also receive a lot of American students, who have often done some kind of Master's in the UK. Be sure to contact your prospective supervisor beforehand and really nail the research proposal!

Thanks, that's very helpful! It's my feeling that Trinity PolSci is very strong - I'm at LSE and a substantial part of our Government Dept staff has been at Trinity.

I know these questions are virtually impossible to answer, but how would Trinity PolSci rank compared to UK universities?

Also, I'm undecided about whether to continue doing Political Science (particularly European politics and the extreme right) or go on to do Middle Eastern Studies (and learn Arabic). Do you have any advice as a PhD student on this issue, e.g. how they compare, whether one is more useful than the other etc.?

It doesn't happen often but it is possible. My uncle did a PhD at Harvard straight after his BA.

I think it's common enough in the hard sciences. But I agree that it's much less common in the social sciences/arts & humanities. When I was first approached about continuing to further study, I was very surprised. I wanted to continue (as evidenced by my applying for master's programmes!), but I didn't think it was possible to jump a stage. But it would appear, in some cases, that it is

Well, my uncle did his PhD in political science. I think his BA was in history, or maybe IR.

It's pretty common and a Masters isn't necessarily required. Apart from the content of the course, a Masters is fairly similar to an undergrad course anyway.