From classroom to the campaign trail.(BUYER'S GUIDE: POLITICAL GRADUATE SCHOOLS)

Future political operatives in university-level political management programs learn the business and theory of politics from faculty with both academic and campaign back-grounds.

At George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM), students hear primarily from political consultants and other political professionals who teach the business of elections. Christopher Arterton, the dean of GSPM, estimates that about 80 percent of instructors are political practitioners, who give students practical skill sets they need in a political career.

Arterton was a pollster for Newsweek and a political science professor at Yale University prior to GSPM.

Joseph Mercurio, a Democratic general consultant …