This review presents the results on studying short-range order in polymer solutions by polarization optical, electrooptical, and spectroscopic methods. The effect of short-range orientational order on dynamic birefringence, photoelasticity, electric-field-induced birefringence, IR absorption spectra, and fluorescence polarization in polymer-solvent systems has been studied. The problem concerning the account for internal field in optical and electrooptical experiments is considered. We present the results on studying the effect of characteristics of both a polymer and a solvent on the parameters characterizing short-range orientational order in polymer solutions.