I am looking at changing my current major, psychology, to political science. I have done a little research on the topic and was wondering if any of you have this as a major or minor for that matter, and could tell me any career(s) it can be used in.
I think this will probably get moved, but here are my two cents:
Psychology has become a kind of default major, and so to me it communicates “I have no real focus or ambition and the best thing I could come up with was some vague idea that I’m interested in people” The exception would be if you genuinely want to get into clinical or research psychology and plan to follow it up with a graduate degree. But on it’s own, a psych degree is a bit of a strike against you in my eyes. In any case, I know approximately one million people with psych degrees, and they are all either doing generic office jobs or teaching something. It won’t get you far or open many doors for you.
Political science isn’t much better, and is basically “I’m not sure what to do with my life” for a slightly douchier set. There are jobs you can get with a Poli Sci degree from a decent school if you are in the right place (DC is the place to be) but other than that it won’t do much on its own. You can get started working with the government, NGOs, working with think tanks, etc. But again, most jobs actually in the field will eventually want a masters and all of them will require a fair amount of ambition. They are things you fight for, not things you just wander in to.
It sounds to me like you just plain don’t know what you want. That’s fine, but you should know that as long as you don’t know what you want, you’ll be a step behind and run a good chance of getting funneled in to a generic office job. If you are early in your college career, I’d focus on taking a wide range of GEs so you can explore things and hopefully find something that really grabs you. You might want to buy a copy of “What Color is your Parachute” or another “what to do with my life” books. Also try visiting your school’s career center- that is what they are there for.
They can be used in any career. A college is not a trade school, and the major doesn’t need to be relevant to get a job.
I have degrees in Political Science/History and English. I work in computers. My English Masters got me the job, despite the fact it had absolutely no relevance to the job, nor was English a requirement (the Masters was).
If you want to train for a job, major in engineering, computer science, accounting, nursing, actuarial science or get an MD or JD. Otherwise, all your degree does is check off the “went to college” box in some random HR list, so you might as well do what you like. I don’t think psychology or poly sci will help you get a job any more than a degree in theater and dance.
I have a BA with a double major in philosophy and political science. I wouldn’t recommend it for a current undergrad without a good reason. For example, a lot of my classmates were poli sci majors because they were interested in politics, which isn’t a very good reason. You won’t go far as a political scientist without some sort of statistical or theoretical aptitude, which makes it a good second major to add on to a humanities major to show you have some skills, but not a great anchor major.
A lot of my classmates also considered poli sci ‘the best pre-law major.’ I disagree with this - philosophy is much more useful because it helps students understand argumentation, but students with any major can do well without problems. The value added in the first year by political science consists largely of a rote understanding of the structure of the court system, which you can get by reading wikipedia, and a familiarity with the major cases from reading them in undergrad law prep courses, which is actually counterproductive because it tempts students not to read as closely as they should when push comes to shove. Also, I don’t think law school is a great idea right now unless you’re passionate about a particular subfield, which you aren’t, since you’re not sure what career you want.
It’s true that many jobs just require a bachelor’s degree, any bachelor’s degree, for employment. That doesn’t mean that all BAs are equal. Career prospects are better for engineers than for BA political scientists. Take a good, hard look at your options before you switch from one social science to another in an attempt to improve your job prospects.
Political science major here, and this is very much on point:
It doesn’t really make sense to distinguish between a bachelor’s in political science and an MD or JD, though; you need an undergraduate degree to get in to an MD or JD program.
As my favorite political theory professor used to say, you can’t finish school and just put up a shingle and be a political theorist. The market for political theory just doesn’t exist.
You can either teach, and do your theorizing on the side, or you can write. Unless you do something useful first, nobody will read your books, and if you wanted to teach you’d already be doing that.
Political science is pretty handy if you’re going to law school, although you probably shouldn’t right now. It’s also handy if you’re looking to do public service. Really, though, there are only two reasons to major in political science:
(1) you hate mathematics. Most colleges only require you to take a scopes/methods-type course, which means you’ll learn about standard deviation and confidence intervals and other things relevant to polling/sampling.
(2) you like politics. While this is admirable, you’ll find that lots of other people in the 18-21 range also like politics.
Honestly, though, if you have no idea what you want to do with your life, you’re better off majoring in business or finance and minoring in PS.
Eh, only if you’ll get good grades at it. Barring any other concrete plan you should get excellent grades, work, and be on some kind of team while in college (intramural/club teams count).
A C average in accounting never really helped anyone with anything.
My Anthropology major (with a minor in Theatre) and excellent grades from a respected public university, has never been an obstacle to employment for me. I worked in marketing for many years, which, frankly, is right where Anthropology and theater intersect.
One of my college roommates majored in Political Science. He went on to get his Master’s in Political Science, as well, then got a job with the CIA as an analyst.
In this market it does. Unemployment is at a 25-year high, and half of people who graduated college in the last five years are working jobs that don’t require a college degree. Median incomes for those that do find work are very low, and student loan debt is skyrocketing.
If you come out of school with no hard skills and no relevant work experience (internships, co-op, etc.), you’re going to have a very difficult time finding a job.
Neither a psych degree nor a political science degree will, by itself, give you the sort of skills that potential employers are looking for. If you’re interested in a career in politics, use your college’s political science department to help build a network and get some practical experience.
As others have said, if you’re truly not sure what you want to do, you should use your time in college to gain some specific skills that have value – accounting, engineering, etc.
Since the OP is seeking advice, this is better suited to IMHO than GQ. I have also edited the title.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
This is true, and a different issue to what your major is.
I’m going to say this again: only if you are capable of excelling at them. It may come a surprise to some on this board, but there are many people are not capable of earning good grades in Engineering, or even completing the math classes required for the program. Around 22% of people who start in Science/technology/enginnering/math drop out of the major, and only 36/21/22% of white/black/latino students finished their STEM major in 5 years. That means somewhere in the realm of 70% of people who started with enthusiasm dont get their degree or take more than 5 years to get it. If you don’t start with enthusiasm for the subject matter, you really have little hope of completing it just because you “should.”
My impression is that these days if you don’t have demonstrable quantitative + qualitative skills it can be very hard to find a job. I do strategic marketing now and my qualitative degrees (Poli Sci & and a JD) helped a lot with communication and interpretation, but what I was trying to communicate was based largely on statistical analysis. Which, didn’t prove too hard since I actually did my homework rather than goof off in high school. Business math really isn’t rocket science in terms of pure technical skills, the real skills lie in interpretation and analysis.
But really, do what you want. Nothing in life is a guarantee except maybe a medical degree…engineering is a pretty decent undergrad major but if you’re not going to work at it to get good grades and just end up as a really crappy engineer, what’s the use? The kid from Cal Tech or IIT is going to get that job you’re thinking about.
I have to say though, that I really do think Accounting is a pretty good major if you can stand it and suck it up to do well. Ernst & Young, Deloitte etc. were hanging around my business school from the end of recruiting blackout till the last week of classes (I’m bummed I didn’t get in on the branded slankets they were handing out). But I would honestly rather major in math or statistics (at least they’re elegant) than do accounting, which is barely mathematical, but mindnumbingly boring. It’s like the worst of law school shoved into business school. I died a little every day I had to go to cost accounting and eventually I just quit going.
If you don’t yet know what you want to do with your career, that’s fine - I didn’t even decide on law school until senior year, and I’m still not sure (at 28) what I want to be when I grow up. 
But for right now, if you’re not sure on your major or career path, the most important thing you can do is focus on developing useful and versatile skills.
Do you speak a foreign language? Fluently? If not, this is the time to learn - you’ll never have a better opportunity. Study abroad if you can afford it, and try hard to afford it - never mind that the curriculum is almost always a joke, it’s a good chance to practice language skills. Speaking another language opens a lot of doors throughout your life - and it’s damned hard to learn in the real world. I recommend Spanish if you’re considering a legal career - it’s a highly desirable language not just for immigration law, but all sorts of public interest/poverty law work. But almost any language will be a huge plus.
If you have any real interest in public policy work, learn to use numbers. Take stats courses that require the use of SPSS or other serious statistical tools, and ace those classes - not just for the grade, but so that you really know the material. Take at least one econ class, preferably more than one, and study hard in those classes, too.
Learn to write well. You’d be amazed at how many people still can’t write worth a damn after graduating college. Don’t be one of those people.
Finally, and most important - do interesting things. Your major doesn’t necessarily matter that much, but the things you do outside of the classroom can matter a lot. If you decide you want to get into politics as a career, you must be politically active in college - it’s effectively a requirement. Join the college democrats or republicans, but get off-campus as soon as you can, and start volunteering with real campaigns. Fair warning: You’ll meet fun people, but the work itself is tiring and stressful, especially at the gruntwork level you’ll be doing. You’ll probably start off canvassing door-to-door - lots of miles, lots of boredom, absolutely no pay. That’s life. Understand that even if your candidate wins, you’re far from guaranteed a job - a friend of mine spent the better part of a year waiting tables after her candidate won his campaign, though she did eventually get a job with him.
The same holds true outside of politics. If you want to do the Peace Corps, or even think you may, start doing volunteer work now - they look for that, especially work with non-English speakers. If you want to go to grad school for international relations, see if you can work as a research assistant for an IR prof at your school.
Be active in student government, or drama club, or something that you’re good at. Make yourself into an interesting person.
Poli sci major checking in here. Class of 2009.
Government work is always an option. While it is true that you may ultimately cut yourself out at the knees in terms of your total potential, some people (like myself) plan on living a very mediocre, low-cost life.
I enjoyed my studies and would not trade it for anything. It’s true that whatever job I end up doing will probably be vastly inferior to a trade/skill job in terms of earning potential, but it’s all about what you want and what you’re comfortable accepting. It’s also true that my earning potential would be halved (if not more) without a degree of any kind (in the public sector), so I have that going for me at least. It’s just hard right now as my income does not translate well towards my loan payments.
For that matter, my “not quite a degree” in Art History did me just fine for years and years - you might not “need” a degree at all if you are capable of falling competently from job to job.
But I went back eventually, switched majors (which meant three years in school, instead of one semester), and got a degree. In Accounting. With honors. Because if I ever am unemployed, I want a hard degree on my resume instead of “almost a degree in Art History.”
If you want to major in Poly Sci - and you want to do political organizing or campaign work - find out what is involved. Get involved in campaigns NOW. It tends to be pretty low paying grunt work for 90% of the people who do it - but for those with a passion, that is sufficient. However, the only person I know who makes a living in politics, majored in communications.
I have a BA in Poly Sci and no advanced degree. I was going to go to law school but worked at a law firm before and discovered I hated it. Now I work for the feds and make quite a good living at it. Just sayin’.
If you don’t really know what you will do with a college degree, perhaps you should consider not continuing with college until you do. Piling up a mountain of debt to graduate with a degree that does little for your employability makes little sense. There are careers which do not require a degree - everything from IT (where certifications are more sought-after than diplomas) to the skilled trades.
Thank you all for the advice. I should have mentioned in the OP that I am taking online classes as I am active duty. I would love to focus on a degree in engineering, accounting or anything more focused. However, I have not seen any schools, at my education center, that offer those plans online. If you know of any I would greatly appreciate the information.
If you’ve got the math skills to do engineering, there are certainly good jobs to be had. Likewise accounting and IT. You may not get rich, but you should be able to find reasonable work.
If you have the chance to learn a foreign language at the Defense Language Institute, I suggest you take advantage of that opportunity. I don’t care what language you select, their program is known for excellence.