My son will start college in the fall. He wants to major in Political Science. Any advice from Dopers in the know about career paths for people with Poli Sci degrees? Any advice on skills he needs to develop, what should he focus on in college? Any advice at all? I’m a scientist by training, and a computer security guy now. Mama Zappa, my wife, is a computer person from the get-go. I feel like Poli Sci is outside my area of experience. Any help or suggestions are welcome!
Oh, and apologies to Avenue Q for the thread title.
Traditionally the way to law school, but law school doesn’t look so lucrative now. If he takes enough quantitative courses in ecnonomics as part of the program he may well be set for management consulting.
Oh, yeah, and he had better be going to a top school. A BA in Poli Sci from Podunk State and he will be looking enviously at the barber college graduates he is serving at Starbucks.
The unfortunate reality these days is that by the time your son graduates, a B.A. in a liberal arts subject will be the functional equivalent of a high school diploma. I would strongly recommend he do a double major with a STEM subject, in order to give himself a shot at actually getting a decent-paying job upon graduation. The pay differential between liberal arts majors and STEM majors is significant–even an associates degree in STEM outpays a BA in the liberal arts.
Double in math. He’ll be able to digest and create political theory in a far more meaningful way and develop some quantitative skills that will help him battle the (deserved or undeserved) stigma of political science as a fake degree.
There are some bachelor degrees which have fairly low value in the general workforce. These include psychology, communications, and political science. Rightly or wrongly, many employers assume that someone getting a degree in one of these areas means the applicant didn’t know what they wanted to major in when they got to college. Or they’re afraid of “hard” subjects like math.
My advice is pick a major that includes more math and analytical classes. Examples include finance, accounting, and math/statistics.
I know a couple lawyers who got a BA in Poli Sci before law school. I also know 2 guys who got a BA in Poli Sci and eventually dropped out of law school. One paints houses and the other sells cell phone plans.
As others have hinted, it should be strongly discouraged to just get a BA in Poli Sci and stop right there.
I work at a tax representation firm. At first, I thought my degree had nothing to do with this— but, actually, my understanding of government, court cases, and the Constitution has come in handy on more than one occasion. Also, it’s definitely made my studying for the Enrolled Agent exam much easier, too.
My poli sci friends? Let’s see. . . two are in law school. Two are high school history teachers. One’s an actual political scientist. Two are lobbyists. A few have really good government jobs. For the most part, the rest just work regular jobs that required a BA. As far as money, I don’t think any of my friends with that degree who work even indirectly in the field are hurting for money at all . … and we all went to Cal State Bakersfield :). The people who are school teachers or [other] have a few money problems, but that goes for any generic BA jobs, I think.
As a lover of all things political, I in no way regret my degree. The key for me was actually taking political science classes that talked about the actual science of it all-- that stuff was fascinating. Any school can offer the political philosophy type classes, but I’d look for a program with at least one or two ACTUAL political scientists on staff, because those are always the best classes imho. If your kid just wants the philosophy side, they’ll have a much harder time-- I think— finding a meaningful career than if they really want to be an actual political scientist. Being a political consultant is no joke and pays well.
If your son wants to go into politics, he must get involved with his campus Republicans or Democrats - they’ll be his best avenue to campaign volunteer gigs, which are the best route to campaign work after college. They’re also, along with interning on the Hill, a good route to House/Senate staff positions. Volunteering is essential, and your kid should think of it as part of his program, just like coursework.
Also: While many polisci majors end up going to grad school, doing this right after graduating college is a mistake. Especially going straight into law school - the legal job market is likely to remain brutal for some years to come, and it’s worth taking a year or two to see if you can find work you love without the JD.
Anything that involves a lot of writing and analysis and virtually no math. Advertising, marketing, public relations, copyediting, technical writing, etc. Insurance investigations and investigations for public authorities (I have a friend who investigated housing fraud for HUD, this is a civilian investigator, not a LEO). Foreign/Diplomatic service.
BTW, If one ultimately wants to go to law school, undergraduate major is fully irrelevant (and undergraduate grades only matter if they were astronomically bad). A Poli Sci BA doesn’t prepare you more (or less) than a chemistry degree. The undergraduate degree program most likely to give you actual preparation for the study of law is probably Philosophy.
Government is one of the (THE biggest, I’m pretty sure) biggest employers in the US. A polisci degree would aid in getting a bureaucratric position, especially in the state capitals or Washington.
In addition, any large company subject to regulations (that is, ALL of them) has a regulatory affairs department to help the company navigate the various rules and regulations it is currently subject to and may in the future be subject to (i.e. lobbying).
Also, industry assocations need people who understand how government works.
Think tanks that attempt to influence government (i.e the Cato Institute, the Pew Center, etc) love poli sci majors.
NGOs (Sierra Club, Amnesty International, Heart and Stroke Fund, etc) rely on government funding and also attempt to influence government and they need polisci majors.
Finally, lobbyist firms pretty much require polisci degrees from their employees.
I have a polisci degree and work in regulatory affairs at an energy company, make a great living and enjoy my job.
You love to say this because if fits with your experience, but I assure you that when hiring major retailers hire people for their marketing department, degrees like psychology are not “looked down on” in favor of people with math degrees. Nor is a “communications” degree looked down on by a PR firm. If anything, the reverse is true. “What does someone with a math degree know about what motivates people to buy crap?” the hiring person wonders.
You’ve recently been very guilty of overextrapolating from your experience in your particular industry, Crafter_Man. There are other industries out there.
People who take degrees in subjects that they have no passion for almost always end up regretting it. Yes, accounting jobs provide for potentially greater job prospects, but a person passionate about politics, who communicates that passion and works hard to find a career in that field, can absolutely find a rewarding career.
People who have no love of analytical work and are pushed into analytical degrees by parents who want a safe career for their child will find a child who resents them and who regrets the choices they’ve made in life. And who is probably a crappy accountant/mathmetician/finance guru.
Teacher, lawyer, politician, political operative, political analyst?
I.e . He’s going the wrong direction. If he decides what his career will be, these questions will start to answer themselves. And he may never work in that field, there is a huge gap between high school and, say, passing the bar…but he can now define steps. If he’s majoring in something for the purposes of getting a ba and then joining corporate America, then it doesn’t make any difference on the classes he takes.
This made me laugh because it’s true for me. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in and I was afraid of hard subjects like math. I got a double major in political science, french language and literature and I consider them both about worthless. Except in the fact that having any college degree is useful and the fact both my degrees helped me learn to write well and my current job involved alot of writing (of course, now that I’ve said that, this post will be full of grammatical errors).
Would definitely recommend adding statistics or something like that to a political science degree.
