Why is Political Science such a popular major?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Why is Political Science such a popular major? It like at least 1/4 people at my old State U were “poli sci” majors–it was almost automatic for those intending on law school. Others took it to.

So my question would be, why is it seemingly so popular? Why do pre-law students take it–what does Poli Sci have to do with the law? You would think with a much greater demand for lawyers with a scientific background, or accounting/finance/business, they would get a more useful backup major.

Seems like Poli Sci, as only a bachelor’s degree, is of greatly limited value in the marketplace. So why are people, even if they intend on law school, not getting an ‘insurance’ degree? Especially because (supposdly) over 1/2 of lawyers end up leaving the profession?

At least with history you can write books :cool:

2

It’s pretty easy. There aren’t a lot of black and white answers. Good way to boost that GPA without doing a helluva lotta work.

3

scrambledeggs writes:

> It like at least 1/4 people at my old State U were “poli sci” majors–it was
> almost automatic for those intending on law school.

I suspect this figure is wildly exaggerated. Before we go any further, could someone find the statistics on this? What proportion of the bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. are for majors in political science? First of all, only 36% of all bachelor degrees in the U.S. are for liberal arts majors. For this purpose, a liberal arts major is one in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Non-liberal arts degree programs are things like engineering, education, nursing, social work, music performance, business, art (unless it’s part of art history), or the various odd things that you might not even realize there are bachelor’s degrees in, like computer game design. Since only 36% of bachelor’s degrees are in all liberal arts subjects, I can’t believe that more than 25% of all bachelor’s degrees are in political science.

You know, scrambledeggs, when you start a thread by making a wildly exaggerated statement in the OP and asking people why that wild overstatement is true, you’re not helping to fight ignorance. It would help if either looked up the facts before you post the OP. At the very least, you could ask in the OP, “I’ve heard that such-and-such is true. Is this the case?” instead of “Such-and-such is true. Explain why it’s true.”

4

And speaking of not fighting ignorance, I screwed up this sentence:

> It would help if either looked up the facts before you post the OP.

I meant:

> It would help if you looked up the facts before you post the OP.

5

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]
scrambledeggs writes:

> It like at least 1/4 people at my old State U were “poli sci” majors–it was
> almost automatic for those intending on law school.

I suspect this figure is wildly exaggerated. Before we go any further, could someone find the statistics on this? What proportion of the bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. are for majors in political science?
[/QUOTE]

In 2005-2006, there were 1,485,242 bachelor’s degrees granted, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Of those 1,485,242 bachelor’s degrees, 318,042 were in business and 107,238 were in education. There were 39,409 degrees granted in “political science and government.”

6

[QUOTE=scrambledeggs]
Why is Political Science such a popular major? It like at least 1/4 people at my old State U were “poli sci” majors–it was almost automatic for those intending on law school. Others took it to.

So my question would be, why is it seemingly so popular? Why do pre-law students take it–what does Poli Sci have to do with the law? You would think with a much greater demand for lawyers with a scientific background, or accounting/finance/business, they would get a more useful backup major.

Seems like Poli Sci, as only a bachelor’s degree, is of greatly limited value in the marketplace. So why are people, even if they intend on law school, not getting an ‘insurance’ degree? Especially because (supposdly) over 1/2 of lawyers end up leaving the profession?

At least with history you can write books :cool:
[/QUOTE]

Political scientist here.

As I indicated in the other thread you started on the topic of liberal arts degrees, you seem to be quite ignorant of what political science actually is. Also, I would argue that there’s more valid reasons to pick a field of study than its potential on the job market - but, that said, I think you underestimate how much use a political science degree really is on the job market. Political science is a fascinating field of study that I never regretted going into and that is has many interesting insights and sides to it. Sure, there’s many legal aspects - especially in US political science, where public administration is seen as a subfield of political science rather than a field of study in its own right. But there’s also many philosophical, psychological, economical, sociological and historical insights worth studying. Finally - but this is not limited to political science - , I think it is very worthwhile for people to gain an insight in the logic of inference that is used in social science research: basically, a course in logical thinking. Also, in a day and age where opinion polling is increasingly important, some general understanding of what polling results actually mean, and how they should and should not be interpreted, is vital for people participating actively or passively in politics.

Finally, some very interesting and influential books have been written by political scientists. It doesn’t take a historian to write a book.

7

[QUOTE=zut]
In 2005-2006, there were 1,485,242 bachelor’s degrees granted, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Of those 1,485,242 bachelor’s degrees, 318,042 were in business and 107,238 were in education. There were 39,409 degrees granted in “political science and government.”
[/QUOTE]
So that mean roughly 2.6% of American degrees are in political science. Guess Scrambledeggs hypothesis is indeed flawed.

8

[QUOTE=China Guy]
It’s pretty easy. There aren’t a lot of black and white answers. Good way to boost that GPA without doing a helluva lotta work.
[/QUOTE]

Not so. I do a hell of a lot of work, and depending upon who your teachers are there are right and wrong answers.

I took political science because it fascinates me, and if I have to slog through four years of wasted life I might as well do something that interests me instead of making it worse by forcing my way through something that I completely despise.

9

I’m moving this solicitations for opinions to IMHO.

10

You think it’s easy to get good grades?

No way, in my opinion it’s far more possible to get good grades in subjects such as computer science or Chemistry where there are definitive answers to your questions, rather than having to base entire essays upon what you think your lecturer is looking for.

11

I have my masters in political science and will be headed back to complete my PhD in a year or so. It is a very broad discipline that admits several competing methodologies and a multiplicity of interesting questions. Like any other discipline, people study it because it is interesting.

12

In something of a defense of **scrambledeggs ** question, I can see how it might appear that around 25% of undergrads at a state U are majoring in political science. Typically, students are divided into schools and colleges with things like engineering, nursing, education, business, etc. in their own separate schools. A person may interact primarily with humanities and social sciences students. Of *that * group, a much higher percentage are majoring in political science. Also, one state U may have the main political science department in the state, especially if it is in the state capital.

That said, while down the road it might be great to have a biology major and a law degree, most students’ first concern is getting *into * law school. Hours in a biology lab won’t help much with that. Accounting is extremely narrow in focus. I think the type of thinking it encourages, while valuable in its own way, would not be a great help in preparing for law school.

Finally, there are a lot of jobs in government. A political science degree is a good basic degree to get, somewhat similar to a business degree, if your general intention is to work in the public sector.

Also, I think **scrambledeggs ** may be overestimating the marketability of a B.S. degree in a science field. A bachelor’s degree in biology or chemistry opens doors to grad school more than it does to jobs in those fields. To a lot of employers, it’s the same “bachelors in something” that a political science degree is.

All that said, if someone with public sector or law school plans can pull off a double major or a minor in business or a hard science, it seems like a good plan to me.

13

Based solely on my experience, I imagine young people study it because it is interesting - and so different from the material one studied in HS. Exploring the real maechanics of how nations or other political entities actually act, and applying the past to the present - heady stuff. Since you find this so interesting and exciting, you can convince yourself that the job market will recognize and reward it. That is, if you aren’t just marking time until law school.

Plus - again on my experience - it is not overly taxing and is relatively easy to get good grades in if you can regurgitate your professors’ views on essay tests and papers.

14

[QUOTE=Sri Theo]
You think it’s easy to get good grades?

No way, in my opinion it’s far more possible to get good grades in subjects such as computer science or Chemistry where there are definitive answers to your questions, rather than having to base entire essays upon what you think your lecturer is looking for.
[/QUOTE]

I beg to differ. I rarely see anyone on an athletic scholarship getting a CS degree, yet there is always plenty of them doing poli sci. These guys don’t really have a lot of time to study so they go for what takes the least time/mental exertion. I also doubt there are too many classes in poly sci that end up with a 65% failure rate, most CS programs will have 2 or 3 of those to weed out the wannabes.

15

Well, the main reason I went into Political Science* was that I found CS much too easy. I wanted an actually challenge and also preferred to write than answer multiple choice.

*Actually a dual major of political science and history.

16

[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
Well, the main reason I went into Political Science* was that I found CS much too easy. I wanted an actually challenge and also preferred to write than answer multiple choice.

*Actually a dual major of political science and history.
[/QUOTE]
No reputable CS program is based on multiple choice evaluation. CS coursework is generally based on programming assignments and projects, with some pencil paper tests that are as much word problems as objective questions. The degree also requires a fair amount of math, at min: calculus, which I have never seen tested with multiple choice at a majority level.

if you preferred to written assignments to math and problem-work thats fine but don’t be disingenuous here.

17

Whatever. The point being that math and problem work with a single correct answer was much less challenging than writing a ten-page paper on political systems*. Calculus was interesting, but I was already at a college level (I got advanced placement in it) and any computer science course I took at the college level was a quick way of getting an automatic A.

Marks like that were much harder in poly sci. I ended up with a career in computers because of the skills I developed in Political Science and History classes (which also transferred into my writing career).

*And, no – I did not try to write what the professor wanted to hear. My goal was to take a position and back it up (which also works very nicely in real life, or even on the SDMB).

18

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]
scrambledeggs writes:

> It like at least 1/4 people at my old State U were “poli sci” majors–it was
> almost automatic for those intending on law school.

I suspect this figure is wildly exaggerated. Before we go any further, could someone find the statistics on this? What proportion of the bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. are for majors in political science? First of all, only 36% of all bachelor degrees in the U.S. are for liberal arts majors. For this purpose, a liberal arts major is one in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Non-liberal arts degree programs are things like engineering, education, nursing, social work, music performance, business, art (unless it’s part of art history), or the various odd things that you might not even realize there are bachelor’s degrees in, like computer game design. Since only 36% of bachelor’s degrees are in all liberal arts subjects, I can’t believe that more than 25% of all bachelor’s degrees are in political science.

You know, scrambledeggs, when you start a thread by making a wildly exaggerated statement in the OP and asking people why that wild overstatement is true, you’re not helping to fight ignorance. It would help if either looked up the facts before you post the OP. At the very least, you could ask in the OP, “I’ve heard that such-and-such is true. Is this the case?” instead of “Such-and-such is true. Explain why it’s true.”
[/QUOTE]

Eggs didn’t say that everybody was taking PS. He said “It like” which a reasonable person would say was a typo for “It’s like” which attenuates the statement, and puts it squarely into the opinion mold. Quit being so hard on him/her! And, also, the OP stated that the condition was at that particular university. Back off. That may be the case at that place. Besides, when I went to univ in the late seventies, there were only four majors that my limited circle of friends spoke of pursuing: Journalism (Woodward/Bernstein were very hip), Psychology, Pharmacy, and Engineering. Of course, this was before they all found out how hard this stuff was, and they all went into education.
Point being, you jumped all over **scrambledeggs ** too readily, and wrongly.

And, I think you are putting too, too much emphasis on the ‘fighting ignorance’ aspect of the Straight Dope’s byline. It IS just a forum, you know.
greatshakes

19

greatshakes writes:

> Eggs didn’t say that everybody was taking PS. He said “It like” which a
> reasonable person would say was a typo for “It’s like” which attenuates the
> statement, and puts it squarely into the opinion mold. Quit being so hard on
> him/her! And, also, the OP stated that the condition was at that particular
> university. Back off. That may be the case at that place. Besides, when I went
> to univ in the late seventies, there were only four majors that my limited circle
> of friends spoke of pursuing: Journalism (Woodward/Bernstein were very hip),
> Psychology, Pharmacy, and Engineering. Of course, this was before they all
> found out how hard this stuff was, and they all went into education.
> Point being, you jumped all over scrambledeggs too readily, and wrongly.
>
> And, I think you are putting too, too much emphasis on the ‘fighting ignorance’
> aspect of the Straight Dope’s byline. It IS just a forum, you know.

scrambledeggs has to learn that we’re interested in facts here, not just randomly spouting off our opinions. That’s what the SDMB is all about. Part of that is not using phrases like “It’s like X is true” when the fact is that X is an exaggeration by a factor of 10. He hasn’t mentioned what university he’s talking about and what time period he’s talking about. I still suspect that he was wrong about the proportion even at his university and his time in college. The SDMB is more than another random message board where people talk nonsense. We are about fighting ignorance.

20

[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
Whatever. The point being that math and problem work with a single correct answer was much less challenging than writing a ten-page paper on political systems*.
And, no – I did not try to write what the professor wanted to hear. Well, the main reason I went into Political Science was that I found CS much too easy. I wanted an actually challenge and also preferred to write than answer multiple choice. .
[/QUOTE]

With all due respect, I noticed your incorrect legal statements in the Disney -Copyright thread, and now read your comments which to me appear a bit ridiculous. The “single correct answer” in math is so much more difficult to discover than reading a book and writing a report on it. Science requires precision and accuracy, and can be verified. Whereas art does not. There is no way you found CS too easy unless you did not understand it, and quit while still in the earliest introduction class.

Look at a computer science textbook at the Junior/Senior undergrad level, and see what you can understand. Probably next to nothing.

The comment about writing what your professor wants isn’t that you had to ape his political opinions, but rather to get a good grade, you need to listen to the teacher’s interests and be able to write back, reflecting the style of teaching. Whereas in math, it is all on paper.