Any political science majors here?

[Tab]

Anyone have any advice? I don't ever intend to run for election, but I wouldn't mind doing demographic studies or working with international relations.

What's the job outlook for this profession?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

politics isn't a science, it's more like a circus.

 

[nageov3t]

my friend was a poly sci major... then during her fourth year of college, she decided to dual-major and picked up secondary education / history so she could teach high school.

 

[kstu]

job outlook = law school or teacher

 

[shopbruin]

i graduated in 2003 as a poli sci major. if you want to USE your degree, you will be teaching high school government classes. If you're good, you can be out working on campaigns, or go to grad school and publish more on the subject.

most of the people i knew went to law school. since i'm not in law school, i am just working, but i work for a legal document company.

 

[DCFife]

My wife has a poli sci. She's a network engineer.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Fake major. If you want to do demographics or whatever, maybe you should major in geography, and learn GIS well.

 

[UbiSunt]

History>Poly"Sci"

 

[UNCjigga]

It was a fun major to have in college, and it rescued my gpa from the doldrums...

 

[digitalsm]

What you want to do will require atleast a masters in statistics, if not a PhD. Most people that do demographics and polling for campaigns or the govt have PhDs in statistics.

 

[stormbv]

I have a degree in History, and I'm using it by working at Walmart.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Don't do it.....

I did and still regret it..
B.S. in Poly Sci, emphasis in IR....

Had a bunch of fun in college but, I'm screwed now....No job prospects unless you wanna move to DC, go to law school, go to Grad school, get a canvassing job for crap money, or teach HS...

I'm now basically in a fuxored position, although I didn't think it would matter at the time what my undergrad was because I was planning on going to law school.....

It's not a bad idea if you wanna dual major or something though and what mercanucaribe
said about Geography/GIS is spot on, I'm thinking about pursing that now....more school one way or the other...god I'm so depressed

 

[Tab]

Ack... This doesn't make me feel good at all...

No way in hell am I teaching High School Students...

If I do go into it I would have to a take a minor or a 2nd language...

I was thinking maybe German...

 

[Dissipate]

Major in something that you can actually get a job with, like electrical engineering.

 

[Tab]

I'd like a profession that's not so... soulless...

 

[Syringer]

You can get a job with any major. You think the 70% of the college kids who took the liberal arts route are on the streets?

How good a job you get though of course depends on other factors..

 

[teddyv]

I graduated with a double major, Poly-Sci and Econ. I then went to Law School and found the Poly-Sci was pretty much useless (Econ actually came in quite handy.) I then went into Politics and found nothing can really adequately prepare you.

If you want to go into Politics then get a summer Internship on Capitol Hill and be prepared for years of (very) low pay and very long hours. Be prepared to miss Halloween every year due to volunteering on campaigns around the country (and by "volunteering" I mean working from dawn to midnight every day for a week or two, doing the jobs no-one else wants to do and sleeping on the floor in the back of a campaign office.) After a few or more years of paying your dues you'll advance steadily and before you know it you'll be LD or Chief of Staff to some 3rd-term Congressman and pondering offers of jumping to a Committee or heading over to a junior Lobbyist job on K-Street.

Most people that do demographics and polling for campaigns or the govt have PhDs in statistics.

Very true - Census Bureau is loaded with them. As for International Relations, Check out SAIS and see if that is something you would be interested in doing after getting out of College.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: Tab
I'd like a profession that's not so... soulless...

It's not soulless. You get to design cool circuits.

My friend is doing EE. Looks like a tough major, but it seems like it would be a lot of fun once you figure out how to do it.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: Syringer
You can get a job with any major. You think the 70% of the college kids who took the liberal arts route are on the streets?

How good a job you get though of course depends on other factors..

No, I think a good lot of them are pencil pushers at some government agency (notice how in this thread they are all talking about government jobs). *PUKE*

 

[Syringer]

The type of person considering poli sci is definitely not in the same boat as an EE major..

 

[DainBramaged]

Political science is very interesting to me but I'm going to get a degree that I can use, like Philosophy.

 

[stormbv]

Hey DainBramaged, you can join me at Walmart!

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: stormbv
Hey DainBramaged, you can join me at Walmart!

Fvck Wal-Mart. Kohl's ftw.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: Syringer
The type of person considering poli sci is definitely not in the same boat as an EE major..

Why is that? My dad started off as a biology major and switched to history.

Frankly though, I don't think a lot of these subjects should have degrees. They should be all be minors, unless you want to teach.

If I were in charge at my university, everyone would have to take 4 courses in Calculus, 1 course in ordinary differential equations, 1 course in linear algebra and 2 courses in higher mathematics. Then they would have to take 4 courses in some hard science/engineering. I mean if college should be about anything, it should be about learning something that is useful in the real world.

On the flipside, everyone and I mean everyone should have to take 4 courses in writing (especially those in engineering and science). I'm not the best writer in the world, but a lot of these foreign students at my university in math/science can't write for BEANS.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: DainBramaged
Political science is very interesting to me but I'm going to get a degree that I can use, like Philosophy.

Honestly, why do you need to go to a university to learn philosophy? For instance, Kant's "A Critique of Pure Reason" is available at Border's. Just buy it and study it on your own. I'm sure you can even get a study guide online.