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Major and Career 101: Political Science

The degree funnel in Political Science. 2015-16 graduation data from IPEDS analyzed by O's List.
The degree funnel in Political Science. 2015-16 graduation data from IPEDS analyzed by O's List.

Political science is the 7th most popular major in the country just by the sheer number of students who graduate in political science. Interestingly it is not (yet) a much-searched major on O’s List.

For this post, we are going to contrast political science and economics majors because of two reasons:

  1. In 2015-2016 similar number of students graduated nationally in economics and political science. There were 33,902 graduates (with a bachelor’s degree) in political science and 33,527 graduates in economics.
  2. Graduates students in political science and economics can have undergraduate degrees in related and diverse disciplines such as language arts, math, statistics, economics, political science, etc.

Recall that every time we look at graduate degree data, there are a few caveats to keep in mind as you look at the charts:

  1. The data for students who graduate with a MA is a 2 year trailing data. Students who graduate with a BA in 2016 will get a MA in 2018 if they go directly to graduate school.
  2. The data for students who graduate with a Ph.D. is a multi year trailing data. It can take anywhere from 4-6 years to complete a Ph.D.
  3. The graduation data also counts international students.

Economics

The degree funnel in Economics.

Political Science

The degree funnel in Political Science.
Comparing the degree funnels in Economics and Political Science.

Despite the similar number of students graduating with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics and a comparable academic profiles of the graduate students, there is a big difference in the number of students graduating with either a master’s or Ph.D.

Does this mean that more students with a degree in political science in entering the work force as compared to economics? That would be a worthwhile question to explore and probably ask the career placement office at the university. It would not be surprising if the non-academic career paths led to careers in government, policy, non-profits etc.

Not all political science graduates go on to do graduate work in political science. It maybe that political science graduates could also pursue graduate degrees in other disciplines such as going to law school or getting an MBA.

Check out the following resources about career paths in political science:

If you are looking at a few different majors because you are not quite sure about what to study in college, look beyond just the numbers to the various careers paths that alums have travelled.