<p>What are some colleges in California that are recognized for good political science programs (a plus would be somewhere that also has good international relations, history, sociology... basically a good social sciences department). I guess I'd be most interested in a school that would prepare me for a career in government (something like a political advisor), and maybe even have good internships to get me going on that path...</p>
<p>ucb, ucla, ucsd. usc i think is good b/c they have the USC/Caltech Center for Public Policy. in general, the better the school the better the poli sci degree, just b/c its easier to rate a school, rather than a social science program, like poli sci.</p>
<p>poli sci is pretty lame, in my opinion. you dont need to have a great poli sci degree to be political advisor. a politician would probably hire a person with a more respected degree than poli sci. poli sci is good for political writers. i think there is a lot of truth in this. sorry to be too realistic.</p>
<p>Oh... Uhm, what would you suggest, then? :)</p>
<p>yeah, poli sci is a pointless major, any liberal arts degree can do that for you because you've got to go on to law school if you reallly want a future in politics</p>
<p>I'm planning to major in poli sci/ int'l relations. what are you guys suggesting as an alternative?</p>
<p>do what ever youre good at, or do something you really like. for example, i was bio major b/c i wanted to be a doctor, i ended up hating bio and switched to something i liked: econ. and now i am happy, getting good grades and all. really, its that simple. i take back most of what i said about poli sci. you SHOULD major in something that interests you, even poli sci. but good grades are a MUST. and you need to be interested in your major, or else youre going to have a bad time.</p>
<p>We visited Claremont McKenna College in September - very strong govt, poli sci & econ depts; big study abroad program. "a liberal arts college whose graduates get paid" is one characteristic of this college which says it blends leadership with the liberal arts.</p>
<p>The idea that one major is more respected than another is a silly one. Respected by whom?? </p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with a political science degree, and it is a very good one if a student is interested in a government career. It is not the only major that would be useful though; history, anthropology, sociology, economics and a few others would also make sense.</p>
<p>For political science in California, I would lean toward Berkeley, Claremont McKenna, Occidental and Pomona. I don't know much about the department at UCLA, but I would suspect that it would be good as well.</p>
<p>what about poli sci at UCDavis?</p>
<p>I'm a first year at UCI majoring in polisci. I think that generally if you go to a UC or USC or something that, since polisci is such a generic major, that your education is gunna be about the same. Now if you want to go to grad school for polisci(where all the rankings come in), your best bet would be Berkeley (if you could get in). The UCs would all prepare you well for law/public policy school although I think UCLA and Berkeley (maybe UCSD?) are the only schools with public policy schools, and I think that is generally for graduate study although they might have some indergrad programs.</p>
<p>You can't do much better than Stanford and Claremont McKenna College. Both are two of the best schools in the country for political science. Not yet mentioned are Santa Clara U and the University of San Diego, both of which have excellent political science and pre-law programs as well.</p>
<p>I was just saying any liberal arts major can get you there, majoring isn't a must</p>
<p>Though I may be somewhat biased, UCSD has an excellent political science department. They are loaded with relatively well known (in the political science arena) professors, including Sam Kernell (a former Brookings Fellow), Sam Popkin, and Gary Jacobson. In my opinion UCSD's political science department is probably only second to Berkeley in terms of prestige in the UC system.</p>
<p>I do political science. There are seveal fine fine departments in CA.</p>
<p>At UC's, best (and highly nationally ranked) are USB, UCLA, UCSD. But you can do very well with this interest at UCD and UCI.</p>
<p>The other obvious university department is Stanford. </p>
<p>USC is trying but doesn't up to the standard of any of those mentioned (or even the ones below, IMO).</p>
<p>At LAC's the best options would be Claremont McKenna and Pomona.</p>
<p>Should have edited my previous post:</p>
<p>At UC's, best (and highly nationally ranked) are UCB, UCLA, UCSD. But you can do very well with this interest at UCD and UCI.</p>
<p>The other obvious university department is Stanford, which is also highly ranked nationally.</p>
<p>USC is trying but doesn't up to the standard of any of those mentioned (or even the ones below, IMO).</p>
<p>At LAC's the best options would be Claremont McKenna and Pomona.</p>
<p>before you pass jdgement on 'sc:</p>
<p><a href="http://lawweb.usc.edu/cslp/%5B/url%5D">http://lawweb.usc.edu/cslp/</a></p>
<p>you better believe usc is up there with the uc's</p>
<p>Here's some food for thought -- a global ranking of political science departments. Warning: does not include LAC's. Based on the quality of faculty as reflected in their research.</p>
<p>hmmmm, interestiiinnnggg, ssooooooooo,</p>
<p>according to this very academic journal...if you want to call it that...ucsd and uci are better ranked than princeton, yale, ucb, ucla, uchicago, lse, johns hpkins, georgetown, mit, cambridge. in that order. INSEAD and Paris are all the way at the bottom. so is bowdoin, isnt that a prestigious lac? inetersting "food for thought", but i think my brain just threw it up.</p>
<p>I hope you didn't throw up your whole brain. You've still got a lot to learn. BTW/ you can also take a look at the USNews political science rankings, as well as the NRC/NAS rankings. You would still see USC isn't nearly as good as 3 or 4 of the UCal schools and Stanford (and may not even show up on the rankings).</p>
<p>USC has been an underperforming university for generations, except in a few area such as film and dentistry. In recent years it's started to spend money to develop core disciplines. It has a long way to go. I'm not saying its political science is bad; it's just nowhere near the top schools.</p>
<p>fine you win, whatever. happy? dont attack me, i didnt attack you.</p>
<p>let me ask you this: where would you study poli sci at uci, ucsd, ohio state....or georgetown, yale, princeton, london school of economics AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, johns hopkins, uchicago, mit, ucb, ucla? what do you think would be more respected? how many more politicians/presidents have come from yale, princeton, georgetown. how good are rankings when they contradict each other? how do you quantify an academic program into a ranking?</p>
<p>note how this lse ranking inculdes the number of poli sci publications produced given yr. wouldnt big state schools (uci,ucsd,ohio state) come out with more academic journals than small private schools (bowdoin, mit, georgetown, yale, princeton). and how exactly do you rank the quality of these publications? </p>
<p>and i wouldnt call usc an underperforming school. ive studied econ at both usc and uci, i think i know whats better. and if you would like to go by rankings, thinks its #30. there's a little food for thought.</p>