My passion is to study political science, but I also want to major in economics because it is more marketable and can be a stepping stone to many jobs (finance, banking, insurance, politics,etc). I feel like majoring in economics will help in job opportunities more so than a political science major would. In the end, would it make a difference if I minor in one of them?
so should I attempt to double major in political science and economics or major in political science and minor in economics (or vice versa). Some factors I would consider are additional cost and time it would take to double major, difficulty in double majoring ( I would rather do well in one major rather than be average in two majors because it was too much work), and other factors.
If you want to save on cost/time, you could look into the CLEP tests. You can take them to cancel out many of the Gen Ed requirements…although research and make sure the college you’re applying to accepts the CLEP credits!
This really depends on the college. Some colleges make it easier to double major than others; some colleges might have joint majors in political science and economics (they are a common combination). If your college makes it easy, then you don’t have to worry about the time and additional cost that it takes. Another factor is your own comfort with economics and quantitative coursework. A major will be more difficult if you don’t like math and statistics. An economics major often has cognate classes to take - like two semesters of calculus and perhaps a calculus-based statistics class, in addition to the quant classes in the econ major itself.
What makes economics majors marketable is not the economics per se but the quantitative skills that they have. A political science major could be similarly equipped, if she tried; you could always major in political science and make sure that you take a strong sampling of quant classes (macro and micro, econometrics, statistics, social science statistics, etc.) without necessarily minoring in economics.