<p>I go to Rutgers University and I am currently set out to join the state police or FBI as my career path. That being said, both do not require a specific major and any major is fine. Now it comes down to choosing which of the two majors to pursue. I started and expected to go into criminal justice as I am not only interested in it but would probably achieve better grades. However, I know that econ is a way better major in terms of practicality and usefullness in the real world. The only problem is I have never been good at math and it would require me to take precalc next semester, then calc, then stats. (after a semester of precalc, I can take micro and macro etc.) I already did precalc in high school but did pretty bad which I heard only gets harder in college. I looked at the courses for econ majors and asked friends who took econ classes and it seems I am quite interested in the classes and the major itself, but the only thing stopping me is the math requirements. In addition, because I will be a sophomore next year, I would be a little behind in econ courses as I had taken none freshman year. I would have to take the year long precalc next school year and take calc in the summer to catch up. Although criminal justice is a major that will leave me with a high overall GPA, I am unsure which to take as econ may help me later down the road if any of the two future professions for some reason do not work out...</p>
<p>Does your state police force offer a student co-op/internship-type program where they automatically select you for academy once you graduate so long as you meet certain requirements (like GPA, internship hours, etc)? If so, then you should consider tagging along into that and applying for FBI anyway.</p>
<p>Does your school offer a BA in Econ as opposed to a BS? Sometimes the math BA requirements for Econ are less than the BS. If so, then you can consider doing the BA route instead.</p>
<p>Overall, if you’re dead set on beginning a career in LE, then either degree will help you get there, and since you’re more interested in and can perform better in CJ, then you should stick to that. If you think there is a slight possibility that your career aspirations may change within the next 3 years, then you should try your best to work out a plan in Econ so that you do remain more marketable, though in caertain facets. Some jobs, though possibly scarce depending on the region, just want you to have a degree - any degree. So you won’t be shut out of those options either way you choose. Econ will mostly help you more than CJ if the employer is looking for someone with quantitative skills (if it was not already reflected elswhere on your resume) or in the business side of things (to include banking and insurance, etc).</p>
<p>Criminal Justice majors are the lowest performers on standardized graduate examinations. It’s unclear whether it’s because the major doesn’t tend to have rigor necessary to do well on them or if the people who tend to major in it are those who will get lower scores regardless. As I don’t know the answer to this, I would stay away from the CJ degree.</p>
<p>However, is there something else that could be partially related to Economics that you would like that might serve you better? Perhaps Accounting, as I know forensic accountants make good coin in law enforcement. Also, my school has a political economy option that attaches to many different degrees.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think you are overestimating the “practicality” of economics, particularly since you’ve self-admitted to not being strong in math. </p>
<p>Do your major in Criminal Justice. It’s what you enjoy and evidently what you’re good at. And if you’re spooked by Xavi’s post above (and you shouldn’t, since the performance of a hypothetical individual representing a statistical aggregate doesn’t determine your individual performance) then consider sociology, which is closely related but can be more methodologically rigorous.</p>
<p>turtlerock - I have never heard of such a program but I will definitely look into that. As far as I can tell, the NJ state police website does not contain information on this but I will look into this further as it sounds like a great opportunity. I believe it is just a BA in econ. Thank you for the response, I will definitely continue pondering this and will look back at your response from time to time.</p>
<p>XaviFM - I have heard this from many people and I believe it is the general thought amongst society that criminal justice majors are simply the dumb ones and is one of the easiest majors. However, I believe it is a degree that is relevant to my job aspiration and is something I am interested in. Unfortunately, my school does not have accounting as a major. Thank you for the response.</p>
<p>HieronymusBosch - Can you explain your first statement? Math is definitely not my forte but isn’t economics a very useful degree nowadays? Although I am not a fan of math, I did look at the courses required for econ majors and they do seem to interest me aside from the required math courses. I am taking sociology courses but I don’t think I would consider majoring in it. Thank you for the response.</p>
<p>Whatever major I choose, I also plan to minor in criminology btw. Other thoughts would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you’ve been hearing, but economics is a very theoretical field (maybe except behavioral economics?); it’s about as practical of a field as psychology (psychology is very theoretical but also can be applied to real-world contexts, which describes economics as well).</p>
<p>There are numerous theoretical assumptions, theories, “laws” (more like rules-of-thumb), graphs that work in theory, etc…</p>