I have to add that while law school does require a lot of reading and writing - I have a few successful lawyer friends who did/do not love reading or writing - they do fine.
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My son is interested in a similar path as your daughter, and he ended up applying as an economics major, and will minor in Political Science. Another commonality is that we aimed for 40K tuition and though we applied, nearly NO school gave us need based aid. Here are the schools that came in around 40K with merit for a high average stats student. Some schools we did not send SAT scores to if the common data set did not have him in the top 25 %. We are waiting on his number 1 school in Washington D.C. and hoping the financials follow suit of the others.
Temple
Duquesne
Loyola Maryland
Loyola Chicago
U Pitt
UCONN
Quinnipiac
Butler
Best of luck to you
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Thanks for your input! Can I know where he landed up finally?
We are still working on it 
I will update when we know
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As you guys are already experienced with the admission process. My D24 wants to do either Pol. Science/Economics. Her eventual goal at this point is Law but if she changes her mind or ends up not getting into Law she would like to do some major that has some job prospects. So thinking of going for Economics.
My question is if the college admission depends on the major or a general admission to the college. I mean is it little easier to get into a less competitive major in competitive colleges? If so, if for a students interested in Economics /Pol. Science, what less competitive major you guys suggest that gives her a shot to get into a good college?
I totally understand that one doesn’t have to decide about the major right now but I am just trying to find some good colleges (NOT LACs) that are otherwise fall under low acceptance rate. Few colleges to name like BC, BU, GT, GWU, NYU etc. I am not looking at the price tag currently.
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Some colleges admit by major. Some admit simply to a formal school - like Arts & Sciences or Business. Some admit to the university irregardless of major - so that’s a college by college thing.
If you get into one with either of those majors, it likely would not be difficult to switch to the other major - if one decided to do that. It would be progressively harder for majors like CS, engineering and at some schools even business.
But for schools that admit by major, the arts and sciences typically won’t be impacted - although you would need to check with each school on your list.
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The colleges that admit by college, is Economics generally more competitive to get in than Pol. Science or it doesn’t really matter as they both mostly belong to the same colleges in most universities?
For universities that admit regardless of major is usually hard to get in with any major?
I think you study what you want. You don’t try to back door something.
I’d think at most schools it’s not going to matter with either of those majors.
Certainly at the schools you listed.
You may check out their dept web pages and make sure they have robust programs.
But for someone looking to pursue a social science, perhaps short of a school like Gtown or GW, you’re likely over thinking.
Good luck.
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If someone isn’t accepted for Econ (in the school of Arts and Sciences), declaring Poli Sci instead isn’t going to change the decision.
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Econ and poli sci are two of the stalwarts of UG colleges everywhere, and neither is generally a more/less competitive major. They are very rarely admit-by-major subjects, and as others have noted if you are applying into a school of A&S, it’s not going to make a jot of difference in admissions terms which you put down.
But I will go farther and say that- imo- “she would like to do some major that has some job prospects. So thinking of going for Economics” is not smart thinking.
IRL, neither degree is notably more ‘employable’ than the other on it’s own. What will get a new grad with either major hired is what else they have done in college-meaning jobs and internships. Your daughter is much likelier to have a good outcome if she chooses what is genuinely interesting to her, and pursues that with energy and enthusiasm.
As for “I am not looking at the price tag currently”: if that is a polite way of saying, we have UG & Law school costs covered, so that is not an issue for us, happy days! But if- as we hear a lot on CC- it means ‘we are willing to go into hock for UG if the name is famous enough’ or (worse) ‘we don’t want to put any limits on too early’, please stop and think hard about financial realities.
If, in a candid look at your daughter, you can say to yourself 'yes, I can see law school (or an MPP or an MS Econ) as a realistic path, then at the least you want her to graduate with no, or at least minimal, debt. Certainly no more than the ~$27K (total) that she can sign for in her own name. All of those paths require very expensive grad school- and for all of them the negatives of a lot of debt outweigh the benefits of the fancy name. For any of those paths the ability to take no/low paid internships over the summer will make a huge difference to her outcomes. Having to service debt will also hamstring her once she graduates. She can get into top grad schools from almost anywhere.
Being very clear, honest and direct with her now as to what you can & will pay, and what her financial parameters are is kinder than saying ‘dream big and we will figure it out’ - unless you know that you have it covered.
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Very Good Advice
S21 Poly Sci and thinking Law school
We had the talk about Poly Sci/International Affairs degrees and you are 100% correct you need to stand out from the crowd. So he is spending his freshman year in Italy and in the summer he will study for three months in Spain. Next summer he is already looking for an international internship.
We also talked he may very well need a masters if he doesn’t go to Law school
Stayed instate Flagship for undergrad. Would consider OOS for Grad School
Typically,economics & political science are majors open to any student. Economics is often a more difficult & more competitive major which utilizes “weed-out courses” in the early stage.
Overall, economics is the more useful degree in terms of employer demand & employment related skills.
Both are fine for one targeting law school. Econ is better for one thinking about a career in management consulting.
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I suspect (but without any supporting data) that some majors like Gender Studies may be easier to get into if you can present a credible application to show interest in that field. What you do after you join is entirely up to you. In terms of law school aligned majors, I heard fairly concretely that only the LSAT and GPA matter for law school admissions. The LSAT depends on your analytical and language skills. Law school itself requires an enormous amount of reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing. Majors that do well in the LSAT are Philosophy, Math, English. Often kids that also do well while at law school are History. Some kids take Poly Sci to go to law school because they think the field is aligned – especially if they are interested in activist or social justice law. And that is fine. Law as a profession has been under some significant stress for the past decade – part of the reason is that the traditional training you got as an entry level lawyer at a law firm, is slowing going away. Firms used to assign new lawyers to do case discovery (finding old cases as precedence in support of arguments they are developing to argue current cases). This function is going away due to excellent and relatively inexpensive software that lets you quickly search for case law. (The Use of Computers in Law | Legal Beagle) Some old staples such as wills etc, in simple cases, are getting automated (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/06/technology-is-changing-the-legal-profession-and-law-schools.html). Firms are using AI (Morgan Stanley’s Robot Libor Lawyers Saved 50,000 Hours of Work) in other ways to cut down the numbers of lawyers they use. This is of course not local to just lawyers. Many other fields that offered expertise are getting automated.
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Is PPE a thing now at US colleges? I assume it’s copied from Oxford.
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I have heard this also. However, I have also heard that engineering and computer science majors are given a small break on the required GPA. This is allegedly partly due to the perception that these majors are difficult, and partly due to the fact that there are good jobs for lawyers who also have a degree in either engineering or CS.
Between economics versus political science to me it makes a lot of sense to pick the major that will help a student develop a possible alternate career path in case law does not work out. Then attend a good university where you got accepted into your preferred major.
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That’s good to know. I would also imagine that there’s a break for students attending particularly rigorous colleges (e.g., MIT).
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I have not heard this. Unless of course you are comparing MIT with a community college. If there is some benefit, it is likely to be small.
I am unaware of any US college which admits by major for Gender Studies.
Is your logic that Gender Studies must be an undersubscribed major, for which AdComms would be so glad to have an interested student that they would choose that student over another who was interested in a more ‘popular’ major?
Again, it is the rare ‘good university’ where either Econ or PoliSci are direct or competitive admits.
Truly, for the OPs student the best choice between Econ & PS is the one in which she has a genuine interest.
That is indeed my “hope” that adcoms may prefer someone showing an intent to major in Gender Studies, even if admissions are not offered by major. It is sufficient that the major exists in the college of interest. Clearly if kids are discriminated against for CS and other crowded majors even in “open” departments (e.g., I suspect that this may be the case at UMich), the reverse must be true of departments that are not well subscribed, that already have a lot of faculty. Of course you need to have a credible application.
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He will be attending George Washington University in D.C. Slightly more expensive than the other schools I previously listed, but access to government and internships were a selling point. Good luck to your daughter!
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