Global Studies...is it "practical"?

<p>Basically I’ve got two questions:</p>

<li><p>I’m fairly interested in international politics. Thus, Global Studies seems like a fitting major. However, I come from a somewhat low-income family, and I’ll have to support my parents in addition to myself, so my question is how well this major translates into a well-paying and secure job? I’d like to perhaps work within commercial/managing international operations of a governmental sector. But is this major the right path to take? Or will I graduate with nowhere to go? Poly Sci has a reputation for being a “useless major” (economically-wise) - is this just another Poly Sci major?</p></li>
<li><p>I’m currently a freshman in junior college. With only one summer and one full year left, is this too late to start prerequisite courses with the intent of transferring for fall of 2009?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks in advance. Your answers will really mean a lot to me.</p>

<p>look at the transfer requirements and judge for yourself how likely it is. you know your current workload, you know what you've done, you know what you have left to do. hopefully your CC counselor can help you with this? since their job IS presumably to help people transfer successfully and all that.</p>

<p>try the career center website or department website to see if there's a link for "what can i do with a major in ___" page. also look at grad programs to see what their requirements are, if that's one of your possible goals (grad schools should also tell you what their graduates go on to do with their careers). hope that helps?</p>

<p>From UCLA's website:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Opportunities
Global Studies students are not only given the tools to understand global relations, they are empowered to shape their world as the next generation of global leaders in business, education, government, and the non-profit sector. Housed in UCLA's International Institute, Global Studies offers a research-oriented undergraduate major leading to a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), as well as an undergraduate minor.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Global</a> Studies B.A.</p>

<p>BA, nuff said.</p>

<p>^ Lawl!!!!</p>

<p>If you're more willing to go for political science, you can always take the international relations focus or attach the global studies minor or major as well. One of my friends is doing political science with global studies and indeed, he's going to have a regular job right after graduation -- aided by his internship experience.</p>

<p>
[quote]
try the career center website or department website to see if there's a link for "what can i do with a major in <em>__" page.

[/quote]

I tend not to rely on "what can i do with a major in </em><em>" pages because they tend to be somewhat removed from reality in an effort to present each major as an equally appealing option. For example, I used to want to major in psychology, and those "what can i do with a major in _</em>" pages would sell plenty of merits for majoring in psychology, but people who actually majored in it ended up feeling like they had a worthless degree, and all they could do was mundane social work of which they were vastly overqualified for. ><</p>

<p>So, is there anyone here who has actually majored in Global Studies?</p>

<p>Thanks for your replies by the way. :)</p>

<p>again with a BA you can do almost anything or just about nothing, its all depends. i've seen humanities majors in just about every field minus the sciences. its getting ****ing annoying when i tell people i'm a history major and they say "oh, well, you'll have to be a teacher!". no.</p>

<p>so if you want to support your family with an upper middle class income then ok try to be a doctor or engineer. but you can make big bucks with global studies too if you take some less obvious routes</p>

<p>whoaaaaa don't go bashing on psychology.
those pages aren't useful as a bible or anything, but they DO at least give you an idea of what people have done with that major (so you don't sit there and think it's useless). agreed, the pages aren't always rooted in reality, BUT hey, psych is far from worthless. i really don't know how anyone can come to that conclusion with or without the what can i do with a major in it pages. i can forgive you if you meant that a psych BA is useless- because it increasingly is, and you need a master's to do anything with it. also, social work is far from the only option. /end rant.</p>

<p>back to the main topic... you asked for advice. you ended up bashing my major >.< okay /end second rant.</p>

<p>anyway. point is, you gotta start somewhere, and follow each path through. if you have trouble finding paths to look at, you start with websites like that, you start with the career center, you start with your professors, you start with your fellow students. as i'm currently doing, with my major in psychology, and a desire not to end up in social work.</p>

<p>
[quote]
whoaaaaa don't go bashing on psychology.
those pages aren't useful as a bible or anything, but they DO at least give you an idea of what people have done with that major (so you don't sit there and think it's useless). agreed, the pages aren't always rooted in reality, BUT hey, psych is far from worthless. i really don't know how anyone can come to that conclusion with or without the what can i do with a major in it pages. i can forgive you if you meant that a psych BA is useless- because it increasingly is, and you need a master's to do anything with it. also, social work is far from the only option. /end rant.</p>

<p>back to the main topic... you asked for advice. you ended up bashing my major >.< okay /end second rant.</p>

<p>anyway. point is, you gotta start somewhere, and follow each path through. if you have trouble finding paths to look at, you start with websites like that, you start with the career center, you start with your professors, you start with your fellow students. as i'm currently doing, with my major in psychology, and a desire not to end up in social work.

[/quote]

lulz, I'm sorry. >_<</p>

<p>I didn't mean to bash psychology as an area of study - I myself took three psych courses and found all three of them very illuminative. But people who have majored in psychology and graduated from university have shared less-than-attractive stories. >_<</p>

<p>For psych you definitely need a PhD or at <em>least</em> an MBA, and I quite frankly don't have the financial resources to do that.</p>

<p>Aaanyways, I do have a general path I'd like to take - I was originally interested in international business, but I'd like to focus less on accounting/finance and more on intercultural facilitations. But what I'm asking is whether or not a major in Global Studies at UCLA would lead to such a path.</p>

<p>Again, many thanks to all replies. :]</p>

<p>honestly, all undergraduate degrees are useless except engineering. you more or less will have to get at least a masters to be taken seriously in the real world...</p>

<p>^^ Masters is a waste of $$, why anyone would get one I have no idea. You can prove more by doing quality work/being a good leader in your workplace as opposed to getting a masters...least that's my opinion.</p>

<p>Oh noes...conflicting ideas. >_<</p>

<p>
[quote]
but they DO at least give you an idea of what people have done with that major (so you don't sit there and think it's useless)

[/quote]
Honestly, I get things like "historian" or "curator" or something ridiculous - just adding a suffix to make the major a different type of noun. :rolleyes:
[quote]
Aaanyways, I do have a general path I'd like to take - I was originally interested in international business, but I'd like to focus less on accounting/finance and more on intercultural facilitations. But what I'm asking is whether or not a major in Global Studies at UCLA would lead to such a path.

[/quote]
In addition to your first post - I think UCLAri is the most qualified within the subforum to answer your questions. He's currently pursuing a "useless :rolleyes:" master's at UCSD and did PoliSci-IR at UCLA and does similar work now. If you're still confused or worried - consider that even during your first few quarters here, you'll be stuck taking introductory courses and that you'll have some legroom to complete requirements and find your path.</p>

<p>Well...</p>

<p>if you pair up Global Studies with a double major in Econ and/or a minor in Accounting, you'll have a great academic background to pursue international business, which is "practical"...</p>

<p>One of my best friends is doing GS...I heard it's much more demanding than one would think...He seems to like it though.</p>

<p>I just got accepted as a global studies major and I am tired of people putting it down thinking its a soft major :( Most interdisciplinary majors face the same problem but the truth is all majors are becoming more and more interdisciplinary and people are realizing that being multi-dimensional is a very valuable resource to many companies. I personally threw in statistics as a double major as global studies is lacking the emphasize on math which many companies and grad programs want. Many people in my position would have gone the math-econ route but its just so ordinary. Also when you are applying for the big time jobs I feel you need to be able to separate yourselves from the hundreds and hundreds of econ/business applicants. Econ majors at ucla and business majors at usc are a dime a dozen. If you get a undergrad business degree than a mba it basically makes your undergrad business degree worthless. Now if you get a degree in international relations, global studies, or any of the other interdisciplinary majors and possibly add a major to help with the math element than you have a GREAT addition to an MBA. Global Studies also makes you study abroad which helps with everything as well as personal fulfillment.</p>

<p>Wow that felt good to say!
Go BRUINS :)</p>

<p>Oh and getting a masters is not a waist! That is the same thing as saying going to law school is a waist when you can go to one of those 4 year programs and get your law degree right away.</p>

<p>
[quote]
That is the same thing as saying going to law school is a waist when you can go to one of those 4 year programs and get your law degree right away.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Going to law school is a requirement to becoming a lawyer. I'm hard pressed to believe that a masters is going to open doors for you....</p>

<p>It's waste btw...</p>

<p>Crap...every time I think I've settled on a good plan for my future, I get a whole bunch of reasons to change my mind. -_-</p>

<p>If only I didn't have blood/syringe squeamishness keeping me from med school and mediocre math skills keeping me from engineering. -_-</p>