<p>Hi</p>
<p>I would like to find some good schools for political science .. Son is going to high school.. trying to build the resume for getting into one of the good schools</p>
<p>Any suggestions/recommendations?</p>
<p>Way too early to be looking at colleges. At this point your son should be taking the sort of courses that all colleges are looking for: 4 years of English, 4 years of math, 3-4 years of science, 3-4 years of foreign language, 3-4 years of social studies, some sort of art/music/theater for at least 1 year. He should take them at the highest possible level that he can manage and still get mostly A’s and some B’s while still having enough free time to have extra-curricular activities and/or time for a job and/or volunteer work.</p>
<p>If he is *truly *interested in pol sci, he might look into Model Congress or Model UN at his school. He might see if your town has internships for high school students. (Ours does, but only for rising seniors.) He might volunteer to help a political campaign. He might take AP US Government junior or senior year. If a couple of years from now his interests change, that’s okay too. It’s called growing up.</p>
<p>PolySci? LOL !</p>
<p>^Corrected! Obviously I spend too much time with science geeks. :)</p>
<p>Princetonprincess what the hell is “PolySci? LOL !” supposed to mean? Are you trying to imply something as political science as a discipline? Because if I recall correctly, you are the girl who thought having a 3.6 GPA, 27 ACT, JV Cheerleading, and Student council president would get her into Princeton…</p>
<p>yes and you are the boy who decided to create a fake account parodizing me since I’m just SOOO FUNNY. I’m merely making a connection to the major’s nickname OKAY</p>
<p>^^That’s not what she meant at all. Calm down.</p>
<p>FINALLY someone who understands I’m not some DISEASE pervading all people’s threads! I’m just trying to help people out ok to the best of my possibilities and provide a laugh here and there. Thank you Vince</p>
<p>No I just want to know what “Poly Sci LOL” means…I don’t understand your post and would like for it to make sense to me. Please shed some light on this…</p>
<p>NO lol I’m not shedding any light lol</p>
<p>Gotta stand up for your alter-ego when no one else will!</p>
<p>And, as others have said, if you’re gonna ■■■■■…at least do it well.</p>
<p>Back to the original question. One activity D1 did that helped her confirm her interest in PoliSci while in high school was to volunteer at the district conventions in our state for one of the major political parties. As we are coming up on a presidential election next year, it would be good timing for him. In our state, the parties have a series of conventions. They start at the State House level, then there is a convention at each US House district level. Then there is a state-wide convention. My D called the party she wanted to be involved with and offered to help at some of the district conventions. She spent several Saturdays doing this; she was a sargeant-at-arms (helped clear the floor when delegate votes were coming up), helped with checking in, keeping speakers on track for their time slots, etc. She learned a lot about how the party works and made some really good contacts in our state. The only reason she didn’t volunteer at the state convention is because it was the same weekend as her graduation 
This also fulfilled her senior project volunteer hours required by her school, and was something she could put on her resume later as she looked for political internships. If she had done it a year earlier, she would have put it on her college apps (and it might have been good essay material).</p>
<p>Regarding finding “good schools”, it depends on what type of political job he wants. The schools in DC offer a lot of internships opportunities, but a kid who hustles within their state and spends a semester in DC on an exchange program can also do well even if they go to school outside DC (that is why my D has done). If he is interested in state politics, then he might do better going to school within your state and getting experience in local politics. There are also tons of jobs in DC that aren’t directly related to politics; D had a great internship with a government department last semester, and has a good chance of landing a job there after graduation.</p>
<p>To find D’s current school, we used the Fiske Guide to Colleges and looked for schools that were strong in Political Science (there is a little section for each school on their strongest programs).</p>
<p>At least MY gpa remains unchanged. SORRY for having aspirations. Yours went from a 3.3 to a 4.0 in a matter of posts…
yeah, and “I’M” the ■■■■■…</p>
<p>Funny, where’d “Loud Phantom” go?</p>
<p>Murugan – I don’t think it’s too early for you to start researching schools. Besides I don’t think you stated what year in HS your S is. Considering for our S1 we didn’t really start looking until his junior year. And when you’re talking admissions to Tier 1 schools or any school for that matter there is a huge learning curve. My point is I wish we would have started sooner.</p>
<p>S1 is currently a rising college sophomore majoring in poli sci. It’s my opinion that the choice of undergrad schools doesn’t matter too much. But many if not most poli sci majors will go on to grad school – that’s where the choice of school will matter a great deal. Our S is talking about applying to the DC schools: Georgetown, George Washington, American.</p>
<p>But if your son’s ultimate goal is to practice law you should google the T14 schools. You’ll need to do a lot of reading and research about why these matter. But that’s another story altogether. Because of the glut of lawyers in the market right now most people are saying to stay away from law altogether.</p>
<p>Loudphantom, I mistyped pol sci as polysci but corrected it. Hence my post #4.</p>
<p>Thanks mathmon, intparent and cbug. Appreciate your responses, very informative.</p>
<p>mathmom - he is doing decent in school, yes will heed the advise on focus on the requirements. Model UN is one thing he is deeply interested in, hope he works hard to qualify for it. </p>
<p>intparent – Advise on volunteering for a political party is a great advise. Always wondering what is the right age for that. Is 14/15 too early for that? </p>
<p>cbug --My son wants to go in Govt in some form or the other; Law is in his mind as well; Thanks for the suggestions on T14 and the great school in the DC area</p>
<p>Not being well informed on polisci, there is a general fear that polisci is useless unless you get a masters’ and that needs lot of money? Any recommendations</p>
<p>@ OP, Go to this thead for discussion.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/935254-top-political-science-undergrad.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/935254-top-political-science-undergrad.html</a></p>
<p>My daughter says, “You are never too young to start paying your dues in state politics.” Assuming he is not too shy, 14 or 15 is fine. If he is not comfortable at the first convention, you can volunteer alongside once (if you are interested). I went with my D one weekend, and thought it was really interesting and fun. If you are a sergeant-at-arms, you get to order people like Senators around if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time :)</p>
<p>D is a junior at Dickinson; a couple hours outside of DC, but she has had a very good poli sci experience there. She has gotten some good campaign experiences at school working on state elections, spent a semester on an exchange in DC with a government department that has indicated that they want to hire her after graduation, and is currently spending the summer in DC interning for a senator. She has a great GPA and excellent recommendations, and I think will find a job with an undergrad degree. As she likely wants to work in goverment jobs, she does intend to go back for a masters eventually, as the payscale is better. She hasn’t ruled out law, but if she does go to law school it will be with significant work experience behind her that will help her carve out a specialty niche of some kind in the legal world (probably government world) upon graduation.</p>
<p>Thanks intparent. </p>
<p>Will do research on the availability of volunteering opportunities.</p>
<p>Looks like my S1 has similar interests as your D; May be I can learn a lot from you and your D’s choices</p>
<p>I agree that the volunteer opportunities are the way to go. Consider forming or leading the high school’s Young Dem or Young Republican groups. My son was convinced he was going to study that and wanted to study at Georgetown. Instead went to an Ivy, took an advanced Pol. Sci course as a freshman and loved it, yet decided to move onto philosophy as a major. It is never too early to start working on building a resume for a good college, but it is too early to lock into a major. They need to follow their passion.</p>