Majors that make it easy to obtain a job after getting them

College Majors
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<p>Want to join local PD…</p>

<p>There are a few things you need to realize first.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Criminal Justice and Criminology are two different things. If you want to go into law enforcement, take Criminal Justice. The major covers topics about the CJ system and issues in CJ that will be of SOME use when going to an academy or law enforcement. Criminology is essentially a concentrated form of sociology that consists of “excuses” for crime. It has little use outside of academia. </p></li>
<li><p>A CJ degree is a good choice for law enforcement, but be warned that the other options are limited…essentially they are law enforcement, corrections, security, military, parole/probation and code enforcement. Make sure you will qualify for these jobs before getting a CJ degree. This means… do not get a CJ degree if you do not meet the background and physical qualifications for these jobs.</p></li>
<li><p>A degree is a major plus on a police application, but realize that it is only part of the package. You must pass the hiring process, have a clean background, have some sort of work/life experience and be physically and medically qualified. Military service is a HUGE plus and if you have college+military you are the most desirable law enforcement applicant, and will enjoy a major advantage over everyone else. </p></li>
<li><p>Now with the warnings out of the way, there are many positives about a CJ degree. CJ majors are often preferred for promotions within LE agencies than other majors, a CJ degree usually has an internship program which gives you a major leg up on other applicants who have other degrees, generally you have ex-cops teaching classes so they are both relevant and interesting (and easy), it is pretty easy to get a high GPA, and the Criminal Justice field is having explosive job growth. Corrections and Security are absolutley exploding and in desperate need of applicants…and they both prefer CJ majors over other majors. Also the topics you learn will be beneficial as they will help you through some of the academic portions of a police academy. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>If you want to go into law enforcement on the state or local level, it is a very good idea to get a Criminal Justice degree. Ditto for corrections or private security as well as military. </p>

<p>The only real problem with a CJ major is those that want to be pre law. Law schools DO NOT like CJ majors and there was a study a while ago that showed CJ majors avergaed the lowest LSAT scores of any major. Yet, greater than half of my CJ classes have been pre law students… sigh…</p>

22

<p>Everything th3vault just said is true. I learned this lesson the hard way. Its good have have that information before committing to a degree in CJ</p>

23

<p>Yeah however most of the good, or let me say harder to get into, colleges in California don’t offer CJ majors instead they offer sociology majors. Should I commit to a school that is easy for me to get into so that I can major in CJ? For example, I believe I can easily get accpeted to SDSU and they have a CJ major, however I don’t want to sell my self short. What are some other good majors for wanna be law enforcement officers, what about poly sci?</p>

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<p>A CJ degree can also help toward private investigator licensure in California.</p>

25

<p>There is a reason that the “higher” ranked schools do not offer CJ majors. As I said earlier, CJ is a vocational major and not so much an academic one. Elite academic institutions probably will not offer it. Just like hospitality management tends to disappear the higher up the rankings you go, there are certain majors that are “vocational” and are not offered by elite schools.</p>

<p>What sort of law enforcement do you want? If the answer is state or local… the rankings of the school won’t matter much. The point is having a degree and a passing GPA. That’s all education really counts for in state or local law enforcement applications, the rest is other factors. </p>

<p>If you want federal, those are a lot more competitive and school rankings probably will be more important. </p>

<p>You can get into law enforcement with any degree. The advantage of a CJ degree is the experience through internship and other opportunities, the fallback careers are a lot more closely related to law enforcement, enjoyment of subject matter and networking between the school and law enforcement agencies. I know several departments in FL hire directly out of the CJ programs at certain universities here, you might want to check into that in CA.</p>

<p>I don’t think sociology would be a good choice, it offers none of the experience opportunities of CJ and doesn’t have many fallback careers. It would not be worth it just to go to a slightly better university.</p>

<p>If you were to go for a more practical degree, then yes it would be fine to bypass CJ at SDSU and go to a better school. </p>

<p>Some other majors you might want to consider: public administration (a lot of law enforcement higher ranks have this), business administration, accounting (one of the ways to enter FBI), poli sci is okay.</p>

<p>Bottom line though is major in what you want, go to school where you want. Don’t worry about how the school name or the major is going to look on a law enforcement application. It won’t make too much of a difference when going through hiring process.</p>

<p>What will make a difference is: how clean your background is when they investigate it, how your work and credit history look, wheter you have any law enforcement related experience, how well you score during the testing phases, and what sorts of activities you have been involved in.</p>

<p>So go where you want to go, but keep in mind that you have to focus on the above. Stay away from the party scene, try to get some sort of LE related experience, prepare for the testing phases, and participate in quality activities to show you care about community. Also something to keep in mind is to keep your credit good. Many overlook this, but LE agencies do DQ applicants for bad credit due to credit card debt or other reasons.</p>

26

<p>Well thanks for all your help vault, however, I have one more quick question what degrees do federal agencies, not just the FBI, like to see rather than general degrees? What about about the Public Administration you stated above or public policy?</p>

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<ol>
<li><p>General investigations. Any degree will work, some agencies want degree+local experience first.</p></li>
<li><p>Special Investigations. Majoring in that specialty would be good. Examples are forensic science or chemistry for CSI, accounting or business for white collar crime, computer science for cyber crime… </p></li>
</ol>

<p>You’ll have to look at specific agencies you are interested in and determine whether they are general investigations or highly specialized. Some examples…SEC and IRS are very specialized…Federal Protective Service, NCIS, Secret Service, DEA, Marshals…general law enforcement. </p>

<p>FBI is the only general investigation federal agency that is highly demanding in terms of educational requirements. Most of the rest just want to see a degree from a reputable school and a 3.0+ GPA. Of course if you want to be a IRS agent, you’ll probably need a degree in accounting or SEC you’ll probably need something in finance.</p>

<p>General investigation agencies like DEA, Secret Service, US Marshal…they don’t care so much about having a specialized degree. </p>

<p>Public administration is good for moving up the ranks of a local or state department. Public administration is also a good degree to have for general gov’t jobs and helps with administration in law enforcement, so it’ll be a plus when the selection board is looking at everyone who passed the Captain or Lieutenant test. You’ll have an edge over the sociology or history majors.</p>

<p>Law enforcement is odd in that degree type is more of a factor in promotions than it is for entry level posistions. Business Admin, Public Admin and CJ are typically the three degree types that have better promotional opportunities than other majors. </p>

<p>Public Admin is also good in that it has a good amount of fallback careers should there be a problem with law enforcement.</p>

28

<p>Well again thanks for your detailed and accurate replies vault. If I don’t attend a school with CJ, I will either major in public policy/admin or political science. : }</p>

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<p>th3vault, could you explain what those fall back careers for public administration would be? Im debating getting an MPA.</p>

30

<p>trojanman10101, best of luck to you.</p>

<p>Maverick5575, a public administration degree is most useful for government jobs and non-profit jobs. If you google “careers in public administration” I’m sure there are websites and resources dedicated to listing specific careers. Government is a gigantic employer in our country, and though the salaries may not be as high the job security and benefits are usually excellent. I know a good amount of the PA majors from my college ended up in Emergency Management agencies, and administration roles in other city and county services.</p>

<p>This link provides a lot of the details you are looking for Maverick. </p>

<p>[What</a> can I do…? Public Admin. - Career Services - Cal Poly](<a href=“http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/Students/career_planning/Majors/links/publicadmin.htm]What”>http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/Students/career_planning/Majors/links/publicadmin.htm)</p>