What are the main differences between these 3 majors? Which one has the most job opportunities?
Political science deals with the study of systems of government and how people interact with them through political activities, thoughts, and behaviors. It is a disciplinary social science, which means that it’s concerned with understanding how people think and behave. That also means it’s going to have originating theories, specific research methods and approaches, and a body of knowledge that’s core to the discipline. Expect lots of reading, analyzing texts, learning statistical and other data analysis approaches and methods, and thinking deeply and critically.
Public policy and public administration are both professional majors that draw from political science as well as other fields. They’re exactly what they sound like - public policy is the study of policies that affect the public, and public administration is how to administer/run public organizations (often including nonprofits that serve the public sector). They’re not so much social sciences, so there’s less theory and less about human behavior in relation to politics and more about how political science operates in one very specific sector.
None of them necessarily have more job opportunities than the others. Lots of the same jobs you can get with a public policy or public administration major you can get with a political science major. It really depends more on the kinds of internships you do and the kinds of skills you acquire.
@juillet Thank you for the informative answer!