Hi, i’m planning on going to law school and really interested in working in politics. I’m wondering if getting a degree from a School of Government/International Affairs would be better for me career wise than just getting a typical political science degree from a School of Humanities/Arts. Would it make a difference in the long run to have a degree from a specialized school?
What schools are you thinking of? Most of the schools of government that I know about are graduate schools. School of Foreign Service at Georgetown is super-selective, but opens lots of doors.
A few schools like George Mason have them, I think University of Virginia has one as well. Mason has a School of Government and International Policy which offers a government degree with the option to concentrate the major on certain areas of policy and government. Something like that versus a straight Political Science degree that you can get from practically any School of humanities. @collegemom3717 thanks for any help you can give me.
UVa (and iirc UMi) are 2 year programs that you apply into during sophomore year. I’m not familiar with GMU’s program, but took a peek at the website and it looks interesting, esp with the built in internship. I’ll have to leave it to other posters who know GMU / that program to speak to how good they are. George Washington’s Elliott is also worth looking at.
As for how much better it would be career-wise, college matters most for the first job out of college, and for that I think that the hierarchy will be work/internship experience > prestige of the college > major.
If you want to go into politics–it really doesn’t matter which degree you get. Either degree should allow you to do internships in DC or your state capitol so you can get hands on experience in the legislative branch. Also–you can volunteer to work in a political campaign at anytime. Campaigns love young people and will put you to work. You’ll be doing grunt work, but that’s how you start out. You’ll have a very good idea of you really want to go into politics.
So, pick the college/university that has the strongest academics overall and maintain a high GPA and get some hands on experience. Whether your academic study of politics is at specialized school of government or through a regular political science department that’s part of a college/university LAS programs isn’t going to make a huge difference in your first job or your employability.
I don’t think it matters unless it’s one of the very prestigious schools of government OR unless the school has specific excellent internships that the regular university doesn’t have. But in the long run, no, it won’t make a difference.