<p>I'm a student at Yale trying to decide between history and political science as my second major (my first is English). I really enjoy both subjects, but the polisci major would give me a lot more flexibility, particularly in designing a concentration within the major. But I've been told that a polisci degree is essentially meaningless and doesn't really count for anything when applying for jobs. Is this true? And if so, would a history degree be better perceived?
By the way, I want to work in some kind of IR job, probably in the field of humanitarian aid and refugees.</p>
<p>If you want to work in IR, then how would a poli sci degree be meaningless? That's pretty applicable, there.</p>
<p>If you want to hedge, however, take more econ and math. Soft skills are harder to sell, but a good combination of quantitative skills and the political science writing and methodology can be a good combo in the IR job market.</p>
<p>I would agree with Ari that the degree will not be meaningless in IR. I'm a current poli sci student, my degree won't be useless as I want to work in campaign management and most of my classes have centered around American politics and campaigns. I'm also applying to grad school in the same field, so I really hope it won't be meaningless.</p>
<p>I agree with UCLAri, you're going to be much better off doing economics than polisci. You can spin it in a polisci direction if that's your interest, work history into it as well. It's quite flexible, and will look good to everyone. I know it's crass, but it's reality.</p>
<p>If the OP is interested in working for a non-profit in humanitarian aid, it won't matter whether he/she is an econ major or a polisci major. If he wanted to go work at a hedge fund, yeah, that's different. But for the non-profit world, just take micro, macro, and some sort of statistical methods course. </p>
<p>At my school, most of the people who are interested in IR work go for polisci, simply because most of the professors who do IR-type work are based out the polisci department.</p>
<p>If "most of the people who are interested in IR work go for polisci," that argues for economics. It's the signaling model of education, and economics is harder than polisci. So if you have an economics/English major from Yale, that is about as good of a signaling as you can get, to anyone, profit or non-profit. polisci/English would be less so. </p>
<p>The OP specifically asked about applying for jobs, so that is the criteria I am using.</p>
<p>kenf1234,</p>
<p>Oh, I don't know that poli sci is less difficult than econ. I've seen some pretty fluffy econ classes in my time.</p>
<p>I think that if you look at the kind of poli sci work they do at UCSD (mostly math), you'll find that poli sci isn't necessarily "easy."</p>
<p>But as far as what the MARKET thinks... you're right.</p>
<p>I agree with Ari. Political Science is what you make it, especially depending on what subfield you study. IPE is intensively econ heavy and if you prefer quantitative methods, strong statistical knowledge is necessary regardless of the subfield. Poli sci isnt just the study of old men smoking cigars and playing power politics. Its working with modeling, discovering new research techniques, understanding the role of the "new" media, etc. And no offense to you econ people out there, but as one person who is highly mathematically inclined, understanding some of the difficult and highly subtle conceptual theories of international relations is equally, dare I say MORE, academically challenging than some of the econ classes I have taken.</p>