UCSC Politics

I’ve heard that the politics major at UCSC is pretty bad. Is this true? If so, would I benefit from changing my major to something like legal studies? Otherwise, how does UCR’s political science program compare to UCSC’s? I’m not quite sure what to make of either because I haven’t heard too much about either program.

UCSC’s political science major is good. I don’t think any major at the school is “bad”.

I wouldn’t recommend our politics major if you want political science. I always describe it as being philosophy major that addresses political systems. There is a lack of applied courses that actually teach you about real governance and it seems more oriented towards students who want to pursue a graduate education in politics/philosophy. I wouldn’t let this hold you back from considering UC Santa Cruz, I chose to major in history after finding out all of this and it hasn’t hindered my ability to get internships/job opportunities in politics just because I’m not a politics major.

@AIprogrammer would you recommend a major in legal studies over politics at UCSC, or should I just abandon the hope I have and attend a campus I like a little less? I’m really pretty set on either of the two, and although I really love SC it wouldn’t be the end of the world to end up going somewhere else

@nylkoorb What is your goal?

Meaning what do you want to do with your degree? What type of work do you see yourself doing? What is your primary interest?

I would ask the same question as hippie. If your goal is law school, major in something you’ll enjoy for 4 years. The goal is a high GPA/LSAT. Nothing else, a major in legal studies will look no better than a major in literature to top law schools as long as your GPA is strong and your LSAT is somewhere in their percentile. If you want to go directly into politics, I suppose give more consideration to Riverside since they do have a public policy major which would give you a more applied skill-set. But again, politics is 100% more about who you know than what you know. Between programs like UCDC, UCS, and local governance internships, you’d be fine attending either school in my opinion. It’s all about how much you want to apply yourself either way and where you want to work. Socal and Norcal are very different politically and if you want to run for office one day, it’s good to start building connections close to where you see yourself in the future, now. My last thoughts are that a public policy degree from Riverside won’t open any magical doors and a legal studies degree from UCSC won’t close any doors for you. So definitely choose the school you can see yourself actually enjoying attending. Majors change, plans change, but the location becomes tougher to change once you choose a university.

I applied to UCSC as a Politics major simply because I thought it was similar to Political Science, but i hear Legal Studies is very similar to the Politics major but it is much more impacted.

Hmm interesting @hlwalters , I applied for the politics major but if I do end up attending I might try and switch it. I really don’t know how a lot of this works yet. And thanks @AIprogrammer for so much insight!! I appreciate it a lot

I recently graduated from UCSC as legal studies major, so I might be able to speak a bit on the subject. I agree with @alprogrammer, the major is not the best, nor is it the worse. The school offers to majors legal studies and politics they are identical with very minor difference, one variance I can think of the top of my head is that legal studies requires 2 theory courses as were politics requires 3 theory course and also in declaring the major (legal studies 10 vs politics 1). If interest just google UCSC legal studies major requirement and compare it with politics. The other difference is when you take your cap store it has to fall into the correct major ie politics capstone vs legal studies cap stone. Besides that you are taking all the same classes. Most legal and politics studies are majoring to go to law school, by that measure, both majors focus on law school style learning. Both majors focus highly on the theoretical aspect of politics/legal studies. This means, that you will read and writing on theoretical topics. What attracted me to UCSC was the small size of the major, but, now I hear that the major is expanding and more students are being admitted, which I think is a shame. I really enjoyed have small classes, and being able to directly interact with professors.