What are my chances at getting a good job? political science / Communication

College Majors
1

<p>I am a Mexican American, first generation college student double major currently doing Political Science and Communication at San Diego State. I plan to graduate in about a year and a half and I am trying to decide If I should go to graduate school.</p>

<p>I was considering USC Annenberg studying public relations or Communication at the M.A level. </p>

<p>My GPA currently is 3.4 and I plan to have a 3.5 GPA by the time I graduate. My IQ is an average 106. </p>

<p>I have some research experience but not to an impressive extent, roughly about a year or so. I have no work experience currently outside of a six month job at a restaurant and the paid internship. </p>

<p>I have a series of questions because a lot of liberal arts degree's seem to be so dreadful at making a living. </p>

<p>What are my chances at landing a decent job ($30,000yr/starting) after graduation with the B.A's with the government in International relations or Conflict resolution ?</p>

<p>What are my chances at landing a job ($28,000yr / starting) after the B.A's doing advertising, or marketing for a video game /electronics company such as Activision, Blizzard, Sony etc?</p>

<p>What are my chances at getting into USC Annenberg if I had a 3.5 GPA, decent test scores and the research experience / work I currently have ? </p>

<p>What are the chances of me getting financial assistance to attend USC if I were to be accepted. My family is currently living on roughly $12,000 a year, we are considered in poverty. I am lucky enough to have all of my tuition paid for at SDSU by financial aid and scholarships. </p>

<p>What can I do to improve my chances of getting into USC Annenberg if I choose to go to graduate school?</p>

<p>What can I do to improve my chances getting a job with the government doing international relations or conflict resolution? (This would be my #1 choice for a career). </p>

<p>Thanks for all your help, hope you can give me some good advice guys ^_^</p>

2

<p>Your financial aid questions are best left to the pros… go talk to your fin aid officer. If they can not help set up an appointment to talk to grad fin aid. In my own experience I received much more in grad school than I did in undergrad, and that seems to be the norm… you just have to pay it back, because there are no grants.</p>

<p>As to your chances of an IR job, have you Googled them? It is a joke career at the moment, and it is sad because there are many people who majored in it. International Relations usually ends up being document review in some large multi national in a large urban city that you can not afford on the minor pay that you get.</p>

<p>As for your majors, I honestly know nothing about the job market for either. I guess that Communications is like journalism or Mass Com? If so then I guess sending out samples to your media outlets of choice and getting an agent are in order. I know that many people have been effected by the changing nature of Mass Com so the field is in a transitional state.</p>

<p>As for Poly Sci, you could always get your teacher certification, however I hear that there is a hiring freeze in San Diego. Unless you get your PHD I have no idea what to do with this major… im just too far out of the loop.</p>

<p>I personally would be hitting my college career advisement office up, I would also bug my advisers to get me into a good internship and let them know that you want one where there is the possibility of getting a job. Explain your circumstances and let them know how important it is to you. It never hurts to ask. I know many people who got a start at a completely unrelated career because an academic adviser got them an internship somewhere.</p>