Shortening my list. Which are best for a career in government?

[ballistahurl]

I'm hoping for a liberal arts education with concentrations in polisci and econ. Ultimately, I intend to work either in government or in government affairs (lobbying).

My (very broad, at this stage) college list is as follows:


Reed, GWU, Georgetown, William & Mary, U Richmond, Williams, Middlebury, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Tufts, Harvard, Carleton, Pomona, Princeton, Haverford, Swarthmore, Macalester, Kenyon, Hamilton, Bennington, Emory, Davidson, and Vanderbilt.



Thanks so much!

[mathmom]

American should also be on your list. It makes it extraordinarily easy to intern, both through proximity and class schedules. It may be a safety school for you, but it's well worth a look and would likely give you merit money assuming you have the stats for the rest of that list. My son liked it much, much more than GWU.

I'd think about location and what sort of college experience you want - the urban schools will give you a very different experience from the rural ones, and the tiny ones will be quite different from the larger ones.

From that list, my son with more of an IR interest picked, Georgetown, Tufts, and Harvard. He would have applied to Wm and Mary, but he got into U of Chicago early. Any reason it's not on your list?

[JosiahAd]

Congressional Representative in other words a Congressman.Am going to be Congressional Representative when am much older lol. (Only 15)

[johnwesley]

The best way to gain a career in government is to go to law school. For the immediate future, you should concentrate your efforts on getting a good education in something you feel passionate about. Virtually every school on your list has that potential.

[polarscribe]

Originally Posted by johnwesley

The best way to gain a career in government is to go to law school.

That's not really true, depending on what kind of government career you want.

Saying you want to "work in government" is beyond overbroad. There are well over 1,000 different federal agencies alone, before we even begin to discuss state-level and below. There aren't many jobs for law school graduates in the USGS, the NWS or the NRCS, to name three agencies in three different Cabinet-level departments.

What do you want to do in government?

[TuftsStudent]

Echoing the poster right above. Tufts is a really good choice if you want to work in the State Department as an FSO. For someone who might want to do civilian-military liaison work, somewhere with a political science department with more chance for focus in American government might be a better choice.

[Marian]

If your criteria include proximity to DC for internships, don't overlook the University of Maryland at College Park. The Metro (the DC area's subway system) has a stop about a mile from the campus, and the university runs shuttle buses back and forth.

If you're considering schools far from DC, one thing you might want to consider is whether they have a Washington semester program. Quite a few do, often at pretty much the same price as a regular semester.

[Erin's Dad]

There are many people involved in the DoD (with careers in gov't). That could be an entirely different set of schools. Large bases frequently hire local college students as interns who then get full time positions after graduation.

[johnwesley]

I think the OP will find that the Peace Corps is probably the most popular government recruiter at many of the colleges on her list.

[CJaneRead]

one thing you might want to consider is whether they have a Washington semester program.

This.


Also, you might want to sub Claremont McKenna for Pomona. CMC has a much stronger gov program and a very strong Washington semester.

[soccerguy315]

seriously... the government hires every career field there is, from janitors to engineers to computer scientists to economists to accountants to foreign language speakers to lawyers to adult educators (though most of these might be contractors) to physical scientists to regional experts... etc.

what do you actually want to do?

the peace corps is great (unless you want to work in intel, where it will make it impossible for a period of time).

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by mathmom

American should also be on your list. It makes it extraordinarily easy to intern, both through proximity and class schedules. It may be a safety school for you,

American considers "level of interest" to be "very important" in freshman admissions, so it cannot be a safety (presumably, it does not want to be used as a safety and rejects those who appear to be using it as a backup to more selective schools).

[emeraldkity4]

I've known several people personally in "govt". The highest up was head of OSHA, he attended TESC.

[mathmom]

Not our experience at all with American, though it's possible my son demonstrated interest by visiting. (I don't remember if there was a record of it.) I'm sure he wrote a perfectly reasonable "Why American" essay, if there was one that year (I never saw it, and I saw most of his other essays), but they were happy to court him and gave him a very tempting merit scholarship. He was not a tippy top student bit still top 6%), but had excellent scores, an engaging personality, and took a rigorous schedule. I think a lot of top students don't pay enough attention to their safety school applications, not the supplement to AU is pretty minimal. He would have been happy to go there. No one with his grades and scores had ever been rejected from American from our high school.

[AvonHSDad]

If you are interested in the combination of political science and economics, look at the Political Economy major in the College at Georgetown. If you are interested in foreign service, look at the School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown. If you want to eventually be a lobbyist, you will most likely end up going to law school. Any of the Washington area schools should give you access to numerous intership possibilities in government.