BA of general studies?

calmom
Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:06:58 +0000

The BA in Poli Sci by itself won’t get you a job. My kids are both Poli Sci majors – my son has a great job involving political advocacy – but he got the job because of his experience on his resume, not the degree itself. A lot of kids who are interested in politics will pick up great experience along the way --for example, volunteering in political campaigns, getting legislative internships – and so it is the combination of the degree + experience that helps for the job. But an English or Sociology major with the same type of experience would be equally as likely to get the job.

The employers who are hiring would want to see a degree that is like poli sci - so you would just want to put some explanatory text in your major.

I think that that the Michigan BGS program looks pretty attractive – see:
http://www.umd.umich.edu/fileadmin/template/emsl/files/Academic_Programs/bgs2.pdf
You might even be able to get more credit from your community college courses if you took that option – it seems that the BGS major is really geared to give you the flexibility you need.

It looks like it is a good fit for you, and if you are concerned about post-graduate employment options, you could choose one of the professional specialization areas. Even if you stuck with poli sci, I think you would just end up putting you area(s) of focus on your resume.