Economics and Pol Science for future undecided Law student

College Majors
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Going back to the original question: both Econ & PoliSci are bread&butter majors almost everywhere, and as such tend to be strong departments. Yes, there are schools that have a particular reputation, and this one or that one may have a specific bell or whistle that speaks to your student, but in general you won’t go wrong within selectivity bands.

Also, the majority of students no longer go straight from UG to Law - most take 1-3 years in between. Many work in law firms in the interim- but lots don’t. As is so often the case, the best advice for your daughter is to follow the path that is truest to her actual interests, and keep following that thread at each juncture.

btw, taking econ next year is a fine idea- but imo while it might validate an interest, not loving the course should not rule econ out as a field. A lot of intro courses give a very poor idea of what a field is actually like! AP Econ introduces students to the tool box- this is a Phillips head screwdriver / Phillips Curve; this is the Allen wrench / Alchien-Allen effect - but it only hints at what is possible when you are working with a whole tool box, in real time, to try and make something you are interested in work.

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Getting under 40K/year on merit alone, at private colleges and universities, will require big merit awards - even a half-tuition scholarship won’t get you to your threshold at most schools. The sticker price at OOS publics will be closer to your budget, but it will vary whether enough merit is available to close the gap. It may not be wise to rule out in-state publics out of hand.

Major-wise, I see where your thinking is going, in terms of econ offering more of an employable skill-set than poli sci. That doesn’t necessarily mean, though, that your daughter will want go the route of a deep dive on economic theory. There are some great options in the more applied, interdisciplinary majors, like Public Policy Analysis, Data Analytics, and the various flavors of “PPE/PPEL” (Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Law).

Even though you’re not liking the idea of OH publics, OSU is terrific in terms of these kind of majors, and thus a great place to compare pathways and think about what kind of program she would like best, even if that’s not where she’s going to end up.
https://glenn.osu.edu/academic-programs/undergraduate-degrees/bachelor-science-public-policy-analysis

https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/academics/majors/philosophy-politics-economics

Just outside of Columbus, Denison is also excellent for these kinds of majors
https://denison.edu/academics/politics-and-public-affairs
https://denison.edu/academics/data-analyticshttps://denison.edu/academics/data-analytics
https://denison.edu/academics/philosophy-politics-economics
They’re pretty generous with merit and the Lugar Program is a big plus Lugar Program | Denison University

As a general rule, anything that imparts a quantitative/computational skill-set will help with employability after undergrad. (GIS is another skill-set in this category that can be very useful, and geography-related majors that include GIS skills could be worth considering as well - here’s another OSU example: GIS and Spatial Analysis | Department of Geography )

For affordable schools in the WV-to-NY corridor, you’ll want to look at a combination of publics that give merit and/or have lower sticker prices, and LAC’s that discount heavily (like Juniata, Allegheny, and others in the CTCL genre College Profiles – Colleges That Change Lives )

It will be a stretch for Pitt to be affordable, but it could be a great choice if the money works. Temple has good potential, as already mentioned above. The SUNY system is a good place to look. TCNJ gives merit that might get to your price point. Geographically speaking, you’re targeting the highest-demand corridor where it’s hardest to get discounts, with the possible exception of WV. Widening the search in any direction (i.e. NH/Maine, NC/SC, and the Midwestern states) will turn up more bargains.

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@aquapt , Thanks for these links! I was actually doing some research on the PPE major too as it covers all her interests but didn’t realize that OSU offers it.

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@collegemom3717 , I agree that introductory courses only her basic idea but doesn’t really help more than that. I heard Pol. Science major is heavy writing. Is that true in general? Do you suggest that major for one who is not much interested or slow in writing?

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When a strong U happens to be close to a state’s capital that’s a definite plus. Kids will typically be going back and forth for jobs, internships, research projects, etc. Even things which sound obscure- doing policy research for a state’s Agriculture or Fisheries agency- often turns into something really interesting for a college kid just figuring out what their interests are.

And I know a TON of kids at American, Georgetown, GW (etc.) who don’t have any conventional “EC’s”. Their EC’s in college are the federal government in some form. Or working for their own state, in their DC office which is where legislation gets tracked, where the governor makes sure that every dollar that goes to DC comes back in the form of federal funding (and in some states, the ratio is about 6:1- every dollar in federal taxes from residents get a huge amount back which is why it’s called “pork”.)

Poli Sci is writing intensive. Also reading intensive! But it’s college after all, so you are paying for her to develop strong analytical and communication skills…

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I think any major in the social sciences is going to involve heavy communication-of-concepts demands… so the question to be asking is, what are her strengths? If she doesn’t love high-volume writing because she’s more visual-spatial than verbal, then a major where she’d be communicating in more of a data-visualization way, and building a portfolio of that sort, might be the best fit. Data Analytics, GIS - these fields work with real-world data sets to make sense of what they show and communicate the results to people who can’t interpret the raw data themselves. There’s lots of demand for people with these skills in the political and economic spheres.

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Thanks for your encouragement @blossom! Actually she is more looking into GWU as that may be little easier to get than GT. American is expensive. Of course, GWU is also expensive but I think they give some aid. Any idea how good is their Economics department? I know it’s more popular for internships and has good Pol. Science/government major.

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Seton Hall has a Diplomacy and International Relations Major
and a 3 Plus 3 BS and JD Degree
S21 was accepted and with good Merit ultimately decided elsewhere

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So this is why I asked you to fill out the NPC.

GTown has no merit aid - and if you don’t get need based aid, it’s double your budget.

Neither GW nor AU will meet your desired costs but AU has the Frederick Douglas scholarship which is 100% freebie. Moreso, the campus differences are stark. Gtown is more traditional but near society. GW doesn’t even have a dining hall - although I here it’s coming. It’s a total city school - if you didn’t see campus signs, you wouldn’t know you were at a college. AU is more traditional.

None will come close to your budget - unless you get need aid.

Really - that budget thing - i.e. Net Price Calc at schools I recommended is the most important step you can take at this time - rather than look at schools that are clearly not even close to your desire.

Also, if she’s not a reader or writer, law school won’t be for her - but honestly, that’s so far away - getting into the right major is most important - and again, that’s why you take classes - to see what fits or doesn’t fit you. Undecided is a very popular major.

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Yes, it’s true- and it’s even more true for law.

So, can you identify the real interest- and the depth of it? Most people who are drawn to policy/law type fields are strong at reading and writing. But- lots of students who aren’t strong writers in HS turn into strong writers in college. IF they are interested enough in a field that requires it. Real interest can get you through the less fun parts of learning something that didn’t start out as a native strength.

Which is why the ‘not much interested’ part is a bit of a flag. It might help to spend some time with your daughter asking questions: what is that makes her think law is something she is interested in? what aspects of econ/poli sci have caught her interest?

And: maybe helping her think more broadly about linking things that she has shown real strength in with those areas of interest. Look at the classes and activities that she has really enjoyed, as well as what things in the wider world she has found interesting- do you see connections? roles she might not have thought of? What kind of a difference would she like to make? A lot of times kids go for the dr/lawyer answer b/c they don’t know just how many options there are.

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Based on your daughter’s tentative interests, she may want to consider colleges with an available public policy major, which relies on the fields of political science, economics and philosophy for its foundation.

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Which on the list are WV or east, DC or North and will be $40k for a full pay family. Don’t answer that :slight_smile:

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Thanks @merc81 ! I will look into these.

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My intent will be clearer if I do answer. My comment about looking into colleges with an available public policy major can stand alone. The link provides accessory information on some schools that offer that major.

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Do I understand correctly that your daughter is not interested in writing ?

If so, then she may want to rethink law school & definitely rethink working in a law firm.

If not interested in analytical writing, then majoring in business or an MBA is probably a much better path for her.

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This analysis based on faculty publishing may be helpful: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.usecondept.html.

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GW: tHe cost of attendance is $79,600 now. Will be more when your child goes and you know college costs more than they tell you so add another $3-5k.

The average merit amount at GW, from best I can find, is 2/3 of students get an average of $13000.

So unless your kid walks on water it’s not the kind of school you should be looking at. To hit your budget, you need to look at lesser known names or SUNY Schools. Or WVU since you mentioned WV.

If your budget can move significantly upward, you’ll have others.

You gave certain criteria but continue to move the goalpost vs the criteria you put out.

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Law school and working as an attorney requires a LOT of writing and honed critical thinking. If she does not want to do a lot of writing that is not a good profession for her. I’ve hired a lot of attorneys and have asked for writing samples. And again, a person with a BA in political science would be competitor at a number of government jobs. I’m not sure why you are under the impression it is not a good career path.

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I think because your daughter is so young, rather than choosing a major off this thread…she has years of hs and then gen Ed’s. It’s hard to narrow in on a major. If it were public admin, for budget you’d need to look at schools like SUNY Albany or Kutztown.

But honestly I would find the right school for her when it’s that time. You’ll find a major at that school that will work for her. We can’t, on a chat board, determine your daughters major.

But if you are going to look…look at those schools you can afford. If u chase those you can’t afford you’ll just become less efficient and potentially have your kid fall in love with a school that u ultimate could never have sent her to.

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It’s worth repeating a third time: disliking writing and being slow at it are not ideal for law school. You don’t need to be a beautiful or gifted writer in the literature sense. You need to be able to gather your thoughts about something and articulate it in writing in a reasonable period of time. During exams, depending on the professor, perhaps in an unreasonable period of time.

Law school is a 3 - year marathon of reading and writing. It’s not hard in the sense that physics is hard. It’s voluminous and conceptual and writing well is a big, big part of it. I won’t carry that into practicing law, because that can vary. But most young lawyers I knew wrote a lot, whether with me in the Corp. Fin / Business / M&A side or on the litigation side. There are other practice areas and it may be more or less heavy.

As for major, I personally think almost anything works. My only advice on that point is to make sure the student is comfortable reading and writing a lot. Otherwise, try and do well. One of the top students in my class was an econ major from Middlebury. The tippy top graduate, and nobody saw this coming, was right out of central casting for Melrose Place and (99% certain) was an accounting major from USC. She didn’t come across as super intellectual, but she clearly was getting it done on the exams.

Law school is weird that way. There isn’t a clear formula. Poli Sci, frankly, was almost the hackneyed package for law school in my time. It was the dominant stereotype undergrad major for lawyers for a long time. I think that’s changed a bit.

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