Is getting a second degree worth it? (Poly Sci/History)

College Majors
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<p>So, I have a BA in Political Science from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and have been accepted to a Political Science Masters program at Eastern Illinois University, which I start this fall. My eventual goal is to get into a top notch PhD program for Political Science. The main reason I am getting my Masters at Eastern is because I have to stay in the region for another year to help family members, as well as not having my GRE finished yet. So the choice was either to sit around for a year and do nothing, or to start a Masters. So I decided to get a Masters.</p>

<p>The question I have regards getting a second degree in History. Before I finished my degree at SIUE, I was pursuing my History BA at the University of Utah. I only had 20 credit hours to go. But with the tuition so high, I decided to finish at an in-state school.</p>

<p>Since I only had 20 hours to go, I was thinking about finishing that degree. I can do all of the classes that I need to finish online. In addition, Utah gives all students in-state tuition for summer semesters. So, I figured that with some old tuition bills I have to pay, it will cost me about $10,000 to finish my BA in History at Utah. Also, I can stay home and just do it on a part time basis over two summers.</p>

<p>Question is whether it is worth it? Does anyone think that a second BA (and from a different institution as well) helps with employment? I don’t think that I will have this degree finished before I start applying to PhD programs. But if I do, then I figured that might help as well. </p>

<p>Thoughts? Time isn’t the issue, but is it worth the $10,000?</p>

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<p>Perhaps… it certainly can’t hurt. </p>

<p>I ended up going for a double major in History and Political Science. Though my main focus was history, I realized with overlaping classes I could easily add poli sci…</p>

<p>I ended up going for archival science in grad school. I believe my poli sci major helped me twice. First it helped me land a great part-time job/internship processing a senator’s papers. I know this because the interviewer cited this as the thing that stood me apart from the other candidates. Second it helped me land my first full time job working with government records. Well…I don’t know for certain about this one but I think it made me a more desireable candidate than the other applicants who usually have only a history background. </p>

<p>So…I think it would definitely help you, but honestly I’m not sure if it would give you enough extra boost to justify the pricetag. I also think that adding political science to a history focused career is more advantageous than adding history to a political science career.</p>

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<p>graduate-level work is typically of greater help to a PhD application than a second BA</p>