<p>Thank you all for all the wonderful advice you have given so far. I highly appreciate the insight its been a great help since I will be choosing my fall quarter classes in a few days and all the other advice has helped make me think too. </p>
<p>Im not arguing or disagreeing with my parents really, but Im just having trouble convincing them that poli sci isnt a dead end major. I havent hid my GPA from them, but when I tell them what classes Ive been taking, all of them are seen as impractical (mostly GEs and intro classes since Ive only finished my freshman year). </p>
<p>I do agree that I should take some business-related courses, especially since I have some interest in international business. The problem for me is that at my college, many of them require a series of pre-requisites in economics first, and after the B- in an intro to microeconomics class that I thought was boring and difficult to grasp, I am not sure if I should take the remaining pre-reqs, especially if they might hurt my GPA since I am considering law school (law school is something practical that my parents approve of). </p>
<p>On the other hand, my parents do not approve of international business, or as a matter of fact, anything international-related. International relations (specifically the political aspect of it) to me is a strength its easy for me to grasp, Im genuinely interested in it, and my primary extracurricular activity (in high school and in college) is Model UN. But my parents dont consider this practical in the sense that if I end up in an international-related career, I will have to travel a lot. I come from a culture where family is important and my parents want me to stay as close to home as possible. I live in suburban Los Angeles and even the prospect of interning in downtown LA is looked down upon. Eventually for a job, that would be okay, but theyd still prefer me to stay in California. My parents also do not look highly upon public service careers, which is where most poli sci majors who dont go to law school seem to end up in, because public service careers arent high paying and chances are, Id have to move across the country to DC. Consequently, they dont look up to related nonpaid internships because the lack of pay is not worth the investment and isnt considered a good internship. After all, the main point of college is to prepare myself for a good job, one that my parents say should be better paying than what they currently earn. </p>
<p>Finally, I understand the poli sci major does not necessarily correlate with my future job prospects, but thats part of the problem. Poli sci majors end up in a plethora of careers, but none are guaranteed in the same fashion as engineering major ends up recruited by an engineering firm for an engineering job. And to complicate things, Im not sure what I want to do yet law? business? international relations? one of the plethora of poli sci major careers? (I just finished my freshman year in college testing out a variety of courses). This is my part to figure out of course, but it doesnt convince my parents to not worry when there are many career paths available but none that I am dead set on yet or none that are guaranteed to recruit me if I decide not to go to law school. It’s also not assuring to myself and it hurts my argument that I will end up okay with poli sci if I don’t know what I will end up doing.</p>