<p>Hi ligers,</p>
<p>I wasn’t a political science major so I won’t speak to the department (though one of my best Wellesley friends was PoliSci-Econ double major and thought very highly of both departments), but wanted to address your question of “What can one do with a political science degree?”</p>
<p>I would encourage you, and any student looking at Wellesley or any other liberal arts college, to try and get away from the mentality of “What does someone do with X major?” The point of a liberal arts education is not to equate a major with a direct career path. It’s not about having students graduate with a specific skill set that shunts them to a specific job. It’s about learning how to learn, about making connections between subjects and ideas, it’s about becoming a flexible thinker. What does one do with a poli sci major? Anything you want. That would go for any other major at Wellesley. I was a science major and am now in a field that is not science related at all. And yet, I feel that my Wellesley education has prepared me very well - I need to be an analytical thinker, a good writer, able to make decisions after processing lots of different information, and an effective public speaker.</p>
<p>I was a student when the college celebrated it’s 125th anniversary. The school had a big celebration that included awesome carnival rides on Severence Green (above and beyond any Lake Day) and lots of chances to meet and hear from alumnae. I did a quick search on the website and found a description of these alumnae panels, with bios included: [Conference</a> on Alumnae Achievement and Women’s Leadership](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/Anniversary/conferencepanelists.html]Conference”>http://www.wellesley.edu/Anniversary/conferencepanelists.html) Take a quick peek - pay close attention to how the alumnae ended up in their career paths. You’ll see that they had all sorts of majors, and not always a one to one correlation. </p>
<p>Try to think of academics at Wellesley in this way, as opposed to, “If I go to Wellesley and major in X, then I will have a career in Y.”</p>