What Can I Do with a Bachelor’s in Political Science?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Polit­i­cal sci­ence degrees equip stu­dents with essen­tial skills such as crit­i­cal think­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, nego­ti­a­tion, and data analy­sis.
• Grad­u­ates can pur­sue diverse careers includ­ing gov­ern­ment posi­tions, non-prof­its, pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion, law, con­sult­ing, and pub­lic rela­tions.
• Ensure the degree pro­gram is accred­it­ed, prefer­ably by region­al accred­it­ing bodies.
• Polit­i­cal sci­ence degrees offer spe­cial­iza­tions like inter­na­tion­al rela­tions and pub­lic pol­i­cy.

Polit­i­cal sci­ence as a poten­tial col­lege major often means the stu­dent has aspi­ra­tions of secur­ing a gov­ern­ment job in pub­lic office. Polit­i­cal sci­ence stu­dents will study the sub­jects need­ed to under­stand how var­i­ous gov­ern­ment agen­cies oper­ate and how these orga­ni­za­tions were first found­ed. Along with under­stand­ing the under­ly­ing struc­ture of nation­al and inter­na­tion­al gov­ern­ments, polit­i­cal sci­ence majors study method­olo­gies, social move­ments, legal issues, and ethics. The grad­u­ate will know how to com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly with the pub­lic and the media. Polit­i­cal sci­ence degree tracks pro­vide a well-round­ed edu­ca­tion for those who desire a pub­lic career.

How­ev­er, before run­ning for pub­lic office, polit­i­cal sci­ence grad­u­ates use their edu­ca­tion to work in oth­er are­nas. These jobs help them build the soft skills need­ed to get into pol­i­tics. Although some elect­ed offi­cials are career politi­cians, a num­ber work in indus­tries such as non-prof­its, pri­vate sec­tor busi­ness­es, and the law. Many top offi­cials in elect­ed posi­tions have a degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence and may even dou­ble major in his­to­ry or busi­ness. Before becom­ing a pub­lic fig­ure, the polit­i­cal sci­ence grad­u­ate may obtain a sup­port staff posi­tion. On the job expe­ri­ence is need­ed in the polit­i­cal sci­ence field. This is why many col­leges pro­vide cred­it for intern­ships and paid work assignments.

Should I Get a Political Science Degree?

Com­mon queries of prospec­tive stu­dents who plan to pur­sue a polit­i­cal sci­ence degree include:

What is polit­i­cal science?

Polit­i­cal sci­ence is a broad term used to refer to the social sci­ence study of gov­ern­ment at the local, state, and fed­er­al lev­el. Polit­i­cal sci­ence is nev­er focused on one par­tic­u­lar type of insti­tu­tion, but will cov­er top­ics to pro­vide a broad­er under­stand­ing of pol­i­tics. Since polit­i­cal sci­ence is far-reach­ing, it does fea­ture numer­ous sub-top­ics. Polit­i­cal the­o­ry, com­par­a­tive pol­i­tics, ana­lyt­ics, pol­i­cy­mak­ing, and inter­na­tion­al rela­tions all fall under the polit­i­cal sci­ence umbrella.

What is polit­i­cal sci­ence about?

Polit­i­cal sci­ence is about how gov­ern­ments oper­ate. Gov­ern­ments have evolved over time and its impor­tant for future rep­re­sen­ta­tives to know what poli­cies worked in the past and what poli­cies failed. Cours­es not only delve into cur­rent gov­ern­ment orga­ni­za­tions, but also his­tor­i­cal types. As an exam­ple, Amer­i­can pol­i­tics will begin with the course exam­in­ing the for­ma­tion of the gov­ern­ment dur­ing the colo­nial peri­od. Polit­i­cal the­o­ry is a nor­mal require­ment with­in a polit­i­cal sci­ence degree pro­gram. With­in polit­i­cal the­o­ry, stu­dents learn about the impor­tance of gov­ern­ment and how gov­ern­ment influ­ences human behav­ior. Amer­i­can gov­ern­ment and pol­i­tics are a stan­dard part of cur­ricu­lums, but stu­dents also learn about inter­na­tion­al gov­ern­ments. Inter­na­tion­al polit­i­cal sci­ence sub­jects will focus on build­ing rela­tion­ships between for­eign enti­ties. Inter­na­tion­al cours­es may nar­row in on a cer­tain country’s gov­ern­ment for­ma­tion and cur­rent regulations.

What is a degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence for?

Although many grad­u­ates of polit­i­cal sci­ence pro­grams go into pol­i­tics, degree hold­ers could also choose to pur­sue jobs in oth­er pro­fes­sions. Polit­i­cal sci­ence careers include gov­ern­ment offi­cials, lob­by­ists, pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials, non-prof­it rep­re­sen­ta­tives, lawyers, con­sul­tants, polit­i­cal ana­lysts, pub­lic rela­tions work­ers, para­le­gals, and lawyers. Some of the pre­ced­ing careers are avail­able to bach­e­lor degree hold­ers while oth­ers require grad­u­ate-lev­el degrees. Polit­i­cal sci­ence pro­grams devel­op skills essen­tial to many jobs. Soft skills honed by polit­i­cal sci­ence majors include good com­mu­ni­ca­tion, crit­i­cal think­ing, nego­ti­a­tion capa­bil­i­ties, con­flict medi­a­tion, and crit­i­cal lis­ten­ing. Hard skills will also be con­vered dur­ing course­work such as sta­tis­tics, big data analy­sis, eco­nom­ics, and fundrais­ing strategies.

To get start­ed in a lucra­tive gov­ern­ment career, a bach­e­lor degree is a sol­id start. Many gov­ern­ment jobs have a min­i­mum require­ment of a four-year degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence. Stu­dents have the option to attend accred­it­ed pro­grams held vir­tu­al­ly or on cam­pus. Accel­er­at­ed options could be offered, but stan­dard polit­i­cal sci­ence bach­e­lor degrees take an aver­age of four years to com­plete when attend­ing full-time. For part-time stu­dents, a bach­e­lor degree pro­gram could take longer, up to six years if five class­es or less are com­plet­ed each year.

Keep in mind that not all online col­leges fol­low tra­di­tion­al semes­ter sched­ules. As one exam­ple, self-paced online polit­i­cal sci­ence degrees allow the stu­dent to choose how long class com­ple­tion takes. Instead of cours­es last­ing months, each class peri­od may occur every four to six weeks. Online col­leges also nor­mal­ly oper­ate year-round. This gives stu­dents the chance to take class­es dur­ing tra­di­tion­al breaks, such as the win­ter and summer.

Accreditation for Political Science Degree Programs

An accred­it­ed polit­i­cal sci­ence degree is crit­i­cal for post-grad­u­a­tion job place­ment. Degrees earned from non-accred­it­ed uni­ver­si­ties may not be accept­ed by an employ­er. Also, col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties tend to not accept any trans­fer cred­its earned from non-accred­it­ed schools. Notably, polit­i­cal sci­ence degree online accred­it­ed pro­grams are offered. An accred­it­ed online polit­i­cal sci­ence degree should be earned from a uni­ver­si­ty that has region­al approval from an accred­it­ing body. Accred­it­ing agen­cies will approve both tra­di­tion­al and online colleges.

Region­al accred­i­ta­tion is essen­tial for the best polit­i­cal sci­ence degree pro­grams. In fact, region­al accred­i­ta­tion mat­ters the most for all accred­it­ed online polit­i­cal degree tracks. Region­al accred­i­ta­tion has wide­spread accep­tance at U.S. col­leges with cred­its earned at these insti­tu­tions being more like­ly to trans­fer. Region­al accred­i­ta­tion involves the eval­u­a­tion of col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties locat­ed in cer­tain regions of the Unit­ed States. The process is vol­un­tary and the region­al accred­i­ta­tion orga­ni­za­tion con­firms that the pro­grams and the col­lege meet their estab­lished min­i­mum stan­dards. Qual­i­fy­ing fac­tors include fac­ul­ty back­ground, cur­ricu­lum, pro­gram out­comes, and avail­able resources.

The phys­i­cal loca­tion deter­mines the region­al accred­it­ing agency, even if the col­lege pro­vides polit­i­cal sci­ence degree online pro­grams. As an exam­ple, the New Eng­land Asso­ci­a­tion of Schools and Col­leges pro­vides accred­i­ta­tion for uni­ver­si­ties locat­ed in New Hamp­shire, Rhode Island, Con­necti­cut, Maine, Mass­a­chu­setts, and Ver­mont. Anoth­er key ben­e­fit of attend­ing an accred­it­ed col­lege is most fed­er­al loan and grant pro­grams require region­al approval for stu­dents to receive any fund­ing. Any schol­ar­ship spon­sors may also require that the stu­dent attends an accred­it­ed degree pro­gram Nation­al accred­i­ta­tion is rar­er for polit­i­cal sci­ence bach­e­lor degree pro­grams. Trade schools often obtain nation­al accred­i­ta­tion as well as select online col­leges. Check the sta­tus of a region­al accred­it­ed col­lege pri­or to admis­sions. Col­leges are required to apply for renew­al sta­tus on a rou­tine basis.

Spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion is anoth­er con­sid­er­a­tion when select­ing a polit­i­cal sci­ence degree. With spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion, non-prof­it polit­i­cal sci­ence orga­ni­za­tions review a college’s cur­ricu­lum, fac­ul­ty, and pos­i­tive out­comes to deter­mine eli­gi­bil­i­ty. The fol­low­ing are a few com­mon asso­ci­a­tions that award polit­i­cal sci­ence degree accreditations:

• The Net­work of Schools of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy, Affairs, and Admin­is­tra­tion (NASPAA)
• The Amer­i­can Polit­i­cal Sci­ence Asso­ci­a­tion (APSA) 

Although accred­i­ta­tion through these orga­ni­za­tions is ben­e­fi­cial, they are not a require­ment for an online polit­i­cal sci­ence degree. The perk of choos­ing pro­grams with these accred­i­ta­tions is that stu­dents know that the cur­ricu­lum meets the stan­dards need­ed to remain com­pet­i­tive in today’s job mar­ket. Research the orga­ni­za­tion to deter­mine what rules they use to accred­it a polit­i­cal sci­ence degree.

Types of Political Science Degrees

Col­leges nev­er pro­vide a one-size-fits-all polit­i­cal sci­ence online degree. A bachelor’s degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence can be made up of a vari­ety of sub­ject mat­ter with elec­tives offered to suit the student’s desired career path. Anoth­er way to nar­row the focus of an online degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence, spe­cial­iza­tions are com­mon­place. Spe­cial­iza­tions should be reviewed for stu­dents who have clear-cut career goals.

Typ­i­cal­ly, there are two main types of polit­i­cal sci­ence degrees: a Bach­e­lor of Arts in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence. Although some core class­es are sim­i­lar with these two types of degrees, Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence degree stu­dents tend to focus more on method­olo­gies with­in the field of polit­i­cal sci­ence. When enrolling in an online degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence pro­gram, a col­lege may request the stu­dent choose a spe­cial­iza­tion. The spe­cial­iza­tion deter­mines what core class­es the stu­dent must take. The fol­low­ing are the top polit­i­cal sci­ence degree specializations:

Inter­na­tion­al Pol­i­tics– Inter­na­tion­al pol­i­tics focus on how mod­ern pol­i­tics oper­ate on a glob­al scale. The stu­dent may have the option to spe­cial­ize in a par­tic­u­lar con­ti­nent or region, such as Europe or Asia. Some inter­na­tion­al pol­i­tics majors choose to minor in a for­eign lan­guage relat­ed to their pick.

Amer­i­can Pol­i­tics– An Amer­i­can pol­i­tics spe­cial­iza­tion looks at the his­tor­i­cal and cur­rent orga­ni­za­tion of the U.S. gov­ern­ment. The stu­dent not only finds out about the chains of com­mand, but also research­es pub­lic ser­vice, the media, and legal systems.

Polit­i­cal The­o­ry– When a stu­dent spe­cial­izes in polit­i­cal the­o­ry, he or she research­es the core premis­es of legal and polit­i­cal sys­tems. A clos­er exam­i­na­tion is giv­en to the mean­ings behind gov­ern­ment con­trol, author­i­ty, and social justice.

Pub­lic Pol­i­cy– Stu­dents inter­est­ed in becom­ing lob­by­ists or pol­i­cy­mak­ers, nor­mal­ly choose to spe­cial­ize in pub­lic pol­i­cy. The stu­dents learn about how poli­cies with­in a gov­ern­ment are cre­at­ed and what it takes to repeal these poli­cies. Fed­er­al poli­cies are exam­ined dur­ing this spe­cial­iza­tion as well as local and state policies.

Envi­ron­men­tal Pol­i­tics– For this spe­cial­iza­tion, a stu­dent will con­cen­trate on envi­ron­men­tal poli­cies devel­oped by gov­ern­ment bod­ies. Envi­ron­men­tal pol­i­tics are dis­cussed at both the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al level.

For majors with­out a spe­cial­iza­tion, polit­i­cal sci­ence top­ics will have a broad con­text. Exam­ples of stan­dard class­es with­in a bach­e­lor degree online polit­i­cal sci­ence cur­ricu­lum include:

• Con­sti­tu­tion
• U.S. Fed­er­al Government
• Mod­ern Politics
• For­eign Policy
• Polit­i­cal Theory
• Polit­i­cal Writing

Dou­ble or dual majors are offered by sev­er­al online polit­i­cal sci­ence pro­grams. Polit­i­cal sci­ence is one of the top degree tracks that include dual degree options. Dual degree tracks nor­mal­ly require 150 cred­its for grad­u­a­tion instead of 120. Alter­na­tive­ly, a minor may be select­ed by the polit­i­cal sci­ence stu­dent. Minor pro­grams will have a require­ment between 18 and 30 cred­its. Dual major and minors that are typ­i­cal­ly paired with polit­i­cal sci­ence include his­to­ry, eco­nom­ics, busi­ness, and inter­na­tion­al affairs. Online col­leges can rec­om­mend a sched­ule of cours­es to help the dual major stu­dent grad­u­ate with­in a four-year timeframe.

Anoth­er com­par­i­son for prospec­tive stu­dents is an online polit­i­cal sci­ence degree and in-per­son polit­i­cal sci­ence degree. Employ­ers no longer dif­fer­en­ti­ate between the two types and glad­ly accept can­di­dates who have earned their degrees through vir­tu­al class­es. A polit­i­cal sci­ence online degree track is ide­al for those who need flex­i­ble sched­ul­ing due to work and fam­i­ly com­mit­ments. Online pro­grams also pro­vide con­ve­nience for those who wish to attend a col­lege locat­ed in anoth­er state from their cur­rent residence.

For both in-per­son and online polit­i­cal sci­ence degrees, a total of 120 cred­its is nor­mal­ly required for grad­u­a­tion. For tra­di­tion­al pro­grams, degree com­ple­tion usu­al­ly takes four years. At some col­leges, accel­er­at­ed pro­grams allow the stu­dent to grad­u­ate in a short­er time­frame. Approx­i­mate­ly half the cred­its need­ed for bach­e­lor degree grad­u­a­tion are from gen­er­al edu­ca­tion class­es while the oth­er half derive from core cours­es, elec­tives, and an internship.

Many grad­u­ates will go on to grad­u­ate school to obtain a master’s degree.

Certifications/Licenses

A polit­i­cal sci­ence online cer­tifi­cate is avail­able to both job seek­ers and those who are cur­rent­ly employed. Polit­i­cal sci­ence cer­ti­fi­ca­tions add more skills to a resume and may also be a require­ment of employ­ers. A polit­i­cal sci­ence cer­tifi­cate online is a con­ve­nient option for those who are already enrolled in class­es or work­ing. Some orga­ni­za­tions offer low-cost or free cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for polit­i­cal sci­ence majors. Although not all of these cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are required by employ­er, the pro­ceed­ing are the most wide­spread in the field.

Gov­ern­ment Ana­lyt­ics Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion-This is a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion earned fol­low­ing bach­e­lor degree com­ple­tion. This pro­gram focus­es on ana­lyz­ing gov­ern­ment sta­tis­tics, pub­lic poli­cies, and polit­i­cal behaviors.

Ter­ror­ism Stud­ies Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion-With this pro­gram, the polit­i­cal sci­ence stu­dent devel­ops spe­cial­ized skills need­ed for jobs in counter-ter­ror­ism organizations.

Glob­al Pol­i­cy Mak­ing Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion-For this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, the enrollee focus­es on laws in dif­fer­ent coun­tries and how poli­cies are formed in these regions.

Local Gov­ern­ment Lead­er­ship Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion-Any stu­dent plan­ning to secure a posi­tion with­in his or her munic­i­pal­i­ty should con­sid­er this pro­gram. The cours­es with­in the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion aim to devel­op the skills need­ed to improve a town’s eco­nom­ic and social performance.

Human Rights Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion-This pro­gram was devel­oped for polit­i­cal sci­ence majors who plan to work as lob­by­ists or activists. The cer­ti­fi­ca­tion con­cen­trates on the effect social move­ments can have on gov­ern­ment policies.

For most posi­tions, a license is not need­ed. How­ev­er, if the polit­i­cal sci­ence major pur­sues careers in edu­ca­tion or law, require­ments change. For instance, polit­i­cal sci­ence teach­ers need valid licens­es in their states. Para­le­gals and lawyers are also usu­al­ly required to obtain a state license.

Careers in Political Science: What Can You Do with a Degree in Political Science?

Jobs as a polit­i­cal sci­ence major are vast. So you may won­der, what is a polit­i­cal sci­ence degree used for? Since the cur­ricu­lum cov­ers sub­jects relat­ed to so many fields, polit­i­cal sci­ence grad­u­ates have dif­fer­ent career tracks they can fol­low. Most jobs with a polit­i­cal sci­ence bachelor’s degree involve work­ing with­in gov­ern­ment agen­cies, but pri­vate busi­ness­es and non-prof­its will also hire grad­u­ates. So what jobs can i get with polit­i­cal sci­ence degree? The best jobs for a polit­i­cal sci­ence degree are:

Edu­ca­tor-Polit­i­cal sci­ence degree hold­ers could choose to go into the edu­ca­tion field. Both high schools and col­leges look for polit­i­cal sci­ence teachers.

Pub­lic Rela­tions Spe­cial­ist-With a bach­e­lor degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence, grad­u­ates could work as a pub­lic rela­tions spe­cial­ist for gov­ern­ment offi­cials, busi­ness­es, and celebri­ties. The spe­cial­ist looks for ways to improve pub­lic image and bury neg­a­tive press.

Para­le­gal-A bach­e­lor degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence qual­i­fies the per­son to pur­sue a job as a para­le­gal. Para­le­gals con­duct inter­views and per­form research on behalf of a legal team. Polit­i­cal sci­ence grad­u­ates can enter law school and even­tu­al­ly prac­tice as an attorney.

Fundrais­er-Non-prof­its hire polit­i­cal sci­ence degree hold­ers to orga­nize events, con­tact bene­fac­tors, and man­age mar­ket­ing to raise mon­ey for the organization.

Con­sul­tant-Many indi­vid­u­als who run for office rely on the advice of polit­i­cal con­sul­tants. Polit­i­cal con­sul­tants make rec­om­men­da­tions on how to best man­age a cam­paign and research vot­ing trends. A cam­paign man­ag­er is a type of con­sul­tant that orga­nizes the mar­ket­ing for a gov­ern­ment candidate.

Gov­ern­ment Offi­cial-Those who wish to run for any type of pub­lic office will usu­al­ly have a back­ground as a polit­i­cal sci­ence major. Some gov­ern­ment posi­tions require the per­son to be elect­ed through pub­lic voting.

Lob­by­ists-Lob­by­ists are typ­i­cal­ly hired by pri­vate busi­ness­es. Their role is to appeal to gov­ern­ment offi­cials to make pol­i­cy changes that ben­e­fit the lob­by­ists’ clients. Lob­by­ists often ask for tax breaks and grants to improve finances for large-scale indus­tries such as banks and con­struc­tion unions.

Polit­i­cal sci­en­tists don’t just work on polit­i­cal cam­paigns, though. They do research, cre­ate pub­lic opin­ion polls, and work in pub­lic affairs.

The best things to do with a polit­i­cal sci­ence degree depends on the graduate’s loca­tion too. For instance, if the stu­dent lives in a rur­al area, the num­ber of open polit­i­cal posi­tions could be lim­it­ing. Know­ing what to do with a polit­i­cal sci­ence major may depend on your net­work­ing abil­i­ty. For polit­i­cal sci­ence bach­e­lors degree jobs in gov­ern­ment, relo­ca­tion may be strong­ly con­sid­ered. The high­est con­cen­tra­tion of gov­ern­ment jobs are found with­in the nation’s cap­i­tal and met­ro­pol­i­tan areas. State cap­i­tals also typ­i­cal­ly house a large num­ber of gov­ern­ment offices. Each munic­i­pal­i­ty and coun­ty will pro­vide a select num­ber of jobs for polit­i­cal sci­ence majors.

Political Science Degree Salary

A degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence salary depends on the posi­tion secured after grad­u­a­tion. Entry lev­el posi­tions may have a low­er start­ing salary for polit­i­cal sci­ence degree hold­ers, but pro­vide the poten­tial for advance­ment. The most lucra­tive careers typ­i­cal­ly occur with­in pri­vate busi­ness­es. Tax­pay­ers deter­mine the salary of gov­ern­ment offi­cials with cer­tain posi­tions being capped. How­ev­er, the ben­e­fits of a gov­ern­ment posi­tion should also be care­ful­ly con­sid­ered. Gov­ern­ment jobs pro­vide job secu­ri­ty, supe­ri­or health ben­e­fits, retire­ment plans, and guar­an­teed wages.

An attrac­tive polit­i­cal sci­ence bach­e­lor degree salary is usu­al­ly held by those who go into pub­lic rela­tions. Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics (BLS), the aver­age salary of a pub­lic rela­tions spe­cial­ist is $61,150. Pub­lic rela­tions man­agers earn an even high­er wage with an aver­age of more than $77,000 per year.

A salary for polit­i­cal sci­ence degree grad­u­ates who choose a career in con­sul­tan­cy can also be entic­ing. Con­sul­tants, includ­ing cam­paign man­agers, make an aver­age of $73,000 annu­al­ly. Those who run large-scale cam­paigns or who man­age fundrais­ing efforts for gov­ern­ment offi­cials tend to make a very high salary. The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics report fundrais­ing man­agers have a nation­al aver­age salary of $116,180 per year.

Polit­i­cal sci­ence teach­ers who are employed at the high school lev­el make an aver­age of $61,000 per year. Polit­i­cal sci­ence pro­fes­sors earn a high­er annu­al wage, but must obtain a master’s or doc­tor­al degree for job con­sid­er­a­tion. At this lev­el, polit­i­cal sci­ence pro­fes­sors make around $79,500 per year.

The salary range for gov­ern­ment offi­cials has a large range. At the high­est lev­el is the Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States with an annu­al salary of $400,000. Sen­a­tors and rep­re­sen­ta­tives earn around $170,000 annu­al­ly. For all oth­er gov­ern­ment posi­tions, the nation­al aver­age is $52,000.

Para­le­gals have an aver­age annu­al salary of $51,740 while attor­neys make approx­i­mate­ly $123,000 each year. Para­le­gals are hired after fin­ish­ing a bach­e­lor degree pro­gram and tak­ing a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion exam. Attor­neys earn a high­er salary, but will grad­u­ate from law school after fin­ish­ing a polit­i­cal sci­ence degree program.

Lob­by­ists earn a very gen­er­ous salary since they rep­re­sent the inter­ests of pri­vate com­pa­nies. On aver­age, a lob­by­ist will earn more than $112,000 each year. How­ev­er, some top lob­by­ists in Wash­ing­ton DC have a salary in excess of $200,000.

A num­ber of fac­tors deter­mine the aver­age salary for polit­i­cal sci­ence majors. One of these fac­tors include the loca­tion of the job. As just one exam­ple, para­le­gals earn the high­est wages in Col­orado, Cal­i­for­nia, Mass­a­chu­setts, and Wash­ing­ton, accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics. These states pay in excess of $60,000 per year. Met­ro­pol­i­tan areas are also known for pay­ing high­er mean wages. For instance, fundrais­ing man­agers make the most in New York City, Wash­ing­ton DC, Los Ange­les, San Jose, and Den­ver. Aver­age salaries in these metro areas are in excess of $148,000 per year.

Professional Organizations in Political Science

Pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions can add val­ue to a polit­i­cal sci­ence major grad­u­ate. Many orga­ni­za­tions charge a nom­i­nal fee for mem­ber­ship and pro­vide sub­stan­tial ben­e­fits. For one, pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions often plan net­work­ing events to help polit­i­cal sci­ence grad­u­ates make con­nec­tions. Career fairs and job boards may also be spon­sored through a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion. Any type of indus­try news is also usu­al­ly first report­ed through pro­fes­sion­al com­mu­ni­ties. Many orga­ni­za­tions release pub­li­ca­tions quar­ter­ly or month­ly to keep mem­bers up to date on the lat­est hap­pen­ings. Sig­nif­i­cant­ly, pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions are tra­di­tion­al­ly sources of con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion cours­es. These cours­es may be fin­ished vir­tu­al­ly or local­ly if avail­able. Mem­bers of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion could be giv­en dis­count­ed pric­ing for con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion classes.

The fol­low­ing are cur­rent pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions for polit­i­cal sci­ence stu­dents and graduates:

The Amer­i­can Polit­i­cal Sci­ence Asso­ci­a­tion (APSA) 

Inter­na­tion­al Polit­i­cal Sci­ence Asso­ci­a­tion (IPSA)

Amer­i­can Soci­o­log­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion (ASA)

The Asso­ci­a­tion for Polit­i­cal The­o­ry (APT)

Relat­ed Rankings: 

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence Programs

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence Programs

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Polit­i­cal Science

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Polit­i­cal Science