Biology vs Polisci?

I'm a biology major who strongly considered a politics or public policy analysis switch.

The job prospects for both fields are pretty limited if you don't build supplemental, marketable experiences or if you can't translate the work you do into the work force. If you want a well-paying biology job, you pretty much have to go into graduate or medical school: the former is so over-saturated that there are not enough jobs to go around for all of the professionals in the field. Life science majors are in the bottom five for starting salaries by majors. Politics majors are a dime a dozen so you have to stand out in other ways.

Most of my biology friends and I were aware of this, so we put equal emphasis on making ourselves compelling elsewhere- seeking out non biology based extracurricular activities and internships, taking courses in more marketable fields like CS/math/economics, and so forth. We translated the more jargon-y aspects of our biology major and research into marketable involvements highlighting an awareness of analysis, statistics, collaboration, and presentation. This in turn helped us become compelling candidates for whatever we were passionate about. The destinations we went into included law, consulting, finance, business, education, technology, etc.

The reality is that getting a good job is far more dependent on your network and experiences than what you study (with some exceptions: marketable jobs like CS or engineering- neither biology or politics would count). You could do philosophy and become a math PhD, you could do art and become a Wall Street investment banker, etc. If your passion is politics, go for it, but be sure that you're building a compelling profile with internships, research experiences, campus involvements, and alumni connections.

/r/ApplyingToCollege Thread