I'm a recent political science grad.

The thing about POLS you need to understand is that there are two very distinct sides to it.

There's the really liberal artsy-side that is mostly academia-focused, this includes things like International relations, political theory, etc.

Then there's the much more technical/career focused side of it, including public administration, Stata courses and potentially pre-law (if you're really, really sure you're gonna go do law school and don't want a philosophy major or something).

I focused on the academia side, and as someone who's been interning in state government for over a year now, if you want to work in politics or for a non-profit or something? I'd seriously suggest looking into the public admin side of things. It also has a lead-in to a graduate program, the MPA (Masters in Public Administration) which is an MBA but for the public sector.

In addition, many of my colleagues double-majored in political science with something else to beef up their qualifications. If you're educated about public administration -and- are a computer whiz, you'll be in a really good spot (People in government don't know dick about computers on the whole).

In any case, if you're interested in government, politics or the like, be sure to find some internships in your given area of study. Some of the state internships are insanely well paid for what they are, and others allow you to go overseas and get hands-on experience while traveling abroad.

TL;DR: Pols has the academia side and the applied side, be sure you know which you want. Do internships. Consider a double major if you're interested.

((As an aside for US students, there's a Student Loan Forgiveness program that you may qualify for if you work in Public Service for ~10 years or so, here is a link to the program site so you can learn more. This applies for all majors, but a Public Admin/MPA degree kinda leads to this so...))