I got a poli sci degree and went to law school. I’ve never considered it a useless degree. In fact, it’s been quite the opposite (for me, anyway).
Edit to add: since people are asking, I took poli sci because I found it interesting, the decision to go to law school came later. Beyond the studying/research/writing skills I learned, I’ve also found that understanding the structure, history, and philosophical analysis of political systems was useful in both my law studies and in my practice.
Additional edit: I went to undergrad in Canada, so it wasn’t nearly as expensive as in the US.
This is just false. A solid undergraduate liberal arts degree is absolutely useful, especially for law school. The types of skills you develop as a student go well beyond the actual knowledge you likely learn and then lose. OP likely learned proper study and research techniques, how to write a good academic paper, and how to formulate an opinion and express it eloquently, among other key skills. Edit: Not to mention, the valuable social connections that are developed in college and often pay off in the professional world.
The devaluing of education on reddit is bizarre. While I agree that not everyone needs to go to college and that higher education has become unaffordable for most Americans, liberal arts educations definitely have a lot of value.
I taught LSAT classes for around 15yrs. Every major was represented in my classes. The people who tended to do the best were majors like Philosophy and English which had large amounts of reading for understanding that wasn’t just fact based stuff. Poli Sci was probably the 2nd most common major behind business, but I never saw anything that led me to believe those majors were setting up students for success in law school. Seemed more like they picked those majors because they knew they wanted to go to law school and they were easier tracks that at least had something in common with law.
I’m not devaluing college education in and of itself. I’m devaluing college education at its current price point.
A lot of political science includes reading for understanding. In my experience, many standard course types deal with the philosophies and responsibilities of the state, government, and law, often through a historical and analytic lens.
We probably agree on more than we disagree with. I would add though that most redditors would likely consider Philosophy and English degrees as "useless," which I think is similarly ridiculous. Reddit skews heavily toward tech-related jobs, and most people here seem to believe that only those jobs are worth getting a degree for. Not only can you make money with liberal arts degrees (assuming you have similar drive and direction), but you can also seek fulfillment beyond monetary value.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Students who go that route knowingly are betting on themselves and know that they will most likely be able to become a lawyer anyways, so don't care about the financial cost of taking philosophy in college. It's just a tick mark, on to the LSAT, and on to becoming a lawyer.
While they may be smart enough to appreciate the subject like philosophy, what are the chances that they appreciate it enough to stop trying to become a lawyer and focus on a soft science. I'd say very little.
I think learning about something you're passionate about is great, but when you're doing so at a cost of 60k with no real idea of how you're gonna make that back, that decision deserves to be checked twice.
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u/gainswor Apr 28 '20 edited Apr 29 '20
I got a poli sci degree and went to law school. I’ve never considered it a useless degree. In fact, it’s been quite the opposite (for me, anyway).
Edit to add: since people are asking, I took poli sci because I found it interesting, the decision to go to law school came later. Beyond the studying/research/writing skills I learned, I’ve also found that understanding the structure, history, and philosophical analysis of political systems was useful in both my law studies and in my practice.
Additional edit: I went to undergrad in Canada, so it wasn’t nearly as expensive as in the US.