I've done both PolSci and Sociology. Of course, study programmes and such in Spain and the US are completely different, but I'd say Sociology wins everyday (that's where I have my PhD afterall). Pol Sci is very specific, so either you want to focus only on democracy, working of parties and such, it loses a big part of the gran scheme (same goes for most social sciences, from psychology to economics): they are too focused. I know this is intended in the american model, I just find it not to be enough. On the other hand, Sociology is all about the big picture: you have political sociology, cultural sociology, economic sociology, psico-sociology, etc.
So I loved studying Pol Sci, but I believe it is a great second career, wouldn't take it as a first.

Obi's kind of right about the connotation of innocuous, although it's certainly not there all the time.

Your views aren't important to the ruling class, because they are not threatening. The CIA could care less that you are a Democrat. They care deeply if you support the LTTE, Farc, or other such groups.

But you were about to go English major on me. Right.

And anyway your weird response to me calling your views innocuous doesn't make sense in light of your most recent 'interpretation' of the meaning. You responded as if I called your views incoherent or inconsistent.

"Pol Sci is very specific, so either you want to focus only on democracy, working of parties and such, it loses a big part of the gran scheme (same goes for most social sciences, from psychology to economics)"

I've never heard of polisci being accused of being too narrow in scope. If anything it is the opposite. They frown upon area studies and IR in particular has treated the international system like a billiard table of black box states. Americanists are quite unsystemic in their thinking but the other branches are very different.

"And anyway your weird response to me calling your views innocuous doesn't make sense in light of your most recent 'interpretation' of the meaning. You responded as if I called your views incoherent or inconsistent."

No, I responded as if the connotation I believe innocuous carries, which I've already stated, is inconsistent with the value of my stances insofar as they are not insignificant...

If you want to say my views aren't exactly revolutionary or aimed at toppling the US government:

Yes, that's a spot-on assessment...

I'm not a communist or fascist or trying to turn an electoral democracy into anything else, but merely hoping to somehow shape the policy or policymakers or speeches or something regarding and within that electoral democracy--

I don't seek to reinvent the game, just hopefully to be able to play it, in some capacity.

I don't know...

I'd rather be a writer than a lawyer, but I'd rather be a lawyer than a teacher any day...

And assuming I never become that next D.H Lawrence or T.S. Eliot--come on, now, I idolize these guys, and I'll try until I die, but I'm realistic here, the Mets have a better shot of beating the Phillies and Yankees on the way to a World Series win this year and the next three years than I have of ever approaching the level of enduring genius a D.H. Lawrence or Eliot or Woolf or any of those idols have, let alone my greatest hero of all, You-Know-Who--and I DON'T pan out as a writer...

I REALLY don't want to be teaching kids for the next 40+ years. :/

And as I've learned from tutoring for the last year or so...I really wouldn't like to teach college students much more, either...I could get by if they were all upper-level courses, but with budget cuts, and coming in as a new teacher, it'd be AT LEAST a good 5 or 10 years before I could ever approach doing all-upper-level, all-Homer-Dante-Shakespeare-Milton-Austen-Eliot-Woolf-Orwell-Camus courses...

And even THEN, I'd be going to work every day, with one of the greatest words of wisdom I've ever heard, from a teacher I was lucky enough to have as an English mentor in 11th and 12th grade years ago...he helped shape my approach and appreciation of literature as a vast, interconnected, ever-ongoing attempt at expression and spirit...

And this teacher of many years, no spring chicken himself, told me quite plainly:

"Those who can do, do--those that can't, teach."

With no offense intended towards anyone who does teach here...I DO NOT want to go to work everyday with that thought in my head.

I'd much rather argue petty cases...at least I'd get paid more, and maybe I could eventually meet someone to help my career out, or get some money to self-start...

I dunno--

I'd rather be in the politico-sphere to some degree, fighting ardently, every day, for something I REALLY feel passionate about...

Or else be enjoying the life and dramas and tumultuous times as a writer...

I'd rather EITHER of those than lawyer or teacher--

But those are DREAMS, and you can't eat dreams, and they don't pay for healthcare (which I need A LOT of, I have far too many conditions that need treating to not have a job with either benefits or to be making enough money to pay for it myself.)

So, if I'm to be realistic...

If it does come down to lawyer vs. teacher...at least I'd like being a lawyer if I could get invested in my cases, and I like to debate--great shock--and I'd make more money...

And AT LEAST I wouldn't be a teacher or professor going over grammatical mistakes and sentence structure and that "P" is not a vowel...or explaining for the umpteenth time that when he says "What light through yonder window breaks?" the glass in front of Romeo DID NOT just actually shatter.

And I wouldn't have to think, every day, "Those that could, did...and *I* teach..."

"No, I responded as if the connotation I believe innocuous carries, which I've already stated, is inconsistent with the value of my stances insofar as they are not insignificant..."

*Sigh* You claimed I was using the word incorrectly when I was using the *first & primary definition of the word*. This new connotation you just invented, as 'insignificant' is not even a synonym of innocuous. Nothing you earlier stated mentioned anything about insignificance at any rate. But anyway, running with your manipulation of the word, your views are insignificant to people who would do background checks on you. *That was the whole point of my comment, that your views are not a threat and are therefore not important enough for the state department or anybody else to flag as dangerous*. As usual you lose the forest for the trees and would rather get into a semantic war instead of acknowledge that I'm not saying anything particularly outrageous here.

Once again, don't go to law school unless you really want to be a lawyer. I've also heard that if you're not in the top half of your class then you'd better look for another career, since the job prospects will be slim. Also heard from a far, far better source that that's nonsense. His exact words (jokingly) were that being in the bottom half just means you become a judge instead. Haunting thought, though.

Once again, only go to law school if you really want to be a lawyer. If you just want to delay adulthood by a few more years go to grad school for English.

Frat boys are experts on delaying adulthood.

That's pretty uncalled for. And quite rich, coming from a grad student of any kind.

I'm sorry, somebody who has to purchase his friends and who thinks keggers = "community service" doesn't get to call grad students, many of which who have families, something less than adult.

@Putin:

Fine, whatever, fighting with you is more pointless, fruitless, and futile than rolling that boulder up the hill every day, just to see it roll right back down (there, THAT'S my going nerdy-English-major on you, and lamely as well, I expect, but whatever, Putin...honestly, you take all the fun out of any discussion you're in, you quibble so much over minutia it gets to me, and, again, I'm an ENGLISH major, the punctuation or enjambment of a line of poetry, the absence of a freaking COMMA, is a big enough deal to debate in class...and you just top that and take all the fun out of it, so...enjoy yourself. Once again, you win the argument by sheer attrition and boring me into submission.)

@Invictus:

I don't mind adulthood at all...I HATED being a kid the whole time I was one, I was glad when I turned 18.

I hate kids, ever since I was one...hell, if I just knew I'd be able to afford healthcare and to live somewhere decently, I'd be pretty damn content with life. (But then, so would millions of Americans as well, now, wouldn't they?) ;)

I really wish I could do both; getting a Masters in English sounds so ridiculously easy I'd be almost ashamed NOT to try and get one, Literature-fan that I am...I can write a dissertation-length essay, that's no problem...

But what to do with it once I finish?

Write, or teach?

The former's just a dream, can't bank on that, and if I have to bank on the latter, I'm NOT looking forward to the next few decades...

I'd "like" being a lawyer...

It's just a couple notches below the level of enthusiasm and passion I'd like to have for my life's work.

I'd rather be a policymaker or speechmaker or writer...

Besides which, at least I know I could get funding for law school; my parents wouldn't likely pay for any English/writing-based goals, they don't see it as a viable career path, and they're right, it really isn't, not past teaching, which I don't want to do, and journalism, which I'm not cut out for.

I'd like to be a lawyer...there are just bigger dreams I have that shine far more brightly...

But then, who doesn't have those dreams, and how many actually achieve them?

I'm guessing most here aren't doing exactly what they wanted to do, either...but still have a job they like, even if it's not the one they'd always dreamed of (and really, when your dream job is writing the next "Women In Love" or being a counsel or speechwriter to a higher-up in D.C., just "liking" being a lawyer is a good backup...)

Well, your school must have better ones than the ones TAing most of my classes.

And stop pretending you know what it's like to be in a fraternity, geed. We don't allow kegs and are the second highest fundraisers for our charity in the region.

I said it before obiwanobiwan. If you're not passionate about becoming a lawyer there are much more fun ways to spend over $100,000 in three years. Only do it if you know it's right. I'm working for a year just to make sure.

Also--

@Putin's last comment on grad students:

Go to hell.

I'd think of something wittier, but you'd just ramble on in your own, self-satisfied way...why, you're almost more of an elitist pig than I am, Putin--some socialist indeed!

Go on, comment, spew some vitriolic mantra, for all the f---s I or anyone else gives...

"Once again, you win the argument by sheer attrition and boring me into submission"

You're the one who picked the fight over a stupid word, genius. I wasn't fighting with you. I was actually trying to provide recommendations for you since I'm in the damn field you're considering. I don't want to fight with you, because you never understand a word anybody says. You have this pathological hatred of me and so if I said the sky was blue you'd talk about how I'm a dogmatic communist who is intolerant of those who disagree. You're fucking ridiculous.

@Invictus:

Where do you work? And so, do you want to be a lawyer, perhaps?

"@Putin's last comment on grad students:

Go to hell."

I was defending grad students, fuckface. Or are you saying I'm being an elitist toward frat boys?

Your reading comprehension is beyond poor. How are you a fucking English major?

" We don't allow kegs and are the second highest fundraisers for our charity in the region."

That's what you all say before you're kicked off campus after being on probation for tens of thousands in property damage.

I haven't graduated yet, and I'd rather not say where it looks like I'll be. Let's say it builds off an internship I had, indirectly.

I do want to be a lawyer. The law genuinely interests me. The not too unlikely idea of failure and misery in addition to a mountain of debt also terrifies me. So we'll see. I'm hoping the legal education bubble pops in the next year or so.

"Frat boys are experts on delaying adulthood."

That wasn't an insult?

For a man of the left you certainly traffic in stereotypes, Putin33.

But you may be right about the situation at Ohio State. The University of Illinois has the largest Greek system in the world and perhaps it's just done better here than other places. I know the Louisiana Tech boys we met at nationals sure had a different take on how to run things.

Yeah it was, toward fraternities, which are nothing but drunken white supremacist gang rape clubs pretending like they're Habitat for Humanity. I'm an elitist toward fraternities? What's next, you scolding me for looking down on country clubs?

"I'm sorry, somebody who has to purchase his friends and who thinks keggers = "community service" doesn't get to call grad students, many of which who have families, something less than adult."

I don't care if it's grad students or Invictus or even frat fuckers you're attacking there...

Piss off, Putin.

"For a man of the left you certainly traffic in stereotypes, Putin33."

Yes, yes, I lack sensitivity to the feelings of exclusive membership clubs whose sole purpose is to make its paid members feel better than everybody else. Somebody call the cops. Somebody is being intolerant towards the intolerant.

"drunken white supremacist gang rape clubs pretending like they're Habitat for Humanity"

Sounds like someone's bitter they didn't get a bid during Rush freshman year. Just like how the most vitriolic gay-bashing preachers get caught with male hookers, the folks who hate fraternities so much just yearn to be in one.

"Piss off, Putin."

GFY, Obi. You have nothing better to do but to hang on my every word and bitch about it. You long ago ceased making sense with your constant flipping out over everything I say. I'm not even talking to you. If you don't like what I say, join the long line of reactionaries who blocked me. I couldn't care less.

"What's next, you scolding me for looking down on country clubs?"

Well, no, of course not, a man of your stature would clearly never engage in such unsavory and unseemly activities...

Sorry, Putin, but the more and more I hear you speak, the more and your you just reek of white-bred, wanna-be-proletariat elitist junk fresh off your latest Zamyatin work--not Orwell, goodness no! too bourgeois for your taste, or that Shakespeare plagarist fuck, I mean, who needs HIM, clearly, everyone ELSE is original, shame on him!--and oozing of smugness masquerading as self-confidence.

Geed: You pay for friends!

Fraternity Man: You pay for cups.