Pair your major

Minors and second majors that open doors. Part of Get ready, for graduate school.

The courthouses on Foley Square in Lower Manhattan

Take a broad range of courses early. Trying history, philosophy, economics or urban studies is how you find the questions you actually want to study, and a second field can make you a stronger applicant.

Theory, history and cities

Philosophy

Minor (18 credits) or second major

Arguments about justice, rights and legitimacy, the core of political theory. The minor includes two history-of-philosophy courses (PHIL 140–148). Best for students drawn to political theory.

History

Minor or second major

Primary sources, archives and long-run change. Useful for political theory, comparative politics and the history of American institutions.

Urban Studies

Major, or a BA and MA in five years

City politics, housing, policing and budgets, often with NYC data. The Accelerated MA pairs a BA in Urban Studies with an MA in Urban Affairs in five years, and up to 12 graduate credits count toward both. It needs a 3.0 GPA overall and in the major; majors in other social sciences are considered case by case. Apply at about 45–75 credits. Best for city government and MPA programs.

Sociology

Double major

Survey research and theory; home of Data Analytics. It unlocks the 4+1 BA/MA in data analytics and Mellon Mays, neither of which takes political science alone.

Data, economics and business

A quantitative credential helps for policy, campaign, government and research jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects data scientist jobs to grow 35% from 2025 to 2035 (BLS).

Data Analytics

Minor (21 credits), in Sociology

The easiest add-on for most political science majors, built for students with no background. Courses: DATA 205 (or PSYCH 107 or ECON 249), 212W, 235, 306, 333 and 334 (list). DATA 205, 306 and 333 teach R. Best for analyst and research assistant jobs, predocs and MPP programs.

Math: Data Science and Statistics

BA, as a second major

Statistics, programming and modeling. Best for methods-heavy PhDs and data science jobs.

Economics

Major or minor

Policy analysis and econometrics. Best for MPPs, economics predocs and think tanks. For more advanced methods, the Quantitative Economics BS adds calculus, linear algebra, advanced econometrics and scientific computing, and is a STEM major.

Computer Science

Minors

Also Computer Information Technology. Best for computational social science and tech policy.

Text as data

Courses, a minor or a BS in Linguistics and Communication Disorders

Want to analyze speeches, bills or social media posts with code? The department teaches LCD 151 and 251, Methods in Computational Linguistics I and II. Go further with the minor (built for CS and linguistics majors; 33 credits for other majors) or the BS in Computational Linguistics.

Business and Liberal Arts (BALA)

Honors minor (21 credits), open to all majors

Business concepts, communication and analytical decision-making. Best for consulting, government management and MPA programs.

Skills employers look for, whatever you pair it with

A statistical languageR or Python, plus Excel. SQL if you want data jobs.

Survey and research designWriting a questionnaire, sampling, reading a regression table.

Short-form writingPolicy memos and one-page briefs, not only seminar papers.

ProofA GitHub page with one or two finished projects. See the samples.