Hey, future political science major! As you may know (or if you don’t, just trust us on this one), political science is one of the most popular and, therefore, one of the most competitive prospective majors for college applicants. So, if you think you want to study poli sci in college, you need to take some steps to make your application stands out among all the other poli sci hopefuls. Whether you’re looking to become a future senator or lawyer or lobbyist, your first step is building an amazing college application.
We help students get into their dream colleges all the time, and the best way to get a leg up on your competition is to develop your “niche.” That means finding a subtopic within your chosen field and becoming an expert. It’s not enough to be just political science, but if you’re “electoral politics in post WW2 Western Europe,” then you’ve found a niche.
Why do I need a niche? And how do I build it?
Becoming an amateur expert in your field shows college admissions committees that you aren’t just baseline competent in your major already - but that you have such a depth of knowledge that you’ve become a specialist in it. Top-tier colleges want to see that you would get a lot out of what they can offer you – so if all you’ve done is be President of your Senior class, they won’t see that as sincere engagement with the field. Thankfully, you already know you want to study political science, which means the first big step is done. Now, you have to decide on what your niche is and build upon it.
Deciding on your niche isn’t very hard either! When we work with clients, we ask lots of questions about everything from favorite classes to hobbies and help narrow down what we think the best niche might be. While your directions might change over time, we start bringing students down the funnel and help you explore what it is you’re really passionate about. When students work with us, we help create a personalized curriculum of online classes and books designed to help bring the student closer to that perfect niche topic for them.
For example, let’s say that Paul, our future poli sci major, is really into understanding how city laws impact crime rates. After some further discussion and research, Paul realizes that he’s really into understanding how local drug laws affect related crime rates and public opinion. So, we help him focus on public policy, especially in relation to issues around decriminalization and safe injection sites. It might seem a little weird, but that’s how specific we’re trying to go - and that’s the niche
So, I have my niche… what’s next?
Once you’ve decided on your niche, you need to start the process of actually becoming an expert in it. This is an important step in the process because if you don’t actually put some effort into your niche, you’re not really any better than students who just took AP Gov and called it a day. This means you need to have meaningful engagement with your prospective major – an easy way to start that is through in-school extracurriculars.
As a prospective poli sci student, joining debate or mock trial could be good if you have your end goals set on law school. Joining or starting specific political club chapters, like Young Dems or YDSA can help you, as can starting specific clubs for your political interest areas, like Public Policy Club, International Relations Club, etc. And of course, joining student government is a good idea too!
Anything else I need to do?
This next part is probably the most important. You have an idea of what you want to do and have engaged with it, but so have a lot of other students. Just because you’ve put a lot of effort in your school’s orgs and clubs doesn’t mean that you automatically also outshine everyone else who’s done the work to get a leg up on the competition, too. So, you need to find a way to really impress admissions counselors to give yourself the final leg up you need.
The more impressive extracurriculars are going to be the ones you do outside of school. This is also where we really help our clients. There are a ton of organizations, nonprofits, internships, and honors societies that are specifically geared toward helping high school students jump-start their careers in political science. You could intern for a law office, work on a campaign, or even run for office yourself (slay). You can reach out to local professors and pitch yourself as their research assistant and maybe even get published.
We often help students develop their own independent projects all the time, ranging from creating an app to help refugees find safe passage to working with their city council to write and enact new laws. These kinds of independent passion projects are key in helping communicate your niche and setting you apart from the crowd
What’s the tl;dr?
The big takeaway for today is that the niche process is super important - everything from picking one to developing your skills and (especially) expressing your niche in a way that will catch admissions counselors’ attention. We help students get into their dream colleges all the time, and we know for a fact that this is one of the biggest ways that you can boost your chances of getting into the best college that you can. So, find your niche, start exploring it, and become an expert in your chosen field.
Need help coming up with ways to show off your niche to colleges? Send us an email. We have tons of great independent projects for students like you.