Major Insights: Inside the minds of Political Science
Political science majoring is a social science degree path that requires students to study and practice government in theory and practice.
A political science major requires students to have strong critical thinking and communication skills.
Political Science majors shared their thoughts on what pursuing the degree is like at USC Aiken.
Matthew Peyton, a senior, said “I picked my major in Political Science so I could originally graduate sooner than I was on track for, but also because I find politics very interesting and important for our society.”
“A few of my favorite classes during my time in this program have been my Scopes and Methods of Political Science (POLI 301) class with Dr. Thornburg as well as Classical Political Theory (POLI 421) with Dr. Krumm,” he described.
Peyton enjoyed these classes because “During my Scopes and Methods course, not only was I able to research some very interesting topics and create data sets for outlier voting groups with polarization, but also we were able to partner with Harvard and Yale University to conduct a 2018 Midterm election exit poll survey." Peyton also enjoyed learning about ancient political philosophers in a Classical Political Theory course.
As a Political Science major, Peyton said “we take courses that cover a wide spectrum of political topics,” hence there not being a class that he hasn’t enjoyed taking. “They all are very interesting in their own way and bring to the table a new perspective and understanding of politics and public government.”
George Sharpe, a junior, said that wanting to “help foster positive changes in policy for my fellow citizens” is the reason why he decided to major In Political Science. Sharpe mentioned that he enjoyed taking American Political Theory with Dr. Krumm and State and Local Politics with Dr. Young the most.
“They covered the why in politics and enabled me to learn more about why I believe in my ideological ideas.” Sharpe continued “I would definitely tell other students to take these classes. I haven’t disliked any of my classes as I believe that they will enable me to make positive and informed choices in my career, but I dislike having multiple large papers due at one time.”
Julie Sanchez, a senior, also said that she wanted to make a change in the system and make it better by studying political science.
Sanchez said two of her favorite classes are Non-Western Politics and European Integration from Professor Wood (now retired).
“Not only both were online, but the Professor was straightforward with the information from the Powerpoints and audio messages; assignments were a big help to help me understand further.” She continued “I think my least favorite are the two classes I’m currently taking Scopes and Methods because I don’t like the math and Intro to Public administration simply because it’s not interesting in my own opinion.”
Last is Evan Jenkins, he is a senior and fell in love with political science when he took POLI 201 with Dr. Thornburg.
“[He] loved taking the Poli 301, which was Political Scope & Methods because we got to write a research paper on whichever topic we chose.” he continued “The best part was learning how to use the SPSS program in order to collect and analyze the data for our research question or topic.”
One of the courses that Jenkins struggled with was an upper level course, POLI 368 “It wasn’t that I disliked it, I just do not think I could 100% understand the course, but this was my first upper level course as a Sophomore, so I have definitely learned from that experience.”
