Why do Poli Sci majors on average have a low lsat score? Forum

[soj]

As someone with a poli-sci degree, it's because most of my classmates were unequivocally mouth-breathing windowlickers.

[Mr. Pancakes]

I picked my major by looking for the one that required me to take the least amount of science and math courses.

[flem]

I picked my major by looking for the one that required me to take the least amount of science and math courses.

This is a 100% credited way to select a major

[ngogirl]

Well I do try to make the most out of my education. I tend to get good grades and right now I'm in my sophomore year and my GPA is 3.71. So I'm not exactly just coasting through college for craps and giggles

That's good. Keep at it. It's just not hard to find people coasting along in PoliSci. Doesn't mean it can't be a good experience.

I do know plenty of people who coast through a lot of majors doing the bare minimum. Although the "unofficial" lazy-student majors have been either Sociology or Gender Studies.

+1 I took Soc classes for the easy A.. thought Sociology classes were a joke..

[ngogirl]

The hardest PSCI courses I took were IR. Seriously who understands that stuff?

For me it was the reverse, I doubled in Polysci and IR. Thought IR was fun, exciting, and illuminating, while I felt polysci was incredibly dry (that is barring the tracks with international relations and political theory).

[Mr. Pancakes]

I picked my major by looking for the one that required me to take the least amount of science and math courses.

This is a 100% credited way to select a major

it's the absolute truf.

[ngogirl]

It's apparent that no one here has studied real political science areas like voter behavior which is interdisciplinary with a good amount of psych. That's real political science. Not the theory garbage or even IR.

I did, and I'm sure others did as well. At my UG, you had to choose several tracks. I chose American Government and Political Parties, Political Theory, International Relations, and Comparative Governments.

I did study that material, but I found it incredibly boring. Then again, my work background is in public service and international human rights-there you go.

[ngogirl]

Isn't this kinda obvious? The average hard science student is smarter than the average lolsocialscience student.. thus slightly higher average LSAT.

lololol okay

I'm kinda baffled at how you could even question that.. The difference is quite apparent even just looking at true math majors vs math ed majors.. just not the same kind of people.. There's certainly some self selection of people with better analytic minds into the sciences.

Or you think that there is no correlation between intelligence and the LSAT?

Isn't this kinda obvious? The average hard science student is smarter than the average lolsocialscience student.. thus slightly higher average LSAT.

Since we're being competitive... the average hard science student sucks at writing and not being aspie.

not sure what an aspie or if that was an attack at me.. but sure, a science student will probably not be as good at creative writing (however obviously be better at technical writing.) Fortunately for everyone, the writing section on the LSAT isn't scored

I think the obvious compromise here is: Math and hard science majors are smarter in certain areas, liberal studies majors are smarter in others.
Analytically the former have the upper hand, but abstractly I'll take the latter.

And fwiw English and History were rather easy majors at U.C. Davis, and Poli Sci was considered to have one of the hardest lower division classes at the school (just one though, it was considered a pretty easy major altogether).

And can we all have a good laugh at the expense of Communication majors?

Are you an Aggie? So am I!

[Helicio]

I think Political Science with a Political Theory concentration is just as demanding as any philosophy major (which crosslists a lot of classes with the Political Science Department at my school). How hard PS is depends on the school. At my school you have to take 2 econ courses, a stats course, a minimum of 2 political theory courses, and an IR course with a dude who gives out As about as often as Sarah Palin says a sentence with correct syntax.

I think we're mistaking correlation for causation here. I don't think the majors determine the LSAT score so much as self-selection and other factors do.

[Band A Long]

Political Theory concentration

Can you explain what this is exactly? Never heard of it. Just curious

[boredatwork]

Political Theory concentration

Can you explain what this is exactly? Never heard of it. Just curious

The Degree: political science

Concentration within the degree: Political Theory
(plato, John Locke, machiavelli, etc)

[Helicio]

Political Theory concentration

Can you explain what this is exactly? Never heard of it. Just curious

It's basically philosophy with a political bend, which generally consists of normative arguments about what "the good" is, etc.

You read Aristotle, Locke, Plato, Machiavelli, Mill, Marx, Rousseau, Hobbes, Hume, Barber, Condorcet, etc.

[Junebugman]

Political Theory concentration

Can you explain what this is exactly? Never heard of it. Just curious

The Degree: political science

Concentration within the degree: Political Theory
(plato, John Locke, machiavelli, etc)

Yeah basically Poli Sci has several different sub-fields in them and Political Theory is one of them. The classes basically focus on political philosophy which tries to answer a lot of simple, yet very complex questions like "What does it mean to be a citizen", or even "What is democracy?" It's very similar to what philosophy majors would take, but the only difference is that philosophy classes *tend* to be more abstract, while PT classes *tend* to be more grounded.

[atomicfront]

If you want an easy major, major in Poli Sci or Education.

And History isn't? I think there is more to it than an easy major.

[bobbyh1919]

Just graduated with a Poly Sci degree and I have to step up for my major here. Many of my classmates, including me, chose the major because....gasp....we are interested in politics. Not necessarily going into politics, but at least studying it. It is certainly one of the easier majors from what I gather, but there were certainly challenging courses and challenging professors.

Poly Sci majors don't do well on the LSAT (on average) for a couple of reasons. One is that basically half of us will take the LSAT because we get to senior year and realize that we need to do something. That's not a great motivation to study. Second, many of my classmates were considering law among other options and thus were studying for the LSAT and GRE at the same time and also pursuing things like TFA.

I've always felt like the LSAT was its own unique challenge, something that you had to learn and master rather than just pick up using skills from college. Majoring in Poly Sci/Crim/PreLaw, at least IMO, doesn't really hurt your LSAT performance. It's more of a lack of focus and direction which produces a lack of studying and poor scores.

[FantasticMrFox]

political science professors at my school are notorious for being hard...hence why im not majoring it I think PS is like Econ but without the math; it's a major that people flock to when they don't exactly know what they want to do/are doing.

[boredatwork]

The sample size is the reason the poly sci score is what it is.

/thread

[SaintsTheMetal]

The sample size is the reason the poly sci score is what it is.

/thread

A much larger sample size is not going to appreciably improve accuracy. You really do not need to sample very many people to be able to quite confidently extrapolate that

[Micdiddy]

The sample size is the reason the poly sci score is what it is.

/thread

A much larger sample size is not going to appreciably improve accuracy. You really do not need to sample very many people to be able to quite confidently extrapolate that

Perhaps he meant something like more PolySci majors unwarrantedly take the LSAT without proper studying because they think it's something they are supposed to know or naturally going to score well at. Whereas students in other majors who take the LSAT are consciously veering off course and therefore think harder about their decision and make greater preparations?????

[bobbyh1919]

The sample size is the reason the poly sci score is what it is.

/thread

A much larger sample size is not going to appreciably improve accuracy. You really do not need to sample very many people to be able to quite confidently extrapolate that

Perhaps he meant something like more PolySci majors unwarrantedly take the LSAT without proper studying because they think it's something they are supposed to know or naturally going to score well at. Whereas students in other majors who take the LSAT are consciously veering off course and therefore think harder about their decision and make greater preparations?????

This sounds right. Not sure what sample size has to do with it.

[Micdiddy]

The sample size is the reason the poly sci score is what it is.

/thread

A much larger sample size is not going to appreciably improve accuracy. You really do not need to sample very many people to be able to quite confidently extrapolate that

Perhaps he meant something like more PolySci majors unwarrantedly take the LSAT without proper studying because they think it's something they are supposed to know or naturally going to score well at. Whereas students in other majors who take the LSAT are consciously veering off course and therefore think harder about their decision and make greater preparations?????

This sounds right. Not sure what sample size has to do with it.

Nothing. But I could see myself trying to put the above in a few short, simple words and accidentally misappropriating "sample size" to that explanation, hence why I thought perhaps this is what he meant. I could be completely wrong as to what he meant, just guessing and advancing my own hypothesis at the same time.

[atomicfront]

It could also be that polsci and pre-law students didnt bother to do any research before choosing their majors and thought you had to take one of those to get into law school. Same people on graduating didnt research the LSAT and see what it required. While someone who choose history realized they could take anything they wanted as an undergraduate degree. And also realized that preparing for the LSAT would be a good idea.

Tons of reasons that this could be happening but with just the list it is impossible to discover the correct one.

[Robbin Blue]

The sample size is the reason the poly sci score is what it is.

/thread

A much larger sample size is not going to appreciably improve accuracy. You really do not need to sample very many people to be able to quite confidently extrapolate that

But a much larger sample size would naturally provide a much wider variety of student; since the political science degree is generally considered both easy and a "pre-law" major, it would attract both students that are lazy and students that are incredibly driven. With fifteen thousand data points, it all averages out to just around the average for all LSAT takers.