Why I Regret Majoring in Political Science

By Adrian Mendoza

A common refrain that you might expect to hear from Political Science majors is, “Majoring in Political Science made me realize I hate politics.” 

Photo Credit: https://dornsife.usc.edu/aire/roomreservations/ 

As a bright-eyed underclassman, I didn’t think this would be what I would become. I had dreams of becoming a political journalist with wide expertise. I would “speak truth to power.” I would “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” These are sentiments I hold a great respect for still, but the avenue that I see myself fulfilling these pursuits has changed dramatically.

The claim that one “doesn’t like politics” can come from many places; There is a privilege in being able to disavow politics, but there is also a privilege to be able to participate in politics and see your interests represented.

This is one of the many reasons I’ve grown disillusioned with the role of our political system in the creation of a more equitable society. Because while I, as a (mostly) White, queer person, can align myself with harm reduction mentality–that centers voting for the “lesser of two evils” to minimize the perceived harm done–and vote strategically to ensure that I and my love ones have access to state protections and gender-affirming care, I must carry the awareness that even the most liberal of our politicians support both my right to marry and make calls to strip unhoused people of the homes they’ve made for themselves. They march in Pride parades while remaining complicit in systematic police brutality towards Black and Brown people.

The instinct to this awareness is one that I make an effort to resist: to allow cynicism to turn into apathy. While I no longer hold the fiery passion I had for politics in high school, I refuse to cease caring about their effects. 

This is all to say that engaging with politics has become very difficult for me and is no longer a career path I feel confident in pursuing, but I still wish to be an informed and compassionate member of society.

Throughout the past three years, my majoring in Political Science and minoring in News Media and Society through Annenberg has meant that in every other class I am reminded that I am not consuming enough news. My knowledge of current events is too narrow, and too outdated. The time I spent pouring over news articles were the wrong articles. Why don’t I know the history and political climate of this country I’ve never heard of? Don’t I know the platform of this politician?

I could never keep up. And like my instinct towards the grim broken promises of the political system, my instinct to being told I’m not doing enough has been to stop trying at all. These instincts exacerbate the strain on my relationship with my major.

Maybe if I had a better understanding of where the gaps in my knowledge lie, I could redirect my efforts to filling them, but unfortunately, I don’t know what I don’t know.

My biggest complaint with the Political Science Department at USC is that there aren’t introductory government classes. Rather, Political Science majors are expected to come into their classes with prior knowledge and context to the abstract political theory they will study. This, in my experience, does not foster a strong desire to learn, but rather allows discouragement to fester.

In my last year at USC, I can boast a high GPA and overall success in my Political Science classes, but I still feel that I don’t know or understand so many things. I feel that I was somehow more knowledgeable as a high schooler, though I know that can’t be true. Maybe my major failed me, or maybe I failed my major.

It may also be true that my interests have simply shifted in these pivotal years of my development as an adult person. I’ve reconnected with the love of reading I had as a kid and through this love, I’ve learned the value of diverse representation in media and literature. While in high school, I happily spent my free time sat in the living room, watching presidential debates with my dad, I now spend much of my time pouring over the pages of a book and compiling lists of recommendations based on representation.

My issues with my major does not compel me to discourage anyone from pursuing Political Science if it is a genuine passion of theirs. Rather, I implore anyone considering majoring in Political Science to heed the advice I was given in my very first Political Science class: If you aren’t interested in the subject matter of your courses despite the daunting workload, maybe you should pursue a different major. But if you can drag yourself out of bed in the morning to attend that 8 a.m. and find that you actually care about what the professor has to say, then you are in the right place.

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