Posted on Jun 2, 2016
I'm looking for opinions on how to proceed with my education. Minor or Master's? Do I need an internship when I've been deployed?
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I am in my junior year of my undergraduate in International Politics at Penn State. I have been able to maintain a 3.7 GPA so far, and now that I am getting close to completion, I am wondering where to go from here. My major is in International Politics, with a specialization in International Relations; I am wondering if I should pursue getting a minor in Business Administration (or something in that field) or continue with my plan to complete the major and go for a master's in Community and Economic Development. I have just enough time left on my GI Bill to complete my BA and possibly finish my Master's, but I don't think I have enough to do both the minor and the master's.
Mainly, I am just looking for opinions on what the best use of my time would be. Are minors something that job recruiters will look at? Should I focus on doing another internship (I served as a volunteer state coordinator for a political campaign this year, managing over 2000 volunteers and a large social media campaign)? Or, would my original plan be best - to focus on my major and complete my masters under the GI Bill?
Mainly, I am just looking for opinions on what the best use of my time would be. Are minors something that job recruiters will look at? Should I focus on doing another internship (I served as a volunteer state coordinator for a political campaign this year, managing over 2000 volunteers and a large social media campaign)? Or, would my original plan be best - to focus on my major and complete my masters under the GI Bill?
Education
International Politics
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 14
A minor will differentiate you, but a graduate degree will differentiate you more (and even more favorably, with the added benefit of upward mobility). Go up (higher degree), not down (minor).
Internships always help if you're going into a career field in which you don't already have work experience. If you have already done one internship, and a second would come at the expense of not being able to get a graduate degree, I'd forego the second internship and go for the graduate degree.
Internships always help if you're going into a career field in which you don't already have work experience. If you have already done one internship, and a second would come at the expense of not being able to get a graduate degree, I'd forego the second internship and go for the graduate degree.
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SPC(P) (Join to see)
Thanks for your comment LTC Kevin B.! Should I be trying to find an internship in the general area, or something specific to what I want to do (which may be harder to find)?
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LTC Kevin B.
SPC(P) (Join to see) - I'd recommend trying to do an internship as close as possible to what you want to do down the road. With that being said, a good internship experience is better than no internship experience at all. You may have to accept an 80% solution if you can't find a 100% solution. I run into this all of the time with my grad students (in a Master of Health Administration program). I had one student who kept holding out for an internship in a children's hospital. He eventually settled on an internship in a general hospital because he was at risk of not getting one at all.
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SPC(P) (Join to see) The first question I would ask is what do you want to do? That will determine the path to success.
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SPC(P) (Join to see)
LTC (Join to see) Thanks for your response. To be honest, that's been a question I haven't quite been able to answer myself. My original intent (which I was very enthusiastic about at the start) was to pursue working as a Economic Development adviser to the UN. Over the last year or so, I have somewhat lost the enthusiasm for that. At this point, I am trying to broaden my possibilities. My thoughts are definitely working in the field of government/politics policy advising. There have been many careers that have come across throughout this process that have interested me, some have been on the private sector doing work relating to government and public affairs, but a former battle buddy and I are also toying with the idea of putting together a management consulting firm focusing on NGO's and GO's.
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SGT David Silva
Have you thought about working for the State Department? With your degree you could do all kinds of stuff. You'd gain a lot of good experience that would be useful if you wanted to set up an NGO later on down the road
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SGT David Silva
I would also agree with LTC Frank. Have a plan before you go after another degree and use up the benefits you got left. It's not even a bad thing to wait until later to go after that degree once you have a better idea of what you'd want to do
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Look also at student Veterans of America, excellemtmorgnztn, if you haven't already, just a thought .
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