The Policy Studies Major helps undergraduates build professional skills through community service and research. The interdisciplinary program leads to a BA in the College of Arts and Sciences and The Maxwell School. Similar majors are offered at Duke University, the University of North Carolina, Swarthmore College and Brown University. The academic requirements for the policy studies major at Syracuse University appear on the next page.
The major started in 1976. Today, despite its strict entrance requirements, it is the second largest interdisciplinary major in the College of Arts and Sciences. The primary goal of the major is to develop the skills to do well professionally and to do good as a active citizen. The skills are described in 10 Things Employers Want You to Learn in College available in the library and at the bookstore.
Policy studies majors are high academic achievers:
· The majority winners of the prestigious Truman Scholarship Competition (providing $30,000 for graduate school) from Syracuse University have been policy studies majors.
· Teach for America accepts at least one and as many as three majors every year.
· On average every year, six out of the 35 Remembrance Scholars are policy studies majors.
· More than 50% of policy studies majors graduate cum laude or higher every year.
· Two majors won $5,000 awards from the Honors Program to conduct research for their Honors Thesis in 2003.
Policy studies majors get into top rated law and graduate programs. Graduates with a degree in policy studies have been admitted to several prestigious graduate programs including: Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley and Georgetown University law schools and Maxwell School’s MPA program, New York University, John Hopkins School of Public Health, Princeton University, Harvard, the Wharton School of UPenn and the University of Southern California.
Policy studies majors get good jobs right out of college. Employers of policy studies majors include: consulting companies such as, Deloitte-Touche and Accenture; legislative aides in Washington, D.C. and state legislatures; administrators for non-profit organizations like the United Way and the Children’s Defense Fund; case workers for the Department of Social Services; researchers for environmental organizations; writers for trade publications; sales representatives; analysts for corporations like IBM and lobby groups like the National Health Coalition; managers in large multinationals like GE, United Technologies and the Walt Disney Company; and Goldman Sachs. About 10% of the graduates join Teach for America, the Peace Corps, or Americorp.
Consult the PAF website http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/paf/ProspectiveStudents.htm to find testimonials from current students as well as alumni.