# Any advice for future Social Sciences student?



## personific (Dec 24, 2014)

Hey guys! I'm actually planning to start Social Sciences in university this September, but I want to know a bit about the subjects before jumping right into it. I'm a bit confused about whether I should choose Anthropology or Sociology as my major, so any advice?

I'm already pretty well versed in psychology and geography, but what can I expect from micro/macroeconomics and political science?


----------



## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

After reading your OP I'm afraid I can't help much. My advice was just going to be to volunteer and/or do internships in social science related roles if you can. Those have been the absolute most useful experiences for me in terms of getting real-world job and further schooling opportunities.


----------



## S33K3RZ (Oct 18, 2014)

personific said:


> Hey guys! I'm actually planning to start Social Sciences in university this September, but I want to know a bit about the subjects before jumping right into it. I'm a bit confused about whether I should choose Anthropology or Sociology as my major, so any advice?
> 
> I'm already pretty well versed in psychology and geography, but what can I expect from micro/macroeconomics and political science?


What is your passion? If nothing, what are you curious about?
What job do you want to do with your degree? 
Would this sort of career meet your financial needs?


----------



## bigstupidgrin (Sep 26, 2014)

I'm jealous. If I was 18 entering a university and had my head on straight at that time, I'd probably major in social sciences. For jobs, it depends on where you live/whether you want to travel for a job. To be honest, I would suspect most graduates work in academia teaching/publishing/researching, but I would research potential employers in your area. 

I wish micro/macroeconomics were taught in high schools. For macro you will get used to a lot of supply/demand graphs, hehe. Micro if I remember correctly is more about how individual businesses work. As for sociology/anthropology, research both, take classes in both (if possible), and you'll have to decide yourself.


----------



## personific (Dec 24, 2014)

angelfish said:


> My advice was just going to be to volunteer and/or do internships in social science related roles if you can. Those have been the absolute most useful experiences for me in terms of getting real-world job and further schooling opportunities.


I've done some volunteer work before and am signed up to help with the local environmental organization. I was specifically asking about what I can expect to learn in particular subjects, but thanks anyway.



bigstupidgrin said:


> I'm jealous. If I was 18 entering a university and had my head on straight at that time, I'd probably major in social sciences. For jobs, it depends on where you live/whether you want to travel for a job. To be honest, I would suspect most graduates work in academia teaching/publishing/researching, but I would research potential employers in your area.
> 
> I wish micro/macroeconomics were taught in high schools. For macro you will get used to a lot of supply/demand graphs, hehe. Micro if I remember correctly is more about how individual businesses work. As for sociology/anthropology, research both, take classes in both (if possible), and you'll have to decide yourself.


Thanks for the advice! I suppose sociology would interest me more. Based on my research, it relates more to current events. I reckon I'll enjoy microeconomics more then, but I'm stuck with taking both classes.


----------



## ninjahitsawall (Feb 1, 2013)

Hmm... I've just completed a psych degree and I'm looking for research or data analyst type positions (inside and outside academia.) So not sure how helpful this will be. But from what I've seen so far, most of what I would qualify for outside academia, has to do with either policy research or market research. Much of the latter is to do with social media and tech research. One position I am considering applying for is a social policy analyst. They ask for a degree in mainly social sciences fields, public health, statistics, computer science. It depends what you're going for, but the economics is probably useful, I always wanted to take an econ course but never had to, and it was hard to fit into my schedule. But a lot of qualifications list that. Having an edge with research, IT, computer science, or stats/applied math (non-classroom) experience would help too. Also... don't be one of those social science people that avoids math or research methods. Many employers seem to want stats people. 

If you do an internship, imo sometimes something more interdisciplinary will leave you open to more opportunities later, because your skill set will be less specialized. 

Whether you want to be doing highly political work or not is probably also something to consider.


----------



## Gossip Goat (Nov 19, 2013)

Internships & joining associations.


----------



## Father of Dragons (May 7, 2012)

Whichever specific discipline you take, I would recommend to load up on the quantitative and statistics courses! They will be without a doubt the hardest courses you will take, but they will also likely be the most useful skills you might take into a job after you graduate. After all, almost all academic research relies on statistics, and so does most kinds of policy, business analysis, etc.

As far as I know, Anthro really casts its view on a longer time frame than Sociology. I believe it has more of a historical focus. Sociology might be more useful in terms of career prospects, because it is probably the most practical besides Economics and PoliSci. Take my advice on this with a grain of salt though, I've never taken Soc or Anthro, and only a little bit of PoliSci.

As for what you can expect, Political science is really qualitative, having to do with concepts and sorts of philosophical frameworks for seeing, interpreting the world. There is a lot of emphasis on the practicalities of government and international relations, as might be expected. Econ is generally very technical, which can be unfortunate because it is hard to really flesh out a big picture understanding of how its mechanisms affect the real world unless you take a lot of Econ courses or read about it in your spare time. If you like math, Econ is the way to go, but it can be a little dry at times. I majored in Econ for a while and it can be pretty rough working through a concept, but incredibly rewarding once you get a grasp of it.

Again though, take my advice with a grain of salt! I would advise you to really dig through the internet to get a clearer picture of what you can expect. Also, if possible try finding course syllabi or descriptions at your school website, and maybe see if your professors have any papers posted. It's a good idea to get a taste of what you're going to be doing at the end of your academic journey before you start (I personally think that intro courses should have short walk-throughs of published papers to let students see what field X is really about, but that's a different discussion altogether.)


----------



## tangosthenes (Oct 29, 2011)

Honestly, I did economics and now I kind of view all of the social sciences as equally important to understanding things. Behavioral economics is a critical science for social design, although I think right now they're mostly demonstrating trivial, if surprising, things. Unfortunately, no one social science really makes me feel like I understand the big picture, it is only by combining insights from all that makes an analysis mean anything.

That said, the frameworks of each social science tend to obscure each other, so I understand why it's necessary to pick one. Insights from one field can still be translated into another field's point of view, but there are definite emphases. For example, a sociology or anthropology major would teach you large why's, why people culture in X way. Economics would teach you types of decisions people have to face and which also create culture, but not directly. Psychology would be somewhat of a defocused sociology, where the emphasis is on the decisions an individual makes that create culture, but mostly placing the emphasis outside of the framework of their economic lives, psychology is also heavily rooted in neuroscience, or at least it should be. 

In order of abstraction, I would probably place them 
neuroscience->psychology->economics->sociology->anthropology

I also greatly second knowing your way around data and programming before you get out of school.


----------



## ninjahitsawall (Feb 1, 2013)

tangosthenes said:


> Honestly, I did economics and now I kind of view all of the social sciences as equally important to understanding things. Behavioral economics is a critical science for social design, although I think right now they're mostly demonstrating trivial, if surprising, things. Unfortunately, no one social science really makes me feel like I understand the big picture, it is only by combining insights from all that makes an analysis mean anything.
> 
> That said, the frameworks of each social science tend to obscure each other, so I understand why it's necessary to pick one. Insights from one field can still be translated into another field's point of view, but there are definite emphases. For example, a sociology or anthropology major would teach you large why's, why people culture in X way. Economics would teach you types of decisions people have to face and which also create culture, but not directly. Psychology would be somewhat of a defocused sociology, where the emphasis is on the decisions an individual makes that create culture, but mostly placing the emphasis outside of the framework of their economic lives, psychology is also heavily rooted in neuroscience, or at least it should be.
> 
> ...


There's actually a field called "neuroeconomics" now (basically behavioral economics + biology) which essentially combines the first three you listed.


----------



## Solrac026 (Mar 6, 2012)

...don't major in social sciences if you want a job...


----------



## Ik3 (Mar 22, 2015)

Anthropology all the way. Real biologically proven facts, and a lot less political correctness bullshit.


----------



## cinnabun (Apr 11, 2011)

Economics was by far my favourite class. I started the course with much love for psychology, but in the end I hated it. 

I never did geography or anthro when I did social sciences, my subjects were: psychology, sociology (omg boring), history (awesome as fuck), economics (hell to the yes), and research methods (pain in the ass). Just be prepared for the workload, it can be a little overwhelming, and prepare yourself for the boring research methods classes .


----------

