How I Chose My College Majors🫶🏽👩🏽‍🏫

Hey y’all😌 if this is hard to understand I apologize I have unmedicated ADHD👉🏽👈🏽

Choosing my degree plans were fairly easy to me, but I know a lot of people have no idea what they want to pursue🫣

I choose political science as my undergrad major because I really enjoy political theory and debating. For undergrad I attended the University of Arkansas Little Rock. UALR was one of my top choices, but I did get rejected from a few colleges. I would say my stats were above average I maintained at least a 3.0 gpa, played multiple sports, worked as a lifeguard most of hs, and I was a member of multiple clubs and president of one.

Right out of high school being a lawyer was my goal, but during Covid I realized that if I did not enjoy most aspects of being an attorney. Reading long contacts and filling loads of paperwork is not high on my list😐

I really just loved the advocacy part of the role. Unfortunately, I did not realize this until after I spent months and hundreds of dollars preparing for the LSAT😮‍💨 I ended up finding a job I really enjoyed right before I registered for the LSAT.

In this new role I worked as a College Career Adviser at my alma mater high school. I was an Americorps member as well as a member of the National College Advising Corps. Since this position was grant-funded you only have the opportunity to serve 2 years sometimes 3.

During my first year of service is when I realized there were so many types of advocacy and how important higher education access is. So, around october 2021 I started applying for grad school. I was mostly interested in public policy research programs and I found that Johns Hopkins University’s data analytics and policy masters was ranked as number 1. I however did not think that I had any chance of getting in so I applied to five other programs😐. This time around I luckily was accepted to all five and offered scholarships. JHU was the last school I found out accepted me. I was working as timer at swim meet after work.

I started the DAP program at JHU in the summer of 2022 and graduated in May 2024 with a 3.7 gpa. My capstone was over gentrification in higher education. I really did love my program and instructors. I feel like I learned so much, but still feel like I need more. The goal after I graduated was to work as a data analyst in higher ed, but the job market is sick😐 I was able to find a position working in university curriculum at a college in my home state, and I do enjoy it😊 However I do plan to start a political science phd in the future bc I really want to conduct my own policy research.

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