---
title: "What can you do with a political science and pre-law degree?"
description: "15 careers political science and pre-law graduates commonly move into, with BLS median pay, projected growth and entry requirements for each."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/majors/political-science"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T07:20:09.337Z"
---

# What can you do with a political science and pre-law degree?

**What the degree involves:** Political theory, comparative government, public policy, and heavy reading and essays.

Political science is the classic pre-law major, though law school itself accepts almost any subject. The graduates who do not go to law school spread across policy, research, compliance, advocacy and campaign work, and several of the destinations below need a further degree.

15 common destinations, ordered most common first rather than highest paid first. 5 of 15 have a master's or a doctoral or professional degree as their BLS typical entry education, and 13 of 15 are projected to grow. A major is a body of study, not a job assignment: these are destinations of people who took the degree, not what the degree entitles anyone to.

| # | Occupation | Median annual wage | Projected change | Openings a year | Typical entry education |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Paralegal](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paralegal) | $62,890 | +0.2% | 39,300 | Associate's |
| 2 | [Market Research Analyst and Marketing Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/market-research-analyst-and-marketing-specialist) | $78,760 | +6.7% | 87,200 | Bachelor's |
| 3 | [Management Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/management-analyst) | $101,860 | +8.8% | 98,100 | Bachelor's |
| 4 | [Public Relations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/public-relations-specialist) | $74,750 | +4.8% | 27,600 | Bachelor's |
| 5 | [Compliance Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-officer) | $80,730 | +3.0% | 33,300 | Bachelor's |
| 6 | [Social and Community Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-community-service-manager) | $80,390 | +6.4% | 18,600 | Bachelor's |
| 7 | Fundraiser | $72,550 | +4.3% | 10,200 | Bachelor's |
| 8 | [Intelligence Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/intelligence-analyst) | $93,790 | -0.7% | 7,800 | High school |
| 9 | Urban and Regional Planner | $89,320 | +3.4% | 3,400 | Master's (graduate study) |
| 10 | Arbitrator, Mediator, and Conciliator | $75,530 | +4.3% | 300 | Bachelor's |
| 11 | [Lawyer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lawyer) | $159,670 | +4.1% | 31,500 | Doctorate (graduate study) |
| 12 | Political Scientist | $142,080 | -3.1% | 500 | Master's (graduate study) |
| 13 | [Equal Opportunity Representative and Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/equal-opportunity-representative-and-officer) | $80,730 | +3.0% | 33,300 | Bachelor's |
| 14 | Judge | $153,990 | +2.5% | 900 | Doctorate (graduate study) |
| 15 | Political Science Teacher, Postsecondary | $98,070 | +2.0% | 1,600 | Doctorate (graduate study) |

Wages are BLS OEWS, May 2025. Projected change, annual openings and typical entry education are BLS Employment Projections. Occupation descriptions are O\*NET. Nothing on this page is estimated and no figure is generated by an AI model.

Full record for any row, including wage percentiles and state-level pay: https://nuecareer.com/careers/{slug} or https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/{slug}. Other majors: https://nuecareer.com/careers/majors

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This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology