We hear from a lot of future political science majors early in high school. Maybe you’ve discovered your love of policy, diplomacy, and large-scale problem-solving by watching History Channel documentaries or dabbling in Model UN. Either way, the good news is that, as early as the summer after freshman year, you can start nurturing your poli-sci passion and building up your resume for a competitive edge on college applications.

Learn Everything You Can

Thanks to libraries and the internet, there’s no ceiling on the education you can give yourself from home. We recommend getting a feel for the field itself, its history, and current events by consuming a variety of media. For starters, you should keep up with contemporary politics — domestic updates, foreign affairs, and global events — by following reputable news sources reporting across the political spectrum and coverage locations. We’re talking the New York Times, NBC, CNN, NPR, AP, ProPublica, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, C-Span, and Wall Street Journal to start.

Next, consider some free online learning. Coursera, Open Yale Courses, Open University, Alison, and more offer online classes available to the public for general interest, education certificates, and in some cases college credit. Taking classes online — especially directly through universities or verifiably reputable virtual institutions — is an excellent way to start your political thought era.

Finally, though survey classes will certainly point you toward the crucial texts as you go along, you can always dig deeper by doing reading of your own. That might mean going to primary sources for philosophical conceptions of government (à la Plato’s Republic), political pamphlets and ideological statements of purpose (The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, perhaps), or modern contributions to political philosophy and ethics (for ex., Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism).

Try a Pre-College Program

If you’d like a more formal structure to your extracurricular education, summer programs are a wonderful way to develop your niche in political science. Intensive, immersive, and accredited, these programs allow high schoolers to learn at the collegiate level, make friends while unofficially networking, and get a glimpse of what it’s like to live on campus. There’s no shortage of rigorous summer programs, and you can check out the list of top programs we put together to kick-start your search.

Get Involved — Jobs, Internships, and Publications

“Get involved” is broad advice, we know. Essentially what we mean is this: find a way to take your study outside the classroom and apply it in real-world situations. While some fields don’t have a surplus of opportunities for teenagers, the political sphere is foaming at the mouth to get young people involved. Okay, sorry, that doesn’t sound particularly professional, but seriously — cheap labor? moldable minds who might turn into future votes and donations? boots on the ground to sway peers? Sign the people in your local government RIGHT UP!

To that end, you can volunteer (or in some cases, get paid positions working) for campaigns at the regional, state, national, and international level; you can join local grassroots movements, political clubs, or advocacy groups, and you can apply for an insane number of legitimate internships — like the U.S. Senate Page Program, state-level legislative page programs, or positions with the governor’s office, mayor’s office, city hall, and federal departments. You mean to tell me I can apply for an internship at the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of the Treasury? I SURE DO, nerds!

And, beyond these structured roles, you can start carving a name for yourself in political thought leadership. It would be amazing if you found a professor in political science willing to let you shadow them, work with their research team, or publish academically, but for most people at fifteen, that’s unlikely. However, nothing is stopping you from being a tastemaker and political thinker in your own community. Consider writing op-eds for local newspapers, pitching a column to your high school publication, or blogging about your political science journey as a global citizen of the 21st century. Leaving a digital trail and building your portfolio strengthens your resume, provides evidence of your long-standing interest in the field, and demonstrates work ethic and self-drive. HYFR (that’s “heck yeah, frickin’ right” if the censors are reading this).

Suffice it to say there are a lot of different paths you can take on your way to studying political science or public policy at the collegiate level, and this summer is the perfect time to start experimenting. And if any of your friends complain when you swear yourself in as President for a Day, tell them your college counselor made you do it. We’ve got you, kid.

If you’re interested in political science or related disciplines, get in touch with us here. It’s our job to assist students applying to the best universities in the world, and we’re good at it.