I would give you two pieces of advice:
1. Never confuse school with education...never confuse education with vocation...never confuse having a good degree and a good job with being a good person and contributing to society.
2. If you're this interested in political science, I would advise against actually majoring in it. You will learn plenty and plenty about politics along the way. Just make sure you read the new classics - Hayek, Friedman, Coulter (hah!), the Federalist, and the Constitution.
The problem with polisci departments is they're stuffed full of profs who are essentially political exchange students from Washington. This makes them very liberal and bitterly idealistic, and insensitive to the actual processes of politics - or shamelessly committed to the bureaucracy.
I majored in engineering at a small technical college north of Boston (some place called MIT), and I learned so much about 'political science' by learning about large engineering projects, government funding, the nation's collegiate policies and listening to acerbic radio talkers like the great Howie Carr.
At about your age, I wanted to major in polisci and/or econ along with engineering. but politics is like car driving - practice, experience and connections beat a piece of paper any day. Keep the connections up, see what you can get involved in in Sacramento.
There are LOTS of opportunities in politics besides running for office or working as a staffer...I'm 23 and I could get involved in lobbying or policy if I wanted.
And, since it's gettign competitive, keep those grades and test scores up. you'll need every point you can get, but don't confuse it with your self-worth.
And for heaven's sake, don't let those crazy colege libs turn you!
Yes, exactly. I ran into many of those in my time. The ONLY poli sci prof that was interesting and worth listening to, where I studied, had actually run for office and knew what he was talking about ;-).