What is a good college for majoring in Criminal Justice?

After getting a criminal justice degree, in what order should I do things?

• When I go to college, I am planning on studying, and majoring in, criminal justice. However, I'm not quite sure where to go from there... I was considering probably starting off with Texas state trooper, to gain basic law enforcement experience. Then I was considering going for either Border Patrol (tracking experience) or Texas Ranger (investigative experience). After all that, which together I'm guessing would be around five or six years, I was planning on applying for the FBI, Dallas field office in particular. But I'm not quite sure entirely how it should work out. See, I'm not sure whether I should start out with state trooper, or whether I should should shoot for another, higher agency right off the bat. In addition, I'm still not sure whether I should try for Border Patrol, Texas Ranger, or both. The latter, I think, wouldn't work all that well because it would take up a large overall portion of my life, and I believe that FBI agents must retire, regardless, at age 58, so I wouldn't have too much time with them. Or, should I do neither one of those options, and try something else instead? I'd like to have at least a little experience before shooting for the FBI, but I'm not sure where to start or how to progress. Any advice or suggestions would be awesome. Thanks!

• Answer:

  Well a criminal justice degree will not help you get into the FBI even if you did all those other things. If you do all you say there is no way you will be young enough to apply for FBI, must be 36 or younger. You are correct about age 58 forced retirement. If you really think it is easy to get into Tx DPS your nuts. Border patrol is much easier to get into. Lots use Border Patrol as a stepping stone into other Fed LE service. If you then have the right education and prove your self a super excellent officer in border patrol you may have a slight chance for FBI. The right education is being able to speak and write in a number of languages, a degree in law and a degree in accounting or becoming a CPA. Right now DPS is only hiring experienced officers. They then send them to a very shortened DPS Academy of only 8 weeks. They have no plans on hiring any real recruits since there is a huge number of proven experienced officers looking for jobs right now. No idea on who sold you on CJ as a major if you want to be a cop. CJ is not for potential cops, just an easy course of instruction and possible for someone who wants to try to be a civilian administer to get a feel for the system.