what did obama study in school?
Political Science
contradiction
 As a Harvard undergraduate , Kaczynski was among twenty @-@ two students who were research subjects in ethically questionable experiments conducted by psychology professor Henry Murray from late 1959 to early 1962 . 

entailment
 After high school , Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College . In February 1981 , Obama made his first public speech , calling for Occidental to participate in the disinvestment from South Africa in response to that nation 's policy of apartheid . In mid @-@ 1981 , Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and half @-@ sister Maya , and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks . Later in 1981 , he transferred as a junior to Columbia College , Columbia University , in New York City , where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations and lived off @-@ campus on West 109th Street . He graduated with a BA degree in 1983 and worked for a year at the Business International Corporation , then at the New York Public Interest Research Group . In 1985 , Obama was among the leaders of May Day efforts to bring attention to the New York City Subway system , which was in a bad condition at the time . Obama traveled to several subway stations to get people to sign letters addressed to local officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , and was photographed at the City College subway station holding a sign protesting against the system 's condition . 

neutral
 To meet a science requirement , Marian took psychology because , as she later explained , " I thought it the least painful science . " As a straight A student , she was recommended for a highly selective psychology class taught by Skinner ( the first of what Skinner later called " pro @-@ seminars " ) , under whom she studied along with George Collier , W. K. Estes , Norman Guttman , Kenneth MacCorquodale , Paul Everett Meehl , and others bound for later fame in their field . With its emphasis on Skinner 's new operant training techniques , the course inspired Marian to major in psychology with a minor in child psychology and to study operant conditioning . 

entailment
 Obama entered Harvard Law School in the fall of 1988 , living in nearby Somerville , Massachusetts . He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year , president of the journal in his second year , and research assistant to the constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe while at Harvard for two years . During his summers , he returned to Chicago , where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990 . After graduating with a JD degree magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991 , he returned to Chicago . Obama 's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations , which evolved into a personal memoir . The manuscript was published in mid @-@ 1995 as Dreams from My Father . 

entailment
 Besides his native English , Obama speaks some basic Indonesian , having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta . He plays basketball , a sport he participated in as a member of his high school 's varsity team ; he is left @-@ handed . 
