Colleges with an International Relations major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your experience with IR? Or your kid's? What college? What did you/they study within IR? Did you/they do a masters, Masters plus? Job?

Almost every college has this major. But it's really hard to get a job now that Trump has been cutting state dept and USAID and foreign service internships, jobs, even the foreign service exam. Go outside the US like Canada, UK or Europe.

Not really. There is a lot of variation in how colleges handle IR majors. They fall in three buckets:

1) a true IR standalone major
2) "international affairs" major - depending on the school this can be very similar to IR or quite different. Check the major requirements carefully.
3) IR track as part of poli sci major. If you want this, check how many IR courses are offered and how many profs have this specialty

We found that nearly every school has #3, many schools have #2, not too many have #1

My kid is interested in IR so we spent a lot of time looking at this.

15:15 again. just adding the caveat that sometimes bucket #2 is called something else like global studies or international studies

I’ve spent a lot of time researching this field. There might be differences in what individual departments focus on, but the terms relations, affairs, & studies cannot be relied on to accurately categorize them.

[Anonymous]

I have a Hamilton Luger grad (IU) who is now working in the EU after working 1 year in the US office. The kids are heavily recruited both via the program and their language program. The school allows you to do a BA or BS. The BS is more business focused and what my kid ended up doing. Lots of opportunities both here and abroad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another St Andrews IR grad here. Kennedy for masters and then consulting in a geo political group in switzeerlan helping companies with their international risk/exposure.

There are a lot more options for IR grads than just working for the Gov….just have to find your niche….

Kennedy as Harvard Kennedy? Was this straight from St Andrews IR?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of our neighbors graduted in May from VT with an IR + French degree (undergrad). She is employed.

That’s all I got.

VT is excellent for IR. They have several different majors and minors under that umbrella.

International Relations
International Studies
Political Science
National Security and Foreign Affairs
European and Transatlantic Studies
International Public Policy

https://liberalarts.vt.edu/departments-and-schools/department-of-political-science/academic-programs.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA has Foreign Affairs, not International Relations, but close.

There are always debates about international studies, affairs, & relations. The fact is that there are no strict differences among these terms. Each college has its own idea of what it is going to focus on. So don’t get hung up on the name of the department.

+1. It’s mostly a function of resources and professors. IR has historically been a subfield of political science, but also has developed quite an independent theoretical framework, and at the same time has become popular and something of a cash cow at the grad level (unlike political science generally). So there is no set way to do it—you could have a standalone department with enough IR-specific faculty and resources, keep it under political science to draw from shared administration and professors that naturally fall under political science (e.g., comparative politics), offer an IR-specific major that leans more heavily on IR theory and a separate international affairs major that offers more course flexibility, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I concur, Tufts had been a conspicuous omission, particularly from the short list of universities that was posted early in the topic.

Liberal arts colleges also can make excellent choices for IR. The OP may benefit from looking into Claremont McKenna, Middlebury, Hamilton, Colby, Connecticut College, Macalester and Richmond, to name a few.

My kid with this interest (also Econ) is headed to Middlebury. Midd has an International Policies & Economics major.
https://www.middlebury.edu/college/academics/international-politics-economics

Congratulations and best of luck to your child.

[Anonymous]

Google Gemini fwiw: Top undergraduate International Relations (IR) programs consistently feature elite universities like Georgetown (School of Foreign Service), Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins, alongside strong programs at Tufts, Columbia, UChicago, and George Washington University, often cited for rigorous academics, policy focus, and location advantages near D.C., offering paths to diplomacy, government, and global business.
——
I usually hear about Georgetown & Tufts for IR

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another St Andrews IR grad here. Kennedy for masters and then consulting in a geo political group in switzeerlan helping companies with their international risk/exposure.

There are a lot more options for IR grads than just working for the Gov….just have to find your niche….

Kennedy as Harvard Kennedy? Was this straight from St Andrews IR?

Yes. StA > Kennedy > back to the old world for work…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Google Gemini fwiw: Top undergraduate International Relations (IR) programs consistently feature elite universities like Georgetown (School of Foreign Service), Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins, alongside strong programs at Tufts, Columbia, UChicago, and George Washington University, often cited for rigorous academics, policy focus, and location advantages near D.C., offering paths to diplomacy, government, and global business.
——
I usually hear about Georgetown & Tufts for IR

Boo google. They left out American and several others.

[Anonymous]

My UVA kiddos Internatiknal relations u degrade at UVA, the public policy masters in same at the Batten School, then used career services to go to the State Department. https://career.virginia.edu/Students/Connect/PublicServiceandGovernment/InternationalAffairsandDiplomacy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My UVA kiddos Internatiknal relations u degrade at UVA, the public policy masters in same at the Batten School, then used career services to go to the State Department. https://career.virginia.edu/Students/Connect/PublicServiceandGovernment/InternationalAffairsandDiplomacy

What's left at the State Dept these days?

[Anonymous]

I was a Hopkins IR major and then went to law school. I’d highly recommitment the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another St Andrews IR grad here. Kennedy for masters and then consulting in a geo political group in switzeerlan helping companies with their international risk/exposure.

There are a lot more options for IR grads than just working for the Gov….just have to find your niche….

Kennedy as Harvard Kennedy? Was this straight from St Andrews IR?

Hate to burst your bubble, but the Kennedy school is not a tough admit, and definitely takes a back seat to Georgetown, SAIS, whatever they now call the Woodrow Wilson school, and even Columbia.

[Anonymous]

International Studies at Emory is a strong major. The Carter Center is there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your experience with IR? Or your kid's? What college? What did you/they study within IR? Did you/they do a masters, Masters plus? Job?

Almost every college has this major. But it's really hard to get a job now that Trump has been cutting state dept and USAID and foreign service internships, jobs, even the foreign service exam. Go outside the US like Canada, UK or Europe.

Not really. There is a lot of variation in how colleges handle IR majors. They fall in three buckets:

1) a true IR standalone major
2) "international affairs" major - depending on the school this can be very similar to IR or quite different. Check the major requirements carefully.
3) IR track as part of poli sci major. If you want this, check how many IR courses are offered and how many profs have this specialty

We found that nearly every school has #3, many schools have #2, not too many have #1

My kid is interested in IR so we spent a lot of time looking at this.

15:15 again. just adding the caveat that sometimes bucket #2 is called something else like global studies or international studies

I’ve spent a lot of time researching this field. There might be differences in what individual departments focus on, but the terms relations, affairs, & studies cannot be relied on to accurately categorize them.

To some extent yes, and I'd suggest digging in more by looking at the classes offered, the major requirements, and the number of profs in the dept. But Idid find that those with a true IR major were actually IR while those with other names (affairs, studies, etc) varied widely.