I went to a SLAC that feeds a lot of grads into IR and public service in DC. The program I graduated from was probably overkill but it required 2-3 semesters of statistics and/or statistical analysis, and one of those had to be specific to political science (ie polling). I don’t remember the specifics as it was a long time ago. There was also an economics requirement beyond the 100 level, and I don’t recall if it was by requirement or choice, but some of my classes got into quantitative coursework, though I never took econometrics for my statistics requirement. In addition, there was a requirement to go through a public policy analysis class which involved quantitative work as it had a special focus on Medicare.

From all of that coursework, I started out on 2nd base relative to peers entering public service. The work that most benefitted me (to this day) is the Econ work and that I developed a good understanding of study design, results, and how to interpret and apply this to my work, how to boil down complex concepts from studies into accurate but easy to understand sound bytes, etc. You can’t really get that without some practical experience.


So, I would say to answer your question:

Start with statistics and economics, then move into coursework that applies statistics and economics to international relations and/or public policy. If your child is good at math, this should be a breeze.

Too many people in my field repeat statistics, findings, etc without actually understanding the results, limitations, or study design and it shows. An oversimplified example of this was in 2016 when everyone thought Clinton was absolutely going to win and 538 gave her a 70% chance. You can hate or love Nate Silver, but I am astounded to this day by the number of people who didn’t understand that a 30% chance of winning for Trump was substantial.


I’ve been very successful and I think in part it’s because I can have semi-informed conversations with subject matter experts across a range of specialties and actually understand what I’m hearing, which helps me learn the material and apply it to my work. I credit a lot of that to the foundational work I had across disciplines, but especially in the quantitative world.

That said, it’s never come up in an interview.

Anonymous wrote:So much of math can now easily be plugged into math problem solving calculators. Watching my son solve pre-calculus and AP statistics math problems by hand then he double checks the answers by using online calculators/problem solving apps. He doesn’t understand why so much time he still spent doing calculations by hand and not more time problem solving bigger ideas that involve applying the concepts they are learning then using math apps to do the tedious math.

Anonymous wrote:So much of math can now easily be plugged into math problem solving calculators. Watching my son solve pre-calculus and AP statistics math problems by hand then he double checks the answers by using online calculators/problem solving apps. He doesn’t understand why so much time he still spent doing calculations by hand and not more time problem solving bigger ideas that involve applying the concepts they are learning then using math apps to do the tedious math.

Don't knock the learning of hand calculations for stats. I had a year of stats just like that in my PhD program before I used software. It set me up to teach myself other quant methods.

So much of math can now easily be plugged into math problem solving calculators. Watching my son solve pre-calculus and AP statistics math problems by hand then he double checks the answers by using online calculators/problem solving apps. He doesn’t understand why so much time he still spent doing calculations by hand and not more time problem solving bigger ideas that involve applying the concepts they are learning then using math apps to do the tedious math.

agree with the above poster. something off there for all of those econ requirements for an IR degree unless she is is sub-specializing in int’l econ (which would seem a very narrow undergrad degree).

Anonymous wrote:I have an IR major at WM. She is required to take 5 Econ classes to get an IR degree: macro, micro, intermediate and advanced macro OR intro and advanced micro and comparative econ. Plus, research methods is also required. The Econ classes, in turn, have required a semester of stats, and she also ended up retaking Calc to help with the advanced Econ. And somewhere in there a semester of data science, which was helpful, but not required. This isn’t to minor in Econ or get a leg up. In fact, her second major is a Critical foreign language. This is just to get a basic IR the degree. So, that’s 8-9 semesters of quant heavy class work for the major.

That seems like an absolute waste unless she plans to go into political science or some sort of econ/quantitative field.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much do people coming out of a good IR program like say WM make a year? What do they do except gov work? are these jobs tied to DC?

35-45 k depending on the think tank or go on the hill

It’s a lot more if they don’t want to do ir related jobs and go be a consultant at Deloitte

Is this real? They make minimum wage?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much do people coming out of a good IR program like say WM make a year? What do they do except gov work? are these jobs tied to DC?

35-45 k depending on the think tank or go on the hill

It’s a lot more if they don’t want to do ir related jobs and go be a consultant at Deloitte

Seems like more of who you know then what you know...what is an IR consultant at Deloitte? and what do they make?

I like the OP have a well defined career and so does the dad and I really do not understand 75 percent of these careers and degrees people are going into...

Yes

For the most part

Name on degrees matters also

Not “ir consultant at Deloitte” but a regular one like the typical business consultants they hire every year and churn thru

Not sure how much they pay for entry level for these days — lotta Deloitte peeps on here can chime in

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much do people coming out of a good IR program like say WM make a year? What do they do except gov work? are these jobs tied to DC?

35-45 k depending on the think tank or go on the hill

It’s a lot more if they don’t want to do ir related jobs and go be a consultant at Deloitte

Seems like more of who you know then what you know...what is an IR consultant at Deloitte? and what do they make?
I like the OP have a well defined career and so does the dad and I really do not understand 75 percent of these careers and degrees people are going into...