<p>Hello,
I am in year 13 (a high school senior) and I live in Geneva Switzerland, but go to an international school and hold US and Australian passports. I am planning on either going to the United States or Canada next year to persue International Relations. My dream job would be to be a diplomat overseas, a secretary of state or CIA administrator in the US government. In Canada, I am looking at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. Im not sure whether i posted this in the right place, but i was wondering if i would have a difficult time getting a job in the US government with a canadian degree, even at a prestigious university. Thank you for you assistance.</p>
<p>With such high ambitions, you’re not really going to do well for yourself with just an undergraduate degree, even if it’s from an American school. </p>
<p>Get your undergrad from wherever (most fun? cheapest?) then enter a terminal Master’s program at a policy school like Tufts or Georgetown. Conversely, do the same but a PhD program instead, which could give you a bit more flexibility.</p>
<p>You could always apply for the University of Toronto’s “Trinity One” program, which is notoriously difficult to enter. It’s the international relations program offered at the school for undergraduates. This can eventually lead you to the Munk School of Global Affairs which is a shoe-in for the UN and other NGOs (at least from personal experiences with friends graduating from their program - not my field).</p>
<p>Assuming you’re 13 and posting here, I can see high aspirations in you. If you work hard you could attend Trinity College at the University of Toronto. Admission cutoff is in the low 90s, which means you’ll need several A-Levels to get in. But good luck!</p>
<p>About ^:</p>
<p>1) It’s generally not wise to get a graduate degree at the same institution as your undergrad.</p>
<p>2) The Munk School, no matter how prestigious it is by Canadian standards, is simply not comparable to a program like Tufts. Using a phrase like “shoe-in for the UN” might lean towards the hyperbolic at best, and deceptive at worst.</p>
<p>1) Irrelevant. If you attend the best school in the nation there’s nothing wrong with attending…the best school in the nation, again. Hasn’t effected my prospective employment in the slightest. </p>
<p>2) The OP won’t have difficulty obtaining employment in any international relations field with a Munk degree. As someone that’s sat in classes at the school, I can vouch for the prestige associated with the program. I wouldn’t personally do it because diplomacy bores me, I’m just helping the OP choose something that is significantly cheaper and equally renowned as its American counterparts.</p>
<p>1) Actually, very relevant. Employers familiar with academia typically view applicants with degrees from the same university with suspicion, since the implicit suggestion is that the applicant received insider help in getting graduate admissions, couldn’t enter better programs, is limited in knowledge/skill sets proportional to the limited exposure to different faculties, etc. I’m happy to hear that your personal experience is different, but anecdotal evidence is statistically insignificant.</p>
<p>2) Again, I don’t doubt that you have positive impressions about your own school. But even you must realize that this is hardly a credible claim to objectivity. I don’t know who’s telling you that Munk is “equally renowned” as Tufts and Georgetown, and I’m also not sure why you’re bringing up your friend working for the UN when OP was pretty clear that she/he is interested in US federal positions. Quite simply, if one wants to go for a position within the American government, one goes to an American institution (for graduate studies.) It’s not a difficult nor counterfactual concept.</p>
<p>A degree in international relations/diplomacy applies to any nation. They are not state-specific. The OP could attend Bond, Cambridge or Sciences Po (the latter I would recommend over any American school since the campus is gorgeous and the OP is already in Europe, likely already knowing French being Swiss) and still find employment in America.</p>
<p>Are you even aware of what these degrees entail? Or are you basing your ‘knowledge’ off more university ‘rankings’ and Google searches? In actuality, the OP’s best choice for a school would be Johns Hopkins University. But I’ll let you Google why, or the OP can just fire me a private message when they’re online next.</p>
<p>Really! And you think your monopolistic claim to knowledge, while actually only based on anecdote and conjecture, makes you credible? </p>
<p>The OP has stated that she/he is pursuing undergraduate education in the US or Canada. OP can go to your beloved UoT if she/he wishes, or to UBC. Both will be fine for undergraduate studies. For a graduate degree, I reiterate my recommendation for programs such as Tufts or Georgetown, but John Hopkins, Harvard, or Stanford are obviously just as good institutions as well.</p>