I am a student at the University of South Florida majoring in biomedical sciences who is considering transferring to Florida State University or an OOS top college to major in political science/international studies. I am hoping to become a foreign policy analyst in positions where I can make the greatest impact-- senior analysis positions in top think tanks like CSIS or assistant positions to congressmen.
Is it worth transferring to a “name-brand” school like American U (top 10 world wide in international studies), Cornell, UVA or the like?
FSU is located in Tallahasse, top 40 for political science, #16 for public affairs, and #28 for public policy analysis
USF is in Tampa, with no notable poli-sci or international studies rankings
Actually, foreign policy needs scientists. Stick to a science major, or double major. Make sure to bring your foreign language skills to the highest level you can, and if possible focus on regions of the world where expertise is needed: Mali/French, Kenya+Nigeria/Swahili, Pakistan/Urdu, Iran/Farsi, Venezuelaor Argentina/Spanish, Brazil/Portuguese…) and study in that area of the world - you may want to transfer if USF doesn’t offer a study abroad program that allows you to increase your skills in these areas/languages.
International Relations + science + Foreign language > Political science + international studies.
Then, once you’ve got this down, apply for a Master’s degree from JHU, American, Georgetown, GWU, Tufts.
What’s your budget? What’s your GPA? What classes have you taken so far?
This is not your first thread on this…
@intparent sorry. A little while ago when this was posted, either this one or the other one, one of them had been posted long enough earlier so that it was not in the like 25 most recently replied threads. I’d forgotten that it was posted, and decided to make a new thread.
@myos1634 my GPA is 4.0. I’ve taken biology 1, chem 2, physics 1, and an honors theory of knowledge course. I have credit through AP/IB up to bio 2, chem 2, and a number of other classes like government, economics, history, english, and etc. I’m taking organic 1, physics 2, cell bio (course after bio 2), and biopsychology.
You have asked essentially the same question 3 times now. @TopTier gave you a truly excellent answer on the first one. In fact, you asked this one just 3 hours after the first one.
As @TopTier has already pointed out - several times - employers are not always familiar with reputations of technical disciplines, and you are referring to the rankings of graduate programs. The disciplinary rankings really don’t have a whole lot of bearing on where you should go for undergrad.
Furthermore, the kinds of jobs you want - senior policy analysis, foreign policy analysis - really require a master’s anyway. Assisting a Congress member usually requires some kind of connection or ridiculous luck when applying for an internship (usually the former).
So since you need a master’s to get the jobs you want to do, it’s probably not worth it to pay sticker price to transfer into American. Just do your best at USF or Florida State (it really doesn’t matter which one, although Florida State has more name recognition), do some internships, get 2-3 years of work experience doing something else policy-related - you can be a research assistant at a think tank or nonprofit - and then go to a top-tier public policy master’s program at a really high-ranked school. That’s who gets those senior policy analysis jobs. Many of them have PhDs.
Transferring into Cornell or UVa is difficult.