<p>I want to double major in Psychology and International Studies. My sub-plan for International Studies would be called "International Security, Norms, and Cooperation." I would also be studying the French language within the International Studies major, with emphasis on France and Francophone countries. Does anyone have any insight into what I could do with this combination?</p>
<p>I’m inclined to say grad school in one of them. A double major in these fields sounds like a lot of work! That’s for sure. I’m pretty sure the general advice for any IR/IS major is to get plenty of meaningful government internships.</p>
<p>I really don’t think those are a good pairing, at least not for job potential.</p>
<p>Something like IT/IR or Business/IR would be much more marketable. Psych/IR are just to different to find a niche for.</p>
<p>If you REALLY want to do a double major like this, IR/Sociology would probably be a better fit, but I still don’t like it.</p>
<p>If I saw a double Psych/IR major apply for a job, I would think that they were confused about what they wanted to do, and incapable of making decisions.</p>
<p>Unless he’s considering grad school for psychology, or any profession that requires psychology study, then he probably shouldn’t do a double major in this- I agree.</p>
<p>Actually, why wouldn’t psychology and IR be a good combination?</p>
<p>The areas of social and political psychology study many relevant topics for international relations. Psychology certainly would have something to say about topics like risk & decision-making, groupthink, leadership, the mindset of terrorists, why people engage in actions like genocide, cross-cultural understanding/misunderstanding, ethnic group stereotypes, propaganda, sanctions/incentives, etc.</p>
<p>Employers won’t look at it like that.</p>
<p>As far as things like terrorism, genocide, cultural-understanding, ect. - The government has experts in things like that, PHD’s, ect. I mean, what kind of input is a recent college grad going to have?</p>
<p>Combine the IR degree with something more practical, like IT. That will help you get a job in government pretty quickly.</p>
<p>IR combines history, political science, and economics. So essentially, the major in IR still gives you plenty of different courses to choose from. It’s a nice major for somebody who’s on the fence in any of those fields.</p>
<p>IR is fine, Psych is fine - but together they don’t work really well.</p>
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<li>^^^ For that matter, then, what kind of an input is a recent college grad going to have with an IR major? You be better off just doing the IT major or a getting a solid grounding in a traditional discipline, like economics, than the scattered approach of IR.</li>
<li>There is no reason why someone cannot double major in two seemingly unrelated fields. It might open up options to enter two unrelated career paths that two related double majors do not.</li>
<li>Both IR and psychology are liberal arts majors. If you’re interested in both areas, go for it. Yes, if you want to enhance employability, you might consider combining one of these major with a more applied major. That could be IT, but IT in itself is just as unrelated to IR in subject matter as psychology seems to be.</li>
</ol>
<p>Well, IT/CS is a great skill to have for any type of work, including government - which is about all there is for IR majors.</p>
<p>Lots of IR majors want to work as analysts, IT/CS is a very good major to become an analyst or gain entry level positions at government agencies.</p>
<p>Other good majors to combine with IR is CS, Statistics, Business, Math, or any hard science.</p>
<p>The Op stated that their focus will be International Security, which must mean he/she is interested in the government or military. Psych doesn’t have an real use in the government, not unless you want to work as a social worker or probation officer (or something else like that).</p>
<p>Personally if I was the OP I would double in IR and Finance, or IR and CS.</p>
<p>I’ll agree that IT/CS improves employability, both in the public and private sectors.</p>
<p>I think employability is definitely something that all the wannabe ambassadors in IR need to think about.</p>
<p>IT, may or may not be relevant to IR, depending, of course, on the available position one is seeking. Analyst is a broad term that covers many different specializations.</p>
<p>Psychology has its uses, though less so at the bachelor’s level.</p>
<p>It doesn’t need to be relevant to IR, it just needs to provide skills you can bring to the table.</p>
<p>You really can’t get IR “skills” in college, they typically come from work experiences. So you need to find other ways to make yourself employable.</p>
<p>Quite agree.</p>
<p>^^ Just to throw my 2 cents in:</p>
<p>Employers in fields like federal law enforcement (FBI’s BSU, NCIS, and the Secret Service, even) consider this a pretty good combination (adding in a graduate degree, of course). Profiling crimes/criminals/terrorists and having a knowledge of a region can help a lot for areas like counterterrorism…if that’s what you’re looking at.</p>
<p>Hope this helps a bit</p>
<p>^^^^^^ I work in the field that you are referencing and I disagree with you.</p>
<p>The federal government cares very little about majors. It’s basically a check-mark in the box when filling out a job application.</p>
<p>The only degrees that will really set you apart are degrees like Computer Science/IT, Biology/hard science, or Language (with fluency).</p>
<p>The old joke about you can have a degree in “basket weaving” is pretty true, they don’t care. People in the FBI, USSS, DEA (let’s just say 1811 & 0132/1802/1801) have degrees from all sorts of different disciplines, none really stick out more than the other.</p>
<p>If my goal was to fork for the FBI/USSS, I’d probably major in Computer Science or Accounting.</p>
<p>^^ I agree with what you said. Maybe I wasn’t very clear with my original post.</p>
<p>Almost any major can get you in, and the majors you listed ^^ set applicants apart, true. But if you have specialized training/experience in a field (region related intelligence, criminal profiling)–which could come from certain majors/grad degrees-- that will help you be more qualified, etc., with specific jobs available to (let’s just say) 1811s, or even 0132s. (I’m not as sure about the others). </p>
<p>(I’ve heard from NUMEROUS sources that a combination such as this will help with counterterrosim/counterintel lines of work. It’s not a shoe-in, but still…)</p>
<p>From all I’ve heard, Accounting seems to be the ‘go to major’ for this line of work. My advice? Go above and beyond. (Do this, then go for an IR grad degree…etc.) From my experience it seems that some people try to bank on this major being the one that’ll get them in, and the more people that think that, the less likely it will be true.</p>
<p>IMO</p>
<p>IR is a major that I’ve been considering, but I feel if somebody really wants to major in IR, they have to take full advantage of the program’s opportunities and resources. It’s no good majoring in IR if you’re not going to attain full fluency in a language, or not study abroad in the area you want to specialize in during school and subsequently the workforce. Undergrads in IR really have to bust their asses and show passion for their major, beyond their coursework. It seems like many of them expect to take the major, get moderate knowledge of a language, study abroad for a semester in a cool place they’ve always wanted to go, and they consider themselves ready for diplomacy.</p>
<p>Almost any major can get you in, and the majors you listed ^^ set applicants apart, true. But if you have specialized training/experience in a field (region related intelligence, criminal profiling)–which could come from certain majors/grad degrees-- that will help you be more qualified, etc., with specific jobs available to (let’s just say) 1811s, or even 0132s. (I’m not as sure about the others). </p>
<p>(I’ve heard from NUMEROUS sources that a combination such as this will help with counterterrosim/counterintel lines of work. It’s not a shoe-in, but still…) ~ Tennis28</p>
<hr>
<p>You can’t get any specialized training from a Liberal Arts major, at least not in this sort of field. All the specialized training and experience that makes you competitive is government or military issued, and will typically require a clearance - which you can’t get from a major.</p>
<p>As I said, in 95% of the cases, it’s just a check in the box. A BA/BS is a minimum requirement, if you have one (in any field), you can check that box and move on to the next application questions.</p>
<p>What makes you competitive for 1811/0132 is your self-assessments and KSA’s. Degrees just determine what GS level you get hired at.</p>
<p>The only time a degree really makes you stand out is if you have advanced degrees with lots of research experience and they have a need for that knowledge - which is rare, and even then, a BA wouldn’t provide you with that sort of expertise. An IR major is just a general LA degree, and provides no real skill or expertise.</p>
<p>I doubt you have much experience in anything counter-terrorism/counter-intel (which are two separate things with two separate skill sets), so I’m not sure you should be providing advice.</p>
<p>If I need counter-terrorism operations - I will go to the Navy SEALS or SF, not some IR major.</p>
<p>A degree is just a check mark and the subject it’s in is really irrelevant in this sort of work (government/intel), what sets you a part is your work experience and accumulated skills.</p>
<p>The best pathway is the military, local/state law enforcement, and perhaps in advanced degrees with extensive research experience.</p>
<p>Psych is about as useless as it comes to these sorts of jobs, sorry. It would be much better to major in CS or Accounting - those give you skills they need (nearly every criminal investigations know involves computers and accounting).</p>
<p>Now, if you want to go into Military Intelligence as an Officer, IR is a great pick.</p>
<p>It all depends on the route you wish to take.</p>
<p>P.S. Law school is another great route into the type of jobs being discussed, Statistics is also good.</p>
<p>^^^
Counter-terrorism: I didn’t mean for the Ops, exactly. Setting the Ops in motion requires lots of intel, which requires that a person know the region they are talking about. They’re not just going to send a random agent into the heart of Russia with no experience or knowledge and expect them to gather reliable, relevant intel, etc… (This is what I was alluding to)</p>
<p>And actually, as I mentioned in my first post, Psych is NOT useless for ALL fed. gov. jobs. Take the FBI’s BSU for example:</p>
<p>“Who makes up the unit.
Supervisory special agents and veteran police officers with advanced degrees in the behavioral science disciplines of <strong>psychology</strong>, criminology, sociology, and conflict resolution. The unit also includes a criminologist, clinical psychologist, research/crime analysts, and management analyst.” (admittedly, an advanced degree is needed, but I said that one would be needed anyway).</p>
<p>^Accounting would be pretty useless for (profiling) jobs like these^</p>
<p>I agree with zapfino’s earlier post: "The areas of social and political psychology study many relevant topics for international relations. Psychology certainly would have something to say about topics like risk & decision-making, groupthink, leadership, the mindset of terrorists, why people engage in actions like genocide, cross-cultural understanding/misunderstanding, ethnic group stereotypes, propaganda, sanctions/incentives, etc. "</p>
<p>Just saying :)<br>
To the original poster: Good Luck with the future and all you do</p>
<p>Peace</p>
<p>Counter-terrorism: I didn’t mean for the Ops, exactly. Setting the Ops in motion requires lots of intel, which requires that a person know the region they are talking about. They’re not just going to send a random agent into the heart of Russia with no experience or knowledge and expect them to gather reliable, relevant intel, etc… (This is what I was alluding to)</p>
<p>And actually, as I mentioned in my first post, Psych is NOT useless for ALL fed. gov. jobs. Take the FBI’s BSU for example:</p>
<p>“Who makes up the unit.
Supervisory special agents and veteran police officers with advanced degrees in the behavioral science disciplines of <strong>psychology</strong>, criminology, sociology, and conflict resolution. The unit also includes a criminologist, clinical psychologist, research/crime analysts, and management analyst.” (admittedly, an advanced degree is needed, but I said that one would be needed anyway).</p>
<p>^Accounting would be pretty useless for (profiling) jobs like these^ ~ Tennis28</p>
<hr>
<p>With all due respect, you wouldn’t know an “OP” if it sat down on your face and started to wiggle, nor would you know the efforts involved to plan one. So let’s refrain from giving advice about things we don’t know squat about.</p>
<p>Secondly, I have no idea why you are ever referencing something like the FBI’s BSU. The BSU is a highly specialized unit and comprises an extremely small percentage of federal agents.</p>
<p>However, before you can even get assigned to a specialized unit, first you need to be hired as an agent. To get hired, you need to qualify under the following critical skills.</p>
<p>Accounting
Finance
Computer Science/Information Technology Expertise
Engineering Expertise
Foreign Language(s) Proficiency
Intelligence Experience
Law Experience
Law Enforcement or Other Investigative Experience
Military Experience
Physical Sciences Expertise
Diversified Experience
Tactical Operations/Special Forces </p>
<p>[Federal</a> Bureau of Investigation](<a href=“http://www.fbijobs.gov/1112.asp]Federal”>http://www.fbijobs.gov/1112.asp)</p>
<p>These skills change depending on the need for the agency, but I have never seen psychology listed.</p>
<p>The only thing that an IR major would really provide you with is a chance to apply under intelligence. That doesn’t mean you are competitive, or that you will even more forward in the process. All it means is they MIGHT accept your application for review.</p>
<p>Without applicable work experience, degrees don’t mean squat. And once you get the right experience, they don’t care what your degree is in, unless it’s for a field like Accounting, Law, Languages, CS.</p>