<p>Okay, so I am planning to major in International Relations/Affairs/Studies which I am in love with and am 200% positive that I will major in this in University. I was wondering if there is any type of major or minor other than political science to intersect with my major, so that I would be taking a few classes here and there on my goal to work for both at the same time. Please Help. Any suggestions, taken into consideration! =)</p>
<p>First, it depends on whether the IR major is an interdisciplinary major drawing on courses from numerous depts or a program/dept that offers its own courses. Most such programs are the former. Thus, you could build on courses that are already required for the IR major in order to build a second major. For example, if a sequence of courses in international economics is required, you could do an economics major, or if a sequence of courses in a specific world region is required, you could do a major in a relevant language. In the case of the first example, I think it’s a good idea to get a second major in a traditional discipline since interdisciplinary majors such as IR, sometimes spread your coursework too thin to get a solid grounding in the theory and methods of any particular discipline. In the case of the second example, you could increase language skills beyond the minimal two years typically required in many IR programs, which is not enough for proficiency (especially for non-Western languages). So that’s one approach.
Second, if the IR program requires a subconcentration, e.g., international security; development; etc., you could take a second major that is related to that subconcentration. So, that’s another approach.
Third, while it might work for a minor, “taking a few courses here and there”, probably will not work for a second major. Of course, you need not take a formal second major or minor; you could just take a related set of courses. As one example, you could take a set of courses related to environmental studies/energy/natural resources policy and economics drawn from several depts, e.g. geology, geography, economics, politics, etc. to have a focus in an area that is quite important in international affairs.
Fourth, what you should choose as a second major or as a minor really depends on your particular areas of interest in international affairs. The knee-jerk answer is to just pick economics, as many people do, but there are any number of other fields that are relevant and combine well with IR, depending on your particular interests, what fields are available to you at your particular college/university, and what you’d like to do with your degree. So these fields could include: economics, agricultural economics, language/area studies, nursing/public health/nutrition, journalism/communication, business, religion, geography, American studies, history, anthropology, etc. So that’s another consideration
Fifth, for most people that have a realistic idea of international career options (as opposed to the unrealistic notions of wannabe ambassadors) I think it’s a good idea to consider fields that actually give you some practical skills. </p>
<p>So, yes, there are many majors or minors besides political science that intersect with an IR major. Describe some specific interests in the field and some possible career interests and I can give you more specific suggestions.</p>
<p>It depends what kind of job you want after college.</p>
<p>You can’t go wrong with a double major in mathematics for any social science. At higher levels, all social sciences are mathematical in nature. Quantiative skills with the qualitative knowledge to apply them forms the key for all social science jobs.</p>
<p>For example, you want to do international relations. There will be serious number crunching involved for computation of financial flows, for example, between Russia and Europe due to natural gas price flucuations. Or you can compute demographic trends in Africa and compute whether the rate of poverty will reduce or increase given recent trends in world food prices and how that will affect their political stability.</p>
<p>^ on the same page as this post, I’ve read elsewhere that sometimes it’s good mixing up with statistics or stuff like that.</p>
<p>Other than that, you can 2ble major/minor in area studies (in case you’re very strong on some particular area)… you know condaleezza rice style, and learn the language of the place and so on.
I also know people from Econ majors pairing it up with IR, that makes sense. But I guess it’s like BigEast said, you need to kind of figure what kind of job you want afterwards and try to pair it up with something more focused on what you want to do.</p>