<p>I know that JHU is a very reputable school for international studies, but I would like to major in international business or double major in intl studies + business/econ. Are JHU's business/econ departments as reputable (or close to) as those in schools such as Penn, Berkeley, UMich? Does JHU have an international business major?</p>
<p>International Studies is an INCREDIBLY reputable department at Hopkins. Just like you, it is quite common that students combine it with other interests such as Economics, Engineering, Mathematics, History, Political Science or Public Health for example. Many students do go on to careers like international business, consulting overseas etc. </p>
<p>I think the important thing to recognize is that the education at Hopkins is different from a place like Penn or Michigan or Cal. For one, Cal and Michigan are public and the purpose of those schools is to educate the people of the state they serve. It often means that there are seriously fewer international students on campus and most students are from in-state. Great schools but have a different purpose than private schools like Penn/JHU.</p>
<p>Penn is, in my opinion (and I think they would agree), a very career-oriented (AKA pre-professional) institution. This generally means the students go there because they want jobs, they want a very specific career and they believe that Penn will get them there. Business flows into and out of all the colleges there as there are interdisciplinary majors through all of the colleges. </p>
<p>Hopkins is very liberal arts oriented and very small. It is the type of place that has a lot of international students, very focused on students trying new types of classes, very small (1/2 the size of Penn, 1/5 the size of Cal, 1/5 the size of UMich) no core classes and concentrates on writing, quantitative skills, learning, and research in all disciplines. You don’t find majors that are pre-professional (like international business, architecture, elementary education for example) because the purpose of the school is not to get you a job, but to teach you how to think, discover and be a leader. You should note, they do have minor’s in disciplines like Entrepreneurship & Management and majors like Econ (not business) which serve as great springboards into finance/business/consulting. </p>
<p>Undergrads:</p>
<p>Hopkins - 4,800
Penn - 10,000
Cal - 26,000
Michigan - 26,000</p>
<p>Nonetheless, I hope that helps outline the schools a little bit. Good luck!</p>
<p>Wow, very informative and great response. I’m definitely interested in JHU, and now that you told me many people pair int’l studies with other majors, it clears things up for me. Thanks!!</p>
<p>It seems like the most common pairs with International Studies (the official name, not IR as it’s usually called) are economics, with a minor in a foreign language or Entrepreneurship and Management. I’m doing math, and then I added econ as a second major (will be applying to grad school for econ), and at least half of the econ classes are IS/econ or econ/applied math.</p>
<p>How are study abroad opportunities at JHU? Do many people that major in int’l studies study abroad for a semester or two?</p>