Int'l Studies Major

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

<p>Is there an IS major at Rice? I took a quick look at the web site and did not see it. If there is one, what do students think of it? What paths do grads follow? Any acceptances into top grad schools or Foreign Service?</p>

2

<p>Na, no international studies major, although the Policy Studies major (which cannot be your sole major) has an Area of Study that is called International Affairs, so that seems to be very similar. A lot of students that are policy studies majors work in D.C. for at least one summer, and I believe the CIA recruits somewhat heavily from Rice. In fact, you have to do an internship in order to graduate with the major, and there are good programs within Rice that basically set you up for this kind of thing. Not sure about grad school/FS, since I don’t have direct experience with the program.</p>

<p>Also, you can major in Political Science and choose the international relations concentration, which is one of three concentrations within the major.</p>

<p>[Rice</a> University Policy Studies](<a href=“http://policystudies.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=42]Rice”>http://policystudies.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=42)</p>

3

<p>Confirming that default path here is 1) majoring in political science 2) specializing in international relations 3) picking up a double-major in a relevant area and 4) learning a language. I would NOT recommend policy studies as your main major (in fact, you can ONLY double in it) and the department is less put-together than the political science department. Rice really specializes in Middle Eastern policy (you can thank Edward Djerjian, head of the Baker Institute and former ambassador to Israel and Syria, for that)</p>

<p>Here are various paths some of my bffs interested in the foreign service (all of whom just graduated) have taken:

  1. Majored in political science (specialization: IR) and Asian studies (East Asia), took Japan all 4 years, did a semester abroad in Japan, passed the foreign service exam and is spending 2 years teaching English in Japan before coming back to grad school here.
  2. Majored in physics and policy studies (specialization: energy studies), in addition to taking Arabic every year. Spent a summer working on solar projects in Israel. Got a Baker Institute grant to write a paper on Iran for the summer, heading to a fellowship at the University of Cairo next year, coming back to get his Master’s at Duke.
  3. Majored in poli sci (IR), Asian Studies (Mideast) and history, with Arabic. Got a state-department-sponsored Critical Language Scholarship, spending the summer in Tunisia.
  4. Polisci (IR), Asian Studies (East Asia), went to China for a semester, heading back for a year-long fellowship before grad school.</p>

<p>And for whatever it’s worth I’ve met an obscene number of ambassadors by being friends with their kids haha</p>