<p>for someone who wants to go into international relations, is law school the practical option to do this? any advice?</p>
<p>Not sure exactly why you want the JD. Do you want to practice international law? Otherwise, it could be like going into the Marines to improve your music skills at their marching band. Many easier ways to arrive at the same place.</p>
<p>Yeah, do a Ph.D. in IR rather than the JD.</p>
<p>hmm... yea it seems like there are more people with masters or PhD's working in international relations than JDs. but a kaplan representative told me today that she would recommend doing the JD over the other two. hmm...</p>
<p>depends on what kind of IR job you want. NGOs and the UN, for instance, want you to have at least an MA. however, the JD can get you in as a legal advisor. if you want to practice law (ie, prosecuting at the Hague), then obviously you need a JD. for int'l consulting firms, the MBA is actually most helpful in getting a job, tho the MA doesn't hurt. for the foreign service, best way to go is the MS at georgetown's school of foreign service. for basic gov't jobs, i'd say the MA is sufficient, but i'm guessing ppl come in with a variety of backgrounds.</p>
<p>you may want to consider a joint MA/JD, which is an option at many schools, and gives you both degrees in 4 yrs. in most cases, you do your first year at the law school, your second at the grad school, and divide up your third and fourth years however you want. this is the route i'm going -- MA in IR (concentration in Int'l Law and Orgs) at johns hopkins-SAIS, and JD (concentration in Int'l Law) at georgetown most likely (i'm waitlisted at a couple other schools, so it's going to be a long summer..)</p>
<p>Thanks for that post lizrd618, since I'm in a similar situation to kfc4u.</p>
<p>wow thanks lizrd618, very helpful post!</p>