<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I was wondering whether to major in poli sci or IR if I'm determined to go into the IR field? I'm also certain that I will go to grad school. More poli sci renders more comprehensive set of skills that would be useful for grad school, but what if I've already narrowed myself down?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>In part, it depends on whether you plan to go to graduate school in political science or to a professional school for IR. If it’s the former, then a major in political science might be better (even if you intend to specialize in IR.) If it’s the later, either major could be appropriate. Note, however, that one criticism of interdisciplinary IR programs is that they scatter your coursework across too many disciplines and fail to provide a solid grounding in the theory and methods of any single discipline. It is for that reason that some schools only permit IR as a co-major and require another major in a traditional discipline. And, of course, people can enter top professional schools of IR from a wide range of majors. On the other hand, a good interdisciplinary IR program usually requires a good grounding in basic theory and analytic tools in other related fields, e.g., economics, history, as well as relevant language and area studies. In addition, when the requirements of an IR major require that you choose a subspecialty, e.g., security studies, development studies, it provide some structured focus that is sometimes absent in a political science major. Ultimately, it depends on how the IR major is set up at any particular school.</p>