As stated in my previous threads, it’s become pretty evident that I want to major in International Studies. However, I am getting this subject confused with Political Science. What is the difference? I know that Pol Sci focuses more on government and IS/IR focuses more on interactions between countries, but is there that big of a difference? Will I benefit more from a degree in Pol Sci than in IS? Also, while I realize that in some cases IS is considered a multidisciplinary study within Pol Sci, could I go into college wanting to major in Political Science with a double major in International Studies?
International Relations is one of the four major subfields of Political Science (the others are Political Theory, American Politics, and Comparative Politics). Many school also offer interdisciplinary majors in International Relations or International Studies. In addition to core courses, IR/IS majors usually require a student to select a thematic focus (e.g., national security, international economics, development, etc.) and a regional focus (e.g., Africa, East Asia, etc.). Usually, study of a relevant language (and, study abroad) is part of the requirements for each regional focus. Some universities have a professional school of international relations, which might place more emphasis on policy issues or which might include some project courses. Some of the professional schools offer undergraduate programs, but most commonly these are graduate programs. A few schools have a separate IR department.
Across different colleges and universities, undergraduate programs that focus on some aspect of IR/IS come with a wide range of titles (e.g., global studies, international studies, development studies, international relations, pace and conflict studies, etc.) and structures (including majors, minors, certificates, and subtracks with majors). These are in addition to the various interdisciplinary language and area studies programs that focus on a specific country or region (e.g., Russian Studies).
You would not necessarily benefit more from a political science major than an IS major. It really depends on your interests and career plans. If you want to study aspects of political science other than international relations and comparative politics, then you could do a double major in political science and IS. You also could just use electives to choose courses of particular interest without doing a double major.
Also, see my posts in this thread:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/902677-political-science-vs-international-relations.html