<p>There was a thread about this a while ago but a thorough comparison was never properly done.</p>
<p>From what I have read, political science is more focused on government and elections on a national level, while international relations is more focused on foreign and global affairs and usually requires the student to take on a second language. (How fluent does the student have to be in the second language?)</p>
<p>It also seems like the job offers are quite similar, though IR seems to encompass more job opportunities. Any specifics on what extra weight an IR degree carries?</p>
<p>So basically, I am curious about the courses taken (and level of difficulty) and the careers choices for each major.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>For an undergrad, polisci is always the route to take. IR is actually just a subfield of political science, so a degree in IR actually deprives you of a number of important skills you could learn with a broader degree. Political science encompasses four major subfields: American government (this is where you’ll study elections, voter behavior, public administration, policy making, etc.), international relations (how states interact with each other), comparative politics (how political institutions develop in different states), and political theory (the philosophical side of things, dealing with issues ranging from what is the best form of government to the relationship between man and state and beyond). Any decent polisci program should force you to expose yourself to each subfield. In contrast, an IR major focuses most on just one area, which is a horrible idea for undergrads. Political science is fundamentally the study of power, and it is important that as an undergrad you understand how power operates on many different levels. IR, however, narrows the focus too quickly. If IR is what interests you, then you should major in polisci then go to grad school in IR.</p>
<p>As for job opportunities, the skills one learns with a polisci degree can get you a job doing just about anything. While the same can be said of IR, most IR majors think that once they get their BA they can start working for the UN immediately. The reality, though, is that there are very, very few jobs in IR, much less good (read: dream) jobs. Anything that most IR majors would actually want to do gets scooped up by one of the grad students in the already overly-saturated market.</p>
<p>In sum, go for polisci. Do not limit yourself too soon.</p>
<p>Thank you for the response!</p>
<p>Here’s another question I’m curious about: What are the differences (regarding courses and job opportunities) between political science with a public service emphasis and international relations emphasis?</p>
<p>Typical courses in a public service emphasis will include Public Administration, Public Policy-Making, Municipal Management, Public Finance and Budgeting, etc. This field will draw more heavily on economics and management theory. As for job opportunities, you can pretty much do anything - if public admin is your thing, you could work as a bureaucrat or an aide in the government for a few years then go back to school for an MPA to start rising through the ranks. If you work for the government, you won’t make much money but you’ll have a lot of job security and good benefits, and there are a lot of options as far as what areas to work in.</p>
<p>For IR, typical courses will include International Relations, Comparative Politics, International Political Economy, American Foreign Policy, War and Security Studies, etc. For most undergrad programs, this will be much less numbers-driven and focus more on theory or using basic social scientific statistical methods to analyze state behavior. With just an undergrad degree, your job prospects will be very, very limited. NPOs are probably your best bet, but even they are super competitive. Your best bets for a career are to A) work in a low-level position for a few years then get an MPA in international policy or B) get an MA and join the flooded market to try to compete for a desirable dream job like working for the UN or the State Department or C) get a PhD, become a professor, and try to find a government job working with your area of expertise (for example, the CIA often hires PhDs) or join a think tank and hope to get tapped for a job in diplomacy.</p>
<p>go for political science!! 
fo sho</p>
<p>I think this may have been mentioned before, but Poli Sci has sub-specialties, one of which is IR. It’s better to do this because of the broader job field. IR, if coupled with business or such, is an okay area to do, if you want to do something like International Business. Poli Sci is better than IR.</p>
<p>BUT, if you go to a college that has a major in something such as Middle Eastern Studies, or Eastern European Studies, (and you want to do something specific in those areas (again, like business)), then choose THAT. You will probably be much happier learning about the area you want, rather than Poli Sci classes over shadowing the International part, and some employers like to see that you have knowledge of a specific area of the world. They like people who are focused and an ‘expert’.</p>
<p>I want to major in International Studies(UW doesn’t offer International relations) and hopefully want to get a master’s in international affairs after that. Are you guys saying that my options are limited and that it would be hard for me to get a stable job with alright pay? I want to work with immigrants or something in the government involving visas, naturalization(I’m not sure yet but I have time to figure it out).
SO basically are you saying I should forget about International Studies and focus on majoring in Political Science(UW has a concentration on international security that looks interesting) to be able to get more jobs after college?
Sorry for the lengthy post!!</p>
<p>I have several points I want to make about the never-ending questions about IR:
- For those posters who ask whether political science is the same or different than international relations or whether international studies is the same or different than international relations, don’t you ever READ the college websites for the majors and departments that interest you??? The answers to those questions would be quite clear if you did.
- Rather than repeat some of my other points about IR majors, please see my post on this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/749245-undergraduate-foreign-policy-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/749245-undergraduate-foreign-policy-schools.html</a>
- I see a lot of posts saying things like, “I was thinking about going to school X, but school X doesn’t offer an IR major. So, I’m going to school Y because they do offer an IR major.” Realize that IR is an interdisciplinary major. Any person intelligent enough to be in college in the first place should be able figure out that basically he could use his electives to take a very similar set of courses, even if his school doesn’t offer an actual IR major. What’s involved?: Major in economics, history, or political science. Take 2-3 courses each in the areas of international politics, international economics, modern international/diplomatic history, and area studies, maybe a course on American foreign policy, plus some coursework in a language relevant to the region that interests you. Throw in an internship for good measure and/or study abroad. And there you have it. It’s not that hard. Many schools will even let you create your own interdisciplinary major.
- I see a lot of posts saying things like, “My school doesn’t offer an IR major; we only have International Studies.” These two majors may or may not be different. Don’t just go by the label. Again, READ the college websites for the majors and departments that interest you. COMPARE the required courses across majors and schools.
- One of the problems with IR majors (or, interdisciplinary majors, in general) is that they can lack focus. You might ask how this could be since an IR major seems to have a common theme tying together the various courses. The reason for lack of focus is that you may fail to develop an understanding of the theory, methodology, and analytic tools that you would get from a sequence of courses in a traditional department. Also, as an interdisciplinary major, you may lack a departmental “home” (depending on the particular school and where it situates the IR major.)
- As a route to international careers, don’t minimize the importance of languages and related area studies. In most cases, I think it would be better to get a solid grounding (to proficiency level) in a critical language (or more than one), rather than loading up with an excessive number of IR courses. You could still take some of the basic international-focused courses. I’ve seen numerous posts stating that a particular IR program requires only two years of a foreign language. That is hardly an acceptable minimum. If you should be lucky enough to find a good job in an international field, it’s very likely that your foreign counterparts will be multilingual.
- Though IR majors probably are overwhelmingly oriented to the social sciences, don’t fail to consider the potential value of a block of related courses in areas like environmental science/policy or science/technology/society. This is especially useful if you have some actual hard-core science background. Environmental and technical issues figure into international affairs in many ways. In fact, get an energy perspective. It will tie together so many international issues in so many world regions.
- Don’t overlook quantitative skills, especially if you’re interested in graduate study in IR.
- Consider the Peace Corps after college. Good training, good networks, good hands-on experience. You will also notice that at some professional IR graduate programs, military experience might give you an edge.
- Besides considering a block of courses in international business, you could consider blocks of courses in other professional fields. This might be better than an excessive number of strictly IR courses. So, consider fields like public health, communication, etc. and if you attend a land-grant university, you can consider a block of courses in fields such as international agriculture/development/rural sociology, nutrition (e.g., the kinds of nutrition policy courses offered at Tufts nutrition school), or agricultural/applied economics (e.g. check Wisconsin, Cornell, or Minnesota to get an idea of the range of possibilities). If you’re interested in development, consider fields like anthropology where you might study peasant economies, globalization, etc. or finance (relevant for microfinance).
- Don’t overlook technical majors, either. US government agencies that deal with intelligence are just as interested in computer scence or math majors as they are in IR majors, maybe more so. Governments and NGOs involved in development also are interested in technical skills. Don’t overlook fields involved with water resources, agriculture, nursing, nutrition, etc. I think many developing countries would value expertise in those areas much more than an IR major. Don’t forget the great example of Norman Borlaug, who did more for international development than all the IR majors combined, and probably more than all the scientists at all the Ivies put together. [The</a> Liberty Papers Blog Archive Norman Borlaug: The Man Who Saved A Billion People](<a href=“http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/09/13/norman-borlaug-the-man-who-saved-a-billion-people/]The”>http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/09/13/norman-borlaug-the-man-who-saved-a-billion-people/)</p>
<p>My point is that there are many relevant pathways to international careers, and many of them don’t necessarily start with an IR major. Sorry for the long post, but once I got started, I just got carried away—basically, just tired of endlessly uninformed posts about IR.</p>