I want to major in IR but Wake only has a Political Science/IR major. I don’t really want to study PS, so would I dislike this major? I know I can minor in International Studies, but I was planning on minoring in two languages. I don’t mind PS but the thought of being stuck in the middle of some political debates by students who want to be politicians and therefore are probably very opinionated about their political parties makes me nervous. Could anyone tell me what the classes for this major are like/the people in them? I heard the major is 3/4 PS and 1/4 IR so I am wondering if I should look elsewhere for school…
Hello,
As a Politics and International Affairs major at Wake I don’t think you have anything to be worried about. The only direct requirement of the major is that you have to take at least one class in each of the four broad categories and writ your senior thesis. the four categories are political theory, american politics, comparative politics and international relations. However, these fields are really broad with a ton of classes falling within them. My political theory class was comparing ideological differences in war between the East and West, so if you were interested in international relations that could be interesting. The only class you would have to take that wouldn’t be directly related to IR is the american politics requirement, but even then you could take American diplomacy or US insurgency which relates to international relations. The major is very open and allows you to take classes in the field that interest you, so if you mainly want to take IR classes that is very achievable. You can even request to get a specific concentration within the major which would allow your transcript to more show your focus on IR aspect over the political science aspect.
That actually sounds really interesting!! Thank you so much @julia101g