webs, he wrote a TON of papers at Georgetown. She thought his workload was unreasonable. Didn’t stop him from getting a master’s there though. Once she discovered Economics she became more interested in the mathematical parts herself. All my kids have the math gene and were not thrilled writing papers. I blame that on me, I was an engineering major, tested out of freshman composition, and never really wrote a paper my whole college career (just lab reports).
Just realized that under the CA UC admission system’s giving a spot to a CA resident student if they are in top 9% of CA students (they have a way to calculate this), they will allow the CA resident student to enroll at ONE UC if there is a spot. I heard this means my kid will at least be able to attend UC Riverside or UC Merced. Therefore, practically speaking, my kid is assured of getting admitted to at least ONE UC even if they have a lousy IR department. Lol
So far, American University, George Washington and University of South Carolina with its Int’l Business major seem attractive candidates. I just hope the IR major is not as competitive as engineering majors. 
A little closer to home, the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington is excellent and a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs.
https://jsis.washington.edu
https://jsis.washington.edu/about/
https://jsis.washington.edu/programs/
http://www.apsia.org/member-schools/
The APSIA member list includes a few more schools your son could consider.
Washington also has a highly regarded international business program:
If he applies, your son should consider applying to the Honors Program:
http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/apply/freshman/faq/
An instate UC would probably save you at least $8,000 to $16,000 per year for tuition, room and board, depending on whether and to what extent you receive an OOS merit scholarship from Washington (up to $8,500 per year) or any scholarships from UC. However, due to its strength in these subject areas and relative affordability (not to mention the easy and cheap flights from California to Seattle on Southwest and Alaska), Washington would become another good option if, by chance, you were shut out of your preferred UCs.
Have your son look at the bios of some leading international business people he respects, or people at companies he respects. I think he will find very few undergraduate business majors. The more common pathway is an MBA with an undergraduate degree in all sorts of things from engineering, to languages or social sciences, although most commonly history and economics. If he has an interest in business from an academic perspective he should look at business schools, but he absolutely does not need an UG business degree to go into business.
What exactly is international relations major? How on earth did South Carolina become “number one”? Aside from BMW execs, how many foreigners have even heard of South Carolina?
@Chardo, I believe US Newsweek ranked Univ of South Carolina #1 in “International Business”, which differs from “International Relations”. Other than that, I have no idea how Univ of South Carolina became #1 in this field. But seems bona fide, since U.S. Newsweek carries some weight.
South Carolina has quite a few international companies besides BMW.http://sccommerce.com/about-sc-commerce/international-offices
Both the University of Michigan (UM) and Michigan State (MSU) have outstanding undergraduate business programs, and a substantial variety of international studies (and study abroad) programs as well. http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/business
OP- We are California residents too and both of my children went/go to OOS public flagship universities that after merit money were cheaper (and my DS got a full academic merit ride to Ohio State so free) than any UC. This year I frankly was stunned to find that the UC financial aid was lousy for my first gen students with EFC’s of 0. For UCLA and Cal, they required my students to take out between $8K and $11K in loans as part of their package and their EFC was zero!! Three years ago that was not the case.
As as others have stated, add some true safeties to your son’s list. Every year I have a high achieving/high test score boy not get into any UC. I had dinner with some UCSD administration on Friday and they were telling me how impacted the university is these days. The plan to go to a CC and then transfer isn’t necessarily the best because the worse merit and financial aid goes to transfer students, plus in my county of California it is taking a lot of students between 3-4 years of classes at CC’s in order to fulfill their GE’s due to CC’s being so impacted.
You are right with the UC guarantee you are looking at UCR and UCM.
Run the net price calculator for each school on your DS’s list and do not confuse the ones that give no merit with the ones that do give merit. Some local high schools will further confuse students and parents at graduation by touting that “our graduates received $10 million in merit scholarships” when actually it was financial aid. This misleads some families into linking there is merit at some colleges like the ivies.
@itsv Frankly, if my kid cannot get into some UC schools, I rather persuade him to go to an OOS school which will give him a full or in-state tuition with merit scholarships, or as a serious alternative, take a gap year and study abroad on some scholarship. He might take a gap year even if he gets into a school of his choice. I was surprised to find out UCSD’s International Relations Program was ranked higher than UCLA’s IR Program.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/feb/17/ucsd-international-relations-best/
I can see now why some posers advised not to view UCSD as a safety school. UCSB also seems to have a good IR or similar department. Therefore, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD and UCSB will definitely be the UCs to which my kid will be applying. American, GW and Georgetown as well. But if he gets into UC Berkeley, I think that will be his top choice.