My question is: do all or most SFS admitted students study here because they are interested in State Dept career? Also, more importantly, do all or most students manage to get Dept of State jobs? Third prong question is: if yes, what is it about SFS students gives them advantage to get Dept of State positions, aside from the fact it’s got a great reputation and proximity to Wash DC?
Or does the School of Foreign Service teach you skills that allows students to pursue any career that is “foreign” related? If so, how does this Program differ from let’s say International Relations Program from other top colleges?
Feel free to answer any prong of questions. I am particularly interested to hear from SFS students, parents, or anyone who has some experience or knowledge about SFS.
Current SFS sophomore–while a lot of people who study at the SFS do so because they’re interested in public sector jobs, there are also a lot of people who end up in consulting, especially for legislative affairs/defense-oriented consulting companies like Avascent. Although the State Dept. is the most high-profile place to work at if you’re interested in IR, there are a ton of other options as well, and Georgetown reliably places students in the intelligence community and in other IR-focused areas like Treasury. As someone who is interested in the State Dept., I think it’s really helped that Georgetown has a lot of alumni connections to State, especially younger alumni who have recently graduated within the last 5-10 years, since a lot of these alums are in mid-level positions that are able to have an impact on internship hiring cycles if they see someone’s from Georgetown. Proximity is another factor that shouldn’t be discounted–it lets you go to networking/public events hosted by State and other organizations where you can start forming connections before applying, and that’s a huge advantage over people who are applying from other prestigious schools but don’t have that direct access to gov officials. While State and other government jobs remain highly competitive, most people I know who’ve applied for a government internship this summer has gotten something, so while it’s not a guarantee, there’s a pretty good chance.
Of course, the SFS’s curriculum isn’t just geared towards the Foreign Service, although if that’s a route you want to take you’d be hard-pressed to find a better program. For me, the thing that distinguishes the SFS from other IR programs at top schools is that while most schools will have a very robust IR or government department, Georgetown dedicates an entire 1/4 of the school towards IR, and that naturally makes the program far stronger, just because there are more professors, more people working, and more courses being offered on topics that might not be taught at an undergraduate level. We recently finished our course registration for the spring, and the fact that classes are offered on topics like “Russian Hybrid Warfare” means that SFS students are able to delve deeply into areas that are of interest to them in a way that might be hard to do with a school that offers IR as just a major, rather than the SFS, which offers 8 IR-related majors.
I’ll add the following to @masquerade98’s excellent answer:
It is very difficult, and getting ever more so, to get hired by the Federal government, whether that’s joining the U.S. Foreign Service or getting a DOS civil service gig or anything else. Then, of course, there is the significant international presence in the SFS, which is not going to be getting a USG job. So the majority of SFS grads go into the private sector, be that in consulting, banking and finance, going on to law school, working for a government contractor (Federal or otherwise), or jumping into the wide world of tech. I know fellow alums (I have two degrees from the SFS and also worked there for several years) who have chosen all these paths.
What sets the SFS program apart from IR programs elsewhere… well, this is the company line we would give, but I also happen to believe in it: the SFS is not an IR program. Not purely so, anyway. Strictly speaking, IR is a subdiscipline of political science (or Government, as it is called at Georgetown). The Foreign Service program is certainly grounded in IR, but it goes much broader - there is a 4-course economics requirement, a foreign language requirement, and numerous core curriculum offerings in philosophy, theology, history, sociology, regional studies, etc. You could study “IR” without studying any of those things.
Now, in practice, many people who pursue IR or “international studies” or the like elsewhere also study languages, econ, and other humanities and sciences and get a well-rounded education that prepares them to engage in the global sphere. But the SFS course of study is designed that way from the start.
Funny that the SFS study program you describe is the exact combo of courses he’s pursuing at Stanford: Econ major with IR minor with 4 languages skills, maybe 5, just took philosophy writing course with Investment club activity. In other words, he seems to be going to SFS without being in Georgetown. I think he’s more interested in finding a job in Silicon Valley rather than in govt.