So I want to be an International Human Rights lawyer for the UN. I’ve thought about this a lot, and I’m sure. I have strong interests in human rights, International affairs, history, political science, philosophy, and Spanish. I am definitely going to double major, with one of them being History. However, I don’t know what to pick for the other major. What combines all of my interests the best? Also can I still take Spanish and learn it without majoring or minoring in it?
Anthropology! I’m an Anth major myself, so trust me when I recommend you seriously consider it. You’ll get to hit all of the interests you mentioned, plus it looks great if you want to work for UN since Anth is all about the study of humanity. One of Anth’s biggest goals is to educate the world that all cultures/societies/peoples are unique yet inherently similar.
History/Anth is a common double major and most people I know in my department have all taken at least two years of another language. You don’t have to major or minor in Spanish to take the classes - the beauty of college is that outside what is specially required, you can take whatever you want! I’m in my third year of Russian and could easily minor in it but I’ve chosen not to since I already have a double minor (English/Communications).
Also, if you’re looking to be a lawyer, you’ll most likely have to declare a pre-law track at your school - I would look into that and the requirements for it and maybe consider turning one of your majors into a minor. There’s no point in overloading yourself or winding up having to do an extra semester or two to hit all your required classes.
If you aspire to be an international human rights lawyer, then you need to go to law school. There is no pre-law major. Law school admission is based on GPA + LSAT score. So, you can major in anything. Though political science is one of the more popular majors for pre-law students, some majors tend to score higher on the LSAT than others. (I don’t have the link handy, but you can google it.) Philosophy is one of those majors, so that might be a good choice. It can provide a strong background in logical reasoning and writing skills, which are important in law school. Also, certain philosophy courses will cover some topics that are relevant to human rights, law, and politics (e.g., ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law).
Your history major covers aspects of your interests in international affairs, politics, and philosophy (via intellectual history). With a philosophy major, sometimes you can count political science courses in the history of political thought toward the philosophy major.
Human rights courses most commonly are found in political science departments. Relevant departments for international affairs courses most commonly are political science and economics. You can take some electives on international topics, but typically you would have some intro courses in those departments as prerequisites. If you don’t do a major in political science, you can take some electives to supplement your other majors or wait until you get to law school.
Yes, you can study Spanish without majoring or minoring in it. You can just take Spanish courses. Better yet, study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. If you did an international affairs major, typically you’d have to choose a thematic option and a regional option. Occasionally, one of the regional options in related to human rights. A common regional option is Latin America, which would fit with your Spanish language studies. (Depending on the school, you usually have to study a relevant language for 2-3 years, and a period of study abroad is encouraged, if not required.). Alternatively, if your primary region of interest is Latin America, you could do an interdisciplinary major or minor Latin American Studies, which might include Latin American-focused coursework in political science, history, anthropology, etc. in addition to language studies.
@ayyadb @zapfino Thank you both! I do plan on staying away from pre-law, especially because I do eventually want to teach History when I retire from law. Would international affairs focus more on economics than political science, because I am not big on economics. I know I have to know it, but it’s not really one of my interests.
?huh? You need a Ph.D. In history to teach that unless you are talking about HS and then you would need a teaching credential and student teaching experience.
Yeah I plan on getting a phD eventually. I know it’s ambitious and people will say I don’t need to but I want to.
And that’s way too far down the road to worry about. Maybe teaching history is not in the cards for me but I still want to major in it.
Re: Post#3
Core courses for many international affairs programs usually include principles of economics, and possibly, international economics or development economics. Whether a program focuses more on political science or economics depends on what thematic option a student chooses (often an IA program requires a student to pick one of several thematic options, e.g., national security, development, foreign policy, etc.+ one of several regional options, e.g., Latin America, East Asia, etc.).
In my PhD program I had a friend who had a JD. She was getting her PhD in the history of public health. She also wanted to teach at the college level - but she wanted to be a law school professor. It’s not completely unusual for someone with a JD to return and get a PhD later.
That said, there are a variety of majors you can pick. International relations is an obvious one. Anthropology could be a good major, too. So could sociology - a lot of human rights tenets are based on sociological theories and principles.
The other option is not to double major in anything, and instead just take a couple of classes in each of the areas in which you’re really interested.
And has been mentioned, you can certainly learn Spanish without majoring or minoring in it.