<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>This is my first post on the UVA board. I have a simple question: how good is UVA's political science and international affairs department?</p>
<p>What is your area/concentration interest? Comparative Pol., Pol. Theory, Foreign Affairs, or American Government? I believe the whole department is strong (I was in the Amer. Gov’t concentration), but if you can give me a little more specificity I can give you a more detailed response.</p>
<p>Very, very good. There are multiple departments that would interest you, though. Do a little digging…there’s another thread about the same disciplines.</p>
<p>Wahoogrl08: Foreign affairs. Thanks for the help, by the way. :D</p>
<p>Dean J: Thanks. :)</p>
<p>Alright- well, first off here is the link to all the faculty at UVA which includes their area and research interests. I’m not sure what part of Foreign Affairs you’re interested in, but there is a pretty good distribution among geographic regions. It looks like some people are on leave right now, but they’ll likely be back on Grounds within a semester or two. Also keep in mind, there are numerous faculty in the History dept. as well that would be able to complement your FA studies.</p>
<p>I had both Legro (FA) and Alexander (Comp. Pol.-Western Europe) as an Amer. Pol. student, and I thought both we’re great. Their courses were hard (lots of reading), but I definitely gained a lot from those classes and I was able to transfer my gain in knowledge/skills to my other Government courses, as well as some of my Soc. courses. Many of my friends in the dept. were able to get internships if they worked to network throughout the semester and took advantage of the career fairs. The Miller Center also frequently brings various people in Politics to Grounds, which will offer further enrichment possibilities. Unfortunately, FA is my least knowledgable area of the Politics dept., but I hope this helped (some!).</p>
<p>My S1 majored in FA. He says that FA can either emphasize IR theory or area concentrations. There are also some adjunct professors whose full-time positions are in Washington DC & they teach one or two upper level IR and/or area study courses. The adjuncts complement the full time faculty. If you are interested in interning in DC, it is worth making their acquaintances.</p>
<p>UVA also has a very active [International</a> Relations Organization (IRO)](<a href=“http://virginia-iro.info/iro/]International”>http://virginia-iro.info/iro/), which is a “club” that sponsors speakers, publishes a scholarly undergrad journal, & hosts two major student-run conferences. In the fall, IRO runs VAMUN, a model United Nations conference for high school students. In the spring, IRO runs VICS (Virginia International Crisis Simulation), which is attended by college students from around the country. Likewise, IRO sends representatives to similar conferences around the country (ColumbiaU, Harvard, UChicago, etc.) to represent UVA.</p>
<p>There also is an international residential college at UVa. Americans can also live there - which would probably be a great experience for a foreign affairs major. There are students from 130 countries at UVa today.</p>