<p>My rising college freshman is currently undeclared for his major but has a strong interest in history, politics, journalism and foreign language. From what we can tell from the college web site is that the International Studies major would be one of the few ways to wrap all of these interests into one major.</p>
<p>However, I'm curious to know how viable all of you think this major is. Are there good job prospects?</p>
<p>Who knows! I’ve got a kid who is also interested in International Studies. There are the obvious possibilities State Department, NGOs, United Nations. There’s law school or business school and working for someone with international interests. With strong language skills there are many possibilities.</p>
<p>From a British University, but still relevant: [International</a> Relations Careers](<a href=“http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/IntRelations.htm]International”>http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/IntRelations.htm)</p>
<p>Here’s Carnegie Mellon’s similar site: [Prospective</a> Students | International Relations & Politics Program, Carnegie Mellon University](<a href=“CMU - Institute for Politics and Strategy - Carnegie Mellon University”>CMU - Institute for Politics and Strategy - Carnegie Mellon University)</p>
<p>You can also look up specific occupations here: <a href=“http://www.bls.gov/oco/[/url]”>http://www.bls.gov/oco/</a> (Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition)</p>
<p>I graduated a million years ago with an international studies major, minor in business.
While I went on to grad school in international business, I was also able to do an internship at the UN and felt the whole international studies arena opened up lots of doors. Many of my contemporaries went into international political work (Foreign Service). Other grad school links mentioned include international law.</p>
<p>I believe the opportunities are even greater now than before. I think it does help to focus on an area of interest to make it easier to “map” to a job arena, particularly if the student doesn’t have plans for grad school eventually. </p>
<p>PS I often wished I’d pursued international journalism, so it sounds to me like your student has many potential options. The wonderful thing about a major like this is that there are many directions to take it-focus on journalism, focus on languages, focus on business, focus on politics, etc. The flexibility is welcome since so many kids change their minds many times about what they really want to do after graduation.</p>
<p>a/k/a “pre-law”</p>
<p>Of course, that’s an overstatement. But every IR major I know from the past 10 years either went to law school or (those still in college) plans to go to law school.</p>
<p>My S was always interested in IR. After some research, he felt that IR boils down to Economics. He’s double majoring in Econ and and East Asian Stuides and is nearly fluent in Mandarin. We’ll see how the job search goes…</p>
<p>I think an IR major could be great IF there is actually an IR department at the school. I was a European studies major because I didn’t want to choose one major over another. While I enjoyed putting this major together myself, I was a step child without a department and found it difficult to find a helpful adviser. I also did not get to know other students in my department, just random students in my classes. This was at one of the 7 Sisters in the '80’s. My career path led me to education and then library science. I am now a high school librarian with a passion for languages and cultures. My daughter will probably be an IR major on the law school track with an eye on working for the State department.</p>
<p>While S is not ruling out Law school, he’s definitely not as excited about it as he was a few years ago. He’s enjoyed doing mock trial for the last 6 years, however he feels that most lawyers really don’t see much court room action and that they’re mired down in tedious paper work the majority of the time. So with this in mind, I wonder if an International Studies major would still make sense without the Law School track??</p>
<p>I think it definitely makes sense without law school, I would just try to pair it with a language and some study abroad/internship abroad if possible. The key to making a major like international studies work is experience, experience, experience. The more internships you have or work experiences or study abroad experiences in the wider variety of fields, the better your language skills (even if it’s in what some consider a less “in demand” language like French or Spanish) the more opportunities you have. </p>
<p>And there are lots of opportunities. Working in government is obviously a big one, but there are also think tanks, NGOs, business, and consulting firms/contractors of various kinds. Also teaching, working overseas, travel writing, blogging, etc etc etc etc. It’s a major that applies itself to a lot of fields, as long as you pair it with some solid real world work experiences to direct your skills.</p>
<p>my quick take on IR is that it’s sort of ‘economics-lite’ for kids who don’t want to do too much math. i could be totally wrong on this - just my impression.</p>
<p>^ Actually S is pretty good at Math. (Received great AP Calc score yesterday. Hooray!) Are you referring to an International “Business” major instead? Because his school does have this too. I think he’d be better suited to International “Studies” because his interest is more in line with politics, government, policy setting, etc. – not working for a company.</p>
<p>memake, it really depends on the school, but I don’t really think this is the case. Some schools have different IR tracks. One will often have a lot of economics, another will often have environmental stuff and a third will be more poly sci oriented. Other departments include all three in about equal measure. At Tufts you take 2 economics courses, one Poly Sci course (with an international focus), a history course, and a culture course. Then you have to take seven courses in a specialty which can be a part of the world, international economics, environmental issues/global health, security, a focus on US relations with the rest of the world or a more ideas/historical focus.</p>
<p>And often times people with international studies majors have to be good at Math. A lot of places outside the government (and the government too) want people with strong quantitative skills, who can handle things like GIS, computer programming, statistical analysis (used for polls especially), etc etc etc. If he decides to go into international strategy for example, or working for a polling company, or even working for a place like RAND, strong quantitative skills are going to be key. If he likes Math, you might think abuot encouraging him to do computer science or advanced math along with his internatioanl studies major. It’s useful, and he might be able to parlay strong skills like that into a good job in intelligence or working with GIS mapping.</p>
<p>^ Herein lies the problem. Unlike his little brother, he doesn’t love math. And the reason he was so excited about his great AP Calc score is because it allows him to test out and not take anymore math. However, maybe taking a semester or two off and then getting into stats or programming might work.</p>
<p>If you are considering the State Department you need to be aware that only about one percent of a highly self-selected applicant pool manage to pass both the written and oral sections of the Foreign Service Examination and eventually commissioned as Foreign Service Officers.</p>
<p>Yes, my 2200+ SAT scoring S recently failed his first time FSOT. It was quite a blow even though he knew there is a 40% pass rate…</p>
<p>Back in the day, I cobbled together an IS major with poli sci courses, econ and language. Got a job with State Dept as analyst right out of college. Unfortunately, my timing was really bad. My area of expertise was Soviet Union and it was 1988. As soon as Communism fell, they cleaned out the dept. BUT, I went back and got MBA in Int’l Business and was picked up by a large British bank putting together deals in former Soviet bloc countries. So…there are many ways to go. Just be sure to pick a “hot” area - China, India, Middle East, etc.</p>
<p>My son is double-majoring in Chinese and chemistry. The faculty members we’ve spoken with in the Chinese program have said that a language or international studies major by itself is not especially valuable, but can be a powerful career booster when combined with other skills.</p>
<p>You can speak French? So what? Oh, you have a business degree, too? Well, perhaps you can manage the division of our company that imports French goods.</p>
<p>You have a degree in international studies? Big deal. Oh, you also have a math degree? Then perhaps you can analyze this communist country’s encrypted satellite transmissions.</p>
<p>Et cetera.</p>
<p>I’m the parent of a 2010 (late 2009, actually) BA graduate of a highly ranked International Relations program. I have other relatives / friends who are recent IR / IS graduates.</p>
<p>There are VERY few jobs for BA’s. When my son applied for top internships last fall and this spring, he found that his major competition was not other BA’s but MA’s and PhD students. To get a job in this field you pretty much need a specialized MA, and none of the highly ranked ones are free (tuition in the $40 - 50K/yr regime). If you want an idea of the current environment / tuition / job prospects, look at the Columbia U. SIPA website (this is probably the #2 ranked program, Johns Hopkins SAIS is #1).</p>
<p>This is not meant to be the voice of doom and gloom, just information I wish we had gotten four years ago. My advice on an IS / IR major:</p>
<p>1) Make sure that you get your BA debt-free. You will need $$$$ for postgraduate ed (specialized MA, law school, other)
2) Start looking at postgrad options EARLY. Don’t let your department / advisor put you off until senior year (this happened to my son).
3) Minor in a language (or if not a formal minor, take a lot of courses and work on language facility). Chinese might be great, but European languages are also okay.</p>
<p>And oh yeah, the FSOT is really hard to pass. My son didn’t on his first (and only, so far, only) try, even though he scored 95+ percentile on SAT, GRE, and LSAT - he really is a smart guy!</p>