College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Georgetown University
• University of Chicago
• Dartmouth University
• John Hopkins University
• Northwestern University

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of California—San Diego
• University of Virginia
• University of Florida
• University of Minnesota—Twin Cities
• University of Wisconsin—Madison

Classes in the Major

International Politics and Policymaking. This one's basically a gimme. We know that just saying ''politics'' is not very specific, but the truth is, your initial courses are not going to be very specific, either. You're going to need to learn all about politics, policymaking, and government structures at home and abroad. How do people make their governments work? What kind of structural problems do they tend to encounter? How do they deal with foreign policy, and are their methods really compatible with the U.S.'s? You need to have this stuff down pat.

Geography. You're going to look pretty dumb if you're the only one in the UN cafeteria who doesn't know where Djibouti is*. You'll also look pretty dumb if you don't know why Jordan is so concerned with importing water** or if you have to ask why Vanuatu has created an emergency evacuation plan for every single one of its citizens***. Geography is not just where places are—it's also what places they border, what kind of natural resources they have, and what kind of natural threats they might be facing now or in the future. This is all very important information to have on hand when negotiating.

*Northeast Africa.

**Jordan only has two surface sources of fresh water—the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers—and it has to share those with Israel and Syria, so there's not a lot to go around.

***Vanuatu, a Polynesian country, is expected to be the first country to be completely submerged thanks to global warming. That jerk.

History of: Your Chosen Area. The world is big. College is short. You'll need to specialize in a particular country or region. History tends to have patterns, so by studying the past, you'll be able to make better choices that will affect the future. For example, if you're studying French immigration, you'll need to know how France has historically viewed and treated immigrants. You'll also need to know the history of the people who are currently immigrating there and how each culture traditionally handles conflict. Then, you can think about how the two groups might react to each other, isolate problems, and get to working on a way to alleviate tensions.

Foreign Language. Another gimme. When you go abroad—and any IR program worth its salt will require you to study abroad for at least a semester—you won't want to rely on Google Translate. Be sure to pick a language that will be useful to you. French is going to get you a lot further in the Ivory Coast than Welsh will.

Ethics. Ooooh boy. This particular branch of philosophy is where things get hairy, and not in a good way. More like a necessary way. A lot of IR majors go into diplomatic work of some sort, and the decisions they make affect millions of people. That's not something you want to take lightly, so IR majors have to study ethics. It'll help you prepare for those life-or-death decisions later on down the road. It won't be your life or death, though. They'll be everyone else's. Pressure's on, Shmoopers.