International Affairs Major

Note: This page contains information that is only for students who have already declared an IA major prior to the 2020–21 academic year.

In addition to completing the requirements for their other major, International Affairs majors must complete the requirements outlined below. All students must take some Select Electives. Students with a dual major in Economics, History, or Political Science must also take additional Select Electives outside of those major fields. These requirements are explained in more detail below. Students must maintain at least a 3.00 G.P.A. in the major.

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International Affairs advising

IA advising is very important for students in the IA major. All students who are accepted into the IA program will be assigned an advisor.

Course requirements

Economics courses

  • Economics 103 - Principles of Microeconomics
  • Economics 104 - Principles of Macroeconomics
  • Economics 251 - International Economics

History courses

  • History 103: Europe, Asia, and Africa, 1750 to 1920 OR History 110 - Twentieth Century World
  • History Elective: Choose one Select Elective in History at the 200 or 300 Level

Political Science courses

  • Political Science 103 - Introduction to International Relations
  • Political Science 242 - U.S. Foreign Policy
  • Political Science Elective: One Select Elective in Political Science

Methods courses

All IA majors must successfully complete a methods course. The courses applicable to this requirement are:

  • ANTH-323 Field Methods in Cultural Anthropology
  • CS-201 The Mathematics of Computation
  • HS-232 Statistics for the Health Sciences
  • HIST-300 Historical Method
  • ENG-299 Critical Methods
  • ECON-241 Introductory Economics and Business Statistics
  • ES-230 Introduction to Geographical Information Systems
  • MATH-107 Applied Statistics
  • OMS-235 Statistical Methods
  • POL-215 Methods of Political Science
  • PSYCH-205 Introduction to Statistics
  • SOC-302 Research Methods
  • SOC-303 Data Analysis and Statistics

Capstone Senior Seminar

Students must complete a senior capstone seminar that draws on the program’s multi- and interdisciplinary features to examine an issue of international significance.

Select electives for dual majors

All IA majors with a dual major in Economics, History, or Political Science must take three additional Select Electives, outside of their primary major. This is required because of the overlap between the IA major requirements and the major requirements in those disciplines

Encouraged (but not required)

Language courses and off-campus programs

All students in the IA program are strongly encouraged to participate in a one-semester overseas program; information is available from the Center for Global Education. Students who are not language majors are strongly encouraged to continue with foreign language study beyond the intermediate level.

Internships

IA students are encouraged to participate in internship programs through their primary major, especially those pertaining to international relations.

Interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and individual majors

Students pursuing interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and individual majors please note: IA cannot be paired with Globalization Studies, Individualized Major (Self Designed), or Public Policy.

Courses for already-declared IA Majors