EDUCATION | Driving tomorrow’s achievements
11 April 2008
International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania
International relations has become one of the most popular majors
By Michael Jay Friedman
This interdisciplinary program at one of our leading universities offers students with an interest in world affairs the opportunity to tailor their studies to specific goals, while it prepares them for careers in business, government, academia, and other fields at home and abroad. Michael Jay Friedman is a staff writer in the Bureau of International Information Programs of the U.S. Department of State.
Undergraduates at U.S. universities typically declare their "major" field of study by the end of their second (sophomore) year. As economic, political, and cultural globalization has increased, international relations ("IR") has become one of the most popular majors at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia. IR is an interdisciplinary program that requires students to complete coursework in a number of different fields and to submit a 30- to 40-page thesis under the supervision of an assigned instructor.
Admission to the major is selective. Applicants must have compiled a 2.8 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) and completed prerequisite classes in political science, western civilization, and micro- and macroeconomics. Once admitted, students complete a core curriculum that focuses on international relations theory, international economics, diplomatic history, and international politics. Majors also choose electives from an approved course list culled from offerings throughout the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School of Business. This affords students the opportunity to tailor their studies in any number of ways, from East Asian studies to anthropology to international finance. The wide variety of choices also makes IR a popular "double major," with students obtaining degrees in both international relations and another field, often history, political science, or economics.
Each international relations major completes an undergraduate thesis on a chosen IR-related subject. Recent topics have ranged from "The Role of Historical Memories in Bilateral Relations: Japan-China and Japan-South Korea" to "The Challenge of Multinational Corporations to International Business Law."
Matthew Frisch, a senior from Toronto, Canada, declared an IR major because it allowed him to explore a wide range of subjects, a process he calls "diversifying your knowledge base." He praises highly an elective course he took in the university's Annenberg School of Communication. Entitled "Communications and the Presidency," it awarded each student a research grant to visit the presidential library of his choice. Frisch traveled to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, where he did research for a seminar paper on the interplay between Kennedy's Cold War and civil rights policies. His paper was later published in the student-run Penn History Review.
Third-year student Mohammad al-Ali, a U.S.-Kuwait dual citizen and international relations-economics double major, adds that IR helps him "bridge the gap" between his two cultures and environments. For international relations-French double major Livia Rurarz-Huygens, a U.S.-Belgium dual citizen whose family received political asylum in America, IR is the best major to train her for a planned career in international refugee law.
IR majors participate in numerous academic, social, and pre-professional activities, many sponsored through the student-run International Relations Undergraduate Student Association (IRUSA). Rurarz-Huygens, the current IRUSA president, notes that the organization sponsors annual trips to New York City and Washington, D.C., where students interact with faculty at leading law and international relations graduate schools.
Penn IR graduates do many things after college. IR Program Co-Director Frank Plantan observes that "there is great demand for people with knowledge of international affairs and the research, writing, and other skills needed to evaluate changes in the world. These people are needed in business, in government, in the academy, and in a host of other fields at home and abroad."
