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Prospective majors are required by The College to declare their major by the end of sophomore year. Students who are changing majors or adding a second major are urged to file an application for admission with the IR office (notifying a College Adviser of this plan as well) no later than the first semester of their junior year - preferably prior to the end of the drop/add period. Students are encouraged to apply earlier, especially if they plan to study abroad during their junior year (see below). Because of staffing and enrollment contingencies pertaining to the Senior Seminar for Thesis Research, no one will be admitted to the major after their junior year or after they have reached senior status.
In any case, all applicants are required to have a pre-admission interview in order to plan a schedule for the completion of their prerequisites and major requirements. You should do this at your earliest possible convenience. Students are obliged to complete requirements in force at time of admission to the major, and are cautioned against completing requirements noted below without consultation with the IR advisor. Please call the office to make an appointment rather than use email.
Applicants for the IR major should also have completed specific prerequisites outlined below. An interested student must have completed or be enrolled in the last of the four prerequisites before applying for admission to the major.
The International Relations majors totals 14 C.U. of instruction to include:
Students must complete these courses with at least a 3.1 G.P.A. in order to qualify for admission to the major.
The core theory and methods classes must be taken at UPenn. We will generally not accept transfer credits from abroad or other U.S. institutions.
The International Relations Theory (PSCI150 or INTR101) course is a prerequisite to the senior thesis seminar. This course must be completed by the end of the junior year.
Five elective courses from our approved course lists (issued every semester prior to pre registration). At least three of these courses should be clustered around a geographical or topical field (e.g., Europe, East Asia, terrorism, economic development, human rights, security, etc.). Clusters should be designed to equip students to do the specialized research required for their senior theses.
INTR 390 & INTR391 Senior Seminar for Part I & II
All I.R. majors enroll during their senior year in a two semester seminar during which they develop an original thesis topic, review the relevant theory and method, then research and write a substantial thesis based on primary and secondary documentation.
At least 2 C.U. in every student’s I.R. curriculum must be fulfilled by courses focused on Asia, Africa, the Middle East, or Latin America.
The university graduates its students cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude according to its own standards. Independent of College honors, however, students may earn their BA "With Distinction in International Relations" by meeting certain requirements set by the International Relations Program. The requirements are:
Honors status will be determined automatically by the program upon completion of the senior thesis in the spring of the senior year, and those meeting these requirements will be notified of their honors status.
Students completing the International Relations major will need a total of thirty-four (34) course units of earned credit, including College Requirements in order to graduate.
The courses relevant to International Relations are many and varied. Most courses approved as electives in the major are drawn from political science, history and economics, but courses in other departments that have a clearly international dimension may also be approved. We urge all IR students to consult the list of approved courses for the coming semester prepared for you by the IR office during every pre-registration period.
Students may also petition to receive IR credit for Independent Study (IR 199/399) or graduate-level courses. Such course work must be done under the supervision of a professor, and students must demonstrate, with a syllabus and/or research essay, the relevance of the subject to their IR studies. Students with advanced foreign language skills are especially encouraged to make use of them in such independent or graduate-level courses.
As noted, all majors are required to take INTR 390 and INTR 391. This seminar is the "capstone experience" in the program, requiring students to submit a research essay on a topic of their own special interest. The Senior Seminar is conducted as a research seminar, emphasizing research design, application of theory, generation of data and other skills that are essential to the conduct of independent research by the student.
S.I.R. is the national honor society for students in International Relations. The Epsilon chapter at Penn requires a 3.3 GPA in the major and a 3.2 overall for applicants. Interested majors can pick up applications at the IR office.
The Palmer Award is bestowed annually on the student submitting the best undergraduate thesis in International Relations. The award was established jointly by the IR Program and the Anspach Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs in honor of Dr. Norman D. Palmer, Professor Emeritus, and a pioneer in the field of International Relations.
To achieve a minor in IR, a student must do passing work in 6 courses, including all the core courses listed above except the IPE requirement, and at least two other approved IR electives. Only one non-College course may be applied to the minor. These courses cannot be taken Pass/Fail, but can be double-counted for other majors. Minor students need only complete the ECON I & II prerequisites.
Needless to say, we encourage IR majors to take the opportunity to study abroad for a semester or full-year. Experience abroad helps the student to deepen their understanding of foreign cultures and gives them a more objective point of view on the United States. However, study abroad requires careful planning lest students returning from overseas find themselves unable to get Penn credit for the courses they took, or discover that they are unable to complete their major requirements in time for their expected date of graduation. We therefore urge all IR majors or prospective majors to consult at length with the IR office and the International Programs Office (3701 Chestnut Street, Suite 1W) well in advance of their date of departure.
Students should glean as much information as possible about the courses offered by the foreign universities they are considering, petition for Penn credit in advance, and in any case plan with an advisor how they can complete their major requirements upon their return. Students do not earn IR credit simply because a given course was taken in an "international" setting—the subject matter must conform to that of an IR-approved course at Penn. Moreover, in almost every case, you will be trying to substitute a course taken overseas for a political science, history or economics course here at Penn. It is those departments, no the IR office, that must judge whether to give you credit for a given course. So bring home with you the syllabus, exams, and papers, and any other relevant information to support your petition for credit.
Attention: The college allows you to transfer grades from study abroad only if the courses were taken through a Penn-approved Study Abroad Program—and all courses required for the major must be taken for a grade.
Assuming Penn credit is received, IR majors may apply up to four (4) courses taken during study abroad for our requirements, and IR minors may substitute one (1). When used in combination with transfer credits, a minimum of six course units of the major requirement must be done at Penn.
The same rule applies to transfer of credit from other U.S. colleges and universities: four units maximum for a major, one for a minor. Once again, students must have their credit ratified by the appropriate Penn department (Political Science, History, Economics). When used in combination with study abroad credit, a minimum of six course units of the major requirement must be done at Penn.
The IR major is a chance to tap into the best courses of several departments concerned with international affairs. But it is not itself a department, and does not have its own faculty. This means that IR students may feel "betwixt and between" when it comes to forming an intellectual community of like-minded students. One of the solutions to this problem is IRUSA, an organization of, by, and for the undergraduate majors in International Relations. IRUSA is an organization that encourages intellectual, academic, and social interaction among IR majors. But it depends on student participation for its success—so we encourage everyone to check it out. For information, contact the IR office.
E-mail contact: Frank Plantan, Co- Director
Donna Shuler, Administrative Assistant
Internet IR Home Page: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/irp/
| Copyright 2007: International Relations Program University of Pennsylvania |
Maintained by: Tomoharu Nishino Last Modified: November, 2007 |