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The Old IR Curriculum
(For students admitted prior to AY06-07 )

Please note: If you are a member of the class of 2008, you have the option to take either the old or the new curriculum. All students beginning with the class of 2009 must satisfy the requirements as outlined in the current curriculum.

Admission to the Major

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 with the IR office and College Advising 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, of course, 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.

All applicants must come in for a pre-admission interview with an International Relations Program advisor to discuss your completion of your prerequisites, as well as discuss an overall plan of study for the program.

Prerequisites (4 CUs):

All applicants must complete the following prerequisites to be admitted to the major with a combined GPA of at least 2.80. Prerequisites may not be taken pass/fail.

• PSCI 1: Introduction to Political Science
• HIST 2: Europe and the Wider World (or other approved modern European history course in a semester when HIST2 is not being offered).
• ECON 1: Microeconomics
• ECON 2: Macroeconomics

Major Requirement (12 CUs):

The requirements for the IR major total 12 Course Units. Honors requires 13 CUs. All courses in the major must be taken for a grade. In addition:

• Double major students may double-count no more than four(4) courses.
• Double majors must have 18 distinct courses between the two majors.
• No more than three (3) courses from outside the School of Arts and Sciences (including study abroad) may be applied to the major.
• No course from outside the School of Arts and Sciences can be taken to satisfy the Core Courses.

Courses that meet the basic requirements of the major and will count toward credit in the major are listed in the "International Relations Approved Course List" which is published on a semester-by-semester basis (usually at pre-registration time) and is available from the program office.

The Core Courses (5 CUs): Required of all majors

• PSCI 150 or IR 101: International Relations in Theory and Practice
• ECON 50 or 150: International Economics
  or ECON 53 & 54: International Trade & International Monetary economics
• History 420 - History of International Politics
  or HIST 331 - American Diplomatic History Since 1776
  or HIST 451 - United States War and Diplomacy
• PSCI 131 - American Foreign Policy
  or PSCI 151 - International Security
  or HIST 421 - History of International Politics, 1914-present
• IR 301 - Senior Seminar for Thesis Research (PSCI 150 prerequisite)
  or IR 390 & 391 - Senior Seminar for Honors Thesis Research (PSCI 150 prerequisite)

Electives in the Major (7 CUs) from Approved Course List

• 1 CU in Security and/or Foreign Policy
• 1 CU in the field of International Political Economy
• 1 CU in Non-Western development, politics or contemporary history
• 4 CUs in fields relevant to international relations

Students are also expected to have taken at least 3 CU relevant to the topic they choose for their senior thesis.

Pre-Registration

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.

Independent Study

Students may also petition to receive IR credit for Independent Study (IR 199) 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.

Petitioning a non-preapproved course for IR credit:

While our pre-approved course list is comprehensive, there may be rare circumstances under which courses you have taken or would like to take have not been pre-approved. There is a procedure to petition a course for IR credit:

• It is generally best to ask for permission prior to taking the course because this would allow us to work with you and the instructor of the course to tailor the requirements of a course to meet our requirements for IR credit. (For example, that might involve writing a research paper on an IR topic in the class.)
• If you would like to have a course considered for IR credit, you should submit the syllabus for the course along with the appropriate form and a brief statement regarding why you believe the course fulfills the requirements of an IR course.

The Senior Seminar

As noted, all majors are required to take IR 301 (the senior seminar) or IR 390 and 391 (2 CUs for Honors). 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. In the seminars, we provide students with a review of methods of analysis & theory and then leave them free to research and write a scholarly essay on their chosen topic.

Honors in International Relations

The university graduates its students cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum lade according to its own standards. But independent of college regulations students may earn their B.A. "with distinction in International Relations". The requirements for honors recognition in the IR program are:

• Complete the IR course of study with a 3.50 GPA in the major
• Have a cumulative 3.40 GPA
• Complete the two course honors senior thesis seminar sequence IR390 & 391.
• Receive a grade of A- or higher on the senior thesis (note that while thesis grades may be incorporated into the seminar grades, the thesis grade and the seminar grades may or may not be identical. What determines in honors is only the thesis grade.)

Qualified students (those who expect to be able to meet the GPA requirements) must signal their intention to do an honors thesis during the pre-registration period in the term prior to the IR390 seminar (usually, spring of your junior year).