I’m a high school senior going into college looking to get a degree in international relations. However, I’m looking at possibly double majoring in something that will improve my communication skills (since they are very valued by employers these days) and give me more flexibility in potential careers. Any suggestions?
Hmm.
IMO there’s a couple ways to approach this.
- Communications degree lol.
- Psychology - being able to analyze underlying reasons for why people make decisions the way they do can be helpful for communicating.
- General business degree or maybe with marketing or HR concentration. Business degrees have classes that emphasis professional communication, reporting, and marketing or HR would build upon different aspects of that.
In terms of flexibility, I think a bus degree would be good because then you’d have a humanities major and a non-humanities major.
What do you have for foreign language skills?
I’m not fluent in any languages yet, but I intend to enroll in either Arabic, Mandarin, or Portuguese at college. The IR major will require near-fluency and going beyond the university’s language requirement.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a major. Look for seminar styled classes where there is a lot of class discussion and where students are encouraged to share their viewpoints. Look for classes where papers make up a good portion of the grade, especially the type of paper where critical analysis in involved, And get involved in clubs where public speaking is required or take a class where you know you will be graded on a presentation.