What You Can Do with an International Studies Degree

Do you care about learning about other cultures? Do you have a desire to help countries and companies grow? International Studies may be for you.

A lot of students don’t really understand what International Studies is. It’s a broad term for a broad field.
Four main areas are this degree's focus:

International business
International economics
International policy
Geographic information systems (GIS)

In this degree you choose one of these areas to be your “emphasis.” To get a specific job will depend on which area you decide to focus on.

What Knowledge Do I Gain from These Areas?

Business:
Learn to run a business. Gain knowledge of accounting and finance. This will teach you how to budget and manage money for a company as well as learn skills on how to market products to different areas of the world.

Economics:
Learn how to effectively make decisions based on supply and demand, as well as how to analyze continuing changes in the global market. This will teach you how to handle risk and liability in a business. You will also be able to work with trade and tariffs between countries.

Policy:
Learn about how policies are made through understanding negotiation, bargaining, decision-making, and international laws. This will equip you with skills for diplomacy and policy making/analysis.

GIS:
Learn to use apps, maps, and drones to map landscapes and understand the data gained from it. You will be able to give direction on how to use earth’s resources in the growth of the world (cities, states, countries, etc.).

What about Grad School?

A question many students ask after deciding to get a degree in International Studies is whether they should go to grad school. It’s an important question to think about.
Like many other degrees, it depends on what jobs you want to have and how fast you want to move upward in your preferred work.
Going to grad school:

Pros: It’s likelier for you to make a bigger amount of money faster as you continue in your career. You will likely be more valuable to the company you work for.

Cons: It’s expensive going to grad school and will take a few more years of education.

For some higher jobs, it’s basically required that you have a master’s degree. Some examples are management of trade or development, upper diplomatic positions, or global risk analysis.
The bottom line is to focus on the area in International Studies that interests you most.