a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #58 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 134 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best International Relations & National Security Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 8,079 bachelor's degrees in international relations & national security during the <nil> academic year.
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Choosing a Great International Relations & National Security School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of international relations & national security for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to international relations & national security students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of international relations & national security students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt international relations & national security students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized international relations & national security related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for international relations & national security students working on their bachelor's degree.
The international relations school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best International Relations & National Security Bachelor's Degree Schools.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study International Relations & National Security in the United States
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for international relations & national security students seeking a a bachelor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
25 Top Schools for a Bachelor's in International Relations
Johns Hopkins University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security. Located in the large city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security major at Johns Hopkins University make $4,415 above the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
It is difficult to beat University of Virginia - Main Campus if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security. University of Virginia is a very large public university located in the suburb of Charlottesville.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security degree program at University of Virginia - Main Campus make $7,281 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
George Washington University is a great option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security. Located in the large city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security degree program at George Washington University get $13,344 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security needs to look into Georgetown University. Georgetown is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Washington.
International Relations & National Security bachelor's degree recipients from Georgetown University earn a boost of around $10,999 over the typical income of international relations & national security graduates.
Located in the city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security degree program at American University make $7,962 above the typical college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security major at Stanford University earn $36,577 above the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of Medford, Tufts is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Those international relations & national security students who get their bachelor's degree from Tufts University make $14,490 more than the standard international relations graduate.
Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security program at University of Southern California earn $12,673 more than the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Brown is a large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Providence.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security degree program at Brown University get $6,695 more than the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Boston, Boston U is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
International Relations & National Security bachelor's degree recipients from Boston University earn a boost of about $6,281 over the typical earnings of international relations & national security majors.
UPenn is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Philadelphia.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security major at University of Pennsylvania earn $25,970 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those international relations & national security students who get their bachelor's degree from Northwestern University receive $18,737 more than the standard international relations grad.
Fordham U is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Bronx.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security degree program at Fordham University make $7,064 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Virginia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the small city of Blacksburg.
Those international relations & national security students who get their bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech earn $5,049 more than the standard international relations graduate.
Middlebury is a small private not-for-profit college located in the distant town of Middlebury.
International Relations & National Security bachelor's degree recipients from Middlebury College receive an earnings boost of approximately $28,755 above the average income of international relations & national security graduates.
Located in the midsize city of Syracuse, Syracuse is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
International Relations & National Security bachelor's degree recipients from Syracuse University receive an earnings boost of about $3,660 over the average earnings of international relations & national security majors.
Located in the large suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those international relations & national security students who get their bachelor's degree from George Mason University earn $5,055 more than the average international relations student.
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Honorable Mentions
Here are some additional great schools for International Relations & National Security students that almost earned our Best International Relations & National Security Bachelor's Degree Schools award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of international relations & national security for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
