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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 10 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best International Relations & National Security Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 454 bachelor's degrees in international relations & national security during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great International Relations & National Security School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The international relations bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality international relations program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on international relations & national security students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other international relations & national security students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for international relations & national security to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized international relations & national security related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for international relations & national security students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank International Relations & National Security Schools
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 Pennsylvania.
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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University of Pennsylvania 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 Philadelphia, UPenn 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 University of Pennsylvania earn $15,953 more than the standard international relations graduate.
Lafayette College is a good option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security. Lafayette is a small private not-for-profit college located in the suburb of Easton.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security program at Lafayette College make $8,827 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It's hard to beat Bucknell University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security. Located in the distant town of Lewisburg, Bucknell is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security major at Bucknell University get $27,706 more than the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
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).
The international relations bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality international relations program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
