a master's degree in international relations & national security is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #43 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual reviewed 8 schools in the New England Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of international relations & national security. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 605 master'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 Master's Degree
The international relations master'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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 - The number of international relations & national security students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
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 much debt international relations & national security students go into to obtain their master'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 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 master's degree.
More Ways to Rank International Relations & National Security Schools
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best International Relations & National Security Master's Degree Schools in the New England Region list to help you make the college decision.
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Tufts University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in international relations & national security. Tufts is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Medford.
Those international relations & national security students who get their master's degree from Tufts University earn $9,329 more than the standard international relations grad.
Boston University is a great choice for individuals interested in a master's degree in international relations & national security. Boston U is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Boston.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the international relations program make an average of $51,374 in their early career salary.
Norwich is a small private not-for-profit university located in the rural area of Northfield.
International Relations & National Security master's degree recipients from Norwich University earn a boost of approximately $2,345 over the average earnings of international relations & national security graduates.
Located in the suburb of Lowell, UMass Lowell is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those international relations & national security students who get their master's degree from University of Massachusetts - Lowell make $3,143 more than the standard international relations graduate.
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).