About this program

The Undergraduate International Studies Program provides a holistic, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural foundation. Specializing in contemporary global issues and regional areas, the vision created in 1943 resonates today in an era of globalization.

International Studies is designed to produce informed leaders on world issues; proficiency in a foreign language; and exceptional research, writing, and public speaking skills. The program promotes rigorous academic training, and endows students with the professional skills needed to practice at home or abroad.

What options do I have with International Studies?

International Studies students at Ohio State can choose from 11 major specializations and 10 minors. The program also offers separate minors in Human Rights, Information Security, and Peace Studies. Offerings in regional specializations encompass: African Studies, East Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Middle East Studies, Slavic and East European Studies, and Western European Studies. In addition to offering geographical specialties, International Studies provides a great breadth of thematic specializations: Development Studies, Globalization Studies, International and Diplomacy Studies, Security and Intelligence, and World Business and Economy.

What can you do with this degree? 

Graduates of the international studies program are widely recognized as having taken a demanding curriculum designed to make them well-informed about world issues, proficient in a foreign language, and possessed of good skills in research, writing and public speaking. The fundamental strengths of the international studies degree are its flexibility and its interdisciplinary character. Profiting from the wide range of curricular options available to them, students have a range of choices that allow them to prepare for graduate/professional school or for careers in a variety of fields, including the private sector, government service and international development agencies.