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Ask a Politics and/or International Relations student!

Are you considering Politics and/or International Relations for university? Do you want some first-hand experience from people who have already embarked on this degree? Look no further than this thread! :biggrin:

If you have any questions that a Politics and/or International Relations student can answer about the course, ask them here! :dance:
Reply 1
Original post by Michiyo
Are you considering Politics and/or International Relations for university? Do you want some first-hand experience from people who have already embarked on this degree? Look no further than this thread! :biggrin:

If you have any questions that a Politics and/or International Relations student can answer about the course, ask them here! :dance:


What do you like the most about your course?
Is the course demanding?
What university did you attend?
Favourite part about the course and anything aspiring politics/international relations students may not expect?
What do you like the least about your course?:holmes:

Spoiler

Have you participated in any "mock UN" or "Crisis games"?

If no, why? If yes, how fun was it and do you recommend it?
What are you working as?
Original post by Michiyo
Are you considering Politics and/or International Relations for university? Do you want some first-hand experience from people who have already embarked on this degree? Look no further than this thread! :biggrin:

If you have any questions that a Politics and/or International Relations student can answer about the course, ask them here! :dance:


I'm interested in doing Geography at university but one area that I am most interested in is Geopolitics. I would love a career related to this, so I was wondering if you would recommend sticking to Geography or consider International Relations or Politics?
Reply 7
Original post by UWS
What do you like the most about your course?


Its relevance to the modern world and how interesting it is! :gah:

Original post by EagleKingdom
Is the course demanding?
What university did you attend?
Favourite part about the course and anything aspiring politics/international relations students may not expect?


The course is more demanding than I expected! :gasp: We need to be up-to-date with current affairs, read a lot of books and articles, and learn plenty of theory. In addition, we also need analysis skills and to be clear, concise, and logical when arguing in favour of or against something. My degree is International Relations, so it is assessed through essays, coursework, and presentations.

I am currently a first year at the University of Essex. :smile:

My favourite part about the course is its relevance to the modern world and how interesting it is. :h:

As for things that any aspiring politics and/or international relations students might not expect, I am going to go for the amount of reading we have to do in a short period of time, the usefulness of politics and international relations journals, how up-to-date with current affairs and even historical affairs we have to be, and how hard referencing can be. The least I have had to read in a single week has been about 100-200 pages and the most was about 500 pages. If not done on time, those things really pile up, which can be stressful! :s-smilie:

In terms of current affairs, the oldest examples we use in class are usually from 2014-2016, though there are a few from 2012 and the classic Iraq War and World War I/II examples. By current affairs, I do not mean just the current affairs of the great powers; we have also been given examples from Hungary and Romania, to exemplify. In terms of historical affairs, we read a lot of old 'great works' like Machiavelli's The Prince and Kant's Perpetual Peace for the theory part of our essays too. We use this mix of old and new theory, historical events, and current affairs to understand the modern world and international relations. In my case, my latest essay used liberalism to explain the US-led coalition against ISIS and my examples ranged from Locke's philosophy and the Crusades to Waltz's 'Theory of International Politics' and articles published in quarterly politics journals in 2016.

God bless politics and international relations journals. If any politics and/or international relations students need any articles to quote and cite, that is the best place to look for them. I highly recommend reading some.

On the topic of referencing, I have to use Harvard style and I did not expect it to be so hard. The problem is that the Harvard style does not work well for republished works. I looked for information on how to cite republished works in Harvard style for hours, yet I found nothing. :sad: I ended up making up my own style for that :erm:

Original post by 04MR17
What do you like the least about your course?:holmes:


The ungodly amount of reading I have to do. :afraid: It is just so much :sad:

Original post by FlintofBavaria
Have you participated in any "mock UN" or "Crisis games"?

If no, why? If yes, how fun was it and do you recommend it?


Yes, I participated in a model UN when I was doing my AS-levels! :bigsmile:

It was indeed fun and great! I would recommend it. :yep: I found it a bit hard to get involved in the debate because the conversation moved from a topic to another before I had my say, but overall, it as a good experience. :yes:

Original post by SaksTheGreatest
What are you working as?


I am not working yet! I am just a fresher :blushing:

Original post by Fonzworth
I'm interested in doing Geography at university but one area that I am most interested in is Geopolitics. I would love a career related to this, so I was wondering if you would recommend sticking to Geography or consider International Relations or Politics?


If geopolitics interest you most, perhaps a combined Politics and Geography course would be best for you? :h:
Original post by Michiyo
The ungodly amount of reading I have to do. :afraid: It is just so much :sad:
This is where you're wrong.:naughty:
Leicester or East Anglia for International Relations?

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