2025 Best International Relations & National Security Schools in the Plains States Region
9Colleges in the Plains States Region
387International Relations Degrees Awarded
$47,717Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on majoring in international relations & national security, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #67 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 9 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for international relations & national security students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 387 degrees in international relations & national security annually.
Choosing a Great International Relations & National Security School
The international relations program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for International Relations & National Security rankings. For our Best Overall International Relations & National Security School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
International Relations & National Security Rankings by Degree Level
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best International Relations & National Security Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
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.
Best Schools for International Relations & National Security in the Plains States Region
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the international relations degree levels they offer.
Top Plains States Region Schools in International Relations
Any student pursuing a degree in international relations & national security needs to check out Carleton College. Carleton is a small private not-for-profit college located in the town of Northfield. This college ranks 4th out of 52 colleges for overall quality in the state of Minnesota.
There were approximately 56 international relations & national security students who graduated with this degree at Carleton in the most recent year we have data available.
It's hard to beat University of Minnesota - Twin Cities if you wish to pursue a degree in international relations & national security. Located in the large city of Minneapolis, UMN Twin Cities is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #45 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UMN Twin Cities is a great university overall.
There were roughly 57 international relations & national security students who graduated with this degree at UMN Twin Cities in the most recent data year. After graduation, international relations degree recipients usually earn about $28,596 in their early careers.
It's difficult to beat University of Iowa if you wish to pursue a degree in international relations & national security. Iowa is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Iowa City. A Best Colleges rank of #80 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Iowa is a great university overall.
There were roughly 35 international relations & national security students who graduated with this degree at Iowa in the most recent data year. Soon after graduating, international relations degree recipients typically make about $36,376 in the first five years of their career.
K -State is a large public university located in the city of Manhattan. This university ranks 2nd out of 44 schools for overall quality in the state of Kansas.
There were roughly 6 international relations & national security students who graduated with this degree at K -State in the most recent data year.
Located in the midsize city of Des Moines, Drake is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 5th out of 37 schools for overall quality in the state of Iowa.
There were roughly 16 international relations & national security students who graduated with this degree at Drake in the most recent year we have data available.
St. Cloud State University is a large public university located in the small city of Saint Cloud. This university ranks 33rd out of 52 schools for overall quality in the state of Minnesota.
There were approximately 17 international relations & national security students who graduated with this degree at St. Cloud State University in the most recent year we have data available.
Bellevue University is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Bellevue. This university ranks 3rd out of 19 schools for overall quality in the state of Nebraska.
There were about 37 international relations & national security students who graduated with this degree at Bellevue University in the most recent data year.
SLU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Saint Louis. A Best Colleges rank of #243 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means SLU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 11 international relations & national security students who graduated with this degree at SLU in the most recent year we have data available.
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).
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The international relations program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for International Relations & National Security rankings. For our Best Overall International Relations & National Security School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
