2025 Best International Relations & National Security Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region
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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 32 schools in the Middle Atlantic Region to determine which ones were the best for international relations & national security students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,587 bachelor's degrees in international relations & national security during the 2021-2022 academic year.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great International Relations & National Security School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of international relations & national security for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
- Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to international relations & national security students as compared to other majors.
- Major Demand - The number of international relations & national security students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
- Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
- Student Debt - How much debt international relations & national security students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 bachelor's degree.
One Size Does Not Fit All
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 the Middle Atlantic Region.
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 Bachelor’s Students to Study International Relations & National Security in the Middle Atlantic Region
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for international relations & national security students seeking a a bachelor's degree.
10 Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for a Bachelor's in International Relations
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security has to look into Johns Hopkins University. Located in the city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the international relations program make about $44,004 in the first couple years of their career.
More information about a bachelor’s in international relations & national security from Johns Hopkins University
It is difficult to beat George Washington University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security. Located in the city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
International Relations & National Security bachelor's degree recipients from George Washington University get an earnings boost of about $10,633 above the typical earnings of international relations & national security majors.
More information about a bachelor’s in international relations & national security from George Washington University
Georgetown University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security. Georgetown is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Washington.
International Relations & National Security bachelor's degree recipients from Georgetown University get an earnings boost of about $8,288 above the typical earnings of international relations & national security graduates.
More information about a bachelor’s in international relations & national security from Georgetown University
It's difficult to beat American University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in international relations & national security. Located in the large city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the international relations & national security degree program at American University earn $5,251 above the typical college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
More information about a bachelor’s in international relations & national security from American University
UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.
Those international relations & national security students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Pennsylvania receive $23,259 more than the standard international relations graduate.
More information about a bachelor’s in international relations & national security from University of Pennsylvania
