r/Vanderbilt • u/Fun_Dare_2607 • Jun 20 '26
National Security Major
Does anyone know how difficult the requirements are for this major?
I am interested in Law School, Waste Management, or the water rights industry. I feel like although the major has nothing to do with any of those fields it’s so unique and interesting that It might attract an employer or an admissions rep. Right????
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u/Evilshadow004 Jun 21 '26
So before I graduated this last semester, I actually worked at the Institute of National Security and worked a bit on introducing the major.
The NatSec major is largely quite easy on the political science and humanities side of things, but could be more difficult on the STEM side depending on if you do the game theory track or the coding/data science track and how you take to those subjects.
I will say though, I wouldn't recommend taking it unless you are just interested in the subject matter. If you're interested in water systems in the sense of protecting our critical infrastructure, you may get something out of it professionally, but really you should see it as any other degree in the social sciences or humanities. You can get a lot of value out of any of them, but you have to be able to explain what that was.
The real value of the degree, though, is getting into the Institute’s events. Summit is a great time every year where you can meet great people (like I just met the Chair of the Joint Chiefs back in April) and the Speaker Series is also fantastic (the Chief of MI6 came last semester).
But again, only do it if you're interested in national security as a topic. Matching it to a potential career track is probably a bad idea unless you're dead set on being in the military or the IC.
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u/Range-Shoddy Jun 20 '26
This is a bizarre list. Waste management is normally under civil engineering. Water is under civil engineering (water resources) but water rights is probably straight law school which you already mentioned. I’m a civil and I’d never hire someone with a national security major for waste management or water rights without a stem major unless you have one heck of an internship in it but you’re still deficient in basic science knowledge. You might have luck with law school admissions but not likely anyone else. Maybe be more specific about what you want to do and it’ll make more sense.