Does it matter what degree I get before pursuing a Masters in Security Studies?

[soliloquy]

I didn't have to take any bridge courses, and I strongly disagree with ASU combining security studies with criminal justice instead of political science. I know at least one of my professors taught political science and security studies. None of my professors taught criminal justice or border security (which is just a rebranding of homeland security). My professors had backgrounds in public policy, history, international relations, and military studies. I think the director at the time had a background in African history. Most of the professors were also formerly in the military. I don't recall any of them having a criminal justice background.

To this day, I don't understand their reasoning for putting those two in the same department except that maybe it's because they don't have any graduate programs in political science. Still, they could have built political science graduate programs off of the security studies program, but I think they are chasing after the cash cows. Political science doesn't attract as many students as criminal justice at the graduate level. Anyway, their security studies program is very much a sub-field of international relations. It's not a homeland security-type program that melds criminal justice/physical security and emergency management. Our research methods course used a political science text, and there was a course that pretty much just focused on the three main theories in international relations. The only criticism I had from one of my professors is that I wrote more like a historian than a political strategist even though I don't have a background in history either.

I almost applied to ECU, but I was too lazy to take the GRE and their program would have been more expensive for me.


Oh, I forgot. What am I doing with the degree? I'm not really doing anything because of the sequester. Because a budget was passed for this year, I'm hoping they will start hiring intelligence analysts again. I'm hoping to learn Farsi in order to increase my chances of being hired. I did pass several tests with a few agencies before hiring came to a stop. Things should be easier with you with your language abilities and military background. Currently, I am teaching criminal justice courses at a nationally accredited college. I don't think any regionally accredited school would hire me without having a masters in criminal justice, criminology, law, or sociology. I haven't been looked at for political science positions either. That's probably because most of the openings right now are for domestically-focused political science instead of internationally-focused. There aren't many openings for homeland security teaching positions, surprisingly. While my masters degree got me higher pay, I halfway qualified for my current job because of my criminal justice work experience. Honestly, I had to refresh myself on what I learned in my undergraduate CJ courses because my masters is so unrelated.

Interesting. That departmental combination did strike me as odd but I don't know enough about the various programs out there to form an opinion about that like you have. What you've stated makes a lot of sense. I couldn't find anything Department of Political Science, East Carolina University here that states a specific undergraduate program is required or even preferred. I hope I have not overlooked it. With that said, I suppose it does not matter what BS concentration I complete at this time so is it your opinion that I should just stay on the Paralegal Studies trek I have already started.