The International Studies Program provides a curricular option within the College of Arts and Sciences. It offers some courses of its own, but draws most of the curriculum from other departments in the College and throughout the university. This allows for courses covering a wide spectrum of disciplines, such as agricultural economics and economics, foreign languages, history, humanities, human nutrition and foods, management, marketing, and religion. All International Studies students have to absolve a common core of courses in their major. They include a year-long introduction that analyzes the history, politics, and economics of the modern world.
All students have to take at least one advanced course in economics or agricultural economics.
A senior seminar hones students' skills in writing, research, and oral presentation. Each student is expected to aquire a high level of proficiency in a foreign language. Quite a number of students add a minor or even a second major in a foreign language. It includes additional history and political science courses beyond those required in the common core. It includes courses in natural resources and food production in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and nutrition courses in the College of Human Resources.