What should i do to become a diplomat?

Question

im a junior in high school. i take honors and ap classes, am involved in tons of activities (student council, debate, church, choir, etc), and am involved in my community. and i really want to be a Foreign Service Officer. What should i do to become one? Am i pretty much on the right track? What should my major be in college? Is this too far-fetched of a goal?

Answer 1

Learn how to speak chinese, bengali, or mexican. Better yet, drop out of high school and enroll at a radical madrasah.

Answer 2

Find a university that has a school of foriegn service, like Georgetown, and ask them about undergrad options.

Answer 3

Your goal is NOT far-fetched.  And what you study is not as important as how you study.  Most graduates of international studies programs never pass the foreign service exam.  If you need a language or a skill for a certain assignment, the State Department sends you to the Foreign Service Institute to learn it.  What is most important is to have a dilettante's interest in every aspect of the world around you, and to develop excellent judgement skills.

Have you looked at this site?  It has a lot of information on foreign service officers:  what we do, how we do it, how we got here.

http://careers.state.gov/officer/index.h...

Answer 4

Listen to dognhorsemom. She knows what she's talking about. There is no one path to getting in the Foreign Service, because foreign service officers do many different kinds of things. One thing I would advise in addition to the things mom said, is while you're in college, try to travel abroad. Take a look at the world outside of the US and see if living overseas is really what you want to do.  Lots of schools have foreign studies programs, even one semester would be very helpful. Books are good, but personal hands-on experience in the world can't be beat. It would certainly be useful to learn another language and applicants currently get extra points for coming in with hard language skills.  

The sorts of things you're talking about are all useful.  People come in with an amazing variety of degrees. keep track of current events. and try to understand the why behind the what of the things you see in the news. There's no reason it should be too far-fetched, if it remains something you really want to do.

Answer 5

There are two ways to enter the Foreign Service. You can take the foreign service exam (first you pass the written part, then you have to pass the orals) to be hired as an officer or you can be hired as a specialist.

To be hired as a specialist you have to have skills and experience in a specific field like finance, security, information management, office management, facilities maintenace, or the medical field.

To be hired as an officer, you just pass the exam, but it is tough. Most people fail it the first time.

You do not need a degree to get into the foreign service, but the vast majority of folks who pass the foreign service exam have higher degrees.

Georgetown University's school of foreign service is probably the best educational preparation.

You can keep taking the exam every year, so start as soon as you are old enough and keep trying. Doing it once is better preparation than anything else for the next time.