Some of you may know that majority of the popular federal careers like DEA, FBI, ICE, and U.S. Marshal Service require college education. But did you know that one of the best drug enforcement agencies in the world favors applicants for the DEA Special Agent position who possess a Criminal Justice degree. Yes, it’s true!
Special consideration is given to candidates with degrees in Criminal Justice/Police Science or related disciplines.
At this time, the list of desirable degrees for the DEA Special Agent career is as follows:
- Criminal Justice
- Police Science
- Finance
- Economics
- Accounting
- Computer Sciences/Information Systems
- Telecommunications/Electrical/Mechanical Engineering
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Chemistry
- Any of the following foreign languages (note: fluency will be verified)
- Spanish
- French
- Russian
- Hebrew
- Arabic
- Dialects of Nigerian Languages
- Chinese/Mandarin
- Japanese
Is a college degree required in order to qualify for a DEA Special Agent career?
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the most competitive candidates possess a bachelor’s or master’s degree, this goes along with a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.95 or higher.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has a nifty feature for would be applicants called Eligibility Quiz where you can quickly answer questions that will help you find out if you can be among the most competitive applicants for a career as a DEA Special Agent. It’s worth a look at, especially if you are considering becoming an agent.
Radek holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University. He is currently doing consulting work and runs this blog to provide relevant information on criminal justice degrees, colleges and related careers.
This was very helpful to me. I’m currently a Kaplan student working on my criminal justice degree. I was just curious to the jobs that law enforcement had beside police officer. I know that I’m not physically able to be a police officer. I still would like to work for the police department. I can’t stand for long periods of time. I require a desk job. Thanks I consider changing my degree until I read these articles.