<p>For my son, it will come down to George Washington U or Lehigh U. He wants to study International Relations.</p>
<p>By all indication, GWU is quite well known for the IR program. If it is just between the two, he might choose GWU. However, there may be about $50K difference between the two.</p>
<p>He has a good shot at getting Army ROTC scholarship that pays full tuition, fee, and stipend for four years. GWU does not give free room and board for the ROTC scholarship winners. Lehigh may (case by case, but S can make a very good case).</p>
<p>He has stats for both GWU and Lehigh. His scores put him in top 15% or better of the enrolled class of 2014. His GPA is at a bit lower level, but both schools consider ROTC scholarship a major hook, so with the scholarship and high SAT, he has a very good shot at both schools. </p>
<p>So, the question is: how is Lehigh's IR program in general? We visited the school, so we know all about this UN affiliation thing.</p>
<p>My daughter is an Eckardt scholar at Lehigh and decided to study international relations at Lehigh, which is a fairly large department in the college of Arts and Sciences. She liked the fact that there is an unique option of a joint IR major with foreign language study, IR/MLL at Lehigh, and now that is her major. Next semester, she will study abroad and recently was accepted to both of her study abroad programs, one of them being Middlebury College.</p>
<p>It’s a very good department and the curriculum is much rigorous than you would think. Lots of business students minor in it. As an IR major at Lehigh, I’d give this advice: Take as many IR classes in the beginning of your college career in order to explore the different fields of IR. You’ll find immediately what ‘clicks’ and what doesn’t. Then, stick with the professor who teaches what interests you for the rest of Lehigh and use him/her as a resource.</p>
<p>Also, there’s been a lot of drama in the IR department lately. There was a whole mess with the IR/Poli Sci merger controversy, 2 professors left last semester, etc. Just lots of activity going on. But it IS a STRONG PROGRAM and the professors are WONDERFUL. I highly recommend IR at Lehigh.</p>