<p>Name the best IR programs in the land and rank them</p>
<p>the only 3 i know that have good programs: (come up with your own rankings, hopefully with more than 3)</p>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>College of William and Mary</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Gtown SFS</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>UVA</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>George Washington</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna</li>
<li>U Wisconsin-Madison</li>
<li>Air Force Academy</li>
<li>West Point</li>
</ol>
<p>There are some international ones as well.</p>
<p>The thing you have to remember is that the International Affairs programs at other schools essentially encompass in their entirety the SFS core curriculum. The level of specialization attainable at Georgetown beyond the basic strong IR/IA foundation is unheard of at the undergraduate level. </p>
<p>This is misleading, because no where comes anywhere near Georgetown in the number of faculty, diversity of course offerings, number of majors/certificates, etc. in the International Affairs realm. Georgetown offers more IA courses than the next several schools combined. So in reality Georgetown would occupy at least spots 1-5 on this list.</p>
<p>Seems like Akajjred took the Gourman rankings for undergraduate IR and took some liberties with it (perhaps because h/she got into Gtown EA?)</p>
<p>The real rankings list is like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>U Penn</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>U Wisconsin Madison</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>UVA</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>US Air Force Acad</li>
<li>US Military Acad</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna</li>
</ol>
<p>Regardless, any of the above schools plus American & GWU (less selective yet still good in IR) will be great.</p>
<p>how bout political science programs?</p>
<p>Would you keep the same rankings, or switch them around a bit?</p>
<p>Political Science would be much different. And yes Lolabelle u discovered my trick. From what people tell me though, Gtown is the best.</p>
<p>So im gonna hijack this thread a bit and ask, what would be your or Gourman's (whatever) rankings for poli sci departments?</p>
<p>Dude, that's totally not cool. You should have said "in my opinion" -- which, as a high school senior not yet in college, isn't worth that much in the grand scheme of things. And "people" say a lot of things. As a Georgetown SFS transfer to Tufts, I personally believe the program at Tufts is stronger. But I would say they, along with JHU's program, are the top-three. I've studied at two of those three, so I feel that's a really educated opinion. Unlike, well, yours.</p>
<p>Kofi, poor high schoolers. ;-)</p>
<p>Anyway, I think that schools with good IR programs necessarily must have strong poli sci programs. But the list wouldn't be exactly the same.</p>
<p>Oh, and a note to the OP, AFalcon10, if you want real, unbiased, or at least varied answers, you should've posted this thread in the general forum, not in Georgetown's. Obviously you'll get a lot of Hoyas singing their own praise.</p>
<p>What are some of colleges with good IR programs that are not in the States? I'm curious to know.</p>
<p>Oxford (certain colleges within Ox).. and in mainland Europe, l'Institut d'</p>
<p>The depth and breadth of leadership positions held by SFS alumni render this discussion pointless. I don't think that even Harvard has ever had alumni holding Chief of State positions for three of the thirty and four of the hundred most populous nations in the world.</p>
<p>I don't mean to be bitingly sarcastic, but you would have to be from another planet to not recognize Georgetown SFS and its influence.</p>
<p>A friend just saw this thread and reminded me that the First Lady of Ukraine is an SFS alum too, as is the guy who runs the European commission, so I doth undercount. Sorry.</p>
<p>My friend suggests that we should start a thread speculating what planet Jack Gourman is from.</p>
<p>vienna man-your name doesn't happen to have anything to do with the billy joel song does it? just wondering :-)</p>
<p>billy joel is my god. Him, the eagles, and elton john are my musical gods</p>
<p>I think the first thing to ask is undergrad or grad. If undergrad, Gourman's list is pretty good. If grad, it's not so good. Nonetheless, SFS is clearly one of the leaders in the field, grad or undergrad.</p>
<p>UCLAri, the Gourman list is for undergrad.</p>
<p>Yes, Gtown is good, but it's not the only good one and not a clear frontwinner. It's that kind of attitude that makes me glad I turned down Gtown.</p>
<p>lolabelle,</p>
<p>Oh, I know Gourman's list is for undergrad. I just wanted to confirm that it's not a good list for grad choices.</p>
<p>I'd put SAIS in front of SFS for grad in most cases. I'd also put American and GW up there. Throw in some KSG, a little Colorado, some IR/PS, Tufts, Columbia, Syracuse, and Wilson.</p>
<p>(For all of you not in the know, UCLAri is the IR guru on CC.)</p>
<p>zHe may be the IR guru on CC but he certainly not the IR guru on planet earth.</p>