<p>Hey everyone, yet another "help my lazy butt decide" question. I got into a few colleges, but my big players are Duke, Brown, and Georgetown SFS. Duke's kind of out, though. I'm planning on getting a degree in polisci or IR, so naturally i'm leaning toward G'town. But can anyone give me any reasons that I should take Brown more seriously? I guess part of me is afraid that if I wanted to change my major, it would be impossible at SFS. Thanks all!</p>
<p>no, changing your major is NOT impossible at georgetown. There’s a rather lengthy window of time in which you can change majors in your school or even switch schools entirely. so don’t let that be your primary concern</p>
<p><em>bump</em></p>
<p>this is definitely the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make.</p>
<p>I won’t rehash all the arguments people are using on the other comparison threads, but SFS is a truly incredible program. If you were studying another major like English or Biology, I might recommend Brown, but this is THE Int’l Relations program, one that’s comparable to, or exceeds the likes of Harvard or Princeton.</p>
<p>Plus DC is awesome!</p>
<p>Also, to counter the argument on the Brown boards, Georgetown is definitely not “cut off” from Washington DC. It’s not in smack dab in the metropolitan center, but rather just outside the major city area in an incredibly fashionable district called, you guessed it, Georgetown. It has tons of great restaurants and shopping, and while a little expensive, makes for a great immediate neighborhood.</p>
<p>But, like I said, it’s really still very close to urban DC.</p>
<p>as a general reason, the apparent strength of a single department is a better criteria for choosing a grad school than a college. given that both places have exceptional IR departments, you should probably pick the place you feel will give you the best overall experience and post-graduation opportunities. incidentally these opportunities are not only job prospects (which will be ample at both), but the lifelong network of friends you will make.</p>
<p>dCircle pretty much wraps up all of my reservations about Georgetown right there. Gtown may have a stellar IR program, but it’s just IR. Brown would be a chance for me to branch out and get a little of everything before I went to a more singularly focused grad school. And at Brown, I would be in a community of people who are choosing exactly what they want to study, and loving it. I am sure that for some at Gtown, they may regret that “all IR, all the time” feeling. Everyone is taking the same classes there. It’s like college groupthink.</p>
<p>But essentially i have to make my career choice now: solid state department job or something similar from Georgetown, or the possibility of something better or worse - the indecision - that a college like Brown offers.</p>
<p>the funny thing is, as much as people like to say that Georgetown is “only IR”, we have grads going to places like Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Penn Engineering, Yale Law, Penn Chemistry, etc. I was not IR, and it really is not all IR, all the time. There is no IR Library at Georgetown, but there is a Science Library. There’s a whole building for nursing and health studies, including a patient simulator that the vast majority of nursing schools do not have. There are so many resources available at Georgetown outside of IR that many people considering Georgetown don’t even realize, as non-Georgetown students like to focus on how Georgetown is only about IR, when it is not.</p>
<p>For what its worth, its a lot harder to get “a little of everything” when you only take 32 units, with the opportuntiy to drop 2 of them at Brown compared to a school that requires 40 units. Those additional classes give you a lot more opportunity to broaden your mind and expand your horizons. So if you want the broad expansive academic highway go to the five lane road at Georgetown instead of the four lane road at Brown.</p>
<p>Georgetown is by no means just IR. I say this as someone who did IR but had plenty of friends who had little to no interest in the subject. Of my friends from my freshman year floor, one was an art history major, one did management and finance, another did comparative literature, a fourth did econ, a fifth was sociology, a sixth did physics, etc. etc. Most Georgetown students are not in the SFS.</p>
<p>Yeah, you can’t be a top 25 ranked school with “only” IR.</p>
<p>It’s true that IR is what Georgetown is famous for, but the prestige that surrounds the school is built upon an elite university that has numerous top-notch programs. It’s almost like NYU Stern or UPenn Wharton, they are both awesome universities all around, but those programs just happen to stand out.</p>
<p>Gtown has a well-known business school, one with brand spanking facilities, an entire college dedicated to Nursing and health studies, as well as great language and social studies majors and new science buildings in construction. There’s much more than IR.</p>
<p>The general theme has been “Georgetown is not just IR,” but for someone like me who is in SFS, then it really is.</p>
<p>Georgetown and Brown are both amazing schools and at their levels, the academics are not very different. They are both elite schools.</p>
<p>It all comes down to fit.</p>
<p>Personally, I would opt for Georgetown because of the fun environment, the nice city, the opportunities in DC, and the amazing resources available at a school of such a location.</p>
<p>I was in the SFS and I certainly didn’t feel like my experience was all IR. I took my fair share of literature classes and could have easily taken others, if I had wanted to. A lot of SFS kids do go into the state department or other government agencies, but that is by no means the only career track available to you. With all the writing, research, and broad-based core requirements that you must complete, it’s actually a very fungible degree - you can credibly demonstrate that you would be a good fit for any number of possible fields.</p>