Colleges that have strong Political Science/Government Departments

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My son is just starting the college search process (Junior, will take PSAT this month). He is very interested in history and government (he volunteered for one of the candidate's local campaign this summer), and thinks he wants to possibly major in Political Science. He looked at some Washington DC schools this summer (GWU and Georgetown), and really liked them. What other schools have strong Poli Sci departments? He is a very good student, but doesn't know yet how he will do on the standardized testing. I would say he is probably not Ivy League material, but maybe little Ivy League(?). Should he focus on the DC area in hopes of being able to do a governmental internship while in college, or are there stronger schools for Poli Sci?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any suggestions/ideas.</p>

2

<p>DC schools do tend to get much love for Poly Sci due to proximity to gov’t. Also consider American U which does/used to have pretty good merit aid.</p>

3

<p>If you google “top undergraduate schools for political science” not only will all kinds of lists comes up, but also a slew of CC threads on this very topic. It’s a good place to start.</p>

4

<p>Gw, Georgetown, northeastern, NYU</p>

5

<p>Michigan 10 char</p>

6

<p>It is not necessary to go to a school in Washington, DC, in order to get an internship. Many universities have internship programs in Washington and some independent organizations conduct internship programs in Washington that are open to students from any university. Some schools located in state capitals also might offer good internship opportunities, as well.</p>

7

<p>This is just my opinion, but usually colleges that have good law schools will have strong Poly Sci and Gov’t majors for undergrad.</p>

<p>What are his test scores and GPA?</p>

<p>What is your budget for college? </p>

<p>schools like American Univ do not give great aid.</p>

8

<p>Macalester in St. Paul has a particular emphasis on internationalism.</p>

9

<p>Tufts. Also search in CC for other threads - this topic comes up a lot!</p>

10

<p>Bowdoin and Claremont McKenna have very strong and well-known government programs. Bowdoin is test-optional, in case he doesn’t score well on the SAT/ACT.</p>

<p>He may also want to look into public policy programs. At least at my undergrad, political science was favored by pre-law students, whereas public policy was better at actually placing students in DC. I wrote a detailed [post</a> on public policy colleges](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13751552-post7.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13751552-post7.html) elsewhere on CC.</p>